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Oregon Gas laws (- Yet another attack on freedom)
CAPITALISTCHICKS.COM ^ | FR Post 12-1-2002 | Debbie Brannigan

Posted on 12/01/2002 1:27:53 PM PST by vannrox

Oregon Gas laws

Debbie Brannigan (Email Author)

I spent most of my life in a suburb of Detroit, MI: the Motor City of America. I've been pumping my own gas for 20+ years now. Imagine my surprise when I went to work in Portland, OR and attempted to fill my own gas tank, only to be told by the 'trained fueling operator' that it was against the law for me to fill my own gas tank. I was not "qualified" to handle class1 flammable liquids!! I thought it was a joke but it’s true. There is a fine of up to $500 if I am caught trying to perform the 'fueling operation' on my own.

ORS 480.315-320

Yep, ORS 480.315-320, that's the one. Check it out on the Oregon State government website: www.leg.state.or.us

The following is taken directly from the text of ORS 480.330:

"An owner, operator or employee of a filling station service station, garage, or other dispensary where class 1 flammable liquids are dispensed at retail may not permit any person other than the owner, operator or employee to use or manipulate any pump, hose, pipe or other device for dispensing the liquids into the fuel tank of a motor vehicle or other retail container."

ORS 480.385, Civil penalty for dispensing law violation:
Civil penalty shall become due and payable 10 days after order: up to $500.

There are 17 declarations listed which try to rationalize this completely irrational law. Too many to list in this writing but here are some of my personal favorites:

ORS480.315

1) The dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids by dispensers properly trained in appropriate safety procedures reduces fire hazards directly associated with the dispensing of Class 1 flammable liquids.

7) Exposure to toxic fumes represents a health hazard to customers dispensing Class 1 flammable liquids.

10a) The significantly higher prices typically charged for full-service fuel dispensing in states where self service is permitted at retail discriminates against customers with lower incomes, who are under greater economic pressure to subject themselves to the inconvenience and hazards of self-service.

11) The increased use of self-service at retail in other states has contributed to diminishing the availability of automotive repair facilities at gasoline stations.

14) Self service dispensing at retail contributes to unemployment, particularly among young people.

And, last but not least.....we can't forget about 'the children':

17) Small children left unattended when customers leave to make payment at self service stations creates a dangerous situation.

No, I'm not kidding: those are all for real. Can Big Brother's elitist agenda be any clearer?

Declaration 7 states that exposure to fumes presents a health risk to customers but what about the 'qualified fuel dispensing operator'? There are no masks, no special procedures and no form of protection from these fumes for the attendant. There is nothing this 'qualified' person does any differently than I would. Exposure to fumes for them is OK, I guess. Why can't I do this myself again?

Declaration 10a is by far the most outrageous: "high prices of full service discriminate against low income customers who are subjected to the inconvenience and hazards of self service."

First off, the keyword here is 'convenience'. Convenience is a luxury, not a right. Oregon lawmakers need to learn the difference apparently.

Secondly, it amazes me that Oregon's legislature would even have the nerve to play the "low income discrimination" card in this argument. The state of Oregon has the highest gas prices in all of the contiguous United States thanks to taxes and restrictions imposed upon it's service stations. Oregon not only demands its gas station proprietors hire full time attendants to pump gas but also imposes a 24 cent per gallon “licensing tax” which is due every month of operation. Of course government employees are exempt from paying this additional tax and may file for a refund on the gas they use. Where is the concern for the low income folks now? The poor of Oregon now pay the highest gas prices in the entire country! Rather than cut taxes and lower prices for everyone, the state of OR has decided it's better to impose the highest taxes and charges for all: including the poor. Typical rhetoric. (ref: ORS 319.020 for licensing tax info)

Declarations 11 & 14 claim that self service stations contribute not only to unemployment but also to diminished availability of service stations. This reminds me of a scene from "Anthem" by Ayn Rand. Prometheus presents his great discovery of electricity to the World Council of Scholars. They tell him it would "wreck the plans of the World Council" by wreaking havoc on the current Council of Candles. When government restricts free market evolution, the result can only be stagnation. Can you imagine life if the government had stepped in to halt the 'diminished availability' of blacksmiths, chimney sweeps, milkmen, 8 tracks tapes, rotary phones, etc, etc. If there is market demand for a business it will survive without intervention.

Self-serve gas stations have not led to higher unemployment rates in other states. Most of those stations are equipped with automated electronic pumps and surveilance. More high tech equipment = more high tech maintenance & sales = more high tech jobs. Hmmm. Oregon has the highest gasoline prices in the country. It also has the highest unemployment rate. Oregon lawmakers claim to be passing these laws in an effort to reduce unemployment and help the low income citizens. Obviously, the opposite effect has taken place. Perhaps it is time to rethink the current strategy?

Oh and the best for last!

Declaration 17: small children left alone while paying for gas poses a 'dangerous' situation. Are children all over the country spontaneously combusting at these self serve stations? What are these children doing.....drinking the gasoline when mom's not looking? I could find no data anywhere to support a higher rate of injury to minors at self service stations vs. full serve stations. A vast majority of self serve stations are equipped with pay at the pump service, so you never have to leave the perimeter of your car. If it does not offer this, drive 1/4 mile to one that does. Don't want to do that: take the child inside with you.

It has not been quite a decade since this law was imposed and already the arguments for keeping it intact are " so many people wouldn't know how to pump their own gas now". So here is yet another law fully enforced and completely ridiculous. It is another step up the government ladder of dependancy, where we leave Liberty and Freedom on the ground below.

Let me end this with a fitting quote from Benjamin Franklin: "People who are willing to give up their freedom for securtiy deserve neither"



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: clinton; congress; democrat; free; freedom; gas; hillery; liberal; liberty; oregon; peace; senate
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To: FreedomCalls
$1.59 to 1.79 here in Anchorage
More in Fairbanks
Full of Ethonol to boot
81 posted on 12/01/2002 7:41:24 PM PST by ASOC
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To: Z-28
regarding your link at post # 30...
I LOVE IT !
(I buy gas in Norcross, Georgia - and I pump it myself)
82 posted on 12/01/2002 7:42:57 PM PST by error99
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To: error99
And if the feds tried to force Oregon have self-serve gas;
And if Oregon resisted the new federal law;
Then historians would call it a rebellion over
the "cause" of self-service gasoline...
(if you catch my drft)


My brain has seen better days.  But, if I had to guess,
most historians writing today would say the rebellion was
radicals resisting the federal government's need to
maintain individual competence in pumping gas rather than
risk having terrorists infiltrate the ranks of fuel dispensers
and stop the critical flow of gasoline at the pump rather
than at the oilfields where they have been stymied by
our efforts in the war on terror.
83 posted on 12/01/2002 7:45:30 PM PST by gcruse
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To: error99
Shirley, you jest...

I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley.

84 posted on 12/01/2002 8:01:19 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
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To: Paleo Conservative
If you are really being vey series about this.
Just what the heck do you think such a law would accomplish?

If you are you going to say "lower prices";
then I am going to say "no it won't".

Then you are going to say "it will too";
and I am going to say "it won't done it".

Then you will say "will";
and I will say "won't".

Before you know it,
one of will call the other one a "poopy head",
and get banned.
85 posted on 12/01/2002 8:07:43 PM PST by error99
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To: error99
If you are really being vey series about this.

Read post #69.

86 posted on 12/01/2002 8:10:54 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
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To: vannrox
This is really no big deal. As far as I can remember, gas prices in Western Oregon are competitive with other Northwest states' self serve stations. In Washington I have seen differences between self serve and full serve stations of up to 20 cents per gallon for attendants to fill the tank. When the prices are close to equal Oregon benefits the employable but unemployed with little to no cost to the consumer.
87 posted on 12/01/2002 8:19:16 PM PST by RWG
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To: Paleo Conservative
But you didn't answer the question...
"Just what the heck do you think such a law would accomplish?"
88 posted on 12/01/2002 8:25:00 PM PST by error99
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To: Dave in Eugene of all places
Dave, I think you are incorrect "We don't have sales tax either, probably because the legislature can't just enact one, it needs to be approved by the voters.."

Every state I know of charges gasoline sales tax. West Virginia the highest and Georgia the lowest.
89 posted on 12/01/2002 8:44:47 PM PST by Orange1998
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To: error99
But you didn't answer the question...

"Just what the heck do you think such a law would accomplish?"

One, it would mean people travelling along highways funded by federal tax money would not have to pay higher prices for gasoline due to idiotic local laws. I also want to annoy leftist wackos who to force their agendas onto the states by incredible contortions of the commerce clause of the constitution. At least the highway system that connects the states can reasonably be construed as affecting interstate commerce. My guess is that within a few years owners of gas stations that are further than the limit will lobby to get this stupid law prohibiting self-service gas sations repealed so they are not at a competitive disadvantage.

90 posted on 12/01/2002 9:05:51 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
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To: vannrox
I enjoy having pump service.
91 posted on 12/01/2002 9:08:51 PM PST by oceanperch
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To: wanderin
It is $1.49 for prem. on the coast
92 posted on 12/01/2002 9:24:28 PM PST by oceanperch
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To: oceanperch
I enjoy having pump service.

I enjoy having a choice of pump service or self service.

93 posted on 12/01/2002 9:28:27 PM PST by FreedomCalls
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To: Who dat?
I just drove through Shoshone, CA this afternoon. $2.29.
94 posted on 12/01/2002 9:34:51 PM PST by Vroomfondel
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To: ALS
I remember pumping my own gas in the late eighties at three in the morning....the guy started yelling at me and I said it was his fault for sleeping.
95 posted on 12/01/2002 9:51:39 PM PST by BurbankKarl
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To: TightSqueeze
utterly medieval

lol.

96 posted on 12/01/2002 9:56:01 PM PST by johnboy
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To: FreedomCalls
I love a rainy day living on the bay.
No snakes or bugs that are poisonous.
I love my little town where driving is not to far I Love Oregon where I will be buried six feet deep.
97 posted on 12/01/2002 9:56:09 PM PST by oceanperch
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To: vannrox
Wonder what Oregonians do when on vacation and all they can find is self-serve stations? Something to think about!!
98 posted on 12/01/2002 9:57:16 PM PST by trussell
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Comment #99 Removed by Moderator

To: vannrox
Yeah, it's a stupid law.

It's supposedly designed to "protect" the environment by letting minimum wage morons pump your gas instead of the driver that is probably 200 times smarter.

Also, it drives the price of gas up. My parents live in Portland and both complain about the high prices! But at the same time they buy into all the enviro-wacko stuff and vote for Democrats!

I find, as with my parents, that the biggest whiners on things like high gas prices or Social Security are Democrats that vote to keep those stupid programs in place.

My mother was agahst when she found out, at age 62, that you actually have to WORK and pay into SS to actually get a check!
100 posted on 12/01/2002 10:02:18 PM PST by Fledermaus
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