California probably has very high gas taxes, that's probably what's doing it. They tax everything that moves to the max so why not gas, heh. Yet Cali's dead broke.....hmmmm.....
The U.S. has ridiculous amounts of oil we aern't allowed to go get because of environmental restrictions invented by the EPA. When you include shale oil deposits, we are #1 in the world in crude oil reserves (combined on land and offshore in US territorial waters). More than any Middle East country, more than Russia, more than Venezuela. So yeah, we could drastically reduce our oil imports if we tapped our own reserves. It'll take a few years even if we started today, but just by letting the world market know that in time there will be a massive new influx of crude oil entering the market, it would instantly drop the price in the here and now because market speculators would begin bidding the price of future barrels down.
With new drilling technology now in existence, oil can be drilled more safely and with the most minimal environmental impact ever achieved, yet the Feds keep making it more and more difficult to do so, for no more than partisan political and ideological reasons, not reality based reasons.
The Federal Government makes more money from taxes and fees from oil drilling than the oil companies themselves make in actual profit.
You'd think they'd want more oil drilling!