When oil and gas companies attack a climate campaign, activists usually focus on the obvious negatives: One of the world’s largest industries, with its wealth of resources, is trying to destroy their efforts for example to ban natural gas in buildings.
But in Northern California, where grassroots activists have succeeded in getting towns across Napa and Sonoma counties to ban new gas stations, some see the emerging backlash as a sign of vindication.
The news of Big Oil’s opposition came to Jim Wilson in late January. The longtime climate activist in Napa County found a flyer in his mailbox one day with a photo of a gas nozzle next to an empty wallet, along with the message “Banning gas stations = higher gas prices.” The mailer, sponsored by the Western States Petroleum Association, the West Coast’s oil industry trade group, warns that efforts to limit new gas stations could lead to less competition and increased costs for drivers of gas-powered cars.
“I believe Napa County is the first in the U.S. to have all municipalities ban new gas stations,” Wilson said. “And so maybe we rocked the boat.”
As the urgency to address climate change grows across the United States, one unprecedented heat wave and flood at a time, cities are finding ways to cut fossil fuels out of their future. But any action that has significant consequences, be it a electrification by-law in Seattle or a ban on new gas stations in California, will certainly attract the attention of the powerful industries it harms.
The front and back of the Western States Petroleum Association flyer distributed in Napa County. Courtesy of Jim Wilson
Wilson, with 350 Bay Area and Napa climate now, advises climate activism efforts for local teenagers, which has led the push to ban new gas stations in the area. Liliana Karesh, a junior at Napa High School and a co-president of Napa Schools for Climate Action, said her group reached out to state officials, participated in public comment and presented to city councils to get their message across. “We are in such a state of climate emergency, yet our government continues to approve the building of this fossil fuel infrastructure,” Karesh said.
The movement to ban new gas stations began in 2021 when Petaluma, California, in neighboring Sonoma County, became the first town in the United States to ban new gas stations. From there, prohibition spread through Sonoma and Napa counties; the idea was also suggested in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Eugene, Oregonand north in KelownaCanada.
For a while, activists were puzzled why they weren’t seeing more opposition to their efforts, said Woody Hastings, a Sonoma County environmental activist who helped form the coalition against the new gas stations. He sees the flyer, along with a new bill introduced in the California state Senate that would limit gas station bans, as signs that the movement has gained enough traction to matter to opponents. “It’s really something,” Hastings said. “It tells us that the Western States Petroleum Association, who are big guns, care about this.”
In recent years, California has seen catastrophic fires, unhealthy pollution from smokeand wild swings between drought and heavy rain, all amplified by climate change. Towns across Sonoma and Napa counties have declared a “climate emergency,” and activists see the ban on new gas stations as one way to enforce those words.
The ban isn’t really aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions — it’s unclear what effect it has on the climate — but rather at ending investment in fossil fuel infrastructure. “We’ve been told it’s a silly thing to do because, you know, it doesn’t matter because people will just be able to fill up at the existing gas stations,” Hastings said. But he says residents aren’t clamoring for more gas stations, so local governments don’t have to spend staff time and resources approving and supporting what could soon become outdated infrastructure. California plans to phase out sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 and zero its carbon emissions by 2045. Gas station developers, Hastings said, “assume they’ll be able to sell gas the same way they’ve sold gas for 100 years.”
Activists also oppose gas stations for the same reason they would oppose the construction of any other pollution-spraying facility. Beneath each neighborhood station are underground tanks that store thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel. These tanks are the source of toxic fumes, ventilated above ground by pipes. They are also known to leak, infusing the surrounding soil and groundwater with a host of contaminants. Almost everyone underground storage tanks eventually leak, and the cost to clean up a single site can exceed $1 million. Gas stations account for almost half of the country’s 450,000 contaminated brownfieldssites where the presence of hazardous substances makes it difficult to redevelop.
For the oil industry, gas stations are of crucial importance: They are the end of a long supply chain that starts in the oil fields and ends with people filling up their vehicles. “We are paying attention across the state where this type of ban is being proposed,” said Kevin Slagle, a spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association. He believes the ban on new gas stations in parts of California is “a mix of symbolic bans and bans that will actually limit fuel supplies in the community.”
Slagle said limiting the supply of gas stations would lead to increased costs for consumers. For support, refer to the trade group’s flyer a working study from the University of California, Berkeley, not yet peer-reviewed, in which economists studied more than 1,000 stations in Mexico and found that adding nearby gas stations led to slightly lower gasoline prices. The flyer is part of the industry’s “Facts per liter” campaign launched late last year to draw attention to how California policies, from its cap-and-trade program to low-carbon fuel requirements, contribute to some of the highest gas prices in the nation.
The same Berkeley study is also mentioned in the text of a bill introduced in late January by Aisha Wahab, a Democratic state senator who represents the district east of the Bay Area. The account, as of writing, is asking the California Energy Commission to conduct a study on gas stations and alternative fuel infrastructure, such as electric vehicle chargers. If enacted, it would prevent local governments from enacting bans that begin in January 2025 and last until the study is completed, possibly as late as January 1, 2027.
A representative for Wahab told Grist that the original bill contained a “double negative” that is being corrected and said the bill would not prevent moratoriums on gas stations, but did not provide further details. Since bills in California cannot be amended for 30 days after they are introduced, the official text cannot be changed until February 29, according to the State Senate Office.
Meanwhile, the ban is already having an effect. “We have seen projects stalled in Napa County, and applicants for new gas stations are strongly discouraged, [Napa] Schools for Climate Action’s work and success,” said Wilson. “This industry should be outraged at the progress children are making in trying to describe their vision for a fossil-free future.”
