Source: United States Senator for Alaska Lisa Murkowski
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report showing inflation reached 8.5 percent over the past year, the largest year-over-year increase since 1981.
“The numbers in this report serve to underscore the painful reality that Alaskans are facing every time they go to a grocery store or a gas station. Just about everything is being impacted by rising inflation as we see the cost of transportation and the overall cost of living punish families and businesses across our state.
“In rural parts of Alaska, the impacts are even more dramatic. In Noatak, people are paying almost $18 for a gallon of gasoline. In Point Hope, families are paying up to $8 for a loaf of bread and $3.39 for a quart of milk. These are real impacts that can be financially crippling.
“What we are seeing demands a comprehensive response from the Biden administration, the Federal Reserve, and policymakers. As part of that, we need to focus on supply chains and increase the domestic supply of a wide range of resources—starting with energy, which rose by 11 percent over the past month alone—and extending to minerals, which form the basis for just about every product in our modern society.
“Alaska is uniquely positioned to help, if only the Biden administration would allow us to do so. We can produce more oil, to ease pain at the pump. We can build a gasline, to add billions of cubic feet to world markets each day. We can produce graphite, cobalt, and many additional minerals to help restrain rising commodity prices. And we can do all this without compromising environmental standards and continuing to reduce emissions.
“Resource producers in Alaska are ready to work. It’s time for the Biden administration to unleash our potential to help reduce inflation. At this point, there’s simply no substitute and no excuse for not doing so.”
To read BLS’ Consumer Price Index for March 2022, click here.