Governor Janet Mills released the following statement on the Senate Republicans’ rejection of the Emergency Winter Heating Relief Plan. The Plan, negotiated with Republicans and Democratic leadership in the Legislature over the past several weeks, is a package of short-term measures aimed at ensuring that low-income and middle-class Maine people and families can stay warm, safe, and secure this winter amid near record high energy prices.

“Tonight, the peoples’ representatives stood on the floor of the peoples’ house and debated the peoples’ business. Counter to the arguments of Senate Republicans, the voices of the people are being heard. Unfortunately, it is the peoples’ interests that were not served by tonight’s vote.

“I am deeply concerned about the impact that high energy prices are having on Maine people. We must ease the burden by putting money back into their pockets so they can better afford these energy costs and ensure that our most vulnerable citizens are able to stay warm this winter.

“The plan I proposed incorporates the feedback of Republican and Democratic leadership in the Legislature. It builds on the nation-leading inflation relief measure we delivered earlier this year – and it is the fastest, most direct way to get help to Maine people as we work to bring down energy costs in the long-term. Tonight, a minority of the minority choose to reject this help for Maine people.

“I hope our Senate Republican colleagues will approach this issue with the concern and urgency that it deserves – the same concern and urgency that Maine people have been expressing to me as the prospect of winter bears down on them. I urge Senate Republicans to join their other Republican and Democratic colleagues in the Legislature to give this plan the support needed to enact it as an emergency measure, so that we can get this relief into the hands of Maine people without delay.”