Only planes and boats reach Bethel, Alaska, and residents there say that rising prices mean paying more than $8 for unleaded gasoline and $14 for a gallon of milk.
The impact reaches nearly every part of life for the city's roughly 6,000 residents on Alaska's western tundra, including transportation, groceries, electricity, and home heating.
Here's what to know
As NBC News (@nbcnews) correspondent Steve Patterson reported in a TikTok segment, fuel reaches the city about 400 miles from Anchorage only a few times a year by barge.
He said he chatted with residents about the "surging gas and heating costs that have drastically risen the price of living in the area."
Patterson said the diesel used for the electric grid cost nearly $9 a gallon and heating oil was around $8, while one resident said unleaded fuel "just went up from 6 71, you know, to eight."
The strain goes beyond the pump. One resident told the network, "Gas is so expensive. Food is so expensive, just like everything," and Patterson said a gallon of milk in Bethel had reached $14.
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More background
Because "everything here runs off gas," as Patterson relayed, fuel prices affect more than what drivers pay in Bethel. He said the electric grid runs on diesel and homes depend on heating tanks, so higher fuel costs also raise utility bills and winter heating expenses.
NBC News added that Bethel's remoteness leaves residents with little room to adapt when prices rise.
Patterson also noted that President Donald Trump carried Alaska by double-digit margins in his three presidential runs.
For families in rural Alaska, affordability depends on whether they can pay for fuel, electricity, home heating, and grocery bills that run far above what many Americans spend.
What's being done?
NBC News reported that frustrations over those affordability woes could shape Alaska's Senate race, where incumbent Dan Sullivan is facing Democrat Mary Peltola in a high-stakes contest for both the state and control of Congress.
For many residents, candidate choices are shaped by the realities of daily survival rather than party loyalty.
"Whoever is going to be against, opposing the war and, whoever is gonna be focusing more on fixing our cost of living, in the United States, that's … that's who we'll be voting for," a voter told the outlet.
In rural communities like Bethel, the rising fuel and heating costs could become a decisive issue at the ballot box.
"A vast majority of the voters we spoke to all across the state say they don't belong to one party or the other," Patterson related. "They're voting with their heart, weighing policy over politics, because, as many of them told us, they believe their very way of life is on the ballot."
That means high prices could lead to serious changes in who gets elected in what is traditionally a Republican stronghold. Frustration is mounting with the current direction.
"We've just been shocked by the way the economy has gone," one resident concluded to NBC News. "By the way, prices have climbed with, you know, seemingly no accountability."
Where can I learn more?
Here's more on the energy and cost pressures bearing down on Alaska.
• Across Alaska, families are bracing for sharp price hikes as the energy crisis looms.
• Alaska lawmakers face an energy crisis as major projects could strain gas supplies further.
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