Amid high gas prices, N.J. weighs lifting its self-service gas ban
Gas station owners argue the move would help ease a labor shortage and bring prices down, but drivers and politicians are wary of changing the practice.
At a small gas station in South Jersey, Shaphin Poirier sat in her car as an attendant finished filling up her tank.
While she knows how to pump her own gas, "Do I want to? No," said Poirier. She gestured to the cold April drizzle outside.
Of New Jersey's 73-year-old ban on pumping your own gas, "I like it just the way it is," Poirier said.
New Jersey and Oregon are the only two states where drivers cannot legally serve themselves gasoline, although the Oregon ban is relaxed in rural areas. In both, legislators introduced bills this year that would change that.
In the Garden State, the would allow all gas stations to offer self-service. Those with more than before this year's short legislative session ended.
