Lots of energy efficiency cash – so who gets it? (cap-'n-trade $$$, Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=225367&ac=PHnws

The nation's first cap-and-trade program to fight global warming is expected to generate $15 million to $20 million a year for new efforts in Maine to promote energy efficiency.

Now the trustees of that money, along with the state Legislature, must decide how to distribute the funds. And conservationists and energy users will weigh in with their own advice at a public hearing in Augusta today.

"It's a significant pot of money (and) a variety of interests have opinions about how to spend that money," said Dylan Voorhees, clean energy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Maine is one of 10 northeastern states participating in the nation's first mandatory market-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the system, large power plants must buy state-issued pollution allowances to burn fossil fuels and release carbon dioxide, starting next year.

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