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NY Post
New York Post
18 Aug 2023


NextImg:Let New Jersey drivers pump their own gas

With the ban on self-service now lifted in Oregon, New Jersey remains the only state where you can’t pump your own gas — and so save yourself some cash.

It’s long past time Jersey got with the program.

Fine, a few folks prefer having someone else fill ‘er up for them, but Garden State motorists should have the choice, as every other American.

Lawmakers cite supposed safety concerns to justify the ban, but that’s a transparent excuse.

In 1949, Irving Reingold opened a self-service gas station in northern Jersey; with no need to pay attendants, he kept prices cheaper.

Competitors tried to stop him with vandalism and even bullets — and when that failed, they got their friends in the Legislature to outlaw the practice.

It’s been banned ever since, though overall prices stayed lower than in other nearby states because the state gas tax was so low.

New Jersey remains the only state where you can’t pump your own gas.

Stefan Jeremiah

In 1949, the New Jersey legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which cited safety concerns as the reason its residents shouldn’t pump their own gas.

In 1949, the New Jersey legislature passed the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which listed safety concerns as the reason its residents shouldn’t pump their own gas.
WPVI-TV

But the tax started soaring in 2016.

So now the bipartisan Motorist Fueling Choice and Convenience Act aims to let gas stations be full-serve, self-serve, or both.

The bill is particularly timely since some stations are having trouble finding workers, leading to a growing number of closed pumps and earlier closing times that limit the once-abundant 24-hour service.

John, a gas pump attendant, fills a customer's tank while working at the Wawas gas station in Belleville, New Jersey.

A gas pump attendant fills a customer’s tank while working at the Wawa gas station in Belleville, New Jersey.
Stefan Jeremiah

With every other state allowing self-serve, the safety concerns are now plainly bogus, as is the “it creates jobs” claim.

Jersey should end this outdated idiocy once and for all.