Maine U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King are urging President Trump to release supply from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to help struggling Mainers.
The Senators have noted it now costs about $675 more to fill a standard heating oil tank than last year as statewide prices have risen almost $75, according to the most recent fuel survey from the Maine Department of Energy Resources.
Maine is the most heating oil-reliant state in the country, with about half of all households using oil as a primary heating source.
“You ordered a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve earlier this year to help address rising costs, and we believe the same urgency now applies to the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve,” Senators Collins and King wrote in a letter to President Trump.
The Senators also mention how the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine War have complicated delivery of heating oil in their letter to to the President.
“Further, the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine War have prevented additional heating oil from reaching the global market. Maine is particularly vulnerable to global supply shocks because our state imports much of our home heating oil.”
Read the full letter to President Trump from Senators Collins and King here.
