Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is calling for the end of federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel.

The proposal is part of a sweeping energy policy rollout unveiled Friday. The candidate also called for a four-year freeze on electricity rate increases.

The plan reflects Platner’s vision for the role government can play in improving lives. He often compares his vision to President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” which is referenced in his energy plan.

“Mainers can no longer afford (U.S. Sen.) Susan Collins, her party, or the crony capitalism that has handed over our essential public infrastructure to oil companies, private equity, and foreign-owned utilities,” the plan says.

“The solutions are straightforward. They 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.”

The announcement shows how rising gas prices, driven by the war against Iran, is becoming a key issue in the midterm elections.

The policy rollout comes as a super PAC tied to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released a new ad on Friday linking Collins to President Donald Trump’s ongoing military campaign and other policies that have driven up prices.

Platner is expected to face Collins, a five-term Republican incumbent, in the fall after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her U.S. Senate campaign for the Democratic nomination last week.

A spokesperson for Collins’ campaign panned Platner’s plan, saying highway and road projects are already underfunded. Eliminating the source of 85% of the funding for those projects — the federal gas tax — would only make matters worse, the spokesperson said.

“Graham Platner is great at making bad ideas appear reasonable,” spokesperson Shawn Roderick said. “There is already a deficit in the Highway Trust Fund, and this plan would exacerbate Maine’s already grossly underfunded roads.”

Her campaign highlighted Collins’ efforts to secure funding for Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance, weatherization programs, transportation projects and $745 million in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for energy upgrades and grid modernization projects, among other things.

But Democrats are likely to keep criticizing Collins amid Maine’s affordability crisis.

The Majority Forward ad features a man named Joel, from Mercer, leaning on a white pickup truck at a gas pump. The man talks about the “outrageous” prices of gas, real estate, groceries and insurance.

The spot hits Collins for voting against Democratic efforts to extend enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.

Collins voted against Democratic efforts to include the extension in funding bills necessary to reopen the government during last fall’s shutdown. She referred to the added provisions and others measures as “poison pills.”

Collins said at the time that she wanted to add income limits to the pandemic-era subsidies and extend them in a standalone bill. She voted in support of a Republican bill that included reforms and a Democratic version without the income limits, but neither earned enough support to pass.

The ad also hits Collins for opposing efforts to rein in Trump’s military campaign in Iran. Collins voted against limiting the military action until last week, when the campaign hit the 60-day mark at which Congress must approve of the fighting per federal law.

The conflict has sent oil prices soaring, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway used to move oil out of the Middle East.

Average gas prices in Maine have increased by more than 53% since the end of February, hitting $4.50 this week, while diesel prices were about $5.82 a gallon.

Platner’s plan seeks to eliminate federal taxes on gas (18.4 cents a gallon) and diesel (24.4 cents a gallon), which bring in an estimated $30 billion a year for highway and other transportation projects and programs.

Platner’s plan would replace the gas and diesel taxes by increasing taxes on billionaires and enacting a “Big Oil windfall profits tax” — a measure proposed by Democratic U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

“It’s time we take back American power — by eliminating the gas tax, slashing energy costs, taxing Big Oil’s corporate windfall profits from Trump’s war, and building a clean and affordable energy future provided by union jobs here at home,” Platner said in a statement.

But Collins’ spokesperson said that proposal was impractical.

“His proposal to offset this revenue with a tax that does not even exist and has never made it past the first step of introduction shows just how little he understands about the job he is applying for,” Roderick said.

The oil windfall tax, plus repurposed federal fossil fuel subsidies, would also fund low-cost energy infrastructure financing to any state that lowers or freezes electricity rates for four years under Platner’s plan.

Platner’s also proposing:

• Reinvesting a portion of the military’s budget into clean energy products, which would in turn create more union jobs;
• Creating a strategic energy reserve for American farms and fisheries;
• A national whole-home repair program to help owners weatherize their homes and install heat pumps.