When It Involves Pumping Gasoline, New Jersey Now Stands Alone

It’s most likely value mentioning from the outset right here that I grew up in New Jersey, and so my earliest recollections of going to a gasoline station concerned one in all my dad and mom rolling down their window and telling the station attendant what kind of gasoline they needed. It wasn’t till a lot later that I observed that this didn’t maintain up once we traveled out of state — that there, the driving force must do the unthinkable and — gasp! — pump their very own gasoline.

And due to the place I grew up, it didn’t happen to me till a lot later than that that New Jersey was one thing of an outlier — that gasoline stations in most states have been, in truth, self-serve operations.

Effectively, now the Backyard State is much more of an outlier. As Gothamist studies, New Jersey is now the one state within the nation the place drivers can’t pump their very own gasoline. Oregon, which had been in an analogous state of affairs, lately enacted a regulation permitting driver the choice of pumping their very own gasoline or having it pumped.

As for the chances of New Jersey becoming a member of Oregon, that appears much less clear — as Gothamist famous, Governor Phil Murphy has been noncommittal in relation to the gas-pumping challenge. In March of 2022, the state legislature launched a bit of laws that may change state regulation relative to gasoline stations — however since its introduction, there’s been no extra motion on it.