Susan Collins on Energy and Utility Bills: Votes Against Keeping Wind and Solar Credits and Electricity-Bill Protections, the Iran War's Heating Oil Prices, and the Wright and Kennedy Confirmations

On July 1, 2025, Susan Collins voted against an amendment to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have kept parity for wind and solar facilities in the tax code, and against a motion to prevent changes in policy that will lead to increased electricity prices for American families. In 2025 she also voted to repeal three federal appliance efficiency standards, and in 2026 she voted five times against ending the Iran war as heating oil prices rose in Maine.

Collins voted to confirm Energy Secretary Chris Wright, whose department kept a retiring coal plant running at customers' expense and suspended University of Maine offshore wind research, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department fired the entire LIHEAP program staff that runs the heating aid Maine families apply for each winter.

Susan Collins's Votes and Confirmations on Energy Prices and Utility Bills

• Collins Voted Against Keeping Wind and Solar Tax Credits on Equal Terms in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on Senator Jacky Rosen's amendment to maintain parity for wind and solar facilities under the Internal Revenue Code, which would have removed the bill's new cutoffs for wind and solar projects. It failed 47 to 53. The law ends the credits for any applicable facility placed in service after December 31, 2027 unless construction began by July 2026, and Energy Innovation projected the final law would mean a 340 gigawatt decrease in generation capacity by 2035 and electricity rates 10 to 18 percent higher.
• Collins Voted Against Protecting Families From Higher Electricity Prices in July 2025. On July 1, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on Senator Ron Wyden's motion to send the bill back to committee with changes that would prevent changes in policy that will lead to increased electricity prices for American families and small businesses. It failed 47 to 53. For the bill as passed, Energy Innovation projected $130 annual increases in household energy bills by 2030 and $170 by 2035 on average.
• Collins Voted Against Overturning the Treasury Rule That Narrowed Wind and Solar Credits in March 2026. On March 25, 2026, Susan Collins voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 107, which would have overturned the IRS rule on when wind and solar projects count as having begun construction, and the motion failed 47 to 53. That rule, IRS Notice 2025-42, says the Physical Work Test described in section 3.02 of this notice is the sole method for most projects to show they started in time, after a July 2025 executive order told Treasury to strictly enforce the termination, so fewer projects can still claim the credit.
• Collins Voted Against a Rule to Block Bills That Raise Electricity Bills in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Susan Collins voted no on a motion that would have created a point of order against legislation that would raise energy costs for Americans, including higher monthly electricity bills, as the Senate wrote the budget plan that set up the 2025 tax law. It failed 47 to 53. Rhodium Group projects the law that followed will increase national average household energy bills by $78-192 a year in 2035.
• Collins Voted to Repeal Three Energy-Saving Appliance Standards in 2025. In April and May 2025, Susan Collins voted to repeal federal efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers on April 3, gas-fired instantaneous water heaters in homes on April 10 and commercial refrigerators and freezers on May 1, all under the Congressional Review Act, and all three repeals became law. Policy Integrity lists the standards as fully repealed and puts the lost consumer savings at $283,000,000 a year for walk-in coolers, $191,000,000 for water heaters and $208,000,000 for commercial refrigerators, savings that would have reached customers through lower energy bills.
• Collins Voted Twice to Keep the Energy Emergency Behind the Coal-Plant Orders. On February 26, 2025 and October 8, 2025, Susan Collins voted against resolutions terminating the national emergency declared with respect to energy (second vote), and they failed 47 to 52 and 47 to 51. The emergency underpins the Energy Department's orders to keep retiring coal plants open, which Grid Strategies estimates could cost ratepayers between $3.121 billion and $5.925 billion a year if extended to every large plant scheduled to retire through 2028.
• Collins Voted to Confirm the Energy Secretary Who Ordered a Retiring Coal Plant to Keep Running and Halted University of Maine Wind Research. On February 3, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy, and he was confirmed 59 to 38. Starting in May 2025, Wright's department issued emergency orders forcing the Campbell coal plant in Michigan to run past its retirement, and Consumers Energy has reported $295 million in costs associated with the Campbell plant, which it seeks to recover from ratepayers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and other states. Across the department's orders, ratepayers faced at least $300 million in extra costs through mid-May 2026, IEEFA found. In April 2025 the department's research agency also suspended funding for a research project developing prototypes for floating offshore wind turbines at the University of Maine, the same day its concrete base floated into Penobscot Bay.
• Collins Voted to Confirm the Health Secretary Whose Department Fired the Staff Who Run Heating Aid. On February 13, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. On April 1, 2025, his department fired the entire LIHEAP program staff at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal workers who run the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Congress kept the program funded, but federal LIHEAP staff have not been rehired, the state energy-aid directors report, and in April 2026 House members of both parties asked HHS to distribute remaining $400 million in LIHEAP funds.
• Collins Voted Against Ending the Iran War as Maine Heating Oil Prices Rose. Susan Collins voted against Senate measures to end U.S. military action against Iran on March 4, March 18, March 24, April 15 and April 22, 2026, and each failed. Maine officials said heating fuel prices have increased 41% since the war in Iran began, WGME reported in April 2026, and by October heating oil had topped $6 a gallon recently, which is more than 80% higher than last year. The Center for American Progress, citing a Joint Economic Committee analysis, said that in Maine , the average household will need to pay $674 more this year to fill its heating oil tank.
• Collins Voted to Confirm the EPA Administrator Who Took Back Maine's $62 Million Solar Grant for Low-Income Households. On January 29, 2025, Susan Collins voted to confirm Lee Zeldin as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In August 2025 his agency terminated the $7 billion Solar for All program and stripped Maine of a $62 million grant to help low income households access solar power. A federal judge ruled on September 18, 2026 that the EPA illegally terminated a $7 billion Solar for All program and vacated the termination.
• Collins Did Not Respond When Asked About the Administration's Blocks on Offshore Wind. In March 2026, Inside Climate News reported that Susan Collins had not publicly opposed the administration's moves to block already permitted offshore wind projects in New England, and wrote that Multiple attempts to reach Collins's office for this article were unsuccessful (Maine Morning Star, March 25, 2026). The administration issued stop work orders that blocked construction of five large offshore wind projects until courts enjoined them.

What the Energy Policies Under Susan Collins's Votes Cost Maine Households

• Household energy costs. Energy Innovation projects that the 2025 law and other federal energy policy changes mean Maine households will pay an additional $2.6 billion for energy, an average of $320 per household in 2035, and will inflate Maine’s gasoline prices 16 percent in 2035; these are projections.
• Heating oil. Maine is the most heating oil dependent state in the country, Maine Public reported in September 2026 as the state faced soaring heating oil prices ahead of winter.
• Heating aid. Federal LIHEAP staff process aid for some 52,000 in Maine each year, Maine Public reported when the staff were removed.
• Solar for low-income families. Maine's Solar for All program was projected to help about 20,000 low income people in Maine lower electric bills before the EPA took the grant back in August 2025; a federal judge vacated the termination on September 18, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Collins on Energy and utility bills

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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