Two new gas stations will open up in Manteca before year’s end.

Both are on Airport Way.

One is Rotten Robbie’s at Wawona Street.

The other is Maverik at Atherton Drive.

Both are new brands in Manteca.

There are eight more either with preliminary site approval  by the city or on plans developers have submitted for approval.

The list includes:

*three on Airport Way (one at Daniels, one at Lathrop Road, one on the northeast corner of Atherton across from the Maverik).

*two on Airport Way at Louise Avenue (one each on the southwest and southeast corners).

*two on Union Road at Lathrop Road (one on the northwest corner and one on the southeast corner).

*one on Woodward Avenue on the southeast corner with Pillsbury Road.

All have convenience stores attached.

All but three are planned to have car washes.

Currently, there are 26 fueling stations in Manteca.

What is under construction and what is proposed represents slightly more than a 40 percent increase in gas stations, if all are built.

You’d be hard pressed in California to find another city that has 10 gas stations either under construction or somewhere in the municipal approval process.

There is a faint rumbling from some quarters about a need for a Manteca moratorium on adding new gas stations.

To be clear, most of it is from people who fuel their vehicles elsewhere in Manteca or in another community but 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 Manteca City Council as you are a moratorium or ban on new grocery stores, hair stylist shops, restaurants, or distribution centers.

It is not in their collective DNA.

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.

*There is a robust growing market in Manteca.

*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 gas stations have almost all added car washes to the mix that includes 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 Manteca is getting more and more gas stations because there is a demand that makes them pencil out and profitable.

Rest assured, 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 Joe’s 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 Joe’s 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 Manteca super attractive to gas stations.

Even with the pandemic giving a bump to more days of many people working at homes, Manteca is still at ground zero for the nation’s fastest growing region for supercommuters.

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

There may be a day when ACE and Valley Link working in a combo come close to moving half of all supercommmuters from freeways to rail.

But even then, there will still be a lot of people in Manteca 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 Manteca market.

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