In more very bad news for Alaska, not to mention Russia and Venezuela, The Financial Times is reporting that the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, says that Opec won’t cut production even if oil drops to $20 a barrel.
“It is not in the interest of Opec producers to cut their production, whatever the price is,” al-Naimi is quoted in the FT as saying. “Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant.”
Opec has traditionally tried to keep prices high and the fact that it’s willing to let oil drop so low is a “dramatic policy shift” that hasn’t been seen since the 1970s, when OPEC leveraged its oil for political reasons by raising prices and causing an energy crisis.
Alaska needs oil to be at about $117 a barrel to balance the budget.
At some point, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is going to have to face the Valley tea party masses, which isn’t often pretty. Those people are not above yelling and hissing and booing, which might be okay if they also didn’t have a set of facts on hand to justify it all. They know all about cloture, and filibusters, and why Obama purposely infected the nation with Ebola. They know not only what the debt ceiling is, but how much it is, and they know that it’s all leading to some sort of UN takeover that involves a one-world currency and FEMA camps. They also know that they, along with other Valley Republicans—and unfortunately you can’t pick and choose– are the ones who will likely have a big hand in deciding who wins a Republican primary. Anyway, apparently Murkowski has had better things to do, for months and months now. This weekend, the first weekend after Congress adjourned for the break, she opted for the relatively urban, friendly confines of Anchorage, where on Friday, you could find her at the annual Republican Women’s holiday lunch at the Captain Cook Hotel. The annual luncheon was started by Sen. Ted Stevens in 1978 and Murkowski has continued the tradition and added her own touch: each table was decorated with holiday cookies from a traditional Murkowski family recipe. Guests also found ornaments, created by an Alaskan artist, on their plates and each was signed by Alaska’s senior senator. The room was packed. Also spotted: U. S. Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan and his wife Julie, Reps. Dan Sadler and Gabrielle LeDoux, Rep.-elect Cathy Tilton, Marilyn Stewart, Art and April Hackney, mayoral candidate Dan Coffey, Wanda Green, Angelina Burney, Robin Phillips, and Kara Moriarty. Kay Linton’s daughter, Dawn, hosted a table at the event with an empty chair to honor her mother, who before her passing was always a fixture at the annual event. 
On Monday night at the New Horizon hanger in Palmer, over 100 Valley residents turned out to visit Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan and his wife Julie. Sen. Mike Dunleavy, who showed with his pistol but without his mule, helped organize the event. He and Palmer Mayor DeLana Johnson were the emcees, which they did a rather unique job of. As Sullivan stood on the sidelines waiting to talk, they continually passed the mic back and forth because they kept on forgetting that they had just one other thing to say. But Valley conservatives—many of whom leave their cushy government jobs at the office when they clock out at 4:30 p.m.—tend to be a patient bunch, and a plethora of cookies helped. Sen. Charlie Huggins also spoke before Sullivan had at it. He made some allusion to Dan Sullivan being the “last boy scout,” which may or may not have had something to do with a 1991 Bruce Willis film involving a pro-football team, a politician and a murder. But Huggins, as he always does, spoke with enough confidence and aplomb that everyone seemed convinced that something prophetic was being said. But the crowd—including Sullivan–was sincerely and understandably touched when Tammy Miller, president of the Mat-Su Republican Women’s Club, presented Sullivan with a pair of cuff links that were made by Sen. Ted Stevens that read, “To Hell with Politics. Do What’s Right for Alaska.” But what brought the crowd to their feet was when Sullivan paid tribute to Alaska’s veterans and introduced Wayne Woods, a gold star parent, and Cajun Bob Thoms, a Vietnam vet who is the recipient of a silver star, two bronze stars and six purple hearts. Other legislators spotted: Reps. Bill Stoltze. Shelley Hughes, Wes Keller and Lora Reinbold. Also there: Bethany Marcum, Mike Coons, Ben and Kathleen Rowell, MEA’s Joe Griffith, Sonya Walden, Joe Balash, John Shepherd, Dave and Dana Cruz, Becky Huggins, Rep.-elect Cathy Tilton, John Lee, Noel and Jean Woods, Curtis Thayer, John Harris, Otto and Nancy Feather, Myrna Maynard, Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss and Assemblyman Steve Colligan, former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and his mother Anne, and Wasilla City Council member Gretchen O’Barr.
