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[Music] thank you [Music] this weekend marks the start of 2023. it's a new year for America and for the world it's a fresh start especially here in Maine as a newly elected legislature takes office and for many of us who were recently elected this time of year is a chance of renewed hope and reflection on what Maine's people expect from us as legislators after all you elected us hello I'm Senator Eric brakey of Androscoggin County and it's my pleasure to join you for our first Republican radio address of 2023. first I want to thank the voters of my district the people of Auburn New Gloucester Poland and Durham for entrusting me to represent them in the state senate as their voice in Augusta it is an honor to serve the people of Maine once again back in 2014 I was elected to my first Senate term as the youngest state senator in America and re-elected in 2016. after a four-year Hiatus I'm honored to be back to do what I've always sought to do to defend the freedoms and paychecks of Maine people and I'm sure all of my fellow elected colleagues of both parties respect the responsibility we've been given to serve you so what is 2023 look like first let me give you a bird's eye view of what has happened in looking back at the last year main rate payers were hit with an 83 rate increase in their electric bills at the start of 2022. if you were a small to medium-sized business that used the Public Utilities Commission standard offer those rates Rose as high as 300 percent before settling down later in the year and what feels like deja vu all over again those rates are going up another 45 percent on average beginning January 1st that's a 165 percent increase in the price of electricity in just two years if you use fuel oil to heat your home you've seen the sudden spike in heating oil prices beginning in February 2022 prices began inflating before hitting a peak of 5.92 cents per gallon in May with high rates persisting well until today in contrast the price of heating oil on the day President Joe Biden took office was just two dollars and 27 cents per gallon so it's more than doubled since and it's not just energy a dozen eggs that cost you a dollar seventy at the beginning of 2021 as this year closes now costs nearly five bucks that's a whopping 191 percent jump in the price of eggs when you factor in the cost of milk vegetables gasoline and even the price of eating out 2022 will not be remembered as a good vintage by any means there are many reasons for Rising prices that we must tackle from the effects of war overseas restrictions on domestic energy production supply chain disruptions from Lockdown policies which proved to be counterproductive and unnecessary and not to...