In a commentary printed by The Hill, a political newspaper covering Washington, D.C., Alaska’s Rep. Mary Peltola wrote that Alaskans want to phase out fossil fuels, but also want the Willow Project approved. It’s “gap oil,” Peltola said, until the world can move beyond oil.
Peltola admitted in the op-ed that her fellow Democrats have dismissed her point of view, and she upbraided them for doing so.
“Alaskans share the desire to phase out fossil fuels. But we are hurt by the disregard that we hear from many people who talk about mitigating the energy transition’s impacts on marginalized communities while dismissing the voice of the first Alaska Native representative in Congress,” Peltola said in the op-ed she signed.
She was communicating, not subtly, that she believes only an Alaska Native can speak for Alaskans.
“Alaskans — and certainly Alaska Natives — aren’t blind to the impacts of climate change. We are on the front lines. We see our sea ice shrinking. We breathe in smoke from the summer wildfires,” Peltola wrote.
“We’ve called this land home for thousands of years. Now, our homes are sinking into permafrost. We understand climate change more than most. If Democrats want to help us, they should listen to us,” she continued.
Peltola may have been responding to the fact that Democrats are not listening. Last week, a group of her fellow Democrats, including those Democrats she sits with on the House Natural Resources Committee, penned a letter to President Joe Biden demanding that he not approve the final Master Development Plan for Willow.
“As the first and only Alaska Native in Congress, I’m asking my Democratic colleagues to hear their concerns and the concerns of all Alaskans—and respond in earnest.
“Can we tell them with a straight face that we can meet their current energy, economic, and transportation needs with renewables tomorrow, or even five years from now?
“If the answer is no, we have a problem,” she wrote.
In her op-ed, she linked a research paper from the Nature Conservancy.
“Whatever our energy transition ends up looking like, empathy is the real bridge to the future for both our country and party. If we do not hear the pleas for help coming from rural and small-town America, we can’t represent voters who call those places home. People who are left behind are the fiercest resistors of change.
“That’s why I’ll keep asking my fellow Democrats to help me call on the president and the Department of the Interior to issue a positive Record of Decision for at least three drilling pads for the Willow Project.
“To my Democratic colleagues: if we do this, I promise, Alaskans will not forget it. When we are building the renewable economy of the future, your names will be remembered as the people who helped make it happen,” she wrote, referring to some possible vote trading in the future. At present, she has no real vote to give.
“And when you visit from the Lower 48, and see our beautiful state and our thriving traditions, you’ll receive a warm welcome from Alaskans and know that you have friends who will support you in the generational task ahead of us. Together, we can create a plan that makes sense for rural Alaska and rural America alike,” Peltola concluded in her op-ed, which can be read in full at this link.
