In rural Alaska, fuel costs now matter of survival
Originally published Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 8:52 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 2:11 p.m.
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BARROW -- A gallon of unleaded gasoline: $10. Heating fuel: $9.10 a gallon. Electricity: $1.17 per kilowatt hour — 11 times the national average.
Some heavily taxed European nation or a time in the future when global fossil fuels have grown dangerously sparse?
Try right now in the most remote villages of America's 49th state.
Soaring oil prices that swelled Alaska's treasury have come back to slam the state, particularly its 170 rural villages.
Gov. Sarah Palin has proposed checks of $1,200 for each resident to help relieve some of the burden using a surplus from the oil-rich state treasury. Lawmakers are debating that proposal right now.
But in far-flung villages, the people expect things to get much worse. The seasonal barge shipments of fuel have yet to arrive, meaning villages are still paying last year's prices, already a minimum of 60 cents higher than the U.S. average.
Here in Barrow, the nation's northernmost city that lies just a few hundred miles west of the country's largest oil field, Prudhoe Bay, residents pay $4.65 for a gallon of gas. When the barges come, that price tag will be closer to $7.
"I'm tired of everyone else harping on $4 a gallon for gas," said longtime Barrow resident Marvin Olson. "We've been paying that for four years when everybody else was paying $2 a gallon."
High costs are hardly new for many of these villages, but the situation is becoming dire and some are fleeing for larger areas.
There are more darkened apartments, abandoned ahead of the coming winter when minus 50 will be considered a nice day. Villages are trying to figure out how they will pay for enough fuel to make it to summer.
The season's first snow in some areas is barely two months away.
Alaskans in rural areas will spend 40 percent of their annual income on energy this winter compared with 4 percent for the average Alaska household, according to a University of Alaska Anchorage study published in May.
Alaska is largely roadless, and essential supplies that arrive by barge or airplane will also cost much more.
The Legislature is considering several lifelines, including Palin's proposed relief checks.
This would be on top of the annual oil revenue dividends most residents already receive. Last year's Permanent Fund Dividend check was $1,654; this year's projections are close to $2,000.
Palin and some lawmakers said on a recent trip to Barrow that they have tired of the suggestion that Alaska gets more than its share at the federal trough.
Alaska received $1.84 in federal spending for every $1 the state paid in taxes to Washington, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization. The state ranked third, behind New Mexico and Mississippi in 2005, the last year figures were available.
"We are taking care of the challenges we have in Alaska on our own," Palin said. "We are not asking Congress for relief."
Access to fuel in Alaska can be a matter of survival.
Boats and four-wheelers are used not for sport, but to hunt. Besides food, hides are used for clothing and to line whaling boats.
The Inupiaq Eskimo whaling community of 4,000 residents, like generations before them, rely on the land and sea to survive.
Animal hides hang from lines. Armed hunters troll the Arctic Ocean looking for bearded seals, locally known as oooguruk. Off road vehicles return home weighed down with a fresh-caught caribou.
There are ceremonies in the center of town to celebrate a successful hunt for bowhead whale. The captain of the boat is obliged to share his bounty with others in the community.
At a grocery store two blocks from where the ceremonies are held, a loaf of bread goes for $6; a gallon of milk, $10.00; a dozen eggs, $4.60; a pound of strawberries, $10; a half-pound of lunch meat is $7.
"If we had to go to the store and buy everything, we'd probably be on food stamps by now if we didn't have our land and sea animals," said North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta. "More and more our take home pay is going to be spent to buying gas to go get caribou, to go get fish, to go to our camps and gather our food."
Fuel-driven changes to tradition are already spreading through parts the state.
Henry Horner lives 300 miles southwest of Barrow in the village of Kobuk. He fears gas could reach $12 a gallon by the fall hunting season.
"Normally I run into six or more boats on the water this time," he said. "Where I went on the Kobuk, I was the only one there. I'm still wondering how many of us will be able to go hunting moose and caribou this year."
Barrow is better off than many Alaskan villages. The community gets subsidized natural gas from nearby fields. It's benefited from oil field property taxes that have helped build new schools and municipal buildings these last two decades.
Word of hardships in other isolated villages are slowly making their way to Barrow.
People shell out $10 a gallon for unleaded fuel in Anaktuvuk Pass; those from the state's southern coastal region pay $9.10 for heating fuel in Kokhanok; and electricity is costing $1.17 a kilowatt hour in Western Alaska's Lime Village.
The wait for Barrow's next fuel barge shipment in about a month, usually a time of relief, is now a source of growing angst, knowing gas for the next year could be in the $7 to $8 a gallon range.
Said Barrow whaling captain Jacob Adams: "We could be going back to dog teams if we can't afford the cost of gas for subsistence hunting."
Community Discussion
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I have an idea. Everyone heading up the haul road to hunt this year could carry a barrel of extra fuel and sell it to the locals when they get there if it is legal. There is no reason why it should cost twice as much there as it does in Fairbanks. A fuel tanker isn't that expensive to operate. I see no reason why we couldn't help them and help us pay for the trips in the process. If it is illegal then the extra fuel will come in handy around Coldfoot so we don't stress their resources and get gouged for traveling.
BigMike, you don't know what you're talking about. Barrow may be able to get relief from the North Slope Borough, and I think the Borough should ante up to help the local residents. Other rural Alaskans don't have that benefit.
The legislature should develop a plan that yields the highest amount of help to the people who pay the most for fuel and the least amount to the people who pay the least (Anchorage). Anchorage residents pay less for natural gas than do average Americans! The reason Palin wants to give $1,200 to all Alaskans, including Anchorage residents, is because Anchorage is where the voters are. She's trying to buy their votes for future elections. Anchorage doesn't need the help or deserve it, the legislature has been subsidizing their natural gas for years!
Alaska needs to be wiser - we need to demand that the legislature help those that need help the most. In Anchorage, lower income people should get some help, albeit much less than those in rural Alaska because Anchorage natural gas is already subsidized so they are already receiving help, middle and upper income Anchorage residents shouldn't get a dime.
How can people make such uninformed statements. Unbelievable. Do you guys actually read what you write before you hit post?
akjak
Refreshing to see someone with something sensible to say.
I think people should go to Barrow before the believe everything they read. Not everyone is a corporation member. Barrow if I remember right does not have open enrollment.
Not to bash the Anchorage students who did this survey, but is anyone anywhere using 4% of their income on energy? That must be a typo or a misunderstanding cause that would mean my heating, gas, and electricity COMBINED would be about $133 a month. My average heating bill is more than my mortgage! It costs $70 just to fill up my little truck! Was any sort of common sense or basic knowledge put into this article?
I sincerely hope the villages are using only 40% of their income on energy cause I would LOVE to use less than half of my income on gas etc...
Better yet while all this is going on Mike Kelly (Our Mike Kelly, Fairbanks people)makes the following comments about the $1200 rebate....
"During a hearing in the House Finance Committee on Tuesday, Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly called such aid "morphine and welfare payments."
Handouts don't build "self-reliance and character," Kelly said, they just let people sleep in and put off energy problems for another day. He argued the state ought to spend its money on projects such as the Susitna hydroelectric dam or a road to Nome."
This is the Fairbanks representative????? Who sent this guy to represent us?
What do North Slope Borough residents already get in terms of the current energy power cost equalization program and the heating fuel assistance programs? Gasoline has been double along the haul road for a few years. There is no reason for such a mark up and it is common practice to haul fuel on those long trips. The State needs to look seriously at paving the road and replacing the Yukon bridge.
BigMike: You might want to live in rural Alaska for awhile before you rush to judgement on who pays the most and if any body cares? Having lived in both worlds...I can tell you that the price differential would make even Bill Gates shutter at a can of coffee and a loaf of bread in some bush stores.
The Power Cost Equalization "PCE" only applies for the first 500kw per month for residential use only, and that just brings the cost down to a little more what GVEA will be charging with the proposed rate increase. Any kilowatts used after that is at the FULL Price.
Low Income Energy Assistance ~ if you qualify....might get you by for a month for an average home here in Fairbanks...then the rest of the winter would be pretty chilly.
Yep, "never judge another man tell you walk a mile in his shoes."
I have a Plain and simpe solution to this problem in Barrow. Live the subsistence lifestyle that you all claim to live, that should eliminate any problems paying your fuel bills.
zman, why you are telling villagers to live old styles, why don't you live like the old time miners in Fairbanks.
One of the villages on the slope was getting natural gas heating installed in their homes and businesses, compliments of one of the oil companies up there just this past year. It was worked out with the village leaders so that it wasn't just being 'burnt off'. A pilot program if I remember right, and was to extend to others on the slope eventually. This was in one of the newsletter sent out on the slope by BP that I read while working up north.
I googled the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and this is what I found:
"Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Reports Earnings Results for the Year
2007
06/18/2008
Arctic Slope Regional Corporation reported revenue of $1.77 billion in 2007 with a profit of $208 million. The company's biggest source of revenue last year was its subsidiary Petro Star Inc., which generated about $655 million in revenue."
So... don't alot of these people get dividends from their Native Corporation?
The article went on to say:
"Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Board of Directors declared a fall dividend of $42.21 per share to be issued in early December. ASRC paid a fall dividend in 2006 of $37.76 per share and a spring dividend in early 2007 totaling $16.34 per share. The ASRC Board of Directors typically authorizes dividend distributions in the fall with a follow-up dividend in the spring once the prior year's financial results are confirmed. The $43.4 million fall 2007 dividend is the highest regular dividend the corporation has issued and brings the total dividends distributed to approximately $292 million."
Wow.
I wish I was enrolled in ASRC!
But still it doesn't matter. Not all native corporations are rich and an rural Alaskan energy relief plan is crucial now more than ever.
oil has gone from 147 per barrel to 119.00 per barrel, why has petro star out at the norh pole refinery not started dropping fuel prices including heating oil here in the fairbanks area.
Call Mark John at petro star 907/339/6627 let him try and explain himself.then call your local reresentative and complain lets put some pressure on him. we are being taken to the cleaners by petro star.
my dad in kansas is paying 3.60 a gallon a sister in alabama 3.70.
whats up Mark John
You will probably be told that the price being charged is at the price of being bought and until it runs out it will be passed on to us. That is what I was told at a gas station.
The biggest problem for everyone this winter isn't the absolute price of fuel, but the steep spike in its price. It has basically doubled (in the Bush and in town) in the last 18 months, and most people have a hard time adjusting that quickly.
It's got to be causing a major disruption in the local economies in the Bush, and it's good for the State to try to buffer that disruption somehow. The $1200 per person plan sounds like a simple, temporary duct tape solution.
If Mike Kelly's "handout" rhetoric wins or the Legislature fails to do anything, the disruption will probably mean rich urban Alaskans getting richer, and poor rural Alaskans getting poorer. Probably not good for our state overall.
In the long run it's likely that the urban centers will have more wealth. We should be looking at things like in-state tourism (guided hunting and fishing is hugely important in many small communities) to get some of that to flow the other way.
Barrow was a VERY poor choice to use as an example for this article. Food costs more in Barrow than Fbks, for instance, but basic living costs are not that bad for most people. ASRC is wealthy, plain and simple. It's a fact that natural gas is piped to most homes, from huge natural gas deposits on their own land. Utilities are provided by Barrow Utilities and Electric Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative, which offers electricity, natural gas and water/sewer services. Water is also delivered by truck to homes beyond the piped distribution system, and NSB provides trash pick-up. The largest Northern community and seat of the North Slope Borough government, Barrow is offers many regional health and social services. Public facilities include: a hospital, senior citizen center, women’s shelter, children & youth services center, library, and job training and assistance center. Public safety and fire protection are also provided.
Under federal law, ASRC and its majority-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and partnerships are "minority and economically disadvantaged business enterprise[s]" (43 USC 1626(e)). They include
* ASRC Aerospace Corporation (Headquarters is in Greenbelt, Maryland; I believe currently they hold about 15 major contracts providing jobs to over 1000+ personnel. The company's comprised of multiple operating units engaging primarily in U.S. Government contracts.)
* ASRC Energy Services
* Arctic Slope Compliance Technologies
* ASRC Constructors, Inc.
* ASRC Construction Holding Company, LLC.
* Petro Star Inc.
* ASRC Federal
* Arctic Education Foundation
* Top of the World
* Alaska Growth Capital
The SMALL villages are getting hit hard by increasing costs, even with subsidies. But Barrow... they're sitting pretty; on top of the world, you could say. Making any comparison between Barrow and smaller villages is like comparing apples and oranges.
BigMike, you are commenting only on Barrow and the North Slope area. Yes, it is the area discussed in the article. BUT as others have pointed out, there are non-Natives and non-corporation members living in Barrow. In addition MOST of the regional and local corporations are not in any kind of position to supply those kinds of subsidies. I lived in several villages in the south west part of Alaska, in the Calista region. Whatever prices are quoted for fuel, that's what folks in those villages actually pay. For gas and for heating fuel. And folks in that area finally got a dividend this year, of about $1 per share. Yup, most of them got a whopping $100. At $6/gallon, that will fill up a snow machine maybe twice.
Barrow isn't the best example. Smaller villages are worse off, and even the larger hub communities in other parts of the state have similar issues. But the reality is that everything costs more in rural Alaska.
The legislature needs to get after this or they will have a lot to answer for when people start freezing and starving this winter. There is no excuse, with a 12 BILLION dollar windfall this year and its citizens left to suffer from the very thing that is making the state unbelievably rich, it might be enough to make our red state blue. Creative thinking needs to happen and fast. This winter: Divide the state into regions, or communities that will get a multiplier based on what a gallon of fuel oil or natural gas, KWH of electricity and a gallon of gas. Use the data based from say 2006 for prices. The more expensive energy prices are compared with the 06 figures in a particular community the higher their multiplier and the more assistance they will get. When energy prices fall to 06 levels the program ends. Everybody should benefit, but Anchorage citizens shouldn't get as much as Fairbanks, or the bush because they are not getting effected as much. This idea of Palin's to just mail every man woman and child an extra $1200 in guilt money will not help the villages as much as targeting assistance based on need will. Of course the politicians in Anchorage will never let this pass so there you go.. Greed wins the day once again!
This of course is all for the short term while the state is working out long term plans to build up wind, hydro, and other price stable energy sources for the future benefit of Alaska.
I like the $1200 duct tape plan...It is a healthy fix for a short period of time. Maybe it will help people out until someone can figure out a better - more positive way to fix this mess.
No one can afford to pay more for their heating than their mortgage and that is what is going to happen this winter.
With everyone being “Over-Tax” at the Gas Pump in town, and looking at the High Cost of heating oil near, and in Fairbanks; And “Bush Alaska” getting subsidy's, maybe it’s time to think about the old saying “If you can’t stand the Heat, get out of the Kitchen . But in this case “If you want to live “Out in the Bush” And you can’t stand the Cold, get Out Of the Ice-Box! I will NOT miss seeing my Tax money “giving you and your Family “subsidies”
about everyone where i'm from wishes they were paying 4/per gallon for gas, here in anaktuvuk pass it's 9.30/per gallon. and the price keeps goin up everytime gas is brought in from the airlines that bring in the fuel. i have a co-woker that was paying over 200 dollars every weekend on fuel when he and his family would go out hunting/fishing this past spring
People choose where they live and should factor in all costs of living when doing so. I grew up in Long Island New York and wouldn't go back there for anything due to high taxes, housing prices and cost of living. Alaska is cheap by comparison.
i'm from huslia. the price of fuel is $6.75 a gallon and rising. a can of hills bros coffee is $18. do we get special money for this, yes. we get $300 a year from doyon. and without and industrial economy, most have quest cards with the same benifets as a white, native, black person in a low income apartment in fairbanks. BigMike has a SmallBrain, as do many ignorant people in the city making ignorant statements.
Why dont the useless politicians get off the buttd and tell us why we are still paying so much more that the national average for gas
It is absolutely immoral for the state to be selling us royalty oil at 90% profit like this. The cost of production has not gone up. The state has always said their breakeven cost is about 18/barrel. Someone needs to do something about this.
Wrong Skins. The amount paid to a person holding a quest card (food stamps) in the bush, is roughly 35 percent higher than a person in with the same income in town. It isn't the point of the thread, but you are dead wrong.
I thought Barrow was using Natural Gas for heating.
i do not use assistence so therfore i may be dead wrong. although the price for food and gas is a lot more than 35% higher in the bush. the amount of hate towards my race of people and way of life is very alarming and is directly due to ignorance. the people making these comments have no idea about what they are commenting on or the challenges being faced in the bush.
There seems to be a lot of greedy folks on here today. Some are saying people in the bush are paying less then Fairbanks, and others seem to think that it would be their "tax money" that would be helping those in need this winter. Still others say that people should "factor in all costs" when choosing a place to live. Maybe I am too naive but I tend to believe most people are doing the best they can in this world. Some maybe are smarter with their decisions and money but we are all in this together. There are increasing numbers of people out there across the land who are homeless and NEVER believed they would ever be in that predicament. Some of them at one time or another no doubt hated the idea of public assistance of any kind to anyone. Well folks, be careful what you say and who you point fingers at and saying you shoulda done this, or you don't deserve any help because this is the life you chose. Life has a sneaky and unpredictable way of testing all of us, even if we think we are well off. My point is this whole thing with the fuel prices has caught all of us off guard and you just never know when your "permanent position" could be terminated or that nagging illness is some kind of cancer taking over. There are all sorts of reasons people need help.
Everybody please try to be kind and show some compassion to your fellow Alaskans in this trying time... This is no time for greed.
All I can say is that some of those Elders were right:
Keep the old ways,
cause you might need them when money will be useless (inflation).
I hear you skinz. Sorry to hammer you on a technicality. I guess I am sick and tired of hearing people try to convince themselves that somebody has it better than they do or somebody else has less of a right to complain.
For crying out loud, my wife and I make a good living and work hard for it and it is going to absolutely suck when the oil truck comes. It's going to suck for everybody no matter what race they are or what subsidy they may or may not get. I feel fortunate that we will be able to pay the bills. Some, regardless of ethnicity, won't and that is bad.
We complain about our legislators and then we point fingers at each other and whine. If we were able to unify, look at ourselves as a whole (at least within voting districts or geographical areas) then just maybe we would get some attention. Right now we are too busy worrying that somebody else might be getting something we aren't.
TheMalcontent:
"People choose where they live and should factor in all costs of living when doing so. I grew up in Long Island New York and wouldn't go back there for anything due to high taxes, housing prices and cost of living. Alaska is cheap by comparison."
The fact that you're not from around here shows. Many people living in rural areas are rooted there in thousands of years of family history. And they're more rooted than they used to be because contemporary Western culture has been forced on them in the form of schools and jobs and hunting and fishing laws. Anyone who says that the Native people of rural Alaska should chose to leave show a great deal of disrespect for traditional Native culture and values. My brother-in-law lives with my elderly mother-in-law. He hunts and fishes. She goes berry picking and cuts fish, even in her 80s. But even though it is just the two of them, they are no longer able to live off the land without some kind of cash. There are no trees to burn for heat, the house needs electricity for the stove to work, etc. They're essentially in a damned-if-you/damned-if-you-don't situation -- stay in rural Alaska and maintain what's left of their Native lifestyle, or give up that lifestyle to move to an urban area where they will either be dependent on other family members or will be walking into an unknown situation -- if a family in rural Alaska cannot pay their current fuel bills, where will they come up with all the money needed to move, rent a place to live, turn on utilities, and so on?
I wish more people could see shades of gray, rather than seeing the world in black and white.
AuthenticAlaskan, I agree.
"All I can say is that some of those Elders were right:
Keep the old ways,
cause you might need them when money will be useless"
I lived in Barrow in 1998 and the pump price for gas then was in the $4 a gallon range (and the Fairbanks price then was $1.40-$1.50). People in Barrow already have been paying twice the Fairbanks rate for gas, so I don't know where BigMike got the information for his first comment. Yes, Barrow is in better shape than other Alaska villages. But it's still more expensive than Fairbanks (my sister lives in Fairbanks and she's working a construction project in Barrow this summer, her first gripe was about expenses).
WHy dont you try living in Barrow Big Mike... see how long you last. What do you have against villagers? Is is the color of the skin perhaps?
Inchworm - I guess I should move back to Scotland then since that is where my family is from many generations ago and live in the earthworks instead of forced upon new fangled housing. I guess I should wear hides instead of new fangled clothing and wear bark on my feet instaed of these shoe things. At some point cultures need to catch up with the times.
There it is,the race card is being pulled.
I think it's amusing that people will scream injustice when comparing Fairbanks cost of living to Anchorage. Don't we all CHOOSE where we live? If you think Anchorage has it better off move there. These people I've noticed are the same ones that don't want to hear people on the north slope whining about THEIR problems. Kind of a double standard don't you think?
Malcontent, maybe you should go back to Scotland since you seem so biased against the Alaskans who have been here for thousands of years.
Many, many Natives would have happily continued their subsistence, nomadic lifestyle if they had been given the choice. Now you have generations whose parents lived an entirely different life than the one they are faced with, and they are learning and making their way with the resources they have. Your comment that "cultures need to catch up with the times" is heartless and rude. Western culture has only been in rural Alaska for a relatively short time, and was forced upon the Native people. White people came in and took their land, took their resources. I guess the next logical step in your mind is to force them to abandon what's left of their culture too.
Fairbanks believes it has the god given right to complain about Anchorage and then turn it's back on the villages. What do expect from a second class city.
If the legislators pass the energy equalization portion of the energy bill, we will be treated actually as a village by Anchorage. Be careful who you complain about you may join their ranks pretty soon.
BigMike=BigMouth
BigMike is right on. Whenever a subsidy is offered for any commodity the price of said commodity will continue to rise unabated.
Look at any subsidy program at the Federal, State or local level and you will see that greed is the driving force. PCE should never have been created.
But of course, if you are going to discuss subsidies that should never have been created, we would have to start with just about everything that is Alaskan.
This is a welfare state and most of you whiners are going to get exactly what you deserve. If you can't stand the cold, then get the hell out of the state.
BigMike, I look forward to your next post.
AGIA just forked over 2trillion cubic feet of propane over to Canada..
6% of Prudhoe gas is propane.
Read this report carefully--->
http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/cem/ine/aetdl/...
Alaskans can actually do something for themselves without having to ask drunken Juneau for permission, or wait for a boondoggle that will likely never be built.. HenryHub-gas is dropping to 1980's prices again now that King GeorgeV is leaving the Oval Orifice.
http://www.oilnergy.com/1gnymex.htm
Alaskans can build their own little gaslines from locations wherever you find gas, even if you live 10miles from a frozen lake that traps gas under the ice it's worth it to string a 2mile tube and make your own gas-station for your nat-gas powered truck.
www.fairbanksgas.com
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http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209...
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A propane gasline stretched from Prudhoe to Upper Koyukuk will make a very big improvement for everybody in the Yukon-Koyukuk-Tanana basins.
...flash/rumble
I don't know what the answere is. But when I was a kid here in Fairbanks, we used powdered milk and powdered spuds for mashed potatos. Dad couldn't afford certain things even though he had a very good job and was always working. Another thing I have been curious about. How about using windmills for electricity in Barrow? I would imagine it's a windy place and windmills would be a good way to produce inexpensive electricity for electric heat. Heack, my grandfather used a windmill in Nenana in the early half of the 1900's and had it hooked to batteries. Something else, competition in communities helps drive down prices. While that may not be practical in villages, it is a factor none the less. Also, I don't know that in the villages there are factors in place that afford the ability to keep costs down. I would think tiney remote villages off the highway system and rail system would encure higher costs due to not having cheaper transportation available. It makes alot of sence to me everything would be alot more expensive in remote locations.
>BigMike, I look forward to your next post.
Oh yep, we are all really looking forward to the next B.M.
Not everyone chooses where they live. Thats an idiotic thing to say. There are always exceptions. I did not choose to live here. My husband is in the military and we were sent here. Was I supposed to divorce him because he was sent somewhere with a high cost of living? I did not choose for utilities to double in cost in the last year. They just did. We have 2 small children and decided that since we would be here for 8 years (hopefully longer), we should buy a house in a good area and try to give our kids a good home and make the best out of the situation we were put into. As well as try to become active and good members of this community. But paying over a $1000 a month so my house has power, we don't freeze to death and we can get to work is extremely hard on the finances. Therefore on the family as a whole. And I am not whining here, I am just stating a fact. I cant stand the pissing and moaning of the hand-out wanters either. But the relief package isn't a handout. Its called a RELIEF for a reason. And I sure as hell could use some relief for this winter and am not going to be sending it back if we get it. At least it will help me out in knowing my kids won't have to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 7 months of the year. And hopefully the long-term plans will be worked out too. If not, then we will just take it one winter at a time. But you just have to be smart and be prepared for some hard times. I've learned, quite roughly, that life does keep going and tends to work itself out. Regardless of how bad it seems at the time. People just have to pull it together thats all.
Pretty soon the new gas fired generators in Nuisqit will be online is my guess, the head honcho on the job suggested approx .07$ per KWH cost for residential service rates to me after everything is up and running. Sounds like a lot of oil fired boilers in homes will be converted soon to natural gas.
Would be nice to see some other villages get a gas line from the Alpine Fields or others and switch over too!
Barrow in town in primarily natural gas service from what Ive seen and serviced.
Maybe there's too many Arab-sympathizers in Fairbanks and out in the Yukon Basin.. so the Jews in Juneau are putting the Freeze-Squeeze on everybody living near a valuable mineral resource to make them take the big Exodus to welfare-land.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main....
...howz that for stirring the racist cauldron?
......splat
Mike Gtavel already found a replacement for Juneau...
http://ni4d.us/
---------------
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. It's about time for Alaskans to get some of their own oil.
currently, 3rd reading.
The ignorance of people never ceases to amaze me. MalContent - yes, please, go back to Scotland. I bet we could even do a fundraiser to get you a one-way ticket. The fact that your ancestors were from Scotland yet you grew up in the U.S. has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Alaska Natives living in rural Alaska are still living the life and culture of their ancestors on the same land that their ancestors lived on for thousands of years. The persistence of the Alaska Native cultures on this planet is crucial to the well-being of the rest of us. They have much to teach us if we have the ability to learn. The loss of Alaska Native cultures and languages is a loss to the entire human species, as is the loss of any other culture.
zman - Alaska Natives have not been allowed to live their traditional subsistence lifestyle since statehood. They used to live a nomadic lifestyle and they hunted and gathered food as it presented itself. Now, they are forced to remain in certain areas and abide by hunting and fishing regulations, even if it means they won't have enough to eat. Heck, our wise ADFG even allows commercial fishermen to take their salmon before rural families even have a chance to gather the fish they need to survive the winter. Then, when the run is low, they limit the amount of fish the subsistence users can take. No, we have destroyed the ability of Alaska Natives to live the subsistence lifestyle lived by their grandparents and great-grandparents yet they are hanging on to the vestiges of their culture. I applaud their efforts and pray that they succeed in retaining the identity and culture to the greatest extent possible. I and my children are richer for it. You are too, you're just too blind to see it.
Oh and, by the way, I agree that selecting Barrow for this article was ridiculous. I guess the News Miner was afraid to go to a real village. The truth may be more than they could bear.
BigMike is absolutely correct ... great looks like there is a new whipping boy on board. Folks don’t like facts but the fact is that the natives get just about everything for free so they and you supporters need to stop the bitching. The native corps have plenty of our taxpayer money that was and still is given to them so spend it already if you need more oil or gas, booze or whatever you need. You nay sayers like akjak are full of bunk and you know it. Barrow and the others have a free pass.
Saw a show on TV last night ... even looks like the state pays for their water/sewer maintenance with a state repair crew flying from village to village ... LOL. The state also pays for the electrical power generation equipment maintenance as well as the fuel and subsidy. I'm ready to move to the village full time just for the benefits!
It doesn’t matter what the price of gas is in Barrow (unless you are not a native) because there is free money to pay for it with … like recycling …. Free money, buy gas, get more money, buy more gas and so on. Pink check, green check and the red check. Or, are there 4 checks now? Didn’t Arctic regional have 2 dividends this year ~ $6,000 worth plus the PFD.
Was nice to wake this morning and not see my name in the obituaries ... frozen stiff from lack of heating oil!
Fuel is higher out in rural areas but I don't use as much as I did when I lived in the Valley; driving to Anch everyday. No more joy riding on snowmachines out here, just hauling firewood and some hunting. My 2400 sq ft cabin use to burn 2000 gal oil a year, now only 300; spend all my waking hours cutting firewood. I don't waste all that money at wally world & on fast food anymore either' live outta the garden and sick of caribou & salmon. Course I spend 5-6 gran every summer getting bulk food in but do what you got to do.
I think the big difference between rural & urban Ak is jobs; not many in rural Ak; I think most people live way below poverty line actually.
I just for the life of me, can't figure all the bickering over 800 million or a billion being fought over the People's & States oil
money when they are taking in so much and prices for everybody have went up so high. Just do the 1200 for everybody. It will help everybody out and the legislature will avoid their upcoming demise this fall.
Good luck moving out to the village just for the benefits, James.
From what I understand, Big Mike (reminds me of Dukes) started the race talk. "Im so tire of hearing of the high energy costs of bush alaska" Anyone can see that, so don't go saying.. ahhh there goes the race talk. High energy costs are real in the bush, and not fiction. I agree that Barrow was a poor example.
Once you egg on a subject like B.M. did, of course you can expect those who are not cowed by ignorance to reply. It's a natural course of a conversation / debate, whatever you may want to label it.
Lower income families get subsidies, no race involved. LOW INCOME! Low income does not discriminate, but society does. Your belief and my belief will never be in accordance with a society full of rules to follow. Once this is accepted, then we can talk.
Complex issues should be reviewed unbiastly, especially if you have an issue with it. You want to be heard?? I want to be heard. THe best way I can think of this happenning is to stay unbiased on both sides. Keep the word "You" or "I" out of the equation to move forward. The best policy I've ever worked on, and believe me, it's a work in progress every day of my life.
James, shut up and quit ringing the same bell.
I grew up in a village, my father has always had a steady job. He went fishing in the summer for salmon, he went hunting in the fall for moose, ducks, geese, he fished for grayling. He went to the wood yard in the winter, even cut it up! Sure we burned oil, once in a while, oil that he bought with his hard earned money. Oh, and he also bought the gas he used to go fishing and hunting.
Oh and the water and sewer maintenance was done by locals.
It boils down to the amount of corruption the American Citizens let the politicians get away with. Most if not all, are prostituting their votes to financially benefit their Corporate Pimps and ultimately themselves. Conflict of Interest and Collusion is a given with the Neo Con Parasites infesting the Executive Branch and the Republican, Democratic and some Independent Legislators. And it shows with the laws, regulations and deregulations passed to financially benefit themselves and also to legally shield themselves.
It goes from Washington to the Neo Con Republican Parasites in Juneau.
CurtJ, you make me want to get a button made...
It goes for the Republicans now. When the Democrats get in power they'll do the same. It's time to start hauling the Politicians before the American Citizens to explain their malfeasance and Treason!
Would you consider it cheaper for the state in install and maintain highways to all the communities like the other states?
Allegheny, do we even have that option? The old Hickel Highway was pretty scrubby looking when I last saw it!
=)
Took 5 seconds to google and found a group of pictures. Yep pretty scrubby!
No takers, I guess billions in dirt roads without services is not as good as several millions a year to assist fellow Alaska citizens.
Just admit it, we are all being taken, and there is little we can do about it. We can work hard, make more money, and get an honest education, but our money will still be eaten away, cent by cent, so that someone can have a $300K kitchen put in their summer home in Alaska... Argue all you want, WE are not the ones to blame...
AKN8NVA you try point out one example, not what really occurs as a life style. And, what you said really made no sense because fish camp, hunting, cutting your wood for heat is NOT a job.
I too spent a considerable amount of time in a rural community (believe it or not)and I never said that the folks are lazy. Only that they don't work (collectively speaking) for what they have. You can't have a job is you're at fish camp all summer for example. Sorry ... I don't make or control the facts.
I am but the keeper of the bell and it tolls for you by others like Nutty. Interesting how it is always the race card for that one when it really has nothing to do with race. It is the village (rural Alaska subsidy paradise) this is at issue. Look at bypass mail for example … paid for by every working taxpayer in the USA ….. hundreds of millions $$$.
Allegheny, if you are ever up the Dalton way, just the far side of Beaver Slide you can see where the highway intersected. The little line of trees is a demarcation of the affected permafrost there. It is actually kind of interesting.
As for crazy road projects, I personally would like a nice bridge to Kodiak put in, then I could visit whenever I liked. =)
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