Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles on Monday proposed using more than $200 million from the state’s “rainy day fund” to offset high fuel and heating oil prices.
But Charles’ opponents in November, Democrat Hannah Pingree and independent Rick Bennett, accused him of failing to acknowledge the role that the Trump administration’s war with Iran has played in high oil prices.
Heating oil prices hit a record high of roughly $6 a gallon this month — an 81% increase over this time last year due, in large part, to the volatility in global oil prices resulting from the war with Iran. As a result, Mainers will pay nearly $750 more to fill a 275-gallon tank this year compared with last fall.
Charles is calling on Democratic Gov. Janet Mills to temporarily suspend Maine’s 30-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax and for the state to match $42 million in federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, funding. Charles also called for providing schools with an additional $100 million to cover heating costs.
And to pay for it, the Republican said the state should use $207 million of the $1 billion in Maine state government’s rainy day fund.
“Governor Mills still has time to do one useful thing before she leaves office: get out of the way of Maine families trying to heat their homes and get to work,” Charles said in a statement. “Suspend the state gas tax now. Support [Sens.] Collins and King in releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast heating-oil reserve. Augusta has spent eight years lecturing Mainers about climate while they pay some of the highest electricity rates in the United States. That is not leadership. That is a bill.”
Charles’ statement is the latest attempt by his campaign to link Mills and Pingree to Maine’s high electricity costs. Pingree was a key strategic adviser to Mills and helped to lead the administration’s plan to transition the state to more renewable energy before she stepped down to run for governor. Charles and Pingree also face Bennett on the November ballot.
Pingree fired back Monday.
“Bobby Charles just released an energy ‘plan’ that never once mentions the reason Mainers are paying so much to heat their homes: Donald Trump’s needless war with Iran,” Pingree said in a statement. “You can’t fix a price spike if you won’t name what’s causing it.”
Pingree called on the Trump administration to double the LIHEAP allocation to Maine, which is more reliant on heating oil than any other state. And she said it is “urgent” that Mainers receive additional assistance this heating season given the skyrocketing prices.
“As governor, I’ll also seek additional urgent relief so folks can stay safe and warm in their homes this winter,” Pingree said. “I’ll fight to lower energy costs and help Mainers tighten up their houses through weatherization programs and investments in efficient technologies like heat pumps, so they can save money and stay warm.
Bennett was, likewise, critical of Charles for not mentioning the role that the war with Iran has played in skyrocketing oil prices.
“He is right that energy costs are crushing Mainers,” Bennett said in a statement. “What I won’t do is call a one-time withdrawal a plan. Money out of the Rainy Day Fund buys some reprieve this winter. It doesn’t change why Maine families pay some of the highest electric bills in the country.”
A longtime state lawmaker from Oxford who formerly led the Maine Republican Party, Bennett called for officials to withdraw from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to reduce price pressure. On the issue of electricity prices, Bennett said all energy legislation should clearly state the impact on prices before lawmakers vote. And said future solutions need to be focused on “keeping the $4.5 billion a year we send out of state for fuel right here in Maine.”
“But the state gas tax is what pays for the roads our trucks run on and it hasn’t been raised since 2011, so suspending it just means the bill comes back bigger in the spring,” Bennett said.
The Maine Republican Party promoted Charles’ proposal Monday and said his plan “should be enacted immediately as winter approaches.” That marks a potential shift for Republicans, however.
Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers roundly criticized Mills and Democrats for tapping $155 million from the rainy day fund — officially known as the Budget Stabilization Fund — to send $300 “relief checks” to nearly a half-million low- and middle-income Mainers. While Mills and Democratic lawmakers touted the checks as a way to help Mainers offset rising costs, Republican leaders in the Legislature accused Mills of attempting to buy voters for her since-abandoned U.S. Senate campaign.
The $300 checks were included in a supplemental budget bill that did not receive a single Republican vote in the Legislature.
“The Democrats’ supplemental budget also goes so far as to divert $303 million from the Budget Stabilization Fund, even though state law limits that fund’s use to covering a General Fund revenue shortfall,” the Republican caucuses in the House and Senate caucuses said in a press release. “The withdrawal of nearly 30 percent of the fund’s balance will be used to fund several Democrat pet projects and comply with Gov. Mills’ election-year demand for $300 checks to be sent to certain Maine residents.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.