Mainland pundits are weighing in on Hawai'i's new gasoline price cap law and so far much of the attention has not been favorable.

The law, which caps the wholesale price of gasoline based on fluctuations in Mainland prices, doesn't take effect until Thursday, but commentators aren't waiting to take pot shots.

A Sunday editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review diagnosed Hawai'i as having "gas-reflex disorder," which will lead to "long lineitus and gas pump interruptus."

That followed Friday's Wall Street Journal editorial page, which advised Hawai'i drivers to "fill up fast" and speculated the reason the new law was passed had to do with state lawmakers taking "one too many spills off their boogie boards."

While the remarks may be humorous, the damage to Hawai'i's reputation is no laughing matter, said Bank of Hawaii economist Paul Brewbaker. Such criticism masks the economic progress Hawai'i has made since the 1990s, when Forbes magazine labeled the state "The People's Republic of Hawai'i," Brewbaker said. That article inspired further media attention that took years to subside, he said.

Unfavorable attention over price caps could have a similar effect on the state's reputation, Brewbaker said. "The piling on has begun."

The jokes aren't likely to stop any time soon. If Hawai'i's experiment with caps goes badly, the criticism could get even worse. On the other hand, if the price caps succeed in lowering prices for consumers, other states that also are grappling with high gasoline prices could follow Hawai'i's lead.

Lower gasoline prices would benefit businesses as well as consumers, said Hermina Morita, D-14th (Kapa'a, Hanalei), a key proponent for the caps.

"In protecting consumers we're also protecting businesses," she said. "So if anything, it should be an improvement in the business climate, if people are no longer overcharged."

Still, media commentators around the nation are predicting problems with the price caps.

"Watch for the Islands to be the first of the 50 states to run dry as the oil industry says 'Aloha!' to such regulation," warned an editorial in Sunday's Detroit Free Press.

Yesterday's Springfield News-Ledger argued that market forces should ultimately drive down prices.

"It's a bad idea for the nation and it's a bad idea for any one state," said the Springfield, Mo., newspaper. "That's why this is a good time to be thankful we don't live in Hawai'i."

Larry Kudlow of the CNBC program "Kudlow & Company" said Thursday that the price cap is "the stupidest thing imaginable with all of economic history going back 5,000 years, proving that price controls are a bad idea."

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.