New gas stations have been popping up in Ceres in recent years.

There is an ever so faint rumbling from some about a need for a Ceres moratorium on adding new gas stations.

To be clear, most of it is from people who fuel their vehicles in another community or those who don’t want a gas station near where they live.

But there are some, though a small number, who utter the words “gas station moratorium” from an environmental angle.

They are fueled, in part, by the death sentence California had imposed on the sale on new fossil powered vehicles in the Golden State starting in 2035 that has since been commuted by an act of Congress.

You are about as likely to see a moratorium or ban on new gas stations from the current Ceres City Council as you are a moratorium or ban on new grocery stores, hair stylist shops, restaurants, or distribution centers.

If everyone is honest with themselves, it is not in alignment with the market principles that make it possible for many of us to afford $650,000 homes, Door Dash multiple times a week, the latest smartphones, and $70,000 EVs that some whine they can’t afford without a $7,500 federal tax credit.

And despite big talk to the contrary, the California Legislature’s green agenda doesn’t exactly make it easy for municipalities to block new gas stations until Sacramento politicians decide to commit mass political suicide by monkeying with land use law they have imposed on local government over the years.

Bans such as in Santa Rosa that address new fuel pumps (existing gas station expansion) as opposed to just new gas stations, did not happen because of a comment or two on social media or someone standing up once in a while at a public meeting to implore city leaders to pull the plug on more gas stations.

It was an organized effort by people willing to go the distance, if need be, to bankroll potential court challenges.

The two strongest arguments against more gas stations currently don’t hold much weight when it comes to reality.

The first: They don’t make economic sense. Clearly, they do, or financial institutions wouldn’t underwrite them. Commercial loans are not 30-year affairs like most home mortgages. Even if the 2035 deadline to end the sale of new cars powered by fossil fuels were still in place, the profitability of gas stations on the current business model would easily go into 2045 given the average life of a car is 17.7 years in California.

The reason some gas stations have added car washes to the mix that include a convenience store means they would retain their status as “travel centers” when fast chargers are added to locations as business models evolve.

Congress pulling the plug on the EV mandate increases the window of profitability for gas stations until they need to make investments to transition to snag EV motorists’ dollars.

The second: They create local in-ground environmental hazards with storage tanks after they are decommissioned.

State ground and air quality district monitoring of gas stations is extremely robust compared to years ago.

Removal of gas tanks and potential mitigation can be expensive but as the years passed they have penciled out especially in high use urban areas.

Technology has improved the durability of storage tanks over the years.

The bottom line is Ceres is getting more gas stations because there is a demand that makes them pencil out and profitable.

Rest assured that no one at City Hall — or in the City Council for that matter — invests even a second in trying to lure more gas stations to the city. They do work on Trader Joes and such with good old-fashioned lobbying and marketing.

The people key to snaring restaurants and such that everyone wants need to develop centers that can accommodate them with the right-sized space and the right lease terms.

To make such centers work, unless they somehow land a retail whale upfront,  they need to set the stage to entice the Trader Joes of the world by having “cash cow” land deals or tenants that gas stations, fast food places, and such that makes centers justify financial investments.

There is also one more item that makes Ceres attractive to gas stations.

Even with the pandemic giving a bump to more days of many people working at homes, Ceres is still home to super-commuters.

By definition, it represents commuters who spend more than 90 minutes going one way to or from work.

There may be a day when the ACE come close to moving half of all super-commuters from freeways to rail. But even then, there will still be a lot of people in Ceres who buy gasoline on almost a daily, or every other day, basis.

All the private sector when it comes to gas stations is doing is reflecting the reality of the Ceres market.

—  This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com