As our planet warms, communities are increasingly raising concerns about pollution and the possible public health concerns that come with the continued burning of fossil fuels, the decline of our current network of stationary gas stations feels inevitable. Mobile fueling and new alternative fuel types offer more sustainable alternatives with less impact on our neighbors and the Earth.
For decades, gas station infrastructure has held a central role in the Americana unconscious.
We are notoriously car-dependent. A first license and first car are both a right of passage for American teenagers.
The first time you have to call Mom or Dad because you’re at a gas station without enough money to get home is too.
Stopping to fill up is an errand as common as hitting the grocery store.
But we are getting a better understanding every day of the transportation sector’s behemoth contributions to overall United States emissions, and those same teenagers are asking why we can’t leave the planet better for their generation.
It might be time for the fixed gas station to fade into obscurity as more sustainable options rise in availability and popularity.
Between 1991 and 2022, the number of gas stations in the U.S. shrunk by almost half – from about 210,000 to about 145,000. Likewise, BCG reports indicate that the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) are poised to disrupt the industry further, driving fueling stations completely out of business or forcing a transformation to essential service hubs and food service. The data changes so quickly that only 5 years ago, BCG was estimating that by 2030, up to 80 percent of the fuel-retail network as we currently know it will be unprofitable.
In addition to the effects of EV adoption, the energy transition, decarbonization efforts, and growing recognition of the public health hazards that gas stations introduce into communities are all converging to spell doom for the fuel station industry.
We have to ask, why? The demand for fuel isn’t going anywhere. So what comes next?
Mobile fueling on-demand (MFOD) may be a solution.
The Problem: Gas Stations are Harmful to Public and Environmental Health
Gas stations are responsible for significant pollution from spills at the pump or leaky underground storage tanks (USTs), which release toxic substances into soil, nearby waterways and the air. According to the Environmental Law Institute, a typical gas station dispensing one million gallons per year would see annual spillage of 70 to 100 gallons. And according to the EPA, “the greatest potential threat from a leaking UST is contamination of groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans.” As of March 2020, the U.S. confirmed 557,655 UST leaks nationwide. And according to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, it only takes 10 gallons of spilled gasoline to contaminate 12 million gallons of groundwater.
Gas stations also emit the the carcinogen benzene, in addition to other toxic substances like toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, all carrying significant health risks including effects to the nervous system, cognitive impairment, eye and throat irritation, dizziness, hearing and kidney damage, impaired memory and more.
It makes you wonder how any began operating in the first place.
The Solution: Mobile Fueling
Despite the risks associated with gas stations, they endure for good reason.
Our society relies on gasoline and diesel infrastructure to move people and goods. And it’s only truly in the last decade or so that we didn’t necessarily need gas stations to ensure that mobility.
Our slow transition to EVs and other vehicles powered by renewable energy should continue to progress and eliminate traditional fueling infrastructure in favor of a model that better fits the time commitment taken by electric charging. We aren’t there yet, but we could be in the next decade. For now, many vehicle owners — from individuals to fleet owners and operators — are unable to make the capital investment needed to embrace electrification. New vehicles are expensive, even with tax incentives, and budgets are tight. On top of cost, the EV market has a ways to go. For one, there is an issue with supply and demand, particularly given the shortages in batteries and the materials that they are made from like copper. Alongside these material concerns, the public’s hesitancy to convert to EV fully continues to stagnate investment vertically. Finally, there are evolving barriers to medium- and heavy-duty fleet electrification and deep set challenges to expanding wide-scale charging infrastructure, from a lack of charging standards to the need for a smarter, more modernized grid that can enable the bidirectional flow of energy. So far, these issues have not been prioritized by regulators and politicians to drive any significant changes.
A bridge option — which happens to require no significant investment on the part of the vehicle owner — is to embrace mobile fuel delivery. Right now, this service is primarily being utilized by fleets. The on-demand service offers both traditional fuels and sustainable alternatives without the need for gas station infrastructure.
In the MFOD model, fuel can be ordered via an app, website or phone call for delivery. Then a fuel tanker arrives to the area where the vehicle or fleet is located to fill the tanks on-site. The tanker goes straight from terminal to vehicle, reducing spillage, any need for USTs, and toxic emissions or pollution associated with traditional fixed gas station infrastructure.
The mobile fueling on-demand model can also contribute to the larger sustainability and decarbonization movements by securing access to sustainable fuels and lowering overall emissions associated with fueling. Depending on the fuel stock, biofuels can help to reduce GHG emissions by 40% to 108% across the lifecycle of use, according to a study by Johns Hopkins University.
Sustainable and renewable fuels are in short supply within our national gas station network. In fact, only 2,077 gas stations out of 196,643 (roughly 1%) in the U.S. carry biodiesel or renewable diesel, partly due to low demand and partly due to costs associated with developing new or upgraded pumps and USTs. MFOD can easily offer sustainable alternative fuels without the need for new or upgraded infrastructure. By creating greater access to alternative options, MFOD can help bring the sustainable fuel market to scale and bring down costs, further driving awareness and adoption and increasing demand for these cleaner options as well as the development of additional alternative options.
Using mobile fuel delivery also replaces many vehicles on the road, going to a gas station or coming back from one, with just one vehicle on the road. This helps reduce tailpipe emissions and extra fuel consumption, wear and tear to your public roadways, and traffic congestion. Overall, MFOD can reduce fleet emissions by up to 14%. In fact, the Johns Hopkins University study found that in California’s Bay Area alone, mobile fueling has the potential to decrease annual carbon dioxide emissions from 97 metric tons — the average amount produced by a typical gas station — to 76 metric tons.
How We Transition
None of this is to say we should start shuttering gas stations left and right. Gas station infrastructure still offers a key commodity to American consumers and will for years to come. After all, most Americans will continue driving vehicles that require gasoline or diesel for the foreseeable future. While the transition may take time, it is already beginning.
For now mobile fuel delivery can be used to prevent the pollution associated with gas stations, expand access to sustainable fuels, and lower emissions for drivers and fleet owners and operators. As internal combustion engine vehicles are phased out in favor of EVs, fuel delivery will continue to be helpful in offering traditional fuels to lower income consumers who lack the financial flexibility to transition to a sustainable vehicle, and by offering low- and zero-emission fuels to alternative technology vehicles, like hydrogen fuel cell EVs.
Given the negative health and environmental outcomes associated with gas stations, their decline may be a welcome change, especially for communities directly impacted by gas station pollution. With careful investment and prioritization of community health, we can continue the transition away from gas stations and toward healthier, more efficient alternatives. In this effort, options like on-demand mobile fuel delivery offer solutions to bridge the gap to large-scale electrification and even beyond, when a diverse fuel supply enables the net-zero transportation economy we currently aim to achieve.