As it relates to the automotive industry, you may be curious to know what your elected officials are doing to earn their keep in New Jersey and Oregon. The answer, in part, is spending hours (days?weeks? years?) debating the dangers and merits of self-service gas stations. The last two holdouts in the country, both states have held firm to their ban on pumping your own gas for decades.In Oregon, an active movement is afoot to change that, driven by the current employee shortage businesses are struggling to overcome. A new bipartisan bill introduced by representatives Shelly Boshard Davis of Albany and Julie Fahey of Eugene, House Bill 4151, would require fuel stations to present a choice of self-service or full-service pumps. It also levies a penalty if the station doesn’t offer both options at the same price. And, as we’ve seen before, the idea is causing some folks a fair amount of consternation (and in some cases, a full-on freakout).
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