My understanding (I could be wrong) is that part of the reason gas costs less here in NJ is that it costs more to insure a "self serve" gas station than a "professionally serviced" station. In summary: the nit-wits who pump gas professionally are better at gas pumping than the occaisional nit-wit who tries to pump his own gas but forgets what he's doing and drives away with the nozzle still in his tank (casing a fire that burns down the entire station). I also understand that gas here costs less because we have refineries.