Several gasoline stations across San Diego County ---- or several dozen ---- could go out of business at the end of the month when a new air-quality law takes effect, their owners warn, a development that could reduce local competition and push up prices to consumers, according to our media partner the North County Times.
State law requires stations to install higher-tech pumps that keep gasoline vapor from escaping into the atmosphere, where it contributes to smog. Regulators say about 325 of the 850 stations in the county have yet to be certified for compliance, the paper reported.
All but four have filed the first round of necessary paperwork, said Robert Kard, chief administrator in the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District.
But the remaining 320 represent a daunting number in light of the months-long process of applying for local permits, nailing down the financing, and then undergoing construction, regulators and station owners say. Stations that don't meet the deadline will have to shut down or face penalties ranging from a one-time fine of several hundred dollars to fines of tens of thousands of dollars per day.
For the full story read the North County Times article "Pollution Deadline Could Kill Independent Gas Stations."
