Well as a left progressive who has looked into California gas, and also lived there for 4 years, yeah, there are some ridiculous fees, but also some very high standards that cause higher prices, and some of it is to pay for legitimate improvements and upkeep in the state - but tell them that everyone is starting to get high gas prices that the US used to be immune from, largely thanks to oil and gas bribing politicians to keep us addicted to oil and gas and stifle modern energy production, thereby bribing politicians to keep our prices high and climbing ever higher as oil production becomes more problematic, as the world transitions away from gas and moves to electric, causing less demand eventually that would also cause higher prices just like these war related production issues do. If politicians had invested in and encouraged investment in modern energy production we would have increasing numbers of jobs in those energy sectors, not decreasing and seasonal, and prices would be lowering as solar and wind and battery tech get cheaper and cheaper. Solar is now the cheapest, and that includes compared to oil and gas.