Calfornia gas station owners rebel against pollution rules; Half of California gas stations could be forced to close for failing to install new nozzles
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
Operators balk at having to comply with a California requirement to install costly nozzles and hoses to capture fumes. The governor calls on the Legislature to delay enforcement by a year.
“Improving California’s air is of the utmost importance,” he wrote legislators. But “enforcement flexibility is an absolute necessity to ensure against the job and financial losses that could come from stations being shut down or fined for non-compliance.”
A campaign against the measure in recent weeks was laced with misleading information, according to officials with the California Air Resources Board. One alert mailed by the Responsible Clean Air Coalition, a group led by a former John McCain campaign staffer, Tom Kise, charged that, “On April 1st, more than 6,000 gas stations statewide are going to shut their doors because of zealous Sacramento bureaucrats.”
But in a letter to legislative leaders Friday, local air pollution districts charged with enforcing the rule said, “Air districts do not intend to shut down any stations on April 1.” Station owners have known about the deadline for four years, the letter said.
Battered by competition from cheaper chains such as Thrifty and Arco, the 51-year-old businessman said he was refused credit by banks and equipment lenders. Refitting his eight nozzles and hoses would cost more than $60,000, he said. “Even if I could get the funding, I couldn’t make the payments.”Single-station owners like Hosmanek aren’t the only ones hurting. David Berri, an Irvine businessman whose family owns 22 stations in Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties, said he put a 25% deposit on vapor equipment last year. But his bank has since canceled his credit line. His family has put seven stations up for sale, but so far, there are no buyers.
