April 1, 2009: Shutting Down 8,000 Gasoline Stations

Not only will April 1st bring cuts to education and healthcare services, but every Californian will see their taxes increase and they may have to drive a little further to find a gas station still in business.

In 2000, the unelected California Air Resource Board (CARB) implemented a "vapor-recovery" rule. While the rule was implemented in 2000, CARB did not provided the specific equipment required until 2008, with an April 2009 deadline.

With a recession, a credit crunch, and higher costs, many local gasoline owners were left with no time to finance, buy, and install the newly mandated $11,000 nozzles. The average gas station will face $50,000 in new costs associated with the regulations.

According to John Howard of Capitol Weekly, "the new rule, scheduled to take effect Wednesday, requires the nozzle to block 98 percent of fuel vapor, up from the current regulation of 95 percent." Experts estimate the new regulations could lead to the closure of as many as 8,000 gas stations that are unable to meet the deadline for compliance.

Day in the day out, California businesses are finding it more difficult and costly to get by. As food and fuel get more expensive, and jobs become scarcer, California families are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet.

Our communities and families expect our lawmakers and regulators to act to help and not hurt us, to understand the pain felt by so many, and to understand that their actions will put our friends, families, and neighbors out of a job. And yet, we are constantly disappointed by a barrage of overregulation and job-killing legislation.

Assemblyman Martin Garrick (R-San Diego) is introducing legislation to save thousands of California jobs by halting the implementation of these harmful regulations. Garrick will introduce a bill today in the Third Extraordinary Session to give an "enforcement holiday" until April 1, 2010 to gas station owners unable to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery (EVR) Phase II installation.

"Thousands of gas stations could face significant fines or the possibility of being shut down unless the Legislature takes action now to give them some breathing room," said Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, the author of the emergency legislation. "We simply cannot allow the potential for massive job losses or higher gas prices. That's why Republicans have introduced this emergency legislation - to give gas stations more time to afford these costly new fuel nozzles and protect small businesses and jobs."