Peltola’s greenspeak: ‘Alaskans share the desire to phase out fossil fuels’

By
Suzanne Downing
-
105

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.

House Democrats ignore Rep. Peltola, sign letter to Biden to kill Alaska’s Willow Project

“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.

Willow decision: Will Biden fumble the ball?

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.

Sullivan, Murkowski are speakers at CERA energy conference in Houston; so is John Podesta, Tommy Beaudreau

105 COMMENTS

    • Horse and buggy, sail, bikes, coal, petroleum, electric., welcome to change 😉

      • If we get rid of fossil fuels then how the heck are we supposed to run our cars, heat our homes, watch the news, or fuel our military equipment. It’s a chinese ploy to weaken our nation.

        • It’s more of a cut back on fossil fuels and there will always be oil production, trend now is to recycle plastics, heat homes with natural methane based gas.
          Save some of that oil for future generations instead of using it up like a bunch of glutenous hogs.

          • Use up? That’s a good joke or been sipping a bit too much green energy. There is absolutely no way we will “use up” all the fossil fuels in our lifetime. It literally flows out of the ground. It’s all fear mongering and posturing to try and dismantle our current economy and put more money in the hands of “green energy”. Always follow the money.

  2. Oh dear…”the only Alaska Native in Congress”…are we going to be labeled, canceled, and shamed if we support anyone who challenges her seat in the next election?

    As an Alaska Native, is it fair to claim to speak for “the people of Alaska”? I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I don’t think it was a group of Alaska Natives who applied for statehood once upon a time.

    • > Oh dear…”the only Alaska Native in Congress”…are we going to be labeled, canceled, and shamed if we support anyone who challenges her seat in the next election?

      LOL, do you even have to ask?

  4. Dear Mary Peltola,
    I, as an Alaskan for over twenty years, have no desire whatsoever to phase out so called fossil fuels. A misnomer by the way and more on that later. Petroleum and minerals provide a substantial revenue source for our state and continuing to drill, source and provide this valuable commodity is key to our survival as a state. Please do not speak for the countless many who did not vote for you!

    And btw, petroleum is the second most prevalent liquid on earth after water. Rockefeller, Kinsinger and his cronies labeled it a fossil fuel in order to sell the scarcity and pricing for this commodity in the world market place.

    • Don’t kid yourself, liar and college drop out Mary Peltola did NOT write the article that was printed in The Hill. She doesn’t have the smarts to put together anything more sophisticated than a traditional (middle-school level) three-paragraph essay, let alone anything for publication. Somebody wrote this for her and she took it as her own.

      But we Alaskans are giving her no credit for this theft. We don’t agree. She’s an idiot. Let’s vote her out ASAP.

      • I’d like to help you out with that endeavor..just send your PFD my way and I’ll see that it gets spent in Alaska..Yep, I know, I’m a giver…?

      • Maureen; PFD is part of the economy now for small business as we have seen thousands of small businesses go under. People are leaving, we cannot all work for government.
        PFD does not increase oil production, so go green but not all at once, if you do not accept your PFD, will result in slightly larger PFDs for the rest.

  6. She doesn’t represent me. Alaskan sweet crude is the cleanest anywhere in the world and Alaska has done a great job of extracting it to the highest standards in the world. That person does not represent Alaskans.

    • After seven months in office, she still has not managed to put together an office in Alaska or hold together a staff in Washington, DC. Every time you call her only office in DC there are new and difference people to answer the phone; they won’t last long working for her. Methinks Mary and her husband are hard to work for AND the she is scared of Alaskans who want to give her a piece of our minds. She is a mess! We deserve much better.

        • No. RCV didn’t elect Mary, as she led every single phase of the festivities.

          And I’m not about to sign a petition to remove a 30+ page PoS with a 33 page PoS that nobody has read. Want to repeal RCV? 3- sentences will suffice:

          – Prop 3 is repealed.
          – State election law reverts back to whatever it was on Nov 1, 2020.
          – This initiative goes into effect upon governor’s signature.

          When you take 33 pages to do what can be done in 3 simple sentences, mischief is afoot. Cheers –

          • Correct, RCV did not elect her, jungle primaries did.
            There is no acceptable reason for two candidates representing the same party to be on the ballot. End of story.

      • What the heck is that supposed to mean, Maureen?

        That Alaskans stand with CBMTTek, rather than Peltola?

        Methinks that would be correct.

      • Really?
        I know someone who wants to phase out fossil fuels?
        .
        Ohh…. I get it. The leftist child throwing a tantrum shows up. “I know you are, but what am I” is not a valid adult debate tactic. But, you do you.

  10. Liar liar pants on fire. I would like to know which village wants to give up their generators for electric and gas for their snow machines and boats. In fact I don’t know anyone who wants to stop fossil fuels except the collage kids who have not learned anything worthwhile at this point. Yes it would be nice but there is nothing ready to replace it. That being said I hope her village and voters are the first to get rid of fossil fuels say in a week or two as that’s plenty of time to convert.

    • As much as I dislike her, I have to defend her on this one. She wasn’t saying get rid of fossil fuels “say in a week or two as that’s plenty time to convert”, she’s talking about using Willow to bridge the gap UNTIL feasible green energy can be brough to the Bush, which even she admits there isn’t such a thing yet. If we’re going to critique her (we should), let’s critique her actual positions instead of strawmen.

      • I read the article and see what she said. You did not understand what I said. We should give the bush communities two weeks to figure out their new power source as we are going to illuminate fossil fuels as she is pushing so her villagers can be first and lead the way to green energy. This is what the government is doing their rushing, this green energy and forcing people to make changes that were not ready for.

      • They’re NOT ATTACKING ONLY WILLOW. They’ve been attempting to close down ALL the OTHERs since Biden. The green energy you mention also included the baloney EV cars. What feasible green energy efficiency can replace oil that can be used as efficiently as oil?.. without destroying our country. Are you aware of ALL the products we use everyday that includes the by products of the oil industry.. Everyday used items and the life we enjoy uses some parts of all the production of oil and gas.

  11. The democrat imports for California and Washington, maybe.

    Most Alaskans I know want jobs and a more stable economy. But I suspect Mary and I run in two very different circles.

    Thankfully.

  12. This is what happens when voters stay home on Election Day and when leftists play the voting and gerrymandering game better than conservatives..no surprises here

    • Well, it’s tough to gerrymander a US House rep in Alaska. But, you’re right that they do play a better game than the right, for elections.

      • My bad..I used “gerrymander” in the broadest sense, not strictest..better to use skew, rig, carpet bag..but you’re right on the money with the challenge of gerrymandering a vote for our state’s single US Rep..?

  14. Let’s go ahead and stop all so called fossil fuels to the outlying villages immediately. They won’t survive but a few years without it but then they can say they helped Mary keep her job. No planes, no boats, no snow machines, no generators for power, no heat other than wood and they’re trying to stop that. Good luck.

    • A few years? Try until freeze up, and the first snow that prevents the subsistence 737 from landing.

  15. If I follow correctly, one of Mary’s big bases of support are native villages.

    If true, I wonder how strong her support will be if said villages are thrown back into the dark ages by the elimination of fossil fuel.

    I’ve traveled extensively statewide, and it’s not just the white people using gas engines, electric lights, heating their homes, and driving combustion engine vehicles.

    I suspect “eliminating fossil fuels” is a lot like abolishing the second amendment. Lots of people are for it on the surface. Right up until they realize THEY are effected.

    Progressive con job. Nothing more.

      • Oh has she, please tell us what this alternative fuel source is.

        It is not the single rod portable nuclear reactors. The State Legislature shot that down Last year.

      • Star Trek is still centuries in the future Greg.
        Until Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott starts violating the laws of physics every week, we are stuck with things like the laws of thermodynamics.
        .
        And, sorry, but wishful thinking will not make magic technologies appear.

          • Less than 10 years out?
            Helium 3 on the moon.
            OK, so… who is going to mine the H3? How are they going to get it back to the Earth? We got transport tugs? I mean ones that are capable of moving any measurable amount of product from the Moon to the Earth, and not end up destroyed in the re-entry? Size is important here, not capability. It is all about change in velocity (Newton’s laws of motion apply here).
            If you lift any measurable amount of material from the moon, and launch it back to Earth, how do you slow it down sufficiently that it will not burn up from the heat of re-entry? Do you have any idea how much fuel the tanker will have to carry to slow itself?
            Oh, I know, they will use orbital mechanics to insert the tanker into a decaying orbit that will reduce velocity over a long period of time. Once again, how much fuel will that take?
            .
            Do you even know how much fuel it will take to launch a tanker capable of holding, and transporting H3 off the Earth’s surface?
            .
            Once again, I think your grasp of physics is based on sci-fi, not reality.

          • OK, so the process to transport the H3 is prohibitively difficult, but not impossible.
            However, how exactly will we mine and refine the H3 from the Moon? The estimate (from Wikipedia) is the Moon has approx. one million tons of H3 in sunlight areas, but the concentration is estimated at between 1.4 and 15 PPM. In order to obtain about 1 gram of H3, one would have to mine, and refine approx. 150 tons of rock.
            .
            And, we are going to mine that material… well… how exactly? Lifting any heavy equipment to the Moon is prohibitively difficult. Even if SpaceX gets their Starship flying, it will be decades before enough equipment can be lifted to the Lunar surface.
            .
            But, not impossible, so let’s talk about actually using that H3.
            Stable fusion reactors are still in the theoretical/experimental phase. And, in order to achieve any fusion for a few nanoseconds, it requires energy input that far exceeds the energy output. (Damn, that conservation of energy law! Stupid thermodynamics.)
            .
            Even if a breakthrough happens, miraculously, the heat generated by a H3 fusion reaction far exceeds the capability of any known material to contain it for an extended period of time. In other words, without a brand new material no one knows about, the reactor and the building will melt.
            Oh, but what if we suspend the plasma in a magnetic torus? Well, there goes any benefit of H3 fusion because the energy required to suspend the fusion reaction will use up more energy then generated by the reaction.
            .
            So… Nope. Not here. Not likely within 10 years.
            .
            Still Sci-Fi.

      • “She’s been told what’s next……….”
        Well, they’d better tell the rest of us soon; like, BEFORE they outlaw motor vehicles and gas stoves. Unless, if course, they really want a revolution.

  16. If the left got it’s quick transition from so called “fossil fuel” it would be the biggest step backwards in quality of life for many people since the fall of Rome. Affordable energy is the biggest factor in a thriving economy. A thriving economy is the biggest predictor of a longer life expectancy. If your eyes are open you might notice that the powerful people saying that the world is overpopulated are the same ones pushing this life altering climate adgenda.

  19. A deluded leftist who purports to speak for me. She should explain to the natives and their corporations why she is so committed to stripping oil revenue from them. Her climate hysterics will just further decimate our economy. Lastly, I wonder if she has seen the six feet of global warming we have to shovel our way through.

  21. Mary Peltola, you are a liberal, dishonest, angry, hateful, socialistic, communistic, ungrateful, gun grabbing, brain dead, pro abortion, anti Christian, anti American, spend-a-holic democrat. You don’t represent anyone in Alaska.

  22. Mary Peltola is the poorest excuse of anyone representing Don Young’s seat.
    The natives and native corporations would be nothing without BLACK GOLD OIL.

  24. Gap oil?
    To keep boat motors, Hondas & snowmachines going in the YK Delta?
    Only took you 2 minutes in DC to become another lying politician.

    Why doesn’t Buzzy do something useful like start up an electric outboard motor factory instead of that Carbon grift he’s into?
    Oh yea, he’s a lifelong Federal employee, almost forgot.

    • She was a lying politician long before she got to DC.
      But, she did take only two minutes to abandon her Native AK constituents in favor of the leftists.

  25. And just what does Mary suggest that will replace oil in our state’s economy?

    Let’s just eat the goose that laid the golden egg!

    fish, family, freedom ….

    … hook, line, and sinker

  26. Bald faced lie. They sure have her brainwashed already. She is deluded. Let’s see then, we will start with all the villages. No more fossil fuel period. You all, ok most, voted for her, do your part. You get a solar panel and a wind kit. Figure it out. No diesel generation backup either. What a travesty.

    • She’s neither brainwashed nor deluded. Rather, she is saying what the DC Uniparty machine wants her to say so she and her hubby can tap into hundreds of millions of free $$$. I’d say she sold her soul, but it is not possible to sell what you don’t own. Cheers –

  27. This village grifter is speaking for herself alone and does not speak for all Alaskans. A comical embarrassment for Alaska.

  28. Ok, why am I not able to post? Trying now for the third time.

    First of all her premise is false, untrue. Peltola is either deluded or very out of touch with Alaskans. Most Alaskans live in some degree of reality. The climate – anti fossil fuel cult are a minority. If Peltola is so confident, then let’s start with the bush, since they predominantly voted for her. No more fossil fuels to villages or rural cities, each home gets a solar panel and a wind kit. Then, all supplies must be transported by dog team, no air freight or barge, unless electric with no dependency on fossil fuel. Then add in no air-med flights, no 4-wheelers or snow machines. We will see how well all of that goes over.

  29. No, Mary, Alaskans don’t want to phase out oil. If you choose to, then YOU give it up. Don’t come knocking on our doors when you’re freezing in the dark. Oh, that’s right, you live in DC now. That explains everything. Here’s to Alaska’s next one-term representative.

  30. Hard to believe this is Alaska’s lone congressperson. What a complete idiot! Alaska is bountiful in fuel sources found below ground, which give the highest energy output of any other fuel source. Oil, coal, and potentially gas, drive the entire economy (yes, government included) of the Great State. Peltola is antithetical to Alaska’s heart and soul.

  31. Peltola speaks for nobody we know in Alaska. She lies like the best of them already. Unless I’m unaware of a statewide referendum on this question she is lying through her teeth. What a fraud.

  32. Guess what Mary, It’s all about Indians verses Eskimos, which has been an ongoing battle since the beginning of time. Instead of pleading to the deaf ears of your Democrat colleagues, expecting them to listen to “the first Alaska Native” to serve one term only, you should waste your time on your knees begging Deb Haaland, who has led the war on Alaskan oil production. Pull your head out and take notice of how many permits have been applied for and approved in New Mexico since Haaland has been shutting down Alaskan permits and projects. It has become personal for her ever since Woke Joe put her in a position to decimate North Slope oil and push New Mexico oil out front in production. You go, girl and ask her. We “Alaskans” know what “Auntie Deb’s” response will be! Then you can go back to doing whatever makes Auntie Nancy smile so big when you show up.

  33. NO more fossil fuels? What a crock pf …. Just hang on, it won’t be long before we can push the reset button on this particular U.S. House of representative in the next election.

  35. Good for her! Taking a play out of the African American playbook. Only blacks can speak for blacks.

  39. Peltola and Lisa both look like women 15 years beyond their bio-age. Alaska politics ages these women……quickly.

    • It’s not Alaska politics, or any specific politics, for that matter. It’s power. It’s the darkness of their souls; the saturation of their very beingness with dishonesty, which was at least to a certain degree there to begin with, but the acme of which was lying dormant until the corruption of power brought the rest of it forth. Their faces wear the plumage of evil. The potential evil of human nature seduced and molded by power; honed to an unethical level of razor-sharpness dripping with lust for control and domination and fueled by avarice and sheathed in self-deceit. If either were able (and willing) to clean up their souls, they would look a decade younger.

      • Talk is cheap Keyser!
        You do fathom yourself an expert on both evil and souls (or those that need cleaning up). Pretty clear that Alaska elections haven’t gone exactly your way, and you are grasping for some sort of reason for it, so you’ve made the assumption that these two pols have aged beyond what they could have.
        Do you also write science fiction novels-if not, try it. Heheh!

        • Yankee, you are a denier. Lisa and Mary Peltola both look like ragged older women from their current photos. Especially Lisa. She never was qualified to be our US Senator. All Alaskans know that. Her dad put her onto power. She has been living a 20-year lie. And that will quickly age anyone.

          • Well Judie, you likely will never age out eh? Heheh!
            And in case you forgot, Lisa was an Alaska house representative from 99 up until she was appointed by her Dad on his resignation. Then she has been re-elected ever since, in spite of your asinine thoughts about her looks. Your ilk can’t seem to remove her from the Senate so all you got is your corny thoughts about her current photos.
            Tough noogies to you!

          • Tough noogies? Tough nookies? What the hell are you talking about, you old geezer? Lisa Murkowski couldn’t win a Republican Primary to save the grace of her ancient, greedy Republican parents.

          • Well Jose, we’ll put you in the column of ignorant complaining right-wing voter who also thinks that winning a Republican primary has something to do with winning the general election. Heheh!
            Lisa has already shown her ability to win the general when she defeated Joe Miller and this has likely crapped on your parade still. Tough noogies to you too.

  42. She should know more than anyone that Alaska can not survive without fossil fuels. Especially rural areas.

  43. If any culture has fully embraced petroleum and the internal combustion engine, it is Alaska Native village culture. The woman is a liar or stupid (or both, which is the definition of a Democrat).

  44. Oil is a finite resource and will run out eventually. Not in my lifetime, but I don’t see anything wrong with preparing for what’s going to be an inevitable future. There’s nothing logical or noble about sticking your head in the sand.

  45. So, tell me Mary Peltola, within the advent of battery powered vehicles and infrastructure, where shall used batteries be recycled or stored within Alaska, when there is no repository to do so?

    Shall we simply ship said batteries to other locations to store in massive landfills, at what cost, both financially and environmentally?

    Aside from batteries, where should we recycle, if possible, and store, if not, the massive blades of used wind turbines?

    Where are the vast landfills that do not yet exist to be determined?

    Yes, there is always New Jersey, but then what?

    Wyoming? North and South Dakota? Alaska?

    Those such as you always celebrate the advent of ‘new’ technology, but never consider the reality of shed products and where they shall be stored within the advent that they cannot all, nor even somewhat, be cleanly recycled.

    How is this thought process considered environmentally friendly?

  48. What is worse, being a wierd blue haired self-ignorant and destructive leftist with no context of reality…or… the idiot in office who takes their direction from said blue haired crazies?

  49. Yes all of us out here in the villages are enjoying our solar powered chainsaws, snogo’s, atv/ utv’s, boat motors, toyo stoves, and the mail plane. Kudo’s Mary for speaking for ALL of us!

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