Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is giving Golden State residents a WAKE UP call: yes, the Iran war has pushed gas prices higher nationwide, but the REAL reason California constantly has the highest prices in the nation—by far—is Democrat climate policies. Those policies include the nation’s highest gas tax, expensive cap-and-trade and Low Carbon Fuel Standard fees, a special reformulated gas blend that isolates the market, and heavy regulations that have shut down refineries and in-state oil production—forcing costly imports from overseas instead of using California’s own abundant reserves. “Diesel in California is $9, and that's because of Democrat policies here… We have abundant oil reserves in California, but they're being shut down. So we now import 80% of the oil that we use on giant supertankers shipped halfway across the world. And now because the refineries have closed, we're actually importing refined gasoline. Our number one supplier of that is India. Where does India buy its crude oil? Russia. So because of Democrat climate policies in California, we are buying indirectly oil from Russia. Today, here in California.”