They can, it just would require more fuel ships to accompany them.
No, they can't. Not if they intend to actually make their move to the Southern Resource Area (which was rather the entire point of the exercise). The made it to Pearl by DECK LOADING fuel drums on most of the ships, including a couple of the carriers, while all the ships had fuel oil loaded into their bilges to to provide storage. The
Kido Butai could reach the West Coast of North America, it just couldn't get home.
This also ignores the simple fact that sending your primary striking force into the lion's den for no reason whatsoever is, well, stupid. The Japanese were completely unaware of the enemy they getting involved with at Pearl, but they were not utterly stupid.