Despite California governmental meddling, we are paying significantly less (~30%) for fuel in 2017 than in 2014.
Thanks to American tight oil contributing 4% to the global oil supply.
That’s how inelastic markets work.
Remember how Sarah Palin was mocked for drill baby drill? We could have lowered prices way earlier if we expanded drilling in Alaska, on other federal land and off shore. The CEO of jet blue also had a proposal around the time oil first broke $100, which was to subsidize coal to liquid fuel. And he explained that only a small increase in supply was necessary to crash the oil bubble.