As rising energy costs continue to drive up inflation, Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy spent the week calling on the president to offer Americans relief by removing federal roadblocks to domestic oil and gas production. He said that Alaska is awash in energy, but unable to capitalize on it, all the while saying that gasoline in Anaktuvuk Pass is $9.95.
The Consumer Price Index rose 7.9% through February, the fastest pace of annual inflation in 40 years, according to a news release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Energy prices already were on the rise before the situation unfolded in Ukraine. The gasoline index rose 6.6% in February. Dunleavy says that the CPI doesn’t capture the soaring gas prices from that invasion. Now, Russia’s sidelined oil without buyers has reduced global petroleum supplies and shot up the price for crude oil to $130/barrel.
Dunleavy appeared on ‘Fox and Friends’ Thursday to discuss how more technologies are needed to be able to transition reliance from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources:
“They’re just going to end up punishing the American people. They’re going to make us more energy insecure, not secure. It’s going to embolden our enemies. We’re going to see that; we’ve already seen that. We’re going to see that more around the world. The purpose behind these obviously is to drive us into a green world quicker than the green world itself is ready for. That’s part of the problem. We don’t have all of the technologies in place to be able to transition overnight from a fossil fuel-based electrification to a green process. What we’re advocating for is let’s use some common sense here. Let’s not beat up the American people with high gas prices and fuel prices and transportation costs. Let’s help out our allies. We have the energy here in America to do that. This transition is going to take some time, but to just pull the rug out from underneath the oil and gas industry is just going to hurt America.”
As a result of the energy index increase, Alaska will be on the receiving end because the cost of everything that is shipped in will go up, especially for fuel imports by barge to communities off the road system.
