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Restricting a line of business to incumbents creates government privileges and exacerbates inequality. If you own a gas station, you can continue to run it, but
by Bostonian 5y ago
Restricting a line of business to incumbents creates government privileges and exacerbates inequality. If you own a gas station, you can continue to run it, but if you want to build one, the government forbids it. People who live in Petaluma will still find gas stations, so this prohibition will do very little to reduce gasoline consumption.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoTaking steps to prevent future brownfield remediation costs when the business eventually closes and dumps the cleanup and tank removal costs on the public sounds reasonable, as is making petroleum consumption less convenient (climate change and all). There is a well known worn path of “privatize the gains, socialize the losses.” No one is entitled to be in a business if the public decides it’s in the interest of the public good to sunset that business (just as new combustion vehicle sales bans come into effect at the end of the decade). Existing gas stations will still be on the hook for remediation and tank removal when gas sales decline below profitability inclusive of their convenience sales; they should probably have to put up a bond for that expense so they can’t walk away from the liability. (the article also mentions most new gas stations are large chains, not “mom and pops”, so inequality isn’t a factor here; you can still put a convenience store in with only EV fast chargers as well)