Gas Pump Green Handles

Have you ever noticed that the green gas pump handles are for diesel? Everywhere you go the green handles are for diesel! Right?

This past Sunday (November, 28 2004) I was on the last leg of my trip to Chicago and I was deeply engaged in a story on CD when I needed diesel in my pickup. A set of gas stations appeared on the right side of Interstate 55 and I tapped the brake slowing down from my cruise control speed of 70 mph and made the exit to the station, still engaged in my story.

As I turned right off the Interstate I saw a big green sign Diesel $2.08 so I turned in stopped in front of the pump with the green handle,took off my head phone, and filled up both tanks, $50+. Inside I ordered a Burger King Whopper, no cheese, to go, paid for my fuel, and pulled around to the back of the station to eat my lunch. The wind-chill was in the 20s so I kept the pickup running while I enjoyed the Whopper and drank my water.

About half way through my hamburger the engine sputtered, ran rough for a few seconds and died! I was 80 miles from Chicago.

I finished my hamburger wondering what caused the engine to die. I tried to start it again and all I got was 10 seconds of sputter and cough. I wondered if I could have picked up the wrong gas nozzle so I looked at my receipt, checked the gas pump number, and walked back around to the front of the station to check.

I was right, I used the green handle, but when I looked closer I saw the green handle on all the islands were for regular gas!

What? I said, to myself. Nowhere in the 11 western states is there a gas nozzle with a green handle! I always look for the green handle!

I went in inside, explained my problem to the manager. He said they did not sell diesel and that the sign I saw was for the station across the street. He also went on to say that his station used to be an AMACO station and they had blue handles on the regular gas pump. AMACO was bought out by British Petroleum (BP) and they put green on the regular gas nozzles to match their yellow-green color scheme. He also said they had never had any problems with gas in diesel vehicles until last week and they had two people make the same mistake – I was the second.

He was a nice fellow and he called a station a mile away (in town) and made an appointment for me at 8 AM Monday morning; there was a Motel 8 across the street and I checked in for the night. The wrecker came promptly at 8am and I was on the road again in two hours and $150 dollars later.

I won’t be fueling up every again at one of those BP stations with their big green letters!