SALEM -- Sixty-four years of Oregon absolutism on gas pumping -- a ban on letting non-commercial drivers do it themselves -- seems set to end.

Legislators on Thursday gave final approval to House Bill 3011, which would allow nighttime motorists in the state's rural areas to work gas nozzles all by themselves, even if a gas station is still open.

Oh, and the emphasis is decidedly on "rural": Self-service would be allowed only in counties with no more than 40,000 residents (see a list ranking counties below).

The bill, which came back to the House after Senate amendments spelling out a specific window of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., now heads to Gov. Kate Brown. The bill originally passed the House on a unanimous vote. It earned just a handful of no votes in the Senate this week -- along with some cautious support.

"Today I voted for limited self-service gas in extremely rural areas late at night," Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, said on Twitter on Tuesday. "Am I still a real Oregonian?"

The change is certainly historic, but it's not a sea change. Oregon is still on a tiny list, with New Jersey, of states that prevent free access to gas pumps (with some major exceptions, including freedom for motorcyclists and a program that gives commercial drivers access to "cardlock" facilities).

One of the bill's main backers, Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, laid out the rationale for the tweak when talking to The Oregonian/OregonLive's Joseph Rose back in May:

"If you're a tourist going into the outback of our state without a full tank of gas," Ferrioli said. "You better be prepared to sleep in your car, because it's going to be tough to find a gas station that's open after a certain hour."

Census data: Oregon counties by population

Rank County Population 1 Multnomah County 776,712 2 Washington County 562,998 3 Clackamas County 394,972 4 Lane County 358,337 5 Marion County 326,110 6 Jackson County 210,287 7 Deschutes County 170,388 8 Linn County 119,356 9 Douglas County 106,972 10 Yamhill County 101,758 11 Benton County 86,316 12 Josephine County 83,599 13 Polk County 77,916 14 Umatilla County 76,705 15 Klamath County 65,455 16 Coos County 62,475 17 Columbia County 49,459 18 Lincoln County 46,406 19 Clatsop County 37,474 20 Malheur County 30,359 21 Union County 25,691 22 Wasco County 25,515 23 Tillamook County 25,342 24 Hood River County 22,885 25 Curry County 22,335 26 Jefferson County 22,192 27 Crook County 20,998 28 Baker County 16,059 29 Morrow County 11,187 30 Lake County 7,838 31 Grant County 7,180 32 Harney County 7,126 33 Wallowa County 6,820 34 Gilliam County 1,932 35 Sherman County 1,710 36 Wheeler County 1,375

This post has been updated to clarify that Oregon's ban on gas pumping already included limited exceptions for commercial drivers and motorcyclists.

-- Denis C. Theriault

503-221-8430; @TheriaultPDX