No, you wouldn’t be on another planet if you saw this billboard: “Sun, 93,000,000 miles. Solar-powered station, the Bronx.” You’d be in Times Square, Manhattan, looking up at an advertisement for a BP filling station. However, don’t be thinking victory is at hand for enviros. The station doesn’t power up cars on rays from the sun. Solar energy merely runs the pumps at the site; the product for sale is old-fashioned gasoline. In fact, no signs at the station even mention the solar connection. Still, BP says it has 157 solar-powered gas stations across the U.S., with solar panels providing 6 to 15 percent of the electrical needs of each site. Not everyone is thrilled. “A solar gas station is like a very clean cigarette factory,” said Dan Becker of the Sierra Club.
