The price is more than a pain in the gas. Reuters reports that it's severely curtailing movement around the interior, isolated Alaskan village that is home to the Athabascan Indian community. Four-wheel drive vehicles and boats sit idle. "Nobody's going on joy rides, that's for sure," Ursula Graham, administrator for the Lime Village Traditional Council, told Reuters reporter Yereth Rosen.
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Even though Alaska is a major producer of crude oil, it has the highest average gasoline prices of all 50 states, according to the American Automobile Association. Statewide, the average is $4.65 a gallon for regular gasoline. Why so high? The state's small population hinders economies of scale and market competition, Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska department of labor, told Reuters. "Even if you take all of Alaska into account, it's a pretty small marketplace," he said. Those in rural areas without outside road access are even harder hit since shipments of petroleum products require extraordinary and costly efforts.
This is what it takes for fuel to get to Lime Village: It is sent 1,800 miles by barge from Anchorage to the southwestern Alaska hub of Bethel, transferred to another barge for a trip up then Kuskokwim River and then flown by small plane to its final destination, reports Reuters. "Going back to dog teams is an option," she said. "It's kind of a joke, but not a joke."
