Living in New Jersey is a continually joy-filled process.  One of the things that annoys me a little bit is the fact that I can't pump my own gas.  Most people in NJ don't even realize that other states usually force you to pump your own.  I would at least like to have the option.  One good thing is that paying people to pump my gas apparently doesn't cause much of an increase in the price of gas, seeing that NJ's gas prices are pretty low compared to neighboring states. 

But one thing that really annoys me is when the gas station guy (it's always a guy; I've never had a girl pump my gas, not that there's anything wrong with that) overfills my tank, especially when I'm paying with a credit card.  I can definitely see the purpose of overfilling if cash is involved.  Carrying around change and handing it out is a pain in the butt.  But when I go to places and give them my credit card before they start filling, we all know I'm paying with my credit card.  And whether it costs $32.99 or $33.00 makes no difference in the world.  So there's no point in overfilling my tank.  And what really annoys me is when the guy overfills while trying to overfill.  As if it wasn't bad enough that you're giving me $33.00 worth of gas when I only need $32.47, it's infinitely worse that you're giving me $33.01 when I only need $32.47.  That kills me. 

And apparently, this kills the Environmental Protection Agency too.  They have a website set up with information on why we shouldn't top off our gas tank.  Besides the annoyingness factor, they mention four major things: 
1.  Topping off the gas tank can result in your paying for gasoline that is fed back into the station's tanks because your gas tank is full.
2.  Gasoline vapors are harmful to breathe.
3.  You need extra room in your gas tank to allow the gasoline to expand.
4.  Topping off your gas tank may foul the station's vapor recovery system.
In my opinion, the most important reason they give is the first one:  Gas pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems to reduce air pollution so that "Any additional gas you try to pump into your tank may be drawn into the vapor line and fed back into the station's storage tanks."  So that extra $0.53 (or $0.54 depending on the stupidity of the gas-pumper) of gas might not even make it into your gas tank.  In other words, that's a waste of $0.53.  Unfortunately, that's not much a hit in volume of gas ($0.53 of gas at $2.85/gallon is about 0.19 gallons), but it's the principle that matters. #money