Two US senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Angus King, sent a joint letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, seeking a release of home heating oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve "to protect Mainers from the very high prices."
Collins is a Republican, while King is an independent who caucuses with Democrats. The senators noted that Trump ordered a US Strategic Petroleum Reserve release earlier this year to counter rising energy costs and said the same urgency applies to the Northeast reserve. "The Northeast is experiencing a home heating oil price spike," the letter stated.
Citing the Maine Department of Energy Resources' latest weekly fuel survey, the senators said statewide heating oil prices are up 74% from a year ago. "It now costs about $675 more to fill a standard tank than it did last year - a significant hardship for the half of Maine households that heat their homes with fuel oil," the letter said.
The letter also pointed to the US Energy Information Administration's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, which revealed distillate fuel inventories, including home heating oil, fell below the five-year range in April. The agency expects stockpiles to stay below the 2021-2025 low through the end of 2026 and most of 2027.
The senators added that the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine War have kept 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. With both domestic and international supplies running low, a release from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve would help ease these prices," the senators said.