Dem-led Colorado city bans the building of new gas stations in bid to tackle climate change
The blue-run city of Louisville, Colorado will ban all new gas stations as local lawmakers say they feel an ‘obligation’ to fight climate change.
City councilors in the town of 21,000 approved a proposal Tuesday evening to cap the number of gas stations for their constituents to just six.
A seventh station would only be permitted if a large retailer swoops in, but the limitation was praised by a Louisville legislator who said the move was necessary to combat global warming.
‘We have an obligation to take every step possible to address the changes to our climate that are ravaging our planet and directly impacting the health, well-being and livelihoods of the constituents we represent in Louisville,’ council member Maxine Most told Fox News.
The city of Louisville, Colorado has approved a move to cap the number of gas stations in the area in a bid to fight climate change.
Local city council member Maxine Most, pictured, said she feels an ‘obligation to take every step possible’ to battle global warming.
The proposal includes a spate of climate-oriented provisions intended to reduce Louisville’s emissions.
Alongside limiting gas stations in the city, new or modified stations will also be required to install at least two charging ports for electric vehicles.
The suburb, about 20 miles outside of Denver, currently has five gas stations, and although a sixth was recently approved for development, the resolution could make that facility its last.
The plans also include a ban on all gas stations within 1,000 feet of existing stations, and special use approvals for existing gas stations will be needed if any station is closed for a year.
Speaking before the vote, councilwoman Most admitted that the move wouldn’t stop climate change, but said the small community should continue with the plan anyway.
‘We should be taking whatever incremental steps not to create additional fossil fuel infrastructure,’ said the councilmember, who also serves on the city’s Economic Vitality Committee.
Louisville’s green policies are intended to meet several of its climate change fighting goals, including meeting the entire city’s municipal electricity needs with carbon-free sources by 2025.
The community has also set goals of reducing its greenhouse gas emission levels in the coming years, and generating 75 percent of its residential, commercial and industrial needs with carbon-free sources by 2030.
The new proposal would see Louisville’s sixth gas station, which is still being developed, become its last.
Louisville, Colorado was devastated by a wildfire in January 2022, leading President Biden to visit the city so he could issue a call to action on climate policies
Before the gas-cutting measures have already made their way through the local legislature, a review by the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board this month also recommended the number be reduced to five.
According to the recently approved policy, the law’s authors felt a push to introduce electric cars will entice motorists to make the switch away from gas.
‘Gasoline station bans may also be seen as promoting the use of Electric Vehicles (EVs), thus, reducing vehicle emissions and encouraging low-carbon and cleaner energy options for transportation,’ it says.
‘The proposal for a cap but not a full ban on new gasoline and automobile service stations is in recognition that there will continue to be some demand for gasoline and automobile service stations as more EVs enter the market and gasoline vehicles are transitioned out of the market. over time.
Louisville’s cap on gas stations follows several other local legislatures in banning new gas stations in the name of climate change, including in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The community’s push for green policies also comes a year after it was ravaged by a wildfire, an incident that led President Biden to visit the town to issue an urgent call for more climate action.
‘The situation is a blinking Code Red for our nation,’ Biden said, noting the rare winter wildfires that swept through the town.
‘The combination of extreme drought, the driest period from June to December ever recorded, unusually high winds, no snow on the ground created a tinderbox. A literal tinderbox.