Murkowski tells AFN fuel prices are wrong and ties them to the Iran war

Sen. Lisa Murkowski told the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage on Thursday that high fuel prices are wrong. She blamed the war in Iran and said she has voted for six months to end it.

Last year the crisis as delegates gathered was Typhoon Halong, she said. "This year, it's energy and high prices. It is wrong. It is wrong that fuel prices are so high." Then: "For 6 months now, I have voted to responsibly end the war in Iran, which drove the prices up and is key to bringing them down."

Senate records show her first vote to end U.S. involvement in the hostilities came May 13, about five months before the speech. She had voted no five times before that, starting March 4. The May 13 vote, a motion to pull an Iran resolution from committee, failed 49 to 50. From then through Sept. 24 she voted yes seven times and missed one vote, on July 23.

Of 13 Senate votes this year on measures to pull U.S. forces from the Iran hostilities, one passed: a June 23 House resolution adopted 50 to 48 with her yes vote.

The state's summer fuel survey, dated Aug. 28, found heating fuel averaging $7.97 a gallon in 90 communities without a subsidy, 44% above the national average of $5.54, Alaska News reported Oct. 2. Arctic Village reported the highest price, $17 a gallon. Gasoline averaged $7.56, nearly double the national average. The survey says much of the fuel, especially in western Alaska, was bought at the spring crude price peak, and western and river communities stay locked into those prices when prices fall elsewhere. It blames "global events" for restricted retail fuel inventories and does not name the war.

Murkowski said the costs hit "everyone, urban and rural alike, from Wasilla to Wrangell," from groceries and snow machines to subsistence hunts and businesses. She said she fears Alaskans will have to choose between keeping warm and buying food this winter.

Prices will eventually fall, she said, but "many of us in Alaska are still going to be paying far more for our energy than most of the rest of the country." She pointed to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and weatherization.