Motorists in Oregon are expressing excitement and confusion after a 72-year ban on self-serve gasoline pumps was lifted on Friday.

Across the Beaver State, drivers took to social media to boast of pumping their own gas, while local new outlets published step-by-step instructions to help bewildered first-timers. 

The change came after Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill allowing people across the state to choose between having an attendant pump gas or doing it themselves. The law took immediate effect.

That leaves New Jersey as the only US state that prohibits motorists from pumping their own gas. A few countries also ban it, including South Africa, where attendants offer to check fluid levels and clean the windshield, and expect to be tipped.

‘Today was day one where we were allowed to pump our own gas, I was super excited to go and do this myself,’ said TikTok user @pnw.bethany in a video on Friday.

However, she was disappointed to discover that she had accidentally pulled into a ‘full service’ lane at the gas station, where attendants still do the pumping, and vowed to return to the ‘self-service’ lane for the next fill-up. 

Oregon resident Patrick Coffin fills up his car with gasoline at a gas station in Portland on Friday, after the state lifted a 72-year ban on self-service pumps

A TikTok user expressed excitement over the change, but was disappointed to discover she had accidentally pulled into a ‘full service’ lane where attendants still man the pumps

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

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

‘I’ve spent a lot of time in California,’ Cooper said. ‘I know how to pump my own. Everybody should know how to pump their own gas.’

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

‘It’s kind of nice to have someone do that,’ she said at a Portland gas station Friday. ‘I don´t really leave Oregon very much, and when I do, I have to ask someone how to pump gas, and I feel weird.’

When Oregon prohibited self-service in 1951, lawmakers cited safety concerns, including motorists slipping on the slick surfaces at filling stations subject to Oregon’s notoriously rainy weather. 

In recent years legislators relaxed the rule and allowed rural counties to have self-serve gas available at night. 

Then they extended it to all hours in eastern Oregon’s sparsely populated areas, where motorists low on gas could be stranded when there’s no attendant on duty.

The COVID-19 pandemic labor shortage helped drive a renewed push to allow self-serve across the state.

‘We live in a small town in a large county and can´t find employees to pump fuel,’ Steve Rodgers, whose community is at the base of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains, complained to lawmakers. ‘We are paying top dollar and also offering insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, and still cannot fully staff.’

A gas station attendant shows a driver how to fill up her tank at a gas station in Portland, after Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill allowing people across the state to pump their own gas

Motorists in Oregon are expressing excitement and confusion after a 72-year ban on self-serve gas stations was lifted on Friday

Local new outlets published step-by-step instructions to help bewildered first-timers

Haseeb Shojai, who immigrated from Afghanistan in 2004 and owns gas stations in central Oregon’s high desert, 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 marshal lifted the self-serve ban during dangerous heat waves the past couple of summers.

‘Wildfires have been a factor in operating our business in the summer months, when it is hard for our gas attendants to stay for long periods outside in smoke and in heat,’ Shojai said. ‘We don’t know if we can stay open tomorrow or the next day or even next week due to the labor shortage.’

A union representing workers at grocery store fuel stations in Oregon predicted job losses and called the new law a ‘blatant cash grab for large corporations.’

‘With over 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 can’t be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service ones. And prices for motorists must be the same at 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 US states.

Some residents grumbled that there would be no discount for self-service gas, questioning why they should want to pump gas themselves without a break on prices.

‘It’s bad enough we are expected to check out our own groceries now in most stores, but now gas too. We keep getting jobs we aren’t getting paid for and never applied for,’ resident Micky Garus wrote in a Facebook post. 

People shared their views on the change on social media, as well as jokes referencing the ‘gas fight’ scene from Zoolander, seen above

A man pumps his own gas Friday in Eugene. Oregon drivers can now pump their own gas for the first time since the 1950s

A customer fills up on Friday in Portland. Under the new law, there can’t be more self-service pumps at a gas station than full-service ones

Some residents grumbled that there would be no discount for self-service gas, questioning why they should want to pump gas themselves without a break on prices

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

‘I have some real concerns that we are progressively getting closer and closer to eliminating Oregon’s fuel service law entirely,’ Democratic state Sen. Lew Frederick said on the Senate floor in June before voting against the bill.

Brandon Venable, a service station manager, had urged lawmakers to reject the bill, saying some customers are careless and that attendants keep people safe.

‘I deal with many dangerous situations daily created by people smoking, leaving their engines running, getting in and out of their vehicles creating static electricity, trying to fill up random bottles and jugs, and driving off with the pump still in the vehicle,’ Venable said.

Others wonder if motorists who are now clamoring to pump their own gas might be less keen on doing so when they have to stand out in the rain, cold and snow instead of remaining in their warm, dry cars.

Republican state Sen. Tim Knopp, who leads the minority GOP caucus, downplayed safety concerns as he described being allowed to pump his own gas because he belongs to a commercial fueling cooperative.

‘I have yet to light myself on fire. I have yet to cause any problems whatsoever as it relates to self-serve gas,’ Knopp said during debate on the bill. ‘So, colleagues, let´s make New Jersey the only state in the country that has a law against self-serve gas.’

The state Senate then approved the bill on a 16-9 vote. The House earlier passed it 47-10.

New Jersey’s 1949 ban on self-service pumps remains a source of pride for some in a state where bumper stickers declare ‘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 fuel up.

In 2015, lawmakers proposed ending the New Jersey ban, but the measure died because of opposition from the powerful state Senate president.

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Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek talks wih local leaders in Hermiston, Ore., in this file photo from May 2023. She signaled on Friday she plans to veto two policy bills and several budget items.

Antonio Sierra / OPB

After five decades, Oregon’s ban on self-serve gas is about to come to a close.

Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday gave notice that she plans to veto two bills and four budget items passed by lawmakers in the frenetic final days of this year’s legislative session.

Most notably, the governor’s veto pen is targeting $600,000 that would fund studies into the sex trade and decriminalizing prostitution. Those expenditures had turned heads in both parties.

Kotek is also signaling she’ll block bills that would create a task force to look into creating a public bank, a goal of some of the most progressive members of her party, and to study a tax credit that would encourage preserving historic properties.

Many Oregonians will be just as interested in what’s not on the list: a proposal that will allow drivers in every corner of the state to pump their own gas rather than relying on attendants.

FILE: An attendant pumps gas at a station in Portland, Ore., in 2015. An Oregon law passed nearly seven decades ago banned drivers from pumping their own gas, but now that’s changing.

Don Ryan / AP

Self-serve enthusiasts shouldn’t rush to the pump just yet, though. House Bill 2426, which will end Oregon’s status alongside New Jersey as the only states that still ban many drivers from fueling up on their own, won’t go into effect until Kotek signs it or the governor allows it to pass unsigned. Kotek merely signaled Friday that she will not block the policy from going into law.

Not every bill was so fortunate. Under the state constitution, Kotek has until Aug. 4 to veto bills passed in the final days of session. But the governor is required to serve notice of a possible veto at least five business days ahead of time, making Friday her final day to do so.

The items Kotek has singled out for possible veto include:

• Money to study decriminalizing prostitution. House Bill 5506, a wide-ranging spending document, contained two separate expenditures that would fund studies into the sex trade: $100,000 to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission and $500,000 to Oregon Health and Science University. Kotek said she might nix both, believing the studies should be privately funded. The possible spending had become a target of Republican lawmakers when it came to light toward the end of session. “This is not OK,” Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, said in a text message to Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland on June 19.
• Two other study bills. House Bill 2079 would mandate the study of a tax credit for preserving historic property in Oregon. Kotek says that can be accomplished another way. House Bill 2763 would create a task force to study creating a state-owned bank.
• Salem streetcars. Kotek says she’s planning to block $250,000 in state money that would help the city’s Cherriots transit system look into the feasibility of building a streetcar service. That’s “not a top priority,” Kotek said.
• Money for career and technical education. Kotek often talks of the importance of training up the state’s workforce. But the governor says she might ax $1 million to the Willamette Career Academy over concerns the money is not being distributed through the appropriate channels.
• Remove an emergency clause from Senate Bill 1095. The clause would have rejiggered the membership of some state boards. That means the bill would take effect next year rather than upon passage.

While supporters of the items Kotek plans to block will be disappointed, few garnered the interest of the gas pumping bill.

Oregon already allows drivers in some rural areas to pump their own gas, but motorists in densely populated parts of the state still must wait for an attendant. HB 2426 will allow gas stations to designate up to half of their pumps as self-serve, while reserving the remainder for people opting to have their tanks topped up for them. Stations may not charge different amounts for fuel depending on which kind of pump a driver chooses.

Opponents of the policy change worry it will cost Oregonians jobs, and will make it more difficult for people with disabilities to fill up. They say the bill could be flouted by gas stations that might cease employing attendants at all, not fearing enforcement from the state fire marshal. Potential penalties wouldn’t even kick in until March.

Others simply like the fact that Oregon has held onto the quaint practice while nearly every other state allows drivers to pump their own gas.

Station owners supported the bill, arguing they are already having trouble finding people to work as attendants. Polling from 2021 suggested nearly two-thirds of Oregonians supported the addition of self-serve pumps.

The issue has so many impassioned partisans that, when Kotek asked for public feedback on whether she should sign the bill in late June, her inbox was soon brimming with opinions.

“I think we’ve received over 5,000 emails on that,” the governor told reporters Thursday.

But Kotek has been cryptic about her own thinking on the matter. “I grew up in a place where I pumped gas,” she said in June. “I’ve lived here for a long time.”

Asked this week why she would have any misgivings about signing the bill when so many other states have embraced the practice, the governor responded: “‘Just because ‘everybody else does it’ is not a good argument.”

The mystery surrounding her thinking spurred a fresh round of activity from backers of HB 2426, who issued a press release Thursday quoting lawmakers in both parties.

“We heard from Oregon drivers throughout the session who want the freedom to choose whether they pump their own gas or not,” state Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, said in the release. “We also heard from small businesses who need relief from the ongoing labor shortage.”

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