May 2020 Gasoline Phaseout News
Coltura Pushes for Release of California Gasoline Sales Volume Reports
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How many gallons of gasoline are pumped in your city each year? Your city officials can’t tell you, because they don’t have the data. They don’t know which of their investments to reduce transportation emissions (such as EV charging infrastructure, public transit, e-bikes and e-scooters, EV ride & drives, and education campaigns) are having an impact on the city’s gasoline sales.They also don’t know which residents living near gas stations are exposed to the highest levels of carcinogenic benzene vapors.
California gas stations are required to report annually to the California Energy Commission (CEC) how many gallons of gas they sell, but the CEC, under pressure from a gas station trade association, has so far been unwilling to release those reports.
Coltura was able to obtain from the CEC aggregated gasoline sales volumes data for those cities with 4+ gas stations, but many gas stations did not submit the required report to the CEC, and there was no way to tell which gas stations didn’t report. As a result, the CEC admits that total sales volumes have been underreported by 10% to 30% over each of the last ten years. Here are some examples of the data the CEC provided:
