By DEIRDRE FULTON

“I think we had a major impact on the thinking going on in the Legislature,” says Rob Brown, executive director of Opportunity Maine, the non-profit that previously focused on keeping young, educated Mainers in the state, which submitted its own energy-related bill (through Democratic Bowdoinham representative Seth Berry) to the Legislature; many of its provisions were folded into the bill as it exists today, albeit not as aggressively as OppME would have hoped, especially on questions of funding and green-skills education.

Indeed, this issue is serving as a catalyst for players inside and outside the State House to form a young alliance that includes organizations such as Opportunity Maine and the League of Young Voters, as well as a young, new set of legislators. This makes sense, given the recent generational push toward all things green. As reporter David Bernstein noted in a May 11 Boston Phoenix article about the broadly defined “Millennial” generation of eco-friendly young adults: “Global warming, more than any other issue, carries an urgency among Millennials of all backgrounds and ideologies … To this generation, this fight is not only about climate change — it is about creating green jobs and increasing national security by reducing dependence on foreign oil.” Bernstein was making those observations to show that the Republican Party risks alienating yet another demographic if they ignore sound, far-reaching, sustainable energy policy. We highlight them here to point out that the Legislature has the public support and interest to create revolutionary legislation in Augusta, in whatever form makes sense here (Bernstein’s article talked specifically about support for national greenhouse-gas cap-and-trade policies).

“Young freshman Democratic legislators really strongly advocated for workforce development” in the context of energy efficiency, says Portland’s Diane Russell, one of those representatives, who calls weatherization and increased energy efficiency a “moral imperative.” Russell adds: “We’ve really banded together and have created this informal next-generation caucus.”

Let’s see what they can do.

By Deirdre Fulton, Portland Phoenix

To make the most of huge chunks of incoming federal economic-stimulus cash (and to get their hands on more of it in the first place), the Maine Legislature has to ramp up its energy-efficiency planning — on the double. The task isn’t as sexy as, say, building majestic wind farms, but it is just as large-scale, in human, economic, and infrastructural terms.

We already know that we have between $60 million and $70 million coming our way from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and some $10 million to $20 million could be available to Maine in additional competitive-grant money. The Act To Secure Maine’s Energy Future (LD number not assigned before the Phoenix’s deadline), which is supported by majority leadership in both houses and which legislators in Augusta are debating right now, tries to sort out what we’ll do with that money when we get it, and how to use it in ways that are best for our wallets, and our environment. The trouble is, even those millions barely scratch the surface of need in Maine, where close to 80 percent of the housing stock (more than 400,000 buildings) is old and inefficient. We need more money — tens of millions more, politicians and industry folks agree. Maine’s legislators might be giving good lip service to this crucial issue (efficiency), but they’re floundering when it comes to the nitty-gritty (how to afford it).

Maine’s biggest energy initiatives right now are geared toward mundane things like better-insulated walls and double-hung windows; investing in those types of measures could meet up to 30 percent of most buildings’ energy needs, and could establish 5000 jobs in the state. The Act to Secure Maine’s Energy Future focuses on weatherization of Maine’s ancient housing stock as a means to increase efficiency. And efficiency, its proponents like to remind us, is the “first fuel” — so called because it is cheaper and more cost-effective than any energy production technology.

The bill, crafted by the Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Energy Future last week, and which legislators plan to address before this session ends in mid-June, does several things:

Consolidates Maine’s already-existent efficiency programs (Efficiency Maine, the state’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and a new housing weatherization program) into a unified organization, called the Efficiency Maine Trust, that will oversee efficiency funding and implementation;

Provides efficiency incentives for building owners and renters alike (in the form of rebates and tax credits, mostly);

Authorizes a $30 million bond to retrofit low-income apartments and build new energy-efficient affordable housing (the building plans would be shovel-ready next year, according to legislative leaders);

Reserves some money for training and certification of energy auditors, installers, technicians, and other building-efficiency trade workers at all stages of their careers. So, proponents say, it addresses not just green-collar jobs, but green-collar workers;

Puts off a decision on the somewhat controversial prospect of building an “energy corridor” to transmit electricity from New Brunswick, Canada, to Downeast Maine, a puzzle of which many energy companies want a piece;

Lastly, and not on paper, work on the bill helped to create an informal young-progressive caucus of lawmakers in the State House (see sidebar, “Young Energy”), who are working in concert with youth-oriented organizations such as the League of Young Voters and Opportunity Maine.

“This is an opportunity to dramatically change the way that we think about energy in the state of Maine, and how we prepare to make ourselves energy independent,” says State Senate Majority Leader Phil Bartlett, a Gorham Democrat in his early 30s. “We really think this is a bold step toward dramatically changing the way we do things in this state.”

Of course, as with so many legislative initiatives, this “bold step” involves a lot of baby ones, including the creation of a “study group” (given Maine’s record on study-group follow-through, that term should make us cringe), and a stalling strategy that delays decision-making on the important question of paying for all the ideas it proposes.

“There are a lot of moving parts and competing interests,” Bartlett says, and it seems that some provisions of the bill were written to avoid controversy rather than tackle those competing interests head-on.

For example, on the complicated issue of money: The new efficiency entity, Efficiency Maine Trust, has three years to develop a way to pay for ongoing efficiency-improvement projects around the state. In 2011, the Legislature will be required to consider the Trust’s recommendations. Simultaneously, a separate study group will convene to examine energy-transmission issues, how building new transmission lines in Maine will impact the cost of electricity for homes and businesses and how Mainers can best benefit from leasing public land to energy companies for transmission lines. That group will report to the Legislature next session. Here, too, with so many self-interested parties involved, the creation of a study group seems like something of a stalling tactic.

Not surprisingly, there are those who don’t think the bill goes far enough.

Portland Democratic representative Jon Hinck, for example, cites “the failure in this case to muster resources.” While he praises the measure overall, “the disappointing part of the bill is the apparent unwillingness of a majority of legislators to find a way to create a revenue stream.” When the bill was being considered by the joint select energy committee, Hinck put forward an amendment that would have put a 2-cent-per-gallon fee on home heating oil; that money would have gone toward efficiency measures. The amendment didn’t garner sufficient support at that point, but he is considering reintroducing it when the entire House discusses the bill next week. As for the mandate for the trust to come up with a funding mechanism by 2011, he says, “not much will have changed by then in terms of what we know [about how to pay for these types of projects and proposals]. I would argue that we shouldn’t wait.”

So would the folks at Opportunity Maine, a Portland-based non-profit best known for their work in securing a student-loan tax break for Maine graduates who stay in the state when they finish school. OppME staff wrote and issued a report earlier this year outlining the economic benefits of weatherization and energy efficiency.

Bills to fix the tax system and establish a state energy policy deserve support.

RON BANCROFT, Portland Press Herald Columnist

Stranded once again at Chicago’s O’Hare airport last Friday, I stayed the night at the O’Hare Hilton, the only hotel that is actually within walking distance of the terminals.

As I checked out Saturday morning to head home, I reviewed my bill for the night, $99 for the room and $15.25 for lodging tax. That is a lodging tax of more than 15 percent.

I almost never notice the lodging tax, but the controversy in Maine over the increase in lodging tax moved me to check. To tell you the truth, I was much more impressed by the reasonable room rate.

I cite this example because of the Maine Voices column last week in the Press Herald by Bob Smith, the owner of the Sebasco Harbor Resort, decrying the proposed lodging tax increase from 7 percent to 8.5 percent, which is part of a broader piece of tax reform legislation that will also lower Maine’s top income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent.

Smith’s concerns are misplaced. How many prospective Sebasco guests are likely to make their decision to come to this lovely resort (where my daughter was married) based on the lodging tax?

Not many, particularly when the daily rates average $200 or more per person.

Alanna Peterkin, owner of Head Games Hair Salon in Portland, voiced a similar concern to me when cutting my hair last week.

She had been contacted by one of her suppliers about the fact that the bill would also add sales tax to her cuts and related services.

Again, it seems unlikely that I and any other Head Games customers will drive to Portsmouth to get our cuts just to avoid an additional $2.50 in tax.

Both of these entrepreneurs also should realize that they are likely to benefit significantly from the other provision of this tax reform legislation, reducing Maine’s income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent.

Sponsored by House Majority Leader John Piotti, D-Unity, this tax reform legislation (LD 1088) is the product of a long, exemplary consultative process. It is one of the best examples of bipartisan effort on a complex issue that I have seen in many years of Augusta-watching.

Moreover, it has significant potential to improve Maine’s competitive positioning in attracting entrepreneurial talent to the state while also addressing the need to broaden Maine’s sales tax base to make it steadier in difficult economic times.

This is a bill whose time has come. Its passage will go a long way toward making the record of this session of the Legislature a positive one.

Another bill of similar importance is the energy policy bill developed by the Joint Select Committee on Energy.

This committee has taken parts of proposals by the governor, House Speaker Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, and Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, to craft a comprehensive energy policy for Maine.

There are worthwhile aspects to all of the proposals the committee considered. The most comprehensive, and in some ways audacious, proposal is the bill sponsored by Berry and crafted with lots of input from Opportunity Maine.

Opportunity Maine is the forward-thinking nonprofit that developed the eponymous program of tax credits for Maine college graduates who continue to work in Maine.

Now they have turned their attention to energy conservation and “green jobs.”

Their proposal would have levied a surcharge on utilities and oil dealers to fund a comprehensive weatherization and energy conservation program that would significantly reduce Maine’s dependence on heating oil.

It is a bold plan, and one with great promise.

The Joint Committee’s proposal adopts much of the program structure proposed by Opportunity Maine but without the energy surcharge.

The program will be initially funded mostly with federal stimulus dollars, leaving a hole of at least $50 million to be funded in some way once the federal dollars run out.

The bill is a good start to addressing Maine’s long-term energy policy and another good example of consultative process. Committee Co-Chairs Phil Bartlett, D-Cumberland, and John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, have done credible work here – even though there are a few loose ends.

Over the next few weeks you will hear much about lots of bills being pushed through in the final days of the session.

Most of these last-minute bills, hopefully, will be voted down, but keep your eyes on the fate of tax reform and the comprehensive energy bill.

These are worth a call to your legislator, a letter to the editor, and a discussion with your neighbor.

As odd as it may seem, your voice does count. Let it be heard.

Ron Bancroft is an independent strategy consultant based in Portland.

State House: Efficiency Maine Trust, a new agency, could boost conservation, investment and new jobs.

By TUX TURKEL

A new state energy agency would direct tens of millions of dollars into weatherization, conservation and efficiency programs under a bill facing final consideration in the Maine Legislature.

To be called the Efficiency Maine Trust, the agency would pull together many existing energy-related programs now operating in state government and launch an unprecedented effort to wean Maine’s economy from its dependence on oil.

Supporters also expect the public spending to spawn private investment that in time could create thousands of jobs in companies that insulate and inspect homes, as well as make and install alternative energy products and technology.

In its first two years, the trust would rely heavily on federal stimulus money to get off the ground. After that, the agency hopes to receive $50 million a year in lease payments from private companies that have proposed developing energy corridors through the state. It also may issue revenue bonds, and consider the controversial idea of placing a small tax on heating oil and other fuels, similar to the surcharge now on electricity.

The challenge for future politicians, however, will be coming up with enough money to keep the ambitious goals on track.

“I think this bill is going to frame the direction of energy policy in Maine over the next decade,” said John Kerry, the state’s energy office director.

The bill reflects the work of a special legislative committee set up in the wake of last year’s record oil prices. A majority of the panel endorsed the comprehensive plan last week, although Republicans expressed concerns about oversight of the trust and program performance. Those issues will need to be reconciled in the full Legislature before a vote in the next two weeks.

Assuming the bill is approved, a board that will govern the trust, a director and staff will be phased in over the next year. They will take over programs and efforts aimed at upgrading the energy efficiency of all Maine homes and half of all businesses by 2030, and cutting overall heating oil use by at least 20 percent in 2020. Mainers now burn nearly 600 million gallons of heating oil a year, so a 20 percent reduction would amount to 120 million gallons.

Another part of the proposed law would set up a new program in the Maine State Housing Authority to build and rehabilitate affordable rental units and replace older manufactured housing that doesn’t meet modern codes. Money would come from revenue bonds and a portion of the state’s real estate transfer tax.

This ambitious agenda is taking place against a backdrop of rapid change, and perhaps, fleeting opportunity.

Gov. John Baldacci and other political leaders fear the soaring petroleum prices that threatened Maine’s economy a year ago will return after the recession. Facing a crushing budget shortfall, the state is limited in its ability to fund efforts to insulate Mainers from the next oil shock.

Federal stimulus money that could total more than $60 million over two years will give Maine a timely shot of cash to jump-start the oil cutback plan. Expected money from a regional greenhouse-gas reduction plan and an ongoing surcharge on electricity use will contribute millions more.

But in two years, lawmakers and the trust will have to decide how to sustain the programs, said Senate Majority Leader Philip Bartlett, D-Cumberland, who co-chaired the special committee.

“This is a 20-year process,” he said. “But the bill puts in place a road map to achieve energy independence in the state.”

A potential source of ongoing money is lease payments from energy corridors planned for Maine. Two companies with Canadian ties – Irving Oil Ltd. of New Brunswick and Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., which is owned by Emera Inc. of Nova Scotia – have expressed interest in building energy corridors that could move electricity and perhaps oil and natural gas from the Maritimes through Maine to southern New England.

The law requires that the first $50 million a year of any lease payments go to the trust. The corridor concept has been strongly supported by Baldacci and an influential construction company, Cianbro Corp. They see the corridors as a key for economic development and energy security.

But not everyone’s excited about the corridor plans.

Groups that represent organized labor and paper mills teamed up with advocates of liquefied natural gas terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay to oppose any fast-track corridor agreements that they say would give Canada a sweetheart deal. A compromise, stitched into the bill last week, delays corridor development until a study commission reviews the financial value of any leases and the impact on efforts to build LNG terminals and power plants in Maine. A report is due in December.

Ultimately, Kerry and other lease supporters say, it will be more politically popular to get $50 million from Irving Oil than from Maine taxpayers. Without the money, it’s not clear how the state will sustain its aggressive weatherization and energy-efficiency efforts.

“That’s the $50 million question,” Kerry said.

To some participants in the debate, one answer is to extend the small electricity surcharge that funds efficiency programs to heating oil, propane and perhaps wood fuels. Tacking on a 2-cents-per-gallon charge could generate $12 million a year or so in Maine, said Rob Brown, executive director of Opportunity Maine, an advocacy group promoting economic and work force development.

Reliable, sustainable funding is critical, Brown said. Small businesses that insulate homes or install solar panels, for instance, won’t invest in equipment and hire people if they think Maine’s energy programs will peter out in two years.

But other participants say it’s just not possible now for Maine to nail down large, sustainable sources of funding. That’s why Republicans on the special committee want ways to measure program performance, and why the trust will be required to report back to the Legislature with future funding suggestions, said Rep. Kenneth Fletcher, R-Winslow.

With money tight, he said, the bill strikes the right balance by using public money to leverage private investment and create long-term jobs tied to renewable energy and efficiency.

“We need a public-private partnership,” Fletcher said, “and this is a very good first step.

In a press conference last week on the administration’s efforts to help states reduce barriers to education and training for unemployed workers, President Obama announced that he will lay out a plan in the coming weeks to fundamentally reshape the way we ensure skills for America’s workers. This announcement followed an interview with the President in New York Times magazine where he outlined his agenda for a new economic foundation for the nation, which includes a commitment that “everybody should have at least one year of post-high-school training.”

In some ways, the President’s vision is reflected in the administration’s newly released Fiscal Year 2010 budget, but in other ways it maintains the status quo. Read TWA’s special Budget Edition Washington Update to learn how the budget request will impact the Departments of Labor and Education, and download TWA’s job training and education budget request chart.

By Rob Brown , Special to the Sun Journal

Energy costs are stifling Maine’s economy and making it increasingly difficult for ordinary people to pay their bills. The greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression has greatly accelerated the economic insecurity of Maine’s families, making this bad situation even worse.

In this crisis lies an opportunity to meet our energy needs in a way that costs much less, creates more jobs, reduces our impact on the environment and improves our economy for this and future generations of Mainers. Meeting our energy needs by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE&RE, as I’ll call it) rather than through traditional sources costs one-third as much and creates at least four times as many jobs.

Changing directions is now a necessity, not a choice. One cannot go without heat in Maine. We need to pay for the energy to power our homes and businesses. We need to think boldly and strategically about how to improve the economy and create jobs. The question is: How do we do all of this in the most coordinated, cost-effective and sustainable manner?

In the short term, to get the pieces in place for a high-wage, high-growth, new energy economy, Maine needs aggressive, coordinated deployment of federal stimulus funds. For the long term, Maine needs an explicit commitment to develop the workforce and business capacity of the EE&RE sector. As a Sun Journal editorial said on April 28, this investment, “”should not be left to chance. Whatever Maine lawmakers decide on energy should include proposals to develop a workforce to see it through.”

Most EE&RE sector jobs are considered “middle-skill” jobs, which require some amount of post high-school education, but not necessarily a four-year degree. Research by The Workforce Alliance has shown these types of jobs are both primed for the greatest growth and suffer from the greatest current shortage, in Maine and the nation. A comprehensive workforce development program will allow Maine to close that gap and create good jobs in the EE&RE sector.

The Sun Journal editorial urged lawmakers to not “lose sight of one question: what should we do to make these good ideas happen? How they answer should ensure many Mainers can find, or get back to, work.” Opportunity Maine recommends a three-prong strategy including pathways, partnerships and proportional investment to answer this question.

Pathways are an “earn while you learn” strategy of career ladders that provide meaningful opportunities to access education and training and encourage continuous skills-upgrading, allowing workers to move up into better and better jobs. Partnerships bring together education institutions and programs, businesses, workers, social service providers and others to develop a plan to build the workforce and business capacity of a given sector and region. Proportional investment means explicit, coordinated funding for sector-based education and training that is proportional to the size of any program.

An effective strategy must reach across federal, state and private sector funding and across educational institutions and workplaces, to create a comprehensive response to workforce needs in a given sector. It must provide the support to make education and training opportunities meaningful to a broad range of people, and be responsive to industry needs by training people for jobs that actually exist.

This coordinated strategy has been shown to work time and again. A recent study of broadband public investment and job creation in Virginia shows communities that included an explicit workforce development strategy saw robust, sustained job growth. Regions that invested equivalent amounts, but did not include explicit support for workforce investment, saw little sustained job creation.

It is just that simple.

Opportunity Maine’s new “Green Jobs, Green Savings” report provides examples of how, in state after state, effective EE&RE sector development that includes a comprehensive workforce development system resulted in the sustained creation of high-quality jobs. The report is available at www.opportunitymaine.org/greenjobs.htm.

This week the legislature is considering measures that would expand the EE&RE sector throughout the state.This is a welcome move, but an essential component of the legislature’s plan must be a comprehensive workforce development strategy to get the job done and build our economy for the long haul.

In short, efficiency measures can meet a large portion of energy needs at much lower cost while creating many more jobs, but this will not happen automatically. We know we must pay for our future energy. We know we need to create jobs. Why not meet these needs in a way that costs less, makes us less susceptible to oil price shocks, puts many more people to work and improves Maine’s economy?

Why not indeed?

Rob Brown is executive director of Opportunity Maine, an organization committed to expanding educational opportunities and workforce development in Maine. E-mail rob@opportunitymaine.org.

By Stephen Ward, Special to the Sun Journal

This past month, I testified in support of three major bills at the Legislature: LD 886, sponsored by House Speaker Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, LD 1181, sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, and LD 1201, emergency legislation presented by Gov. John Baldacci, each of which proposes to strengthen energy efficiency programs for Maine business, industry and residents.

The Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Energy Future has dispensed with these bills and is poised to propose a composite bill that incorporates the best features from all three. While I am no longer Maine’s Public Advocate, I still take consumer protection seriously. In particular, I’d like to address the opportunity to make a comprehensive weatherization strategy work for Maine’s many low-income households.

Currently, Maine relies exclusively on federal funds for low-income weatherization. Historically, we have weatherized fewer than 1,000 homes each year, out of roughly 120,000 low-income homes that are eligible for heating fuel assistance. Today, there is a 10-year waiting list for homes already identified as needing weatherization. These are homes that every winter inefficiently uses both the homeowner’s own money and public LIHEAP assistance.

Given the current pace of weatherization with federal funds, it will take a century to help all the low-income households reduce their heating expenses significantly. We do not have a century to do this. In fact, we may have only a few years before prices rise again and Maine’s household budgets are stretched to the breaking point. If something is to be done now, what will be the costs and benefits of a “Weatherize Maine” strategy?

One legislative proposal would generate funding to weatherize at least half of Maine’s poorly-insulated housing stock by 2020, for Mainers at all income levels, as well as thousands of commercial buildings. This would include all of the 60,000 homes receiving fuel assistance. For oil-heated households, the expected 30 percent reduction in usage from weatherization will amount to an average $550 savings in the annual oil bill, when prices are $2 per gallon – if prices stay at the level they reached in 2008, the average annual savings would be nearly $1,300.

The programs proposed in Augusta seek to ensure that homes needing weatherization first get an energy audit and then necessary insulation, air sealing and heating system improvements. Eligible low-income households would receive this at no cost. Other households would receive technical assistance from certified professionals, as well as financial assistance, and be expected to pay 75 percent of the cost themselves.

Program funds could come from the same source most other states use to fund efficiency programs for electricity and natural gas – a “System Benefit Charge” that is paid per-barrel of fuel entering the state. This is a dedicated surcharge solely used to support efficiency programs that directly benefit consumers.

One legislative proposal would increase the retail cost of heating oil by a few cents per gallon over the next 10 years, costing the average heating oil customer less than $2 per month. This is about a one percent cost increase – natural gas consumers already pay 3 percent and receive the benefits of efficiency programs designed for them.

One point is inescapable: under the proposed legislation, customers at all income levels have to share in the cost, from $20 to $40 annually and depending on consumption. That is why the bills propose to provide a full rebate of that amount to each low-income household until their home is weatherized.

When you consider the benefits and the costs, something like this initiative is clearly needed at this time. There is one important word of caution, however: we need to commit enough funding so that the multi-year benefits of Maine’s efficiency strategy are fully realized.

The worst outcome would occur if Maine relied on short-term federal stimulus funding in order to launch weatherization programs and energy workforce development only to see these efforts evaporate when the stimulus expires.

To succeed at this will take patience and commitment. But it is long past time for Maine to continue tolerating a 10-year wait for weatherizing the homes of low-income families who are eligible, but for whom there is no available funding.

Maine can – and should – do better.

Stephen Ward of Newcastle served as Maine’s Public Advocate from 1997 to 2007.