Staff Writer
AUGUSTA — Gov. John E. Baldacci recently announced that Maine has received a $30 million federal grant from The Recovery Act to fund energy efficiency upgrades in Maine.
“Maine is recognized as a national leader in our efforts to improve energy efficiency,” Baldacci said. “The work that we have been doing at MaineHousing and at Efficiency Maine has demonstrated our ability to put resources to work quickly, creating jobs and reducing energy consumption.”
The competitive award was announced April 21 by Vice President Joe Biden and is part of $452 million in Recovery Act funding through the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to 25 communities around the country. Under the Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, communities, governments and nonprofit organizations will work together to pioneer innovative programs to support large-scale retrofits and make energy efficiency accessible to thousands of homeowners and businesses.
Congressman Mike Michaud praised Biden’s announcement, citing the need to keep energy costs down for Maine families and businesses. The program will establish a statewide revolving loan fund that will allow cities and towns of all sizes to participate in a low-cost approach to financing building retrofits.
“Energy costs are a constant challenge facing families and small businesses in Maine,” said Michaud. “This investment will help expand energy efficiency renovations that will save families and businesses money and create much needed jobs for our state.”
In a joint statement, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe stated the funding will help allow communities, governments, and non-profit organizations to retrofit buildings to improve energy efficiency.
“This funding will help guarantee loans for energy efficiency projects all around Maine,” said Sens. Snowe and Collins. “Not only will these energy-efficiency retrofit projects create new jobs, but they will also go a long way toward conserving energy and reducing overall energy bills.”
According to the senators, the awards are the competitive portion of DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, which was funded for the first time under the Recovery Act to help state, local and tribal communities make strategic investments in improving energy efficiency, reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions.
State lawmakers noted the timing of the announcement, coming a day before an Earth Day milestone.
“As we prepare to mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, it is great to show that Maine is a leader in taking action to reduce our energy consumption, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and also reduce costs for Maine consumers,” said Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree. “For Maine to win this grant shows that we have one of the top energy-efficiency programs in the country and that is something we should be proud of.”
“Last year we established the Efficiency Maine Trust as a way to consolidate various efficiency programs so that Maine people could more easily find help in reducing their energy bills,” said Rep. Jon Hinck, the House chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee. “This grant will also specifically take advantage of a process that we enacted this year. The Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE bill, will help cities and towns access these funds.”
The application for the grant was submitted by the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s Energy Programs Division in partnership with MaineHousing.
The grant will establish a revolving loan fund called the Maine Home Performance Fund to make buildings more energy-efficient. The strategy uses grant funds to subsidize retrofits for the first three years of the program. The fund will be accessible to residents in towns that have adopted Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs that meet guidelines established by the state.
The funding will also allow the program to accurately measure energy savings and document reduced carbon emissions, attracting private investors and creating a sustainable revenue stream to fund weatherization and energy efficiency improvements.
“The Retrofit Ramp-Up funding will allow Maine to develop an innovative solution to expand residential efficiency,” said John Brautigam, director of the Energy Programs Division at the Maine PUC. “The Maine Home Performance Fund will create a new financing option that will continue our efforts to break down barriers to homeowners and businesses who want to reduce energy consumption.”
Maine has one of the highest rates of homeownership in the country. Maine’s aging housing stock and high cost of fuel shows the potential value of retrofitting homes and businesses to improve energy efficiency.
“The revolving loan fund and PACE allow us to address key barriers to homeowner investment in weatherization by reducing or eliminating the up-front costs to consumers,” said Dale McCormick, director of MaineHousing.
Maine received one of the highest awards in the competitive process. New York State Research and Development Authority received $40 million; Maine, Michigan and Los Angeles County, Calif., each received $30 million. Twenty-one other awards ranged from $5 million to $25 million.
According to the Department of Energy, in addition to the $452 million Recovery Act investment, the 25 projects will leverage an estimated $2.8 billion dollars from the private sector over the next three years to retrofit hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the country. White House data indicates $3.5 billion in applications were submitted nationwide for the Recovery Act funds available for this program, indicating significant demand for investment in energy-saving and job-creating projects like these nationwide.
