BY WALTER ELLIOTT
EAST ORANGE – A proposed bill that would bring self-serve refueling to New Jersey, currently circulating in the State House in Trenton, may be going through East Orange and other “Local Talk” locales.
State Sen. John Bramnick (R-Westfield) has put forward Senate Bill S4303, entitled the “Motorist Fueling Choice and Convenience Act” for the 2024-25 State Legislative session.
S4303 would allow motor fuel service stations both self- and full- service 8 a.m.-8 p.m. if the said stations have at least four gas dispensers / pumps. The bill will allow self-serve only 8 p.m.-8 a.m. but require an on-duty attendant in case the motorist is disabled.
“It means that if you pull up to a gas station and you see three or four cars in line and one attendant,” said Bramnick, “you can go over to this other lane — which may actually give you a little cheaper gas and you can pump your own gas and not wait in line.”
New Jersey is the last state in the union, since Oregon abolished its ban in 2023, to prohibit self-serve fueling. Gov. Tina Kotek signed the statewide self-serve law Aug. 6, 2023, ending that state’s 72-year ban. The average gallon of gasoline dropped 4.4 cents after Oregon partially relaxed their ban in 2018.
Whether allowing “pump yourself” would translate to job losses was addressed by Monmouth University economics professor Dr. Robert H. Scott. Scott projected that two full-time attendants for each of The Garden State’s 3,205 gasoline stations would have 7,410 employees. (Scott did not address whether the attendants had auto repair, inventory stocking, map refolding and other job duties.)
New Jersey has required attendant pumping since 1949’s “Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act..” That act came from service station owners who objected to Hackensack colleague Irving Reingold opening a self-serve station for cheaper gas.
Bramnick, who is also running a campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has basically reintroduced 2022-23 Assembly Bill A3105 which did not get out of the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
A3105, whose primary sponsors were Carol Murphy (D-Mt. Laurel) and Clinton Calabrese (D-Bergenfield) and had 10 co-sponsors – including Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange).
While A3105 had sponsors from the Democratic and Republican parties, Bramnick, as of press time, is S4303’s sole sponsor.
Timberlake, who became State Senator in 2023, has not yet responded to “Local Talk” questions on whether she will support S4303. There are three other senators and eight assembly members who represent “Local Talk” towns in the 34th, 29th, 28th and 27th Legislative Districts who have not said whether they will support the bill.
