Peltola puts numbers on rural fuel crisis: $21 a gallon in Noatak, $15 coming for St. Mary's

Senate candidate Mary Peltola put numbers on a crisis rural households already know: fuel in Noatak is running about $21 a gallon, and St. Mary's residents paying $9 to $10 now are bracing for $14 to $15 as winter approaches. For remote YK Delta communities that receive fuel by barge once or twice a year, prices set this summer become the heating and electricity costs families carry through spring.

Peltola gave the figures in a KYUK interview in Bethel on Thursday, about a month before the August primary. She is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in the 2026 general election and has made energy costs central to her campaign since her January Senate launch.

She described rural Alaskans as being pinched on all ends, not only by fuel costs but by rising freight and travel costs and declining subsistence fish and game abundance. She also framed the pressure as no longer unique to Alaska, saying affordability has become a national issue that could finally generate the political will for change in Congress.

She called for Congress to investigate price gouging and a short list of distributors. "The few refineries that we have, most of that product goes to the military, which is great," she said. "But I think we need to be serious about expanding that for civilian needs."

"We are all feeling it, and so I think that there may be the political will, and that's what we really need is the political will to make changes and help households, help working people across Alaska make ends meet."