Oh no, I don’t believe in any of the government conspiracy theories. And it’s not something with which I agree or disagree. I’m just stating facts. If the government is requiring that cars use less gasoline, it will have a direct and negative effect on the people making a living selling gasoline.
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Yeah, but my margin per gallon was about twice what the minimum margin is in your state. If I had sold gas at your minimum margin I would have closed the doors and gone home.
I find it hard to conceive how many places stay in business.
The government didn’t pass the laws to put gas stations out of business, it’s a side effect of trying to clean up the air we breathe. All rules have both good and bad consequences. MTBE replaced lead compounds in gasoline to increase octane rating, but it poisoned ground water when gasoline leaked from ended ground storage tanks. Ethanol replaced MTBE, but it costs more, increasing the price of gasoline. Ethanol also reduces gas mileage and makes us use more gas to go the same distance we could with MTBE. IMO, using ethanol is worth the negative consequences.
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New vehicle registrations in California are expected to slip to 1.82 million units in 2020. The state’s new vehicle market is predicted to decline 3.7 percent from 2019 to 2020, a smaller decline than the 5.5 percent drop in 2019.
Number of stations in 2105? And today. What is trend?
I agree completely. It’s not the goal of CAFE standards to put fuel retailers out of business, but it’s certainly an effect, one that the government continues to actively enforce. We are correcting one problem but creating another. Which is more important, reducing air pollution or putting food on the table?
My cardiologist put me on medicine to relieve the pain in my chest. The pills make the chest pain go away but give me a headache. Is one better than the other? I can’t answer that question for you, and you can’t answer that question for me.
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Your posts seem to say you think the loss of jobs is more important.
Since you asked, public health issues are more important to me than the loss of a small number of jobs at a gas station or two. These days work is easy to find.
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Unless you can’t buy gas to get to work. I realize that’s an extreme, and not going to happen if a few new gas stations aren’t built. But long term, “no new gas stations” is a problem.
Like I said earlier, eliminate the demand first. Then there’s nothing to ban. If people didn’t need to buy gas, I’m pretty sure no one would be trying to build new gas stations.
Personally, I’d rather risk the public health issues if it comes between that and being able to eat, heat my home, and have electricity. Let me put it this way, if your only option to keep warm was to build a fire, you’re not going to worry much about the public health issues of the smoke. Not everyone can afford an EV, so that’s off the table as an option for a lot of folks.
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Where you going to buy cigarettes? Isn’t that why gas stations exist.
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Generally yes. I am certainly in favor of proper shepherding of the planet, but on equal footing with sound economic and business practices. Environmental concerns have overtaken all other considerations and that’s wrong.
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If every car on the road got 12mpg gas stations could afford to not sell cigarettes! 
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Like I have said many many times before on various “feel good” issues, you can use safety and public health to justify anything, regardless of how ineffective or draconian. Some countries make these rules for people but here individuals make these decisions for themselves, in theory anyway. Be careful what you ask for is all.
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My thinking is, all else being equal, all the ban in this city will do is make longer lines at existing gas stations (where people will probably idle their engines with the AC on), make people continue to use relatively dilapidated gas stations rather than new ones, and make people drive further (outside city limits, etc., burning more fuel to get there) to buy their gas rather than buying it in the city. Net effect probably won’t reduce fuel consumption, at all anyway. Quite possibly the opposite. Doesn’t seem well thought out at all.
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Also beer.
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Don’t forget lottery tickets.
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As my granny used to say some times the cure is worse than the disease.
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Not really pertinent to the original discussion, but I don’t quite get the number of people who go to Costco specifically to get gas. We were there the day before Thanksgiving (granted, a very busy shopping day) and my wife was driving, and she said “Oh I need gas while we’re here.” Sure, it might save .10/gallon, but I just can’t see waiting in line for 15 minutes to save a couple of bucks. I usually fill up at the Chevron station on my way home and there is always a pump open I can pull right up to.
As I’m typing this I also realize I have no idea what the price of gas is these days.
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I 100 percent agree. We have a Marathon station outside of Wal Mart and another local station that’s known to be one of the cheapest in the area that I avoid at all costs due to the lines. 10 cents per gallon cheaper…purchasing 20 gallons or so…? I’ll pay a couple of bucks just to avoid the lines and I’m frugal enough that I’m borderline Dave Ramsey-esque in my spending.
I actually bought gas earlier today (no lines!). I believe it was around $2.88 per gallon, 87 octane with ethanol.
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And how much gas is burned by everyone waiting in the line for the same 15 minutes?
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Dave Ramsey huh? I agree with many of his ideas except his plan of ditching your car payment and driving a $1000 beater. In this day and age where a jumped timing chain can cost $4000 to fix and a transmission replacement can run $6000, a reasonable car payment for a reliable car makes more sense, especially if you live somewhere where having a car is an absolute necessity.
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