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Gasoline Alley
The deep, deep-blue state of Oregon was settled by heroic pioneers who crossed the vast interior of the country in primitive wagons facing deprivation, harsh weather, and violent attacks from indigenous peoples. Their descendants now panic at the thought of pumping their own gasoline.
Oregon is one of two states where self-service gas stations have been illegal (New Jersey is the other). Motorists are not allowed to pump their own gas because the act of putting gasoline into an automobile is one of those highly technical, very tricky tasks that requires a highly trained professional fuel handler to perform, according to their elected officials. (I’m surprised they don’t require their pump jockeys to finish a two-year degree and an extensive certification process.) However, Oregon recently passed a law allowing some gas stations in the hick parts of the state to offer self-service.
Hilarity, in the form of Facebook comments from panicked liberals, ensued:
Published in CultureI 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!
I’ve lived in this state all my life and I REFUSE to pump my own gas. I had to do it once in California while visiting my brother and almost died doing it. This a service only qualified people should perform. I will literally park at the pump and wait until someone pumps my gas. I can’t even.
Not a good idea, there are lots of reason 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.…
Yuck! Pumping my on fuel in freezing temperatures and handling a nasty ole fuel nozzle that 50 other people have touched that day (and who knows what cooties are on there), no thank you. It’s nice to not have to pump your own fuel.
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
Twinkie gouging.
All of the comments about safety are amusing. They remind me of a thread I saw yesterday when I was looking for a way to temporarily connect a small OLED screen to a Particle Photon (like an Arduino with built-in wifi). I’d left my soldering iron at a friend’s last week and didn’t really want to go get it, so I’d searched “solder alternatives” on DuckDuckGo.
One page had a guy who’d basically made J-hooks from the ends of his wires to attach a small screen to his Arduino. Fully half of the comments were along the lines of “I’m an electrician and this is dangerous!!! ZOMG!!!”.
Mind you, we’re talking about a device that is powered by 3.3 volts and uses approximately 300mA at peak. You could attach it to your tongue and not hurt yourself, since the peak draw is .99 Watts.
It is amazing the people who crawl out of the woodwork to try to tell people off online, and how wrong they are approximately 99% of the time.
(By the way, I went and bought a new soldering iron to do the job, and the project is progressing nicely.)
I checked on GasBuddy.com and the lowest prices are:
These are the top 10 lowest prices reported in each state. I couldn’t easily find an average for each state.
The gas price heat map is interesting to look at.
The article says the applications were filed “under a non-publication request”. This is only available if you are not going to file outside the US. If the invention was so significant, one would think Fisker would file in other significant jurisdictions.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Bummer about NJ, though. That NY price is definitely not in the City! We’ll continue to fill up before leaving Ohio and then again upon entering NJ. I’ll also keep an eye out for those NY prices.
You’re welcome. If you don’t already have it, Gas Buddy is a good app to have on your smartphone for road trips. Can help find some savings between different exits or decide if you want to risk making it to the next town for a 10 or 15 cent savings.
Wonder what is going on with Pennsylvania? On the heat map, one can clearly make out the state outline. NYC is dark red while the rest of the state is four or five gradients cooler.
On that last video, I’ll note that while living in Minnesota, I heard the most common thing for people to forget after pumping their own gas was replacing the nozzle. Frequently you could go to a gas station and find a pump shut down for some reason, turns out that’s why. In Minneapolis, they’d get out, start the pump, get back into the car because it was cold, and when it was done they’d start the car and go, yanking the hose out and going on their merry way.
Some people didn’t turn off the engine while they pumped.
I generally confront/embarrass such people with a loud “Are you trying to kill us all?”
Well it was the state that gave us Senator Al Franken after all so not too surprised by that.
So my wife hates pumping gas and I don’t find it in the least troublesome, even in cold weather. Because of this I get huge brownie points for filling up her car every couple weeks and it costs me nothing in hard labor!
I have the BEST husband in the world. Cute, too. And talented.
It’s not just in the cold. I was at the gas station one time during the summer and saw somebody rip the nozzle off the pump driving away just as I was walking in to the station. I immediately told the guy at the counter and he just rolled his eyes and said “great”. From his reaction I could tell this wasn’t a new thing for him, so I asked him how often it happened and he said at least once a week.
With talk like that from my beautiful wife, I guess I will keep on pumpin’ gas!
Have we successfully hijacked this thread with a nauseating love duet? Others should feel free to join the conversation and further comment on how cute I am.
PA cranked their own taxes up prior to the NJ increase. Pretty much doomed Corbett and stuck us with the Socialist idiot Wolfe….
Alright you two. You’re both cute, okay?
And maybe Naval submarine motor-generators are 90% efficient. Not this thing.
I’ve always liked unit analysis like this. With that near megawatt claim, think of the thousand or so hair dryers blowing about you.
Also, think of the reality of the chemical energy passing through your self-service grip as you “put a tiger in your tank.”
Also, think of the tensile strength. A thin filament totaling a gallon of gas stretched 20 miles can overcome the drag of pulling an F150 through all that air at 60 mph. Much stronger than steel.
I wonder how much tear-away hoses add to the cost of gasoline.
Here is an article about the origins of New Jersey’s ban on self-service gas pumps. Surprise, surprise, it was done at the behest of owners of full-service gas stations.
A friend accidentally drove off with the hose once. He stopped before he got out of the station lot and went into the store. They charged him a little over $400. Don’t know how much of that was penalty and how much was parts and labor.