Oregon ends self-service gas pump ban after 72 years

Oregon motorists are expressing excitement and confusion after a 72-year ban on self-service gas pumps was lifted Friday.

Across Beaver State, drivers took to social media to brag about pumping their own gas, while local new outlets posted step-by-step instructions to help baffled first-timers.

The change came after Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill that would allow people across the state to choose between a companion gas pump or doing it themselves. The law took effect immediately.

That leaves New Jersey as the only U.S. state to ban motorists from pumping their own gasoline. A few countries also ban it, including South Africa, where servants offer to check the fluid level and clean the windshield, and expect to be tipped.

“Today was the first day we got to pump our own gas, I was super excited to start doing this ourselves,” TikTok user said @pnw.bethany in a video on Friday.

However, she was disappointed to discover she had accidentally entered a “full service” lane at the gas station, where attendants were still pumping, and vowed to return to the “self-service” lane for the next fill-up.

Oregon residents were divided on the change, with some expressing support and others skeptical.

‘It’s about time. It’s been a long time,” Karen Cooper, who lives in Salem, said shortly before the bill was signed.

“I spent a lot of time in California,” Cooper said. “I know how to pump mine. Everyone should know how to pump their own gas.’

Kacy Willson, 32, who has lived in Oregon all her life, said she doesn’t have much interest in pumping her own gas. She has only tried it a few times in her life.

“It’s kind of nice to have someone do that,” she said Friday at a Portland gas station. “I don’t leave Oregon very often, and when I do, I have to ask someone how to fill up, and I feel weird.”

When Oregon banned self-service in 1951, lawmakers cited security issuesincluding motorists slipping on the slippery surfaces at gas stations subject to Oregon’s notoriously rainy weather.

In recent years, lawmakers have relaxed the rule and allowed counties nationwide to have self-serve gas available at night.

Then they extended it to all hours in the sparsely populated areas of eastern Oregon, where motorists running low on gas could get stuck if there was no valet on duty.

Labor shortages from the COVID-19 pandemic provided renewed impetus to enable self-service across the state.

“We live in a small town in a big county and can’t find workers to pump fuel,” Steve Rodgers, whose community sits at the base of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains, complained to lawmakers. “We pay top dollar and also offer insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, and still can’t have a full staff.”

Haseeb Shojai, who emigrated from Afghanistan in 2004 and owns gas stations in the high desert of central Oregon, also lamented the labor shortage and described how wildfires, with increased intensity and frequency due to climate change, are having a major effect.

The state fire department lifted the ban on self-service during dangerous heat waves in recent summers.

“Wildfires have been a factor in running our business during the summer months when it is difficult for our gas workers to stay out in smoke and heat for long periods of time,” said Shojai. “We don’t know if we can stay open tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or even next week because of the labor shortage.”

A union representing workers at grocery store gas stations in Oregon predicted job losses, calling the new law a “blatant money grab for big business.”

“With more than 2,000 gas stations in Oregon, laying off just one employee per location represents millions of dollars a year that giant corporations are not paying in wages, benefits and public payroll taxes,” said Sandy Humphrey, the secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 555.

Under the new law, there cannot be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service pumps. And the prices for motorists must be the same for both types.

Gas prices in Oregon averaged $4.66 on Saturday, according to AAA, and the state has the fifth-highest gas prices among the U.S. states.

Some residents grumbled that there would be no discount for self-service gas, and wondered why they would want to pump gas themselves without a price break.

“It’s bad enough that we now have to pay for our own groceries in most stores, but now also for gas. We keep getting jobs that we don’t get paid for and never applied for,” resident Micky Garus wrote in a Facebook post.

Other opponents of the measure worry it could lead to the demise of full-service pumps, depriving the elderly and people with disabilities of that opportunity.

“I’m really concerned that we’re getting closer to completely repealing Oregon’s fuel service bill,” Democratic state senator Lew Frederick said on the Senate floor in June before voting against the bill.

Brandon Venable, a gas station manager, had urged lawmakers to reject the bill because some customers are careless and that attendants are protective of people.

“I deal with many dangerous situations on a daily basis caused by people smoking, running their engines, getting in and out of their vehicles generating static electricity, trying to fill random bottles and jugs and driving off with the pump still in the vehicle ,’ Venabel said.

Others wonder if motorists now clamoring to pump their own gas might be less keen on standing out in the rain, cold and snow rather than staying in their warm, dry cars.

Republican Senator Tim Knopp, who leads the GOP’s minority group, downplayed security concerns when he described being allowed to pump his own gas because he is a member of a commercial fuel cooperative.

“I have yet to set myself on fire. I haven’t caused any problems with self-service gas,” Knopp said during the debate on the bill. “So, colleagues, let’s make New Jersey the only state in the country to have a law against self-serve gas.”

The Senate then passed the bill by a vote of 16 to 9. The House previously approved it 47-10.

New Jersey’s 1949 ban on self-service gas pumps remains a source of pride for some in a state where bumper stickers read “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.”

Since New Jersey has lower gas prices than New York and Pennsylvania, many drivers from neighboring states cross the state line to fill up.

In 2015, lawmakers proposed ending the ban in New Jersey, but the measure died due to opposition from the powerful president of the senate.