Self-serve fueling is closer to approval in Oregon

By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau

Oregon is closer to easing a seven-decade ban on pumping your own gas.

The Oregon House voted 47-10 on Monday, March 20, to allow station owners to designate half their gasoline pumps for self-fueling, though owners still would be required to provide full service at the remaining pumps. House Bill 2426 now moves to the Senate.

Chief sponsors are House Majority Leader Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, and Sens. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, and Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro.

Opposed were seven Democrats and three Republicans; three other Republicans were absent.

Oregon and New Jersey are the only states that still ban self-serve gasoline. Oregon’s ban dates back to 1951, and voters upheld it in a 1982 statewide election.

But lawmakers have eased that ban in recent years, aside from card-lock stations that are not accessible to the general public. In 2015, they changed the law to allow motorists to pump their own gas at unattended stations between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in counties with less than 40,000 population, all east of the Cascades. In 2017, they dropped the time restriction and allowed self-fueling, again in counties east of the Cascades, starting in 2018.

A similar bill, which is sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, failed to reach a vote of the full House in the short 2022 session.