For years, New Jersey was basically the only state in the country that wouldn’t let customers pump their own gas. The exception was some parts of Oregon that were also holding out on a ban. But that’s about to change.
Last week, a bill ending Oregon’s 72-year self-service gas prohibition passed in the state Senate. The bill is expected to be signed into immediate effect by Gov. Tina Kotek. With a flick of Kotek’s pen, it will make Jersey the true sole observer of a ban nationwide — for realsies this time.
Full-service gas stations are a relic of the past, dating back to a time when gassing up was considered dangerous and inconvenient, as noted by automotive news outlet The Drive.
One of the first self-service gas stations opened in the late 1940s in Los Angeles. It prompted a shift in the industry that took off throughout the ’70s and became normalized by the ’80s. Still, some states held out.
“It goes back to the middle of the 20th century,” Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth Polling Institute, told NBC. “There were forces involved who wanted to protect their interests in terms of the smaller gas owners against mega gas stations that were starting to be built at the time that would require self-service to be profitable.”
While most of the country’s gas stations were phasing out attendants, New Jersey placed a ban on self-service in 1949, called the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act. Oregon passed its own version of the law a decade later, but it was more relaxed. In the Beaver State, some areas were already able to have self-service stations.
At the time, the New Jersey Legislature said the ban was driven by safety concerns and rising consumer costs to transition to self-service. Still, decades later, the debate continues.
As noted by NBC, “every time there’s a spike in gas prices,” bills begin popping up to end the self-service ban. It’s also a topic that doesn’t follow traditional party lines. So far, every bill to end full-service in favor of self-service in Jersey has failed.
According to The Oregonian, the state’s success to allow self-service gas stations followed a push from fuel companies citing staffing shortages. The bill’s language states that pumps will be half-staffed and half-self-service, allowing gas pumps that were closed due to understaffing to reopen.
But in the Garden State, the debate on full- versus self-service remains polarizing.
Besides, if things changed, what would we do with the surplus of Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas bumper stickers?
