Gov. Janet Mills is calling on Congress to approve more funds for heating assistance.
In a Friday letter to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, Mills wrote that congressional appropriations for the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program didn’t account for the impact of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which effectively halted shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passes.
“Maine people should not be forced to choose between staying warm and putting food on the table because the President chose to drag the country into a needless war,” Mills wrote.
The statewide average price for a gallon of heating oil this week is $5.96, down slightly from last week’s record high of $6.02 but nearly 80% higher than the same last year, according to a Maine Department of Energy Resources survey.
Prices range from a low of $5 a gallon to as high as $6.30 in parts of eastern and Down East Maine, where the average rests at $6.
This time last year heating oil went for an average of $3.33 a gallon, and this same time in 2024 it went for $3.34.
That means it will cost Mainers an additional $725 to fill a standard 275-gallon tank, the Department of Energy Resources said Thursday afternoon.
That’s raising concerns among lower-income homeowners in a state heavily reliant on heating oil to stay warm during the winter. Mainers already have empty fuel tanks, according to the community action program serving Aroostook, Hancock and Washington counties. But the Trump administration has rebuffed calls to release federal heating assistance early.
“As a large, rural state with an older housing stock, Maine people are especially vulnerable to spikes in the cost of heating fuel,” Mills wrote.
Her administration has moved to assist low-income Mainers with energy costs, including $300 relief checks in the supplemental state budget earlier this year and this week automatically enrolling Mainers who receive public health insurance and food or heating assistance in a program to discount electric bills. Under that latter move, CMP customers could see their bills cut up to 81% and Versant Power customers up to 83%, depending on their income levels.