NJ vs PA gas prices
In the EIA survey week of November 2, 2026, the federal weekly retail price covering both states, Central Atlantic (PADD 1B), was $4.232 per gallon. EIA does not price New Jersey or Pennsylvania separately, so the survey shows no state-level gap. The difference that is on the statute books is the excise, and it is large. [EIA · 2 Nov 2026]
The tax difference, which is real
Pennsylvania's Oil Company Franchise Tax, levied at the wholesale level, sums to 57.6 cents per gallon, the highest state motor fuel excise in the country after California. New Jersey's combined motor fuels tax plus Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax runs 49.1 cents. That is a 8.5-cent statutory gap in New Jersey's favour, or $1.28 on a 15-gallon fill, before any local variation. Source: API Motor Fuel Tax Map and Tax Foundation, not EIA.
Why the pump does not simply follow the tax
Both states draw from the same Central Atlantic rack, which is why EIA groups them. Philadelphia and southern New Jersey share a supply basin; western Pennsylvania trades toward Ohio. Station density, turnpike concessions and county sales-tax treatment all move retail prices within each state by more than the statutory gap between them, which is exactly why a district-level federal survey cannot settle a border question at this granularity.
What this page will not tell you
Which side of the Delaware is cheaper today. The federal weekly survey does not measure it, and inventing a per-state figure from a district average to fill the gap would be making the number up.
Related
NJ · PA · state excise · border comparator · tank-fill