Corzine's Gas Gambit

Let's just say I'm not impressed. And that's being kind.

Asking the Legislature to revise a 1949 law that bans self-serve gas pumping in New Jersey. Corzine wants a pilot program that would involve New Jersey Turnpike gas stations and maybe some local stations. The program will study whether self-serve gas leads to cheaper prices. Corzine said it could cut gas prices by as much as 6 cents.

Only New Jersey and Oregon require full-service gas pumping.

- Adding 101 bus trips on 31 NJ Transit bus routes, offering one free roundtrip ticket to each of NJ Transit's monthly pass holders.

- Trying to get more people to use the Transportation Department's carpooling program by spending $500,000 to provide $100 debit cards to be used by new car pool participants for gas.

- Allowing hybrid vehicles to use the Turnpike's high-occupancy vehicle lanes, which normally require vehicles to hold at least three passengers. The lanes are between interchanges 11 and 14, from Woodbridge to Newark.

- Increasing enforcement of gas station monitoring to check whether stations are obeying state law that prevents them from changing gas prices more than once in a 24-hour period. State Attorney General Zulima Farber said the state wrote 15 citations last weekend after visiting 200 stations.

- Extending until May 1 an executive order Corzine signed last weekend that expands the hours a commercial driver can drive in New Jersey without mandatory rest. The idea is to keep truck drivers on the road delivering fuel to gas stations.

Corzine also voiced support for a plan by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez to impose a federal gasoline tax holiday, but said the state's fiscal woes prevented him from considering that idea for New Jersey's state gas tax. The state has a projected $4.5 billion budget deficit, transportation funding concerns and, unlike the federal government, a constitutional mandate for a balanced budget.

Has he actually thought through any of these suggestions? The only one that makes sense is adding buses to various routes. But why stop with buses? Add train service throughout the system and demand that the localities holding up the Pascack Valley Line improvements permit the improvements to go through - allowing service on the line in both directions throughout the day. Currently, service is only inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon because there is only one track. The improvements would enable more service to be added to a highly populated traffic corridor in Bergen county. Think of how many cars could be taken off the road if that is accomplished and how much gas is saved that way.

Giving hybrids access to the HOV lanes wont reduce gas prices and considering that hybrids are such a small percentage of vehicles owned overall, it's a literal drop in the bucket. It's a feel good measure - not a substantive measure designed to reduce gas prices.

What about enticing a new refinery in Linden or Elizabeth. You know - so that petroleum can be refined in New Jersey and help reduce local prices. Cut the red tape and let the local communities know that with new technologies, the problems of the past are just that - in the past.

People who are already carpooling are those most likely to take advantage of the $100 giveaway. Save the $500,000 and build a parking lot at the Secaucus Junction train station. I know the parking lot will cost more than that, but the parking lot at the underused station would better serve the public than a costly giveaway.

Then, there's the whole idea of eliminating mandated full-service stations in New Jersey. I think it's a nonstarter. That might cut prices by a couple of cents, but it's just as likely that the station owners will simply pocket the difference, all while eliminating jobs. Station owners would love this proposal to go through since it would further eliminate overhead. Consumers who use the gas wouldn't see any benefit.

And finally, the suggestion to temporarily expand the hours a commercial driver can drive in New Jersey without mandatory rest presents a whole host of safety concerns that suggest that Corzine's the one who hasn't been getting any sleep lately. Maybe he's been following the fact that his polling has fallen further and faster than Bush's.