Flipping off Alaska: Peltola votes to lock up ANWR, NPR-A, then against Native justice, health, education

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Mary Peltola sharing pints on the campaign trail.


It’s another flip-flop for Alaska’s famously flipping representative in Congress.

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola this week voted against an appropriations bill that would block the Biden-Harris Administration’s lockup of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s areas — sections that were specifically set aside in law for oil leases. She voted to keep the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska’s oil and gas in the ground, too, starving Alaska’s economy and American security.

The bill passed the House, 210-205, without Peltola’s support; all Democrats voted against it except for Rep. Vincente Gonzalez of Texas.

The legislation that Peltola didn’t support will, if passed by the Senate, force Interior Sec. Deb Haaland to restart the Biden-canceled oil and gas lease sales in Alaska. President Joe Biden has kowtowed to the environmental lobby and only granted the Willow project its leases. Almost other oil and gas leases in Alaska have been killed or delayed under false reasoning that they need more study.

Peltola’s vote is yet another flip flop in a series of positions she has changed. In April, she said, “Closing off NPR-A is a huge step back for Alaska, failing to strike a balance between the need for gap oil and natural gas and legitimate environmental concerns, and steamrolling the voices of many Alaska Natives in the decision-making process.”

Among the items in the appropriations package that relate to Alaska and energy security for America, the bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to:

  • Resume quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales.
  • Issue 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing programs on time.
  • Conduct lease sales in the Alaska region.
  • The bill prohibits funds being used to cancel oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
  • It also:
  • Expands access to critical minerals by blocking certain Bureau of Land Management withdrawals.
  • Prohibits the EPA from imposing extra fee (taxes) on oil and gas producers created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
  • Ensures ancillary mining activities, including exploration operations and construction of a mine access road, are permitted with or without the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit, codifying the Rosemont decision.
  • Prioritizes funding for public safety programs by providing $2.81 billion (+14.5%) for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including $746 million for Public Safety and Justice programs, which is 34% above the FY24 enacted level.
  • Provides $1.47 billion for the Bureau of Indian Education (+7.5%), including $271 million for education construction, which is 15% above the FY24 enacted level.
  • Provides $8.56 billion for the Indian Health Service (+23%) along with $5.98 billion in advance appropriations for FY26.

Read all the provisions of the appropriations bill that Peltola voted against here:

21 COMMENTS

  1. Get out and VOTE! This is Our State and we need someone who is going to look out for the interests of ALL Alaskans. Nick Begich is the best choice, at-the-moment.
    If Peltola gets a hundred votes….that’s 100 people that can move to another state.

    • Rank Begich #1 and Dahlstrom #2. Do not rank anyone else unless they are a republican. Don’t flip the rank spots either, or it will give the race to the democrat.

  2. Drunk on the juice, thinking they got away with it, no one can do anything to dem, Lisa & Mary how stuck on stupid can you get. Judas thought he was all set for life all is well also. An oath to GOD matters first & foremost to GOD & we the people. IMAGINE THE ONES WHO SWEAR TO GOD GOT THEMSELVES ON THE EDGE OF THE DEATH OF SOUL. FOR ALL TO SEE & THEY CANNOT POLICE THEMSELVES STAY TUNED ALL. CLOWNS MAKE AWESOME NEWS WE THE PEOPLE. Oath takers render to GOD what is GODS INTEGRITY for all

  3. Every day that passes with Peltola in office is another day of disappointment. She never has been an asset // leader for Alaska and, she never will be. She will continue to serve ‘only’ her personal interests.

  4. And yet she will get voted back in running on nothing more than name recognition and being a
    Nother incompetent DEI hire (she is both native and a woman). She has abused Alaska in not acting in our best interests, refused to represent us as her constituents, and put us in the cross hairs (literally) of China and Russia.
    She lies to her own native communities and they continue to support her, wtf?

  5. Peltola doesn’t seem to grasp the national security situation we are currently in. I wonder what these left wingers will do when the bombs start raining down. ??? I guess time will tell.

  6. It’s hard to pay close attention to detail when you are a PSYCHO and looking for a Husband #6.
    Mary Peltola.

  7. Thank you for publishing this article. It’s a good bill with some compromises to encourage bipartanship.
    It would be helpful to know which executive orders are impacted. Also, why weren’t the $1B in water infrastructure projects included in the previous infrastructure bill? Finally, why isn’t NIOSH’s corruption and inherent conflicts of interest addressed?

  8. Pelota is a communist and do whatever she is told so she can maintain her status as ” more equal “.

  9. Can anyone besides me feel
    Everything coming completely unraveled?? Complete mismanagement of our government. Complete mismanagement of our national defense. It’s unbelievable how everything has started to fly apart. Our transportation infrastructure is completely falling apart and yet we send $250.billion to Ukraine we can’t even fight a forest fire to protect American taxpayers property.

  10. Speaking of fires. Suzanne needs to do a story on the 480 acre fire at Denali national park. The park shut many vendors down. There is still a TFR over the top of this joke of a fire. It’s on the side of a mountain and didn’t threaten much of anything. Temsco helicopters who does flight seeing tours out of there was shut down by the park service for 8 days.

  11. Mary has sold us out just like Lisa. They place personal wealth over their home state and neighbors, shows you what kind of people they are.

    • Difference is, Mary never pretended to be anything other than a Democrat.

      Princess, however, lacks Mary’s commitment.

  12. Unfortunately, for Alaska, blood is thicker than oil, and natives will continue to vote for her regardless of her positions. Sadly most natives are apolitical and oblivious to her voting record and liberal positions… and she is depending on that.

  13. Mary’s only problem during this election season is determining how far her democrat handler’s leash will let her stray. She is making comments she has absolutely no intention of keeping: maybe supporting opening ANWR somewhat, maybe expressing concern about border security and maybe even supporting Trump and on and on. But it’s fog of war time. Easy said, never done. democrats will allow her a little slack but will reel her back in and demand Mary get back to getting ‘real’.

    So we have another republican ‘Lucy’s football’ moment with Dahlstrom and Begich that promises to repeat the Palin/Begich fiasco last time. No lessons learned there, apparently.

    The sad truth is that if Peltola wins this time she will be vying to top Don’s Young’s longevity in Congress. No matter how much Mary makes our teeth grind with her democrat policies, the public will shrug their shoulders and just say ‘well, that’s just Mary’. After all, she such a ‘nice person’. The reality is: Mary is very bad for Alaska.

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