Oregon may soon let people pump their own gas
Oregon’s longstanding status as one of only two states restricting self-serve gas could soon come to an end.
Last week the state legislature passed a bill allowing gas stations statewide to offer a self-service option while requiring full service on at least half of their pumps. If Governor Tina Kotek signs the bill into law, New Jersey would be the only state where people aren’t allowed to pump their own gas.
Ms. Kotek, a Democrat, has 30 days from the end of Oregon’s legislative session, which concluded on Sunday, to sign the bill into law. She has not indicated whether she intends to.
Self-service gas bans in both states date back more than 70 years; New Jersey has taken over law of 1949and Oregon imposed a similar ban in 1951. Legislators at the time, concerned that members of the public could not be trusted to safely pump their own gas, decided to limit the provision of flammable liquids to trained attendants who could be counted on to follow safety protocols.
But unlike New Jersey, where legislature efforts to allow self-service have failed, Oregon has rolled back its full-service requirements in parts of the state in recent years. Laws passed in 2015 and 2017 allow gas stations in Oregon counties with populations less than 40,000 to allow customers to pump their own gas with certain restrictions. The Oregonian reported.
In recent years, Oregon has sometimes temporarily lifted self-service restrictions during heat waves and wildfires, and in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This bill would dramatically simplify this patchwork of regulations,” Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican state representative who co-sponsored the measure, told fellow lawmakers at a legislative session in February.
Proponents of the bill said it would preserve gas station attendant jobs by requiring gas stations to designate at least one person to provide full service to customers who want it. Ms. Boshart Davis said the bill would also help station owners who have had trouble filling companion jobs.
“You’ll hear from local small business owners that they can’t even find employees for those positions right now,” said Ms Boshart Davis, adding, “We’ve all seen or experienced it. Long lines at the gas station because pumps are dropped off.”
Polls show Oregon residents are generally open to the idea of pumping their own gas. In 2021, 63 percent of respondents indicated a survey conducted by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center, a polling group, said they supported a policy change that would allow for self-service gas.
The bill had broad bipartisan support in the legislature, which is controlled by Democrats. The Senate passed it last week by a vote of 16 to 9. The State House voted 47 to 10 to approve it in March.
State Representative Tawna Sanchez, a Democrat who voted against the bill, cited the safety concerns the self-service ban was originally supposed to address.
“We have young people in our world who have no idea what to do with a dial phone, if they should have one,” Ms. Sanchez said in an interview. “They can’t read a map. I think the potential for the kinds of things that can go wrong is there.
“I’m afraid we will have young people who have no idea how to pump gas,” she added.
There are few signs that New Jersey, where efforts to get people to pump their own gas met stiff opposition, will soon follow Oregon’s lead.
a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll last year found that 73 percent of New Jersey residents surveyed said they’d rather someone else pumped their gas. In March 2022, the Senate Democratic president, whose support would be critical to any legislative change, declared the idea of allowing self-service in the state to be a political nonstarter.
For many New Jerseyans, the commitment to full-service gas has become part of the state’s unique identity, with T-shirts and bumper stickers proudly proclaiming, “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.”