Augusta, ME – A new report from the Maine Newsroom revealed that as Mainers face record-high heating oil prices, the heating oil industry has donated nearly $250,000 to Susan Collins’ re-election efforts. The donations come as the Iran War continues to drive up costs, after Collins voted five times against resolutions that could have ended the Iran War.

In response to the new revelations, Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, released the following statement:

“After Susan Collins voted five times to extend Trump’s war in Iran, Maine families are facing record high heating oil prices and will struggle to heat their homes this winter. Meanwhile, heating oil companies have been lining their pockets, and are spending some of that windfall on re-electing Collins, because they know she delivers a great return on investment.”

Watch:

Maine Newsroom:

• Senator Susan Collins’s re-election efforts have received almost a quarter-million dollars from executives, PACs and trade groups that distribute and produce heating oil.

• Home heating oil reached a record high price last week of $6.04 per gallon.

• In all, Senator Collins’s re-election campaign and the super PAC run by her close family friend, Pine Tree Results PAC have received $241,741 from the heating oil industry.

• $7,000 of that came from Eric Slifka, the CEO of Global Partners. On an earnings call a month earlier, Slifka told investors that the company had a quote “exceptional quarter” largely due to the impacts President Trump’s war in Iran had on the oil market.

• Three months later, that company’s profits had nearly tripled from the same point a year prior.

• The Energy Marketers of America Small Business Committee PAC made four donations to Senator Collins’s re-election campaign totaling $8,000 and another contribution to Pine Tree Results PAC of $2,500.

• The companies that produce home heating oil have given the Collins effort $221,000, dominated by a $200,000 donation from Chevron Corporation to Pine Tree Results PAC.

• The Phillips 66 PAC, Exxonmobil PAC, American Petroleum Institute PAC, KochPAC, Chevron Employees PAC — they gave a combined $21,000 to Senator Collins’s re-election campaign.

• Senator Collins voted five times to allow President Trump to continue the war on Iran during the first months of the conflict before eventually voting to stop it.

• Half of Maine homes rely on home heating oil to heat their homes. At $6.04 per gallon, it costs an extra $750 to fill the typical tank here in Maine compared to before the war.