Oregon lawmakers again consider letting drivers pump their own gas

Oregon lawmakers are as soon as once more contemplating a invoice that may enable self-serve fuel all through the state.

Home Invoice 2426 would give drivers the choice to pump their very own fuel wherever within the state, ending a decades-long ban on self-serve fuel enforced by solely Oregon and New Jersey because the center of the final century. (Oregon’s ban took impact in 1951.

The invoice would nonetheless require every station to workers half its pumps for purchasers who’re aged, disabled or just don’t wish to pump their very own fuel. However it could enable prospects the choice of filling up on their very own as a substitute of ready for an attendant.

In the previous couple of years, the pandemic, local weather emergencies and staffing shortages have left fuel stations brief on attendants.

Shawn Miller, a spokesperson for the Northwest Grocery Affiliation, mentioned the invoice wouldn’t lower fuel station jobs, primarily as a result of most fuel stations round Oregon haven’t been absolutely staffed for years.

“You’ve heard of the super (workforce) challenges our stations are having proper now,” he mentioned throughout a February legislative listening to for the invoice. “Half the strains are closed, we have now to shut the pumps.”

Oregon in 2015 legalized self-serve fuel at evening in some rural and coastal counties. In 2017, it expanded that rule to all rural counties. And the state hearth marshal has lifted the self-serve ban each summer season since 2020 throughout wildfires or warmth waves.

“This invoice would dramatically simplify this regulatory patchwork,” mentioned Rep. Shelley Boshart Davis, R-Albany. She, together with invoice co-sponsor Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, described the inconsistent guidelines between counties or at completely different instances of day.

Oregon has heard the decision for self-serve fuel earlier than. Two statewide polls in 2021 confirmed that greater than 60% of Oregonians had been in favor of getting the choice to pump their very own fuel. Within the 2022 brief session, lawmakers launched an analogous invoice that died in Home committee.

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com