Graham Platner targets fuel tax, Big Oil in energy plan

Maine Democrat Graham Platner is targeting the oil industry and the federal gasoline tax in his campaign for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins.

Platner — who last month became his party's presumptive nominee for the marquee race when Gov. Janet Mills (D) dropped out — released an energy platform Friday, with a focus on policy changes he argues would reduce people's bills.

Democrats nationwide are relying on pocketbook issues to retake Congress during the midterm elections. But unlike other contenders in Maine and elsewhere, Platner has been less vocal about whether he would pursue a data center moratorium because of their potential effect on energy prices. His new plan doesn't touch on the debate.

"Nine hundred dollars more. That is what the average Maine household paid this winter compared to the year before — just to heat the house, keep the lights on, and get to work," Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, says in the plan obtained exclusively by POLITICO.

His ideas, including a fund for clean energy projects and a national freeze on electricity rate increases, "simply require the political will: to end Big Oil’s stranglehold on our energy policy, to slash prices for consumers, and to build the energy of the future."

Collins has touted her seniority in the Senate and her leadership of the Appropriations Committee. She has prioritized the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and suggested President Donald Trump’s administration has withheld funding. The Department of Health and Human Services recently released millions of dollars after Collins and other senators pushed for it.

The incumbent released her first television advertisement of the campaign this week, emphasizing the money she has brought home. Collins’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Platner’s platform.

Platner’s agenda doesn’t touch on at least one hot-button issue: data centers. Maine’s Legislature last month passed a moratorium on new large data centers, citing their energy use and other impacts. Mills vetoed it because it would thwart a community-supported project.

A populist aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Platner expressed expressed support for the proposal, according to other media outlets, but has not made it a major talking point. Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are pushing national legislation for a moratorium.

Some of Platner's energy goals have already gotten some degree of buy-in from congressional Democrats amid the war in Iran and near-record gasoline prices.

Lawmakers including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) have backed a temporary suspension of the federal fuel tax.

“Gasoline prices have reached crisis levels for Mainers, many of whom commute long distances,” Platner said in his plan, which would indefinitely halt taxes on both gasoline and diesel.

"Relying on fossil fuels to fund basic infrastructure does not make sense if we want to reduce fossil fuels used in transportation,” Platner said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed a fee on electric cars and hybrids to help pay for the nation's highways. But Platner says public goods like transportation should instead be funded by a wealth tax on billionaires.

Platner is also calling for a “windfall profits” tax for oil and natural gas companies, meant to capture some of the additional revenue companies get when prices are high. He specifically supports the "Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act" led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Platner would seek to keep electricity prices low by promising states low-cost energy infrastructure financing in exchange for freezing or lowering rates for four years. It's unclear how exactly that plan would work.

Platner gives a nod to changing federal permitting policies, at least for clean energy, saying Congress “must reach consensus on the obvious: permitting reform for clean energy progress and grid expansion is absolutely vital.”