The Case for Holding Hands: Maine communities need more active support
By Steve Erario,
Climate Fellow
Clean Air-Cool Planet
Steve Erario, is a Clean Air-Cool Planet Climate Fellow working with Greater Portland Council of Governments and CA-CP staff and to help produce a Maine Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Handbook for communities.. A senior Environmental Policy major at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, he has worked to study and improve sustainability in local Maine governments, notably leading to the creation of the Sustain Mid-Maine Coalition. Recently he helped design and write a grant that won $170,000 for an initiative to reduce energy costs in homes and apartments in Waterville and Winslow, Maine.
Last year Efficiency Maine created a grant program to redistribute federal energy efficiency money to local Maine governments. The goal was to encourage most eligible Maine towns to apply; hundreds of grants were offered non-competitively. Efficiency Maine even allowed towns to hire a contractor to do all grant work—from planning to project management to reporting. In spite of the opportunity, less than one in six towns applied!
Does the low demand for grants translate to a lack of community interest? My discussions with hundreds of Mainers suggest not. Government staff and citizens acutely understand the problems that energy creates for municipal balance sheets and the viability of their communities.
Instead, I think two barriers reduced the number of applications submitted. First, town staff were not well informed about the grant opportunity. Second, town staff had limited time or expertise to design and write applications.
Consider the case of Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG) communities, where more than five in six towns received funding. GPCOG removed the first barrier (information) by advising towns on grant availability. They removed the second barrier (time & expertise) by assisting with towns’ grant applications and offering to coordinate projects from start to finish. GPCOG staff even checked with communities to ensure they did not miss the grant application deadline.
Proof that the this model is scalable can be found close to home in another initiative that Clean Air-Cool Planet has supported. A New Hampshire initiative is now walking fifty communities through each step of the energy planning process—free of charge. Exemplary statewide programs are found in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
Some statewide groups like Cool Maine and the Governor’s Carbon Challenge already support local Maine energy efficiency initiatives. Still, these and similar programs need more financial and staff backing to provide needed support for towns. Perhaps there’s available funding in millions of yet-to-be-spent grant money earmarked for Maine municipal energy efforts.
Tags: carbon footprint, Carbon Management, clean air-cool planet, Climate action, climate change solutions, climate fellows, climate policy, Community Planning, cool maine, Energy Efficiency, Fundraising, GPCOG, Local Energy Committees, Maine business, sustainability
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