Sullivan-backed cuts laid off energy experts responsible for managing global oil crises, and now Alaskans are paying $5 a gallon.
ICYMI – Scathing reporting reveals how Dan Sullivan-supported cuts slashed the budget for and eliminated experts responsible for managing Middle Eastern oil and gas crises — helping ignite the global price spiral now hitting Alaskans’ wallets at the pump. As gas prices approach $5 a gallon in Alaska, one thing is clear: Dan Sullivan helped cause this crisis, and he has no plan to fix it.
“This is right out of Dan Sullivan’s playbook: slashing critical programs to appease special interests and leaving Alaskans to foot the bill,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “Alaskans are struggling to fill their tanks and watching skyrocketing fuel costs show up in their grocery bills, and they need to know Dan Sullivan is responsible.”
The bombshell report details how recent federal funding cuts eliminated the energy and foreign policy specialists charged with managing oil supply crises in the Middle East, contributing to the global oil crisis now squeezing working families across the state. Dan Sullivan, who sits on the DOGE caucus, cheered these same cuts, called DOGE “brilliant,” and pledged to work “very closely” with them. Now, Alaskans are facing skyrocketing gas prices in a crisis of Sullivan’s own making, and he has offered nothing but silence. As Alaskans struggle to fill up their tanks and heat their houses, Dan Sullivan is literally leaving them out in the cold.
Read more about how Sullivan’s cuts are driving high gas prices:
Federal spending cuts last July “laid off staff who would have been responsible for gaming out possible scenarios” for the gas price crisis Americans are now facing.
The cuts fired “staffers with close professional relationships at oil and gas companies in the Middle East and experts tasked with maintaining diplomatic contacts at foreign energy bureaus.”
All of the former administration oil and gas experts interviewed in the report said that the “lack of preparation for a global oil crisis is becoming increasingly clear.”
“There was never any handover or transition. There was no formal handover of contacts or anything like that. We were all just let go,” one former State Department energy official said.