President Donald Trump’s administration has agreed to release 315,000 barrels of home heating oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, Senator Susan Collins announced on Wednesday, offering potential relief for the Maine Republican as she faces what could be her closest election yet. As Maine becomes the center of the midterms with a battleground Senate race, voters are grappling with high heating costs ahead of the winter. Fuel prices have soared amid the Iran war, and Maine is particularly vulnerable, with a higher percentage of residents who use oil as the primary source to heat their homes.
Collins’ announcement comes as she faces a competitive race against Democrat Troy Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate. The race is seen as a pure toss-up. Collins urged the release of the oil in a letter, along with Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, to the administration earlier in the fall and wrote in a statement on Wednesday that she is “pleased” with the decision to release the oil.
The Department anticipates this release will put downward pressure on home heating oil costs and make a real difference for Maine homeowners as they prepare for winter,” Collins wrote. The release is also an olive branch to Collins, who has been at odds with Trump more than most other Republicans. She has campaigned on being independent from the president.
The president has criticized her voting record in the past, writing in a July 2025 post to Truth Social: “Republicans, when in doubt, vote the exact opposite of Senator Susan Collins. Generally speaking, you can’t go wrong.” Jackson, in a statement on Wednesday, said Collins “cannot erase her responsibility for this crisis with a press release.” “Donald Trump’s pointless war in Iran helped drive these prices through the roof. At the beginning of this war, when we had the best chance to shut it down, Susan Collins voted five times to let it continue.
Now, two weeks before Election Day, she wants Mainers to believe she’s coming to the rescue,” he said. Jackson described Collins as an “arsonist who sets the house on fire and then wants credit for bringing you a cup of water.” “Susan Collins talks constantly about her power in Washington. Where was that power when Mainers needed her to stop this war before it drove up the cost of keeping their homes warm?” he wrote.
Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, wrote in a statement that while Mainers will “always welcome assistance and relief,” they would not “be in this position if Susan Collins had stood up to Trump in the first place.” Affordability concerns have shaped the midterms, and oil heating prices have been central to that debate in Maine. More than 50 percent of Maine residents use oil as their primary heat source, according to the Northeast Gas Association. As of October 13, heating prices averaged $5.97 per gallon statewide, up from only $3.31 per gallon one year earlier, according to the Maine Department of Energy Resources.
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