There Is No Excuse

The Air Resources Board is reminding California’s service station owners that they must upgrade vapor recovery systems on their gasoline pumps by April 1, 2009. The deadline is fast approaching, and less than 15% of the 11,000 gas stations are currently in compliance.

The state has invested millions of dollars into this initiative. There will be no exceptions with respect to this deadline:

"There's no excuse for not meeting the deadline - people know it's coming, the technology to comply is there and the public health benefits are easily quantifiable. Penalties for missing the deadline will not only cost operators, but delay clean air for many regions of the state." -- ARB Chairman Mary Nichols

Financing is becoming harder to obtain during these volatile economic times. Please begin your prequalification process immediately to secure your financing…it may not be there come 2009. Banks are increasingly calling lines of credit used for EVR upgrades, due to the high amount of soft costs involved and because the equipment is essentially non-revenue generating.

Steve Lee is an Equipment Finance Specialist at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (http://www.firststarcapital.com/ ). Steve is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.