Since taking office in January 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a series of decrees with climate change at the center of his work, including allocating $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with the goal of installing it across the United States by 2030. 500,000 public charging piles.

As charging stations follow electric car stations to center stage, U.S. lawmakers from both parties, who have spent their lives in disagreements, voting and courtrooms, began to battle over another protagonist — the gas station.

Their enthusiasm is evident in the contrasting proposals for new gas stations in Los Angeles, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

In 2021, Petaluma, California, will become the first city in the world to ban new gas stations. Other small towns in the state followed suit in the region of 60,000, including Ronate Park, Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.

Several other cities are considering similar laws, including Bethlehem in New York state and Los Angeles.

You know, among the top 10 cities with the most cars per household in the United States, 9 are in California, mainly in the Los Angeles area. Once the law is passed, Los Angeles, with a population of about 4 million, will become the largest city in the United States to ban new gas stations.

While widespread adoption of electric vehicles is still a long way off, officials backing the ban believe it will smooth the transition from gasoline dependence. California is also the first state to say it will effectively ban the sale of new gas-fueled vehicles by 2035, and it seems unsurprising that it is actively banning new gas stations.

The 2035 goal of banning gasoline vehicles would make 80% of gas stations unprofitable by then, and allowing new gas stations to be built would be a poor investment for any city or county. Not to mention the cost of repairing gas stations—an average of $243,299, ranging from tens of thousands to more than $2 million.

However, the electrification movement in full swing does not appear to be extending to places like North Carolina. In Raleigh, a lawmaker has written a bill proposing that electric vehicle charging stations be eliminated unless more gas stations are built next to electric vehicles.

charging point

The contrast highlights how divided Americans are about the Biden administration’s push to promote electric vehicles.

“It’s a cultural divide, with more urban Americans able to adopt an electric-vehicle lifestyle seeing gasoline cars as polluting,” said Philip Rossetti, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. , is a detriment, and more rural Americans see the push for EVs as a cruel restriction on their way of life.”

D’Lynda Fisher, a Petaluma councillor, said the ban was initially discussed to prevent supermarkets from building large gas stations on their premises in an attempt to attract more customers.

“There’s a constant line of traffic around the supermarket,” Fisher said. “But the real reason for banning gas stations is that we simply realized we didn’t need more gas stations.”

Fisher revealed she received hate mail related to the ban. “I’ve gotten a couple of emails saying I’m a stupid liberal and they’re being sarcastic and even insulting,” she said. “However, I’m pretty sure that’s something we need to do.”

In Los Angeles, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, who introduced the bill to ban new gas stations, called the move “an appropriate step” that would prevent the construction of about 2-3 new gas stations a year.

“There’s been a lot of criticism and opposition, people saying ‘can’t you do something more incremental?’ and the answer is no, reducing 2-3 new petrol stations a year is incremental enough.”

“There’s actually an overabundance of gas stations right now. You can usually see one gas station to the next with the naked eye. And we’re not calling for them to be shut down, we’re just saying we’ve reached a saturation point and the hole shouldn’t be dug any further. Deeper.”