Corzine making big mistake.

[patcox2]

My governor seems to have a death wish, either that or there are too many hair-shirt democrats running policy. He has proposed addressing the high price of gasoline by lowering our speed limit and allowing self-service.

Aaaarrgggghhhhhhh. I want to shake some sense into him. He risks becoming another Florio with this one. Noone is blaming him for gas prices, and everyone with half a brain knows that gasoline is an international commodity and no single state is going to affect prices no matter what we do. And self-serve will not lower prices one cent, and economic studies show that, when a commodity has a set price like this, the retailers will just eat the savings from self-serve, they won't pass it on (same happens with tax breaks). So he wants to make sure we flog ourselves to no avail while everyone else consumes away anyway.

This move is politically tone deaf and stupid too. I don't know any living breathing human who supports this except the hair-shirt enviros. So we make 1000 extremists happy, and meanwhile offend every single other person in NJ. Really, this is beyond out of touch, its typical loser democrat strategy, letting your policy be run by elitist wonks and totally, completely alienating the average citizen. Women aren't going to like pumping gas, men aren't going to like driving slow, prices won't go down one penny.

And its so politically unnecessary; the problem is perceived as a Bush-Republican problem, he should just flog the republicans with it and otherwise stay away. Maybe give some incentives for high mileage cars. But no, he says he is going to solve the problem, and once you tell the public you are going to try to solve it, however, it becomes your problem, you own it. Stupid stupid stupid.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Self-serve gas conversion from Full-serve gas:

The price of self-serve gas will be the prices paid right now.

The price of full serve gas will be about 10 cents per gallon higher than self-serve.

Therefore, you end up paying 10 cents more per gallon for what you get right now.

And P.S. regarding reduction of the speed limit.

The only ones who really benefit from this gesture are the courts and towns who collect on the convictions for the expected increase in speeding tickets and the insurance companies which will have larger premiums being issued to the guilty speeders.

[JerseygirlCT]

20. Yup to the self-serve thing. It's so nice to go back home

and not have to pump the stupid stuff! And usually cheaper in NJ than in CT. (We have high gas taxes, which I don't really mind.) But make self-serve and option, and watch the prices move on up for full-serve. And watch some people out of work over it, too, I'd imagine.

[RebelOne]

2. I am really amazed that there aren't any self-serve stations in NJ.

I doubt that you will find very many full-serve stations here in the Atlanta area. In fact, I haven't seen any in my area north of Atlanta.

[sendero]

3. There are almost no full service...

... stations here in Tx and in most of the country as far as I can tell. The NJ excuse of "safety" is simply not borne by experience, the vast majority of gas pumped into cars in this country is done by the driver, and I haven't seen an epidemic, or even a smattering, of accidents.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. It's the law in Joisey...

you can't pump your own gas anywhere. I think it's the only state doing that.

Station owners have been screaming for self-serve for years, and some places it would make sense and maybe reduce the lines, but it certainly wouldn't reduce prices. Prices which are, curiously, already the lowest in the area largely because NJ has the lowest gas taxes. I always filled up in Joisey before heading for NY, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or even Delaware, and saved myself a few bucks.

Anyway, it does seem like a dumb move for Corzine. It's like he feels pressured to do something, and that's all they can think of.

[patcox2]

6. Refiner-owned stations scream for it, not independants.

The independants like it.

Anyway, this proposal, yoicks; won't work, will piss everyone off, is completely unnecessary, can you be more wrong?

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Truth is, I kinda like being able...

to pull up to a pump and pop a credit card in there like I can do most everywhere else. Gets me in and out faster than waiting for an attendant at the mega-stations.

But, it's not being thought through properly. Never has been when this has come up in the past.

[karynnj]

9. I like it

I don't want to get out in the rain or the snow and it gives people jobs. As a woman stopping in the evening sometimes, I feel safer not getting out of the car. I do feel stupid and inept when I need to use self service in other states.

[spooky3]

17. NPR said NJ and Oregon were the only states with these laws (nt).

[sandnsea]

4. speed limits is a good idea

If it were done nationally. It wasn't a good idea to increase them in the first place. Somebody has to lead on that issue, maybe we can get a few other good governors to step up.

But you're right on self-serve. Doesn't do anything to change the price of gas. I'm in Oregon. The only difference in employment is somebody outside pumping instead of inside collecting. I don't care about pumping gas myself, but it is nice to not have to do it.

[rinsd]

11. Lowering the speed limit is a political death wish.

Corzine will get slaughtered if he does that.

[sandnsea]

13. "if it were done nationally"

Did you miss that part?

[rinsd]

16. No, maybe you missed this part,

"Somebody has to lead on that issue, maybe we can get a few other good governors to step up."

And considering Corzine is actually discussing doing this now, what was wrong with my statement?

[sandnsea]

19. Lead isn't passing a unilateral law

It's just leading, to get some other governors to step up, and press for the national change, which was the first thing I said.

The OP said reducing speed limits is a terrible idea. It's not. It's a good idea, we never should have increased it. Corzine leading on the issue is a good thing. It needs to be implemented nationally, that's what I said.

[Bonhomme Richard]

7. Christ, NJ has the cheapest gas around....

Is he nuts?

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. NJ's gas is reletively cheap because its gas tax is one of the lowest in

the country:

http://api-ec.api.org/filelibrary/Gasoline-taxes.pdf

Having refinaries in the state doesn't hurt either.

[Mr.Green93]

10. Self Service gas should be banned

Full Service gas would create hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers who could be organized.

[Bandit]

12. I for one believe in sane and sound policy like this

55 MPH is plenty fast enough to get you where you wish to go. To want to go faster is IMO quite stupid as well as far more dangerous. Why would anyone not want self serve if it lowers the price you have to pay? We get common sense and there is always a few that ridicule it...America in a hurry to get nowhere...

[rinsd]

18. Uhhh what sound policy?

NJ has some of the lowest gas prices in the nation.

It has maybe 200 miles worth of road that have a 65 mph spped limit (certain parts of the interstates).

"Why would anyone not want self serve if it lowers the price you have to pay?"

You would be willing to put people out of work for a minimal savings at the pump?

I'm not sure where you live but the state of NJ is a huge commuter state. Messing with people's drive times is political suicide.

[Lexingtonian]

15. I don't think so

That full service stuff that Exxon (Standard Oil of New Jersey, remember?) got the state to mandate is stupid. It pisses me off every time I drive through. It's a subsidizing of the oil industry in the state and extending its political power via the creation of loyalists and dependents of Big Oil all over the state, feeding the corruption and inefficiencies and probably some politicians and political machines (probably more Democratic than Republican) around Newark. This excuse to get rid of it and starve the beast within and start breaking the corporatist stranglehold on the state is as good as any.

I have no idea about the sense of the speed limit stuff- speed is not the problem on the highways. Maybe it is on the rural state semi-highways, Route 1 and such, out in SUV country.