Thursday, January 4, 2018

Oregon Changes Law to Allow Residents to Pump Own Gas, They Freak Out

Freedom is scary.

1.3.2018

Oregon residents are a little freer this year because a long-standing rule that prohibited them from pumping their own gas at fueling stations has been repealed.

“The new law comes more than 65 years after Oregon successfully put laws on the books forbidding residents from filling up their own tanks,” Business Insider reports. “It was the second state after New Jersey, the only other state to have such a law, which was enacted in 1949.”

Proponents of the law, lobbied long ago by service station owners, said it created jobs and kept customers safe and from smelling like gasoline (of all things).

Erick Erickson writes:

What's really funny is that many of the Oregonians admit this is just a jobs act and they're okay with making people they see as unqualified for anything else pump their gas for them. It is positively progressive.

Now, those pampered days are over, at least in rural counties where the law has been lifted. City folk can continue mandated imprisonment inside their cars while at gas stations.

Complaints poured in on social media from angered residents who are clueless in the ways of the Shell station:

“No! Disabled, seniors, people with young children in the car need help. Not to mention getting out of your car with transients around and not feeling safe too. This is a very bad idea. Grrr”

“Not a good idea, there are lots of reasons to have an attendant helping, one is they need a job too. Many people are not capable of knowing how to pump gas and the hazards of not doing it correctly. Besides I don’t want to go to work smelling of gas when I get it on my hands or clothes. I agree Very bad idea.”

“I don’t even know HOW to pump gas and I am 62, native Oregonian…..I say NO THANKS! I don’t want to smell like gasoline!”

Of course, the mockery was ruthless and well-deserved:

“This explains why I never see an Oregon plate this far east, and hence we never finish the license plate game. They’re all sitting at a pump in Idaho waiting for fuel.”

“There was only one service station in the area I lived and I had to drive 25 mins to get there. Pumped my own gas my whole life and now my hands have literally melted down to my wrists. I’m typing this with my tongue.”

“Texan here. Just here for the comments. Y’all are precious.”

“Canadian here, heard about this and just got my popcorn ready in my igloo!”