I'm John Bachelor. I welcome my good colleague Michael Toth Research Director at the Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin,

and also a man riding in California, the Golden Estate, the best weather, the best people, the best Pacific Coast, and fossil fuels.

Michael, a very good evening to you. I have a photograph in front of me from 1903. It's described as the Santa

Barbara Pacific Coast covered with wood-built oil wells pumping out of the rich Pacific Coast a great

deal of black gold. I've also got a photograph like that, black and white, dated in the 1920s on Huntington Beach,

which is south of Los Angeles, as you know.

What we have here is a state that has abundant fossil fuels, and yet the price of gasoline is humbling

when you consider that they pay it every day and drive long distances.

I can complain about 475 a gallon in New England, and my correspondence in California laugh and say,

if only, if only, what has gotten us into this fix? They have plenty of oil. Good evening, Michael.

John, it's great to be with you. What's gotten us into it is just one giant, massive, self-inflicted

wound caused and expanded by the political leadership of California on its own residence,

you know, mainly residents in middle class and lower middle class in the state who are struggling

to make ends meet because electricity costs have gone up by 96% in California in the last 15 years

and on and on and on. And, you know, this is a time of energy abundance in much of the other 49 states.

And so, you know, it's a sad story.

Those pictures that you talked about, John, they don't lie.

That's what California has, and that's what California could turn back on if it wanted to.

And the reason it does not has to do with ideology, with politics, with fashion, with virtue.

They drive lots of cars. They drive

big SUVs. They drive the Ford F-150, the most popular vehicle in the solar system. They know it

costs them more than $100 to fill their tanks up. Why? You know, it really is just a matter

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