Cities are starting to ban new gas stations

• The movement aims to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles.
• "This is not a ban on the existing gas stations, which are providing all the gas currently needed," Matt Krogh, U.S. oil and gas campaign director for the environmental group Stand.earth, tells Axios.
• "The problem with allowing new gas stations is we don't really need them and they’re putting existing gas stations out of business."

Driving the news: In Petaluma — where neighborhood opposition to a new Safeway gas station prompted years of litigation — the council voted unanimously last week to move forward with a permanent ban on new stations; a final vote will happen Monday.

• Existing stations won't be allowed to add new gas pumps, though they're encouraged to build electric charging bays.
• "The city of roughly 60,000 people is host to 16 operational gas stations, and city staff concluded there are multiple stations located within a 5-minute drive of every planned or existing residence within city limits," per the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
• The city councilor who introduced the measure, D’Lynda Fischer, is quoted as saying: “The goal here is to move away from fossil fuels and to make it as easy as possible to do that.”

Between the lines: The Petaluma effort had the support of Stand.earth, which runs a campaign called SAFE Cities (an acronym for "stand against fossil fuel expansion").

• The group says 30 cities and counties have passed policies in keeping with their agenda, but none has gone as far as Petaluma.
• "It's actually political bravery to be the very first," says Krogh, the SAFE Cities director.
• Over time, as gas stations close in Petaluma, they'll be required to clean up whatever toxins are on the property, which Krogh applauds: "We have a lot of unfunded cleanup needs associated with fossil fuels sort of writ large across the country."

The big picture: The Petaluma effort inspired groups like the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations — or CONGAS — which seeks to ban gas stations in Sonoma County, California.

• A Seattle-based group called Coltura, which aims to phase out gasoline altogether, is working on the issue locally and nationally.
• "Just as the no-smoking movement highlighted the dangers of secondhand smoke, the beyond-gasoline movement raises awareness of the health, climate and equity impacts of gasoline and diesel use," Coltura says on its website.

What they're saying: "In the 2020s, this is not the time to be expanding fossil fuel infrastructure," Woody Hastings, co-coordinator of CONGAS, tells Axios.

• Gas stations are "already ubiquitous — there's no shortage."
• He says his group has succeeded in blocking three applications to build new stations in Sonoma.
• "A lot of the stuff that happens here can be framed in the climate crisis frame, and that does motivate people here," Hastings said.

The bottom line: The movement is still tiny — smaller than the movement to ban natural gas hookups in new construction — but seems to be spreading quickly.

• "Ideas like this can spread rapidly, particularly in California," says Krogh.