Tuesday, July 22, 2025
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Two faces of Peltola: Told colleagues to vote ‘no’ on Alaska’s Right to Produce, while she voted ‘present’

Rep. Mary Peltola, who voted “present” on a resolution to restore Alaska’s right to produce oil and gas in congressionally approved areas of Alaska, had written to her colleagues in the House earlier and asked them to vote “no.” All but five other Democrats voted “no” on the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act. Peltola voted “present.”

“I am the Democratic co-lead for this bill and voted for it in committee,” Peltola wrote to her Democrat colleagues. “However, this legislation has a significant unintended consequences that could adversely affect indigenous communities and the Arctic Ocean environment,” she wrote. She pulled her support for the bill because it nullifies the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, which was an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2016.

Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican of Minnesota, is the lead co-sponsor of the Alaska’s Right to Produce resolution.

Peltola’s letter to her colleagues asking for a “no” vote follows:

When the House voted on the resolution on Wednesday, Peltola was one of the last congressional members to vote on the bill that unwinds some of the 63 executive orders that President Joe Biden has made against Alaska’s oil and gas economy.

The resolution would stop Biden from shutting down the coastal oil-and-gas area of the Arctic National Wildlife Range and the 13 million acres Biden just took out of production in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

In September, Peltola had a completely different message than the one she sent to Democrat colleagues this week: “I am deeply frustrated by the reversal of these leases in ANWR. This administration showed that it is capable of listening to Alaskans with the approval of the Willow Project, and it is some of those same Inupiat North Slope communities who are the ones that are most impacted by this decision. I will continue to advocate for them and for Alaska’s ability to explore and develop our natural resources, from the critical minerals we need for our clean energy transition to the domestic oil and gas we need to get us there. We can only get to that transition by listening to the people on the ground. Finally, we can’t keep erasing our progress with every administration. I will continue to advocate for permitting reform that includes predictable timelines from the federal government, which must be a reliable partner in leasing and developing our resources.”

The original story about Peltola’s vote on Alaska’s Right to Produce Act is here:

Peltola takes a pass on Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, refusing to stand for Arctic Slope communities

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola refused to commit to the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, a bill that stops the Biden Administration from locking up Alaska’s congressionally designated oil and gas leasing areas. It’s a bill that Peltola had actually cosponsored but then backed away from.

The Alaska’s Right to Produce Act reinstates the previously awarded, then Biden-canceled oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Biden ignored statutory requirements and destroyed future revenues for Alaskan Native North Slope communities.

Energy production in Alaska generated $3.1 billion in state and local revenue in 2019 and supported over 77,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Most recently, the Biden Administration locked down 13 million more acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which was set aside by Congress for oil and gas.

The resolution to reverse the Biden Administration lockup of Alaska passed the House without Peltola’s support, on a vote of 214-199. One Republican voted against it, five Democrats voted for it, but Peltola voted “present.”

Although she says she is in favor of Alaska’s economy, Peltola also endorses President Biden for his reelection, and has voted with him over 90% of the time. Since taking office three years ago, Biden has imposed over 63 executive orders and actions against Alaska, including shutting down ANWR and the NPR-A.

In December, Peltola voted with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a San Francisco Bay Area liberal Democrat’s amendment letting Biden Interior Secretary Deb Haaland delay ANWR projects indefinitely.

“Today Democrat Mary Peltola doubled down on supporting Joe Biden over Alaska. Biden’s liberal war on Alaska is Peltola’s biggest political liability and Alaskans won’t forget today,” commented National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Ben Petersen.

Congressional candidate Nick Begich said, “Peltola may have voted present in the House today but she’s been absent on Alaska energy, jobs, and our very future. It takes courage to be the only voice for Alaska in the United States House. That means voting ‘yes’ when it’s in the interests of our people. Once again, Peltola failed us.”

Alex Gimarc: Vote for common sense in the Chugach Electric Association board elections

By ALEX GIMARC

There is another election going on today, the annual Chugach Election. Given the strength of renewable energy grifters these days, this election may be just as important as the Bronson – LaFrance runoff for Anchorage mayor.

Important how? Given that Chugach is part owner of the Eklutna power station (electricity and water for Anchorage) and the largest electricity supplier for the Rail Belt, poor decisions by the Chugach board on generation will have significant, negative consequences for decades to come.

Voting started April 17 and will run through their annual meeting May 17. 

Four candidates are running for two seats on the Chugach Board of Directors. The two incumbents, Sam Cason and Mark Wiggin, both endorsed by the Alaska Center (for the Environment) and the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP), are running for another four year term on the Board. 

Their opponents are Dan Rogers and Todd Linley.  

Chugach members have been voting online since April 17 with notification via e-mail. The Chugach Annual Meeting & Election page is a great place to start, get additional information, or to get in touch with Chugach if you have any questions.  Participation is generally pretty low, with somewhere around 10% of the 144,000 members voting. Voters who turn out can have significant impact on who wins.  

Challengers Dan Rogers and Todd Lindley are running under the auspices of an outfit calling itself Vote Chugach Stability.  Both candidates are engineers. Rogers has been in the electrical world for decades as an entrepreneur and businessman, co-founding one of the largest power system engineering companies in Alaska. He notes that he has “more experience with renewable systems that actually work,” and important datapoint in this election. Lindley is a bit younger, with mechanical engineering experience for the last decade.

Both candidates are pointedly non-doctrinaire on generation choices, meaning that for them it is not wind and solar to the exclusion of everything else, which probably explains the lack of endorsement for their candidacy by the Alaska Center and REAP.  

By my count, the renewable energy aficionados currently hold a 5-2 or 4-3 majority on the Chugach Board.  Elect these two candidates and we have a very good chance to flip the Board majority to more of an all of the above worldview.  Rogers interest in “renewable systems that actually work” is both a promise and a warning given current Board’s dalliance with large solarwind farms and decarbonization.

The choice in this election is clear. If we want an all of the above approach to electrical generation here in the Rail Belt, Rogers and Lindley are your choices. If you want solar or wind generation with all the instability and expense it will introduce into the grid to the exclusion of everything else, Cason and Wiggin are your logical choices. 

Rogers and Lindley will keep the lights on while Cason and Wiggin will introduce us to the Brave New World of rolling blackouts and skyrocketing electricity prices. From here, it’s a pretty easy decision.

The rest of the world is learning the painful lesson of over-reliance on renewable energy. We don’t have to make the identical mistakes up here to learn those lessons. If we want clean energy, there are a lot of ways to get that done including multiple hydro projects (not including Watana), GenIV nukes, and natural gas). All of these are affordable and reliable, something Cason and Wiggins’ “Big Wind and Big Solar” aren’t.  

Get out and vote.  

Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.

Attorney General Treg Taylor joins lawsuit against ATF and Justice Department over gun restrictions

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor is part of a coalition of 26 states suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over a new federal rule that takes away the constitutional rights of gun owners.

The lawsuit, led by Texas and Kansas attorneys general, was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Arkansas and was joined by Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Florida has filed a separate lawsuit and Texas has filed its own lawsuit, with Louisiana, Missouri, and Utah. That makes 31 states altogether suing the federal government over the new onerous rule that covers all gun sales in America, even between family members.

“The right to keep and bear arms is central to our country’s history and traditions, so Congress must be careful when addressing that right through federal legislation. For that reason, current law is tailored to regulate and reach only interstate, commercial firearm sales—not small-scale sales and certainly not private sales between individual citizens. And Congress has affirmed that aim time and again through clear statutory text and express statements of purpose. Yet Defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF” or “Director”) Steven Dettelbach, claim that Congress gave them authority to regulate far more broadly. Under a new rule, Definition of “Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms, 89 Fed. Reg. 28,968 (Apr. 19, 2024) (“Final Rule”), ATF claims the power to reach and regulate (via an extensive licensing scheme) a citizen who makes a local sale of even one firearm to another individual, the lawsuit says.

“For more than 40 years, the relevant federal statute has already defined who is required to become a federal firearms licensee. Yet Defendants seized on a recent, minor change in that statute and effectively rewrote the entire definition. Until now, only those who repetitively purchased and sold firearms as a regular course of business had to become a licensee. But through the Final Rule, Defendants will now presume that anyone who sells or resells even one firearm with the intent to profit (no matter how little), combined with other (nebulously defined) evidence, is a firearms dealer who must become a licensee. This would put innocent firearms sales between law-abiding friends and family members within the reach of federal regulation. Such innocent sales between friends and family would constitute a felony if the seller did not in fact obtain a federal firearms license and perform a background check,” the state attorneys say in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit names the ATF, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice over the new rule that the Biden Administration finalized April 19.

The rule, the Biden Administration says, is a result of 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was voted affirmatively by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

President Joe Biden has for years yearned for “universal background check” legislation, which constitutional scholars say is unlawful. Federal law has, until now, seen the difference between firearms dealer and private sellers.

For many years, federal regulations have differentiated between firearms dealers that must have a federal license to sell firearms, and private individuals.

Grilling Griffin: Senate Education chair attacks Board of Education member during confirmation hearings

Bob Griffin, a member of the Alaska State Board of Education, didn’t imagine his confirmation hearing in front of hostile members of the Senate Education Committee would be friendly. But he might not have suspected that the committee, led by Sen. Loki Tobin, would grill him and make accusations against him for over 40 minutes.

Tobin, who uses the pronouns “she/her,” accused Griffin of spreading misinformation. Then, relaying rumors she had heard from education industry sources who are hostile to Griffin, she accused him of attending meetings and claiming he was a representative of the Department of Education (he is a member of the department’s governing board), and she accused him of advocating for the illegal and misuse of public funds.

Griffin took the questions one by one and answered them with civility.

“No I have never advocated for the misuse of public funds,” Griffin said.

“That’s curious to me,” Tobin argued. “You were just talking about how you’re supportive of allotments but that was just knocked down by a superior court judge as being unconstitutional usages. So it’s difficult for me to marry those two statements together.”

She was referring to a decision by Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman that eliminates funding for 24,000 homeschool and correspondence school students across the state — a decision that has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

The committee hostility to the governor’s appointee to the Board of Education may portend a tough confirmation hearing in a joint session of the House and Senate, to take place around May 10 and before the May 15 adjournment. Griffin needs 31 votes between the House and Senate to keep his (volunteer) position on the state Board of Education.

Watch the grilling of education advocate Bob Griffin at this link.

Contrails contained? FAA releases final rule limiting carbon particles from aircraft engines

The Federal Aviation Administration has released its final rule to limit carbon particles emitted by subsonic aircraft engines. 

The rule sets maximum standards for the amount of non-volatile particulate matter exhaust emissions from U.S. civil aircraft engines. It aligns with Environmental Protection Agency recommendations and International Civil Aviation Organization standards. Public comment on the rule is due by June 24.

“This first-of-its-kind rule in the United States will reduce the environmental impact of civil aviation on our health and climate,” said Laurence Wildgoose, assistant administrator for the FAA’s Office of Policy, International Affairs and Environment. 

The FAA says that ultra-fine carbon particles that aircraft engines produce are an inhalation concern for humans. Also, nvPM emissions can become the nucleus for persistent contrails, the line-shaped clouds behind some jet engines that may expand into broader cloudiness that may affect the planet.  

The rule will cost manufacturers and ultimately the buyers, operators, and flying public. It applies to aircraft including the Boeing 777X, some Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Airbus 330, as well as some business jets and turboprops.

The costs to certify airplanes to the fuel efficiency standard could be anywhere from $800,000 to $1.4 million, according to Forbes. The FAA says planes covered by the new rule are responsible for “nine percent of domestic transportation emissions and two percent of total U.S. carbon pollution.”

The action is part of the U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan  that sets a vision to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. aviation sector by 2050.

The federal government’s vision is that emissions will be decreased through:

  • The introduction of new, more efficient aircraft by airlines into their operational fleets and retirement of older, less efficient aircraft.
  • Development of new, more energy efficient aircraft and engine technologies by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
  • Improvements in aircraft operations throughout the National Airspace System (NAS) by the U.S.Government (USG) and by airlines flying more optimal trajectories for reduced fuel use and contrail impacts.
  • Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) by the energy sector.
  • Electrification and potentially hydrogen as solutions for short-haul aviation.
  • Advancements in airport operations across the United States.
  • International initiatives such as the airplane CO2 standard and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
  • Domestic policies and measures to help meet emissions targets.
  • Support for research into climate science related to aviation impacts.

Bidenomics has been a disaster for Alaskans

By BETHANY MARCUM AND WILL BURGER

Bidenomics, which has been hindering American prosperity and growth for going on four years, has made it all the way to the Last Frontier, and Alaskans are feeling the pain.

The president’s solution to the high inflation, slow growth, and economic unease he abetted is to keep doing what he’s been doing – hammering the same policies that caused the problems in the first place. Meanwhile, Alaska’s only member of the House of Representatives, Mary Peltola, has been voting with the president in support of these policies over 90% of the time. 

Doubling down on the status quo won’t cut it. We can’t fix the economy by continuing on the ruinous path of trillion-dollar federal deficits that fuel inflation and drive interest rates higher.

Instead, we need to enact policies that enable sustainable economic growth and end out-of-control federal spending.

Inflation recently reached a 41-year high, and it has remained elevated since Biden took office. It’s not hard to figure out why.

Too much money is chasing too few goods, stoked by artificially inflated demand caused by blowout government spending.

Alaska is among the states hardest hit by Bidenomics, with a cumulative inflation rate of 19.2% since Biden took office. That amounts to additional costs of $1,217 a month for each Alaskan, or more than $14,000 a year.

Average families are bearing the brunt of the economic folly of this president and Rep. Congresswoman Peltola.

Mortgage interest rates have more than doubled. Fuel and energy costs continue to rise due to Biden’s war on fossil fuels, so critical to our state’s economy, and the unprecedented spending on a forced transition to less efficient, more expensive green energy.

Since January 2021, home heating oil is up 44%, gasoline is up 33%, and electricity and natural gas are both up 29%. 

Feeding our families also costs more these days. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of staple items including chicken (up 25.95%), hot dogs (up 42%), and ground beef (up 29.4%) have soared.

Americans are spending an average of 20.7% more on groceries since January 2021. For a family of four with moderate costs, that means another $223 a month.

That might not mean much to well-off lobbyists and politicians in Washington, but to the average Alaskan, that’s money no longer available to save for college or a new home, or just to take the kids out to the movies.

In typical fashion, those politicians want to blame everybody but themselves for the mess they’ve created.

Anti-business posturing by the president and others – accusations of “greedflation” and “shrinkflation” – is hot air intended to distract us from the real culprits: the people in charge of a government that can’t stop spending money it doesn’t have.

And while prices are going up, wages are going down.

Inflation-adjusted hourly wages are down 2.5% since January 2021. While there have been some recent real wage increases, they’ve been more than offset by a decrease in the average work week. The overall result is that since January 2021, real weekly earnings have shrunk 3.9%. 

Alaskans are tired of scapegoats and excuses. We need solutions that will ensure we can feed our families, heat our homes, put gas in our cars, and have a chance at a better life in the future.

That means leaving Bidenomics behind and embracing reforms that benefit everyone through long-term economic growth and prosperity. 

We need to lower inflation by ending the government spending spree that diverts economic resources away from the private sector and redirects them to the crony friends of politicians and policymakers.

We need to drive down the cost of gasoline and home heating oil by getting rid of barriers to domestic energy production.

Alaskans are famous for our resiliency. But even hearty Alaskans are struggling with an economy in which the cost of living is rising and wages are falling. With savings down and credit card debt soaring, too many of us are living paycheck to paycheck.

The economy is teetering, but the president and Rep. Mary Peltola are unconcerned. They think things are going swimmingly. 

They’re not. And they won’t get better until the overspending stops and politicians start recognizing the hardships their policies have created for Alaskans.

Bethany Marcum is state director of Americans for Prosperity-Alaska. Will Burger is a senior advisor for government affairs with AFP.

Ashley Hayek on STAND podcast: America First Patriots are a force more powerful than any elite few

By KELLY TSHIBAKA

The Joe Biden Administration has unabashedly waged an all-out war on America-first values by decreasing energy independence, increasing the national debt, and forcing Americans to shoulder the consequences.

We’ve all wondered: Can Biden’s harmful policies be reversed in time to save our country? According to Ashley Hayek, political strategist and executive director of America First Works, they can.

On a recent episode of STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka, Hayek addressed America’s concerns, particularly surrounding energy policies and the national debt. 

“This administration, on day one, when [Biden] signed an executive order ending the Keystone Pipeline, made it very clear that this would be a war on American energy.” Hayek explained, “The fact that we are buying oil from Venezuela, which is a hostile country, is an insult to every single American, every single American worker. It’s offensive and it’s incredibly wrong.”

Hayek, executive director of America First Works, also addressed the fact that China has risen to an uncomfortably high level of control over American life, dominating our agricultural lands, manufacturing, and owning much of our national debt. 

“We have all these problems, and all we’re doing is importing more problems … Not growing our country’s profit.”

However, despite the concerning state of the economy and Biden’s attack on energy policies, Hayek proposed several solutions to the issues we are experiencing. First, she recommended new presidential leadership, stating throughout her interview that Biden repeatedly has made it clear that he will not enact America-first policies. 

“America should be first, always. Period,” Hayek argued.

Second, Hayek advised everyday Americans to get involved at the local level to prompt grassroots-led change. This includes presence at Assembly meetings, school board involvement, and voting in municipal elections. “There is nothing you can do that is too small that will help America,” she said.

Lastly, Hayek proposed changes to the way America generates its economy, recommending that the government stop giving handouts and start incentivizing people to work again, claiming: “It’s only going to get worse if we don’t rein in spending, reduce regulation, and allow for some growth in the country.”

If we want to see the change, we have to be the change. There is nobody coming to save us; the only ones who can save America are Americans. 

If you want to hear more about Ashley Hayek’s solutions for the problems America is witnessing, you can watch her full interview on STAND on Youtube, Rumble, or your podcast streaming platform. Visit www.americafirstworks.com to find out more.

Kelly Tshibaka is the host of the podcast, TV, and radio show STAND, and the 2022 Alaska Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. She co-hosts the show with her husband, Niki Tshibaka.

This bud’s for you: Biden easing restrictions on cannabis by reclassifying drug

By BRETT ROWLAND | THE CENTER SQUARE

President Joe Biden’s administration plans to ease federal restrictions on cannabis by reclassifying the drug for the first time in half a century. 

The Biden administration plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, according to media reports confirmed by NBC News

For decades, cannabis has been classified as a Schedule I drug, a class defined as drugs with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, ecstasy and methaqualone, the hypnotic sedative sold under the brand name Quaalude before it was discontinued in the 1980s.

Under the plan, cannabis would be reclassified as a Schedule III drug, defined as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Other Schedule III drugs include products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit, ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.

The election-year move comes after Biden has repeatedly promised to reschedule cannabis since 2019.

During his State of the Union address earlier this year, Biden said he would be “directing my Cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana, and expunging thousands of convictions for mere possession, because no one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana.”

Rescheduling the drug could open the door to pharmaceutical company investment in the $34 billion cannabis industry in states where it is legal. 

Matthew Schweich, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, called it a “modest step.”

“This is a positive step forward for federal cannabis policy, however it is a rather modest step given the strong support among American voters for comprehensive cannabis reform,” he said in a statement. “It is important to acknowledge that this rescheduling would not affect the criminalization of medical cannabis patients and cannabis consumers under state laws – so we must continue the work of enacting sensible and fair cannabis legalization and medical cannabis laws through state legislatures and ballot initiatives.”

Reclassifying the drug could also ease tax burdens for the companies that sell it, said David Goubert, president and CEO of AYR Wellness, a public company based in Florida.

“This represents the most significant step towards federal cannabis reform in U.S. history and will provide much needed relief to operators of all shapes and sizes, allowing us fair tax treatment by eliminating 280E, in addition to allowing for additional research into the medical efficacy of cannabis,” he said in a statement. “AYR Wellness, along with many of its peers, continues to advocate for the full de-scheduling of cannabis, and feel today’s news represents positive progress towards that eventual outcome.”