Environmental Restrictions 101: Regardless of how much better an upgrade will be for the environment, expensive is expensive. Cleaner air doesn’t pay the bill for the upgrade.

This April, a mandate from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) called the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Program (EVRP) will go into effect. The idea behind the program is to get next-generation clean nozzles and equipment installed at fuel pumps in the state in order to control emissions. Sounds like a good thing, right? The environment wins becasue ground-level ozone should be reduced and people win, too.

What’s the problem? These new cleaner gas stations aren’t cheap, and “dozens, and potentially hundreds” of gas stations in California might close down instead to upgrade. In other words, in this case, going green means going out of business. According to the Pasadena Star-News, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has heard from 76 refueling sites (of about 4,500 total in its area) that will shut down because of the high costs of the EVRP. CARB responds by saying that gas prices will go up by about 0.68 cents a gallon to cover the cost of upgrading.

Higher gas prices, fewer gas stations, and fewer businesses to push the economy forward in a time of economic recession. Brilliant move, California.

Via Glenn Reynolds.