A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Happy Friday!
Unfortunately, there’s not much to be happy about heating oil prices reaching yet another record high this week.
The Maine Department of Energy Resources announced that the statewide average is now $6.05 a gallon, up 82% from this time last year when a gallon went for $3.32.
In eastern and Down East Maine, prices range from a low of $5.71 to a high of $6.40.
Mainers will now have to spend an additional $750 to fill a standard 275-gallon tank.
Global energy prices have spiked since President Donald Trump launched his surprise war against Iran in February. That war entered its eighth month this week with no clear end in sight, especially as Trump has mused about more military action after the midterms.
In the run up to the election, his administration has rolled out a number of actions in an attempt to tamp down on voter angst over high energy prices. The Trump administration released low-income heating assistance early, tapped the Northeast heating oil reserves and made available one-time payments to farmers and fishermen to offset rising diesel prices.
But you can at least take it easy on the heat the next few days, because we have a stretch of seasonable weather ahead with highs in the low 60s. The only exception is Halloween, when the high may not even get into the 50s.
Bobby Charles says he quit his federal job. Condoleezza Rice told a different story.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles has leaned heavily on his State Department experience as the brand of leadership he’d bring to the Blaine House. But a 2011 memoir by his former boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, contradicts a key detail of his tenure.
Rice claimed that she fired Charles after learning that he’d gone behind her back to allies on Capitol Hill after resisting overhauls she wanted to make. Charles says he resigned over differences with Rice on programs he’d built under her predecessor, Colin Powell.
The truth may remain unknown, but no one disputes that Rice and Charles held different views.
When Charles left the State Department, a retired longtime official in Charles’ bureau said “nobody was terribly surprised” at the news.
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From the Opinion Page
“Collins has a proven record of bridging the political divide to get things done.”
Opinion: Susan Collins is a champion for broadband connectivity, and for Maine