It's all good, pisser. You know why they call it fair market value? Because it's the price that people are willing to pay. Don't blame politics, blame your fellow Californians for having such deep pockets that they don't mind being gouged.
I think I paid $2.43 per gallon for my last tank of gas a couple weeks ago. Denver residents are such tight wads that they won't pay much more than $2.60 per gallon for gas, but maybe we're just a bunch of spoiled brats.
You know, people used to work where they lived, they didn't have to commute for two hours every day. In fact that's why cities exist in the first place, so people don't have to travel half their waking life to do business. But now the only people who actually live in the cities are too poor to do business with, and every one else lives in the suburbs. If you're looking for the cause of high gas prices, that's it right there.