By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 23, 2026 — In a new campaign video, US Senate candidate Mary Peltola complains about fuel prices in Valdez, saying gasoline is $5.25 a gallon and diesel is $6.75. Her message about affordability invites a look at two major energy bills she faced while representing Alaska in the US House.
In March 2023, Peltola voted “No” on the Lower Energy Costs Act, an energy and permitting package that included provisions for additional Alaska oil and gas lease sales. The bill passed the House, 225–204, but did not become law. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who convinced Peltola to run for Senate this cycle, called the bill “dead on arrival.” The Democratic-controlled Senate did not take it up, and President Biden had already said he would veto it if it reached his desk. The bill died at the end of that Congress.
The sharper contrast came in May 2024. Peltola was an original cosponsor of Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, which sought to reverse Biden administration actions affecting oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. When the bill reached the House floor, she voted “present”. It passed 214–199.
Peltola’s fuel-price message also sits alongside the Alaska Democratic Party’s 2026 platform. The platform acknowledges oil and gas’s contributions to Alaska’s economy, but calls for a transition away from fossil fuels, opposes oil and gas exploration, leasing and development in the ANWR coastal plain, and supports carbon pricing that would rise until demand for fossil fuels is “strongly suppressed.” She is that party’s nominee for the Senate.
Sullivan calls for temporary halt to diesel exports as Alaska fuel costs climb
As Peltola complains about high prices, Sen. Dan Sullivan is acting on them, calling for a moratorium on diesel exports.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he supports the idea and has told his team to look at keeping diesel in the United States. A decision, he said, would come “fast, one way or the other.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the administration is studying whether a full or partial restriction is feasible given US refining capacity.
Julie Fate Sullivan finally has had enough of Peltola’s lying about her husband
Peltola donors tied to Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, ‘defund the police’ network
Letter to the editor: Look at the record, not the rhetoric of Mary Peltola
4 thoughts on “Peltola talks fuel prices, but her oil votes ran on empty”
She’s a Democrat. The Democrat Party is largely responsible for the refining crisis and overall punitive fossil fuel policies in this country. She is the last person to be complaining about punitive prices. Unlike most of the rest of the world, we’re at least still not in lines due to a lack of fuel at all…………yet………..
Fuel prices are too high.
I’m going to vote for the party that shutdown the Keystone pipeline, stopped federal land leases, and denied refinery permits.
This crazy skwa is so stupid, all Alaskans need to be concerned of her campaign activities. Straight from the communists Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sander’s playbook. Skwa is not for Alaska. She’s a a pure puppet of the left.
Mary is a lying snake just like Chuck Schumer. If Mary becomes a Senator, God Forbid, she will vote the party line. She will vote to transition from hydrocarbon fuels to battery powered vehicles, driving gasoline and diesel prices a whole lot higher. Voters will look back fondly to 2026 prices. Remember the last Demoncat Administrations, “OBiden” they were working hard to drive up fuel prices in order to make it look like electric cars were more economical. They want and need high fuel costs. Meanwhile their Climate Czar, the war criminal John Kerrry was flying around the world in his private jet burning tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel. These clowns are complete hypocrites – they depend on the low IQ voters to get them elected.