Healthy Food Delivery : The Two States That Don’t Allow Hands-Free Gas Pump Clips, and Why

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

The Two States That Don’t Allow Hands-Free Gas Pump Clips, and Why

In most of the United States, gas pump clips are a common find at your local gas station. They make life easier; you can fill up your tank while washing your windows or running inside the store to grab a snack. But, as Michael Frank from Jalopnik reports, there are still two states that don’t allow these clips.

Which States Don’t Allow Gas Pump Clips

Per Frank, the two states that don’t allow gas pump clips are Rhode Island and New York. In both cases, the laws cite fire safety as the reasoning. However, these fire safety considerations vary by state.

New York’s codes are so confusing that while the clips aren’t outright banned across the board anymore, according to Frank, gas station owners are reluctant to add them even when they are allowed. Rhode Island, on the other hand, has hardly touched its laws despite safety technology rapidly advancing.

Are There Any Plans to Change the Laws?

With only two holdouts, it seems that if other states have figured out how to mitigate safety concerns, then Rhode Island and New York can one day remove their bans. But changing a law is a convoluted process.

Rhode Island

As of now, it doesn’t appear that Rhode Island has a set timeline for updating the law. The closest the state has come at this point was carving out an exception to its ban. Gas clips were allowed on stage II vapor recovery nozzles, which are designed to collect the vapors that might otherwise escape the gas tank. Alex Kuffner of The Providence Journal reports that in 1993, the state required all gas stations to have these nozzles.

However, automotive technology was changing at the same time, and more and more cars came with their own vapor recovery systems. By 2006, these systems were so prolific that the ones at the pump were “redundant.” Kuffner states that “in 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved Rhode Island’s plan requiring all stage II nozzles at gas stations to be decommissioned by Dec. 22, 2017.” The law has not been updated, however.

New York

Frank attributes New York’s dearth of gas clips to the fact that its “fire-suppression laws are so confusing that gas station owners have avoided updating their pumps.” As recently as 2025, New York lawmakers have pushed for revisions to the code to make clear allowances for these clips. State Senator Joseph Griffo, pushed for “Senate Bill 7418 [which] would authorize self-service gas stations to allow for hands-free gas dispensing by installing hold open clips on gasoline and diesel fuel dispensing nozzles.”