May 27, 2004
Gas tops $5 a gallon in rural Alaska villages
Thanks to my Alaskan brother for this article….
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - So you think your gasoline is expensive? Some rural Alaskans are paying as much as $5 per gallon, with $6 a gallon on the horizon.
“We don’t even want to talk about that,” said Joyce John, a clerk at Midnight Sun Native Store in Arctic Village, in far northeastern Alaska. “Might as well raise a dog team.”
The high prices in isolated villages stem from the cost of delivering fuel by airplane.
One of the major fuel carriers, Fairbanks-based Everts Air Fuel, uses cargo planes to transport as much as 4,500 gallons at a time, corporate administrator Karen Wing said. Other companies deliver fuel in 55-gallon drums, landing on airstrips too short for bigger planes.
The cost may force subsistence hunters and fishermen to pare back their trips. Electric bills will rise because most power comes from diesel generators. And some villages may struggle to buy a year’s worth of heating oil, because of the high price and because state financial aid has expired.
[ Full Story @ billingsgazette.com ]
Source: billingsgazette.com © 2004 The Billings Gazette
Posted by akvalley at May 27, 2004 01:20 AM | TrackBack