In March 2021, the Sonoma County town of Petaluma garnered international attention by banning the construction of new gas stations. Recently, the Sonoma Group of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter and the Marin and San Francisco Groups of the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter met to discuss this effort. The SF Group went on record in support of such a ban in San Francisco.
The Sonoma Group is currently working with other groups, such as Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS), to implement a countywide ban on new gas stations. Three stations have been successfully stopped so far. You can find more information about the Sonoma Group’s work to ban gas stations here.
In Marin, the towns of Fairfax and San Rafael stopped new gas stations. The Marin Group is working with No New Gas to stop construction of a mega-station near a sensitive ecological preserve in Novato. You can learn more about the Marin Group’s work here, and find more details on the fight in Novato in the New Yorker piece “Do We Actually Need More Gas Stations?”
Photo credits: Marin County activists fight a mega-gas station in Novato by Silke Valentine, Sierra Club Marin Group member.