BY TUX TURKEL, Maine Sunday Telegram

When heating oil spiked in 2008, roughly 500 Mainers took a state housing authority course to become weatherization technicians. Another 200 became certified energy auditors.

Then two unexpected things happened: Oil prices collapsed and the country plunged into a deep recession.

The result was that fewer people had the incentive or money to insulate their homes. Today, the majority of those trainees are doing other jobs or are out of work.

“It should be a cautionary tale,” said Curry Caputo, president of the Maine Association of Building Efficiency Professionals.

Maine won’t need hundreds of new insulation techs or auditors in the near future, Caputo said, despite the sense that a flood of federal stimulus money and the state’s goal of weatherizing all homes will create a wave of new, green jobs.

“The estimates are inflated,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Green jobs. Maine is trying to position itself as a leader in a clean-energy economy. Advocates envision thousands of green jobs, buttoning up drafty homes, developing wind farms and installing solar panels.

But a new report by the Maine Department of Labor says the reality is more complicated. It’s not possible now for the state to develop a detailed plan for green work force development, the department has concluded. Researchers can’t even confirm the number of green jobs in Maine today.

“It’s a moving target,” said John Dorrer, director of the state’s Center for Workforce Research and Information.

As weatherization training shows, green jobs are highly dependent on volatile energy prices, government policies and the overall economy. After consulting with state agencies and industry reps like Caputo, labor department researchers concluded the state will only need another 55 full-time energy auditors and 118 more weatherization techs between now and 2015.

“The last thing we should be doing is training more people,” Dorrer said.

To gain a more accurate picture, Maine has begun working with a consortium of seven Northeastern states that are using software to track Internet job postings that call for green job skills. This approach reflects a move away from simply counting green jobs to understanding what skills and educational requirements are needed to power a clean-energy economy.

The stakes are high for Maine. The state lost 30,000 jobs since the economy peaked in late 2007. Most were in manufacturing, retail and construction.

The energy sector holds promise for helping replace them. Some are near-term activities, such as land-based wind projects and new transmission lines. Others are long-term prospects, including offshore wind farms and biofuels development.

The labor department report, compiled this month for the Maine Legislature, represents a continuing attempt to tally clean-energy employment and plan for future training and education. From the start, researchers have run into a basic hurdle –how to define a green job.

The department tried to do this by identifying firms that say they’re involved with renewable energy or efficiency products or services. By that rough measure, Maine had 523 green employers and 16,782 green jobs in 2008.

But this approach has problems, Dorrer said.

If a bulldozer operator is opening a road at a wind farm, that’s a green job. But the job is no longer green, Dorrer said, when the operator finishes and moves to a highway bridge project. It’s the same with a heating contractor trained to install wood pellet boilers, or an electrician certified to wire solar panels.

So the focus shouldn’t be on green jobs specifically, Dorrer said, but the greening of jobs in general.

Dorrer said he’s reminded of late-20th century hype over high-tech jobs. Call centers were considered high-tech workplaces – not customer service employers — when they first began springing up in Maine. Today, working in front of a computer screen is the norm.

“I think a lot of that will happen with green jobs,” he said.

But the desire to count green jobs remains powerful because the numbers are a tool to shape public policy. And headcounts may invite hyperbole, when headlines fail to convey important details.

For instance: Efficiency Maine Trust is the new, independent agency preparing to coordinate the state’s conservation efforts. It recently unveiled a three-year plan that it says could create 12,000 new jobs.

But only 1,500 of those positions actually would be green jobs. The rest would be created through a multiplier effect, in which economists calculate how a job creates and supports additional employment.

Green job projections also tend to depend on the availability of public funding over time.

An example is the report released last April on Earth Day by Opportunity Maine, a Portland-based education and work force advocacy group. Maine could cut its energy bills by $10 billion and create 10,000 jobs over a decade with a comprehensive economic and energy plan, the group estimated.

The plan, however, needed $180 million a year that the group hoped to raise by convincing lawmakers to expand taxes on energy purchases, such as heating oil. That effort failed.

But the plan made a point, according to Rob Brown, the group’s co-director. To create and maintain green jobs, funding must remain predictable and the cost of energy has to be high enough.

“What drives demand is public and private investment, and energy prices,” he said.

Lacking a clear picture, educators are taking advantage of public investment, and perceived demand, to design green courses.

Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield is a leader in work force energy training. It received a $2.8 million federal grant last year to train community college instructors in the region who then will teach students how to install photovoltaic and solar hot water systems.

Students taking existing solar hot water courses tend to be plumbers who want to diversify, according to Dana Doran, the school’s director of energy programs. That approach is in line with the idea of expanding green skills, he said.

Doran said he’s aware, though, that fewer students are signing up these days for solar courses. It may be because there are enough installers now to meet consumer demand, he said.

But that reality hasn’t slowed weatherization and energy auditor training.

The school is planning to offer new courses this summer. Some students may be upgrading their skills to meet new certification requirements, but Doran said he doesn’t follow up to know how many recent graduates are working.

“There is demand,” he said. “We are filling the training programs.”

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/despite-predictions-state_s-green-economy-not-blooming_2010-04-17.html

There’s a serious shortage of environmentally friendly jobs in Maine that match the education schools offer.
By ADAM MARQUIS, Portland Press Herald

PORTLAND – Forget death and taxes. The two certainties of life in Maine are a lack of good-paying jobs and high and volatile energy costs.

On education, as a recent college graduate facing the “should-I-stay-or-should-I-go” question, I can say first hand that it is a difficult one and, frustratingly, seems outside of my control.

Although I was born, raised and educated in Maine, I have also lived in other states. Time away made me realize how great Maine is, but having recently completed a degree in environmental sciences — a fast-growing field — I have found it is nearly impossible to find a job here.

That’s true even though I could land a job tomorrow in Massachusetts. Business opportunities of the 21st century will not be fully realized if Maine’s work force is not prepared.

One example of how Maine has faced this challenge is the newly created Opportunity Maine Program.

The program allows individuals who earn an associate or bachelor’s degree at a Maine college or university and continue to live and work here to be reimbursed for student loan payments through an income tax credit.

Alternately, businesses that create a student loan reimbursement program as an employee benefit are eligible to take the credit instead. This type of bold yet practical initiative rewards Maine’s workers with educational opportunity, rewards businesses with a better-educated and skilled work force, and contributes to a stronger and more sustainable economy.

And on energy, as the snow piles up every year, so too does the burden of heating and other increased energy costs. Whether in our household budget or the state budget, these higher costs are offset by cuts elsewhere. The inverse relationship between energy costs and economic growth could not be clearer.

We can address our economic, educational and energy challenges head on by bridging the gap between our economic and work force development strategies. Developing the clean-energy sector will create opportunities for Maine to prosper in a rapidly changing, internationally competitive, knowledge-based economy.

Incredible job growth would result for many professions, including engineers, carpenters, plumbers, researchers, marketers, financial services, steelworkers, machinists, IT specialists, energy auditors, and electrical, HVAC, wind and other technicians, all with upgraded certifications in a variety of green skills.

Unfortunately, Maine continues to suffer from a vicious cycle keeping our economy weak, outsourcing the knowledge and skills of our current and future work force, while wasting billions of dollars on foreign oil.

What message are we sending to our students, employees and businesses when the potential for job and business creation is lacking, yet so clear? Are we marketing “the way life should be” without the prospect of better jobs and a brighter future?

State and federal policymakers have made a good start with greater attention to and investment in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the education and skills of our work force. But more focus and coordination are needed. We need a plan that Mainers can believe in, contribute to and succeed within.

An aggressive, coordinated economic and work force development strategy will address both sides of this “weak economy” coin.

If we focus on developing an educated and skilled work force and a clean-energy sector, educational and economic opportunities, greater energy independence and an even higher quality of place will follow.

Average incomes and educational attainment levels in Maine continue to be the lowest of any state in New England. Every year our colleges and universities graduate thousands of young people, only to see this investment short-circuited because too many of those graduates are unable to secure decent-paying jobs.

As this outflow of knowledge and skills continues, so too does our weak economy.

- Special to the Press Herald

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/green-jobs-should-graduates-stay-or-go__2010-03-16.html

Maine’s Competitive Skills Scholarship Program

by Sandra S. Butler, Luisa S. Deprez, John Dorrer, & Auta M. Main
The authors describe how the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program, administered by the Maine Department of Labor, aims both to meet the needs of Maine employers through improved access to a skilled labor force and to improve job prospects for low-income Mainers by providing access to education, training, and support.

http://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/files/pdf_mpr/V19N1_ButlerFIN.pdf

Reported By: Susan Sharon

It may be one of the best kept job-retraining secrets in Maine. It offers an attractive benefits package and good pay and the training program itself is free. And it’s being held up as a model for how business, education and labor can help strengthen the new economy.

Stacey Timberlake of Lisbon Falls didn’t plan on becoming an electrician. She originally got a teaching degree in elementary education. And when her son was born nine years ago Timberlake became a stay-at-home mom. To supplement her income, she eventually started waitressing on the side.

One day some of her customers started talking about Local 567′s Joint Apprenticeship Training program, how it was good to have an aptitude for math, which Timberlake did, and how you were virtually guaranteed a job. Timberlake went down and filled out an application.

The next thing she knew, she was enrolled in a five-year program to become what’s known as an “inside wireman.”
“I think we do about 980 hours of classroom time and 10,000 hours of work time before we finish the program. We have to work 2,000 hours a year. You work Monday through Friday – a 7:00 to 3:30 schedule with the rest of the journeymen.”

Classroom training takes place a couple of nights a week in the IBEW’s training center in Lewiston. And just about everything is free. Apprentices are responsible for their books and their tools for the job. Participating electrical contractors pay for the rest. That’s because they’re looking for skilled labor, people who can literally hit the ground running.

Timberlake is beginning her fourth year in the program. She says she had just four months of classroom training when she went on her first job. “My first day on the job site was horrible,” she laughs. “It was so cold and the heater in the van didn’t work. My bottle of water froze – but I learned a lot and I mean — it was a residential job my first time and we were pulling wire and they’re very patient with you. And you have kind of a level of what you’re expected to know with each year.”

Susan Sharon: “When you get done what will you be qualified to do?”

Stacey Timberlake: “When I’m done I can work residential, commercial and industrial. I can be a foreman, a journeyman, I could do jobs on my own.”

SS: “You’ll be an electrician?”

ST: “Yup.”

Timberlake expects to earn much more than she did as a teacher. And she’s already getting benefits. Once she’d worked 500 hours on the job those kicked in. And the contractor she’s working for right now is contributing to her pension plan. Apprentices can also train to do shorter, three-year programs in residential applications or for teledata, installing lines for telephones and computers.

This year there are 71 apprentices, but some years the program swells to as many as 120. “Eighty-five percent of the folks who come into this facility graduate and of those 90 percent are placed immediately into jobs,” says Rob Brown, Executive Director of Opportunity Maine, a non-profit and advocacy program that supports workforce development.

And in a way that makes sense for displaced mill workers and others who might not be interested in devoting the next four years of their lives and their bank accounts to a college degree program. “Very little public money goes into this. This is supported by the contractors themselves. These students are not paying tuition to go here. It’s an earn while you learn strategy of education and work.”

And it’s one that Brown thinks can be replicated in other fields, like health care, for instance, through the help of pending legislation in Congress that’s sponsored in the Senate by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe and co-sponsored in the House by Maine Congressman Mike Michaud.

Recently, Michaud paid a visit to the IBEW’s apprenticeship program in Lewiston, where he spoke about the Sectors Act, which would provide grants of up to $2.5 million for stakeholder partners to train workers. “It really is a game-changer and it brings business, unions, educators and the public workforce to grow and save an entire industry.”

Michaud says it could also help Maine foster new industries too. As an example, supporters point to the IBEW apprenticeship training program where several students worked on the Kibby Mountain windpower project installing 20 wind turbines over the summer. By the time they’ve completed their training, students will also have skills to install solar panels as well, something that could be a factor for clean energy developers as they consider project sites around the country.

By Rob Brown and Don Berry

Maine’s intertwined economic and energy challenges have deep roots. We have the nation’s oldest housing and work force, greatest reliance on heating oil, and highest percentage of young people neither working pursuing education. Electricity costs are high, and Maine has the lowest income and education levels in New England.

We must turn these challenges into opportunity. Public and private investment in energy efficiency and local renewable power generation can save Maine’s economy billions and create good-paying, non-exportable jobs in every community, if we give our work force the skills to refashion our energy economy.

Across the country, the most effective model for meeting challenges like Maine’s energy crisis has been the “sector partnership model,” which unites stakeholders in an economic sector to lead training efforts across multiple firms for current and potential workers within the targeted industry sector.

One of Maine’s most successful sector partnerships and best kept educational secrets is the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee in Lewiston.

The JATC is managed by a board comprised, in equal numbers, of business and labor representatives. Its curriculum, training and credentials conferred guarantees graduates possess the skills businesses need.

An impressive 85 percent of those who start the training complete it and more than 90 percent of graduates are placed in good jobs. The JATC’s high completion and placement rates result from its “earn while you learn” training strategy. Apprentices work real jobs and get an education in a coordinated, streamlined program. When it comes time to find a job, these graduates already have one foot in the clean energy work force.

Sector partnerships like the JATC target resources by supporting the long-term competitiveness of industries and education, and training opportunities that lead to good-paying, green-skilled jobs. They unite stakeholders in a given industry — in this case, clean energy — to identify all needs for building the sector as a whole, and meeting those needs in a manner that maximizes economic opportunity for local people, particularly those with low incomes and other disadvantages for which a four-year college degree is not practical or possible.

We are setting ourselves up for failure if we build a renewable energy market without developing a high-quality work force, and if we don’t parlay our clean energy and work force investments into opportunities to bring renewable energy component manufacturing to Maine. Currently, over half of all wind components, 90 percent of solar components and 100 percent of advanced battery technology is manufactured elsewhere.

It will mean little to American workers if the clean energy economy is built in China.

Meeting our energy needs and manufacturing the products to do it requires greater coordination and innovation than now exists. Workers must be trained for jobs that exist today and will exist in greater numbers as the clean energy economy expands. Both Maine and the federal government have taken promising steps in this direction, but require bolder action.

One of the most promising developments is the federal SECTORS Act (Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success). It would provide state grants to establish or expand sector partnerships, allowing businesses, work force development boards, labor unions and community colleges to collaborate to determine work force and community needs and link skilled workers with emerging industries. Sen. Olympia Snowe is a lead sponsor, and Rep. Mike Michaud has championed SECTORS in the House.

Additionally, the Senate must now pass the American Clean Energy & Security Act, which will implement substantial energy market reforms and work force investments in the clean energy sector. This legislation, with the new Efficiency Maine Trust, clean energy investments and reforms Opportunity Maine has proposed at the state level, and the work force investments contained in the SECTORS Act and epitomized by successful partnerships like the JATC, can turn an energy crisis into an opportunity for prosperity for this and future Maine generations.

Don Berry is the director of the JATC. Rob Brown is the executive director of Opportunity Maine. E-mail: dberry@ibew567.com or rob@opportunitymaine.org.

By Ron Bancroft

An expanded sales tax, a lower overall income tax rate and progress on efficiency all merit praise.

As I suggested last week, two significant pieces of legislation dominated the latter days of the legislative session in Augusta: tax reform and an omnibus energy bill.

Many of us had given up hope that meaningful legislation to reduce Maine’s high income tax rate and broaden Maine’s narrow sales tax base would ever garner enough votes to pass. Luckily for Maine, Rep. John Piotti, majority leader of the House, never gave up hope that such reform was possible.

Piotti, D-Unity, has been a leader in this effort through two sessions and several previous failed attempts. He worked tirelessly to craft legislation that would address both tax issues and have a chance of passing. Piotti was able to enlist the support of three influential business groups: the chambers of commerce of Portland, Bangor and Androscoggin County.

Even with all this, Gov. Baldacci nearly scuttled the entire effort at the last minute with what seemed to be a silly veto – coming back with changes that made little sense (i.e., dropping the sales tax on ski-lift tickets).

One might well ask where the governor had been in the months and weeks when this legislation was coming together. The governor’s timing was good enough to get him prominent mention in a Wall Street Journal editorial. While the Journal got many of the details wrong, it was a nice boost for Maine from a most unlikely source.

In the end, a tax reform bill was passed that is historic, mostly as a first step toward a more reasonable tax structure in Maine.

It does not quite reduce Maine’s real top income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent, as billed, because the governor raised the top rate to 6.85 percent and because the many current deductions have now been excluded.

Nonetheless, the state does finally have a broader base for the sales tax, making us less hostage to wild swings of the economy. We have given modest tax relief to Mainers, mainly by shifting some of the tax burden to out-of-state visitors.

The optics, at least, of the overall income tax rate moving from 8.5 percent to 6.85 percent are something – as the Wall Street Journal editorial attested. All in all, it was quite a feat for this state in this year. We should pass emergency legislation to exempt Piotti from term limits (he is termed out this year) and give him another go at this in the 125th Legislature.

Energy legislation was also the subject of much debate and interest. Part of the interest derived from the availability of federal stimulus funding, both for new technologies such as offshore wind power and for energy conservation efforts that focus on low-tech approaches to weatherization.

In a state such as Maine with a long winter and high dependence on oil, the payback is high on weatherization and like efforts to improve energy efficiency.

Part of the interest stemmed from imaginative approaches suggested by unlikely sources. Peter Vigue, the chairman of Cianbro Corp., put forward several proposals that the governor incorporated in his energy legislation.

Then there was a grass-roots effort by Opportunity Maine, which teamed with Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, to define a comprehensive energy-efficiency bill that would have made Maine the leading state in the nation in developing a green energy economy, complete with up-front financing, a cadre of new jobs and impressive payback numbers.

Clearly, energy was an area of substantial interest, even excitement.

The Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Energy Future, co-chaired by Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Gorham, and Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, took in all of these proposals and produced a comprehensive bill that embraces many of the elements proposed in earlier legislation.

Most significantly, it establishes an Efficiency Maine Trust to consolidate all energy-efficiency programs; to fund new efficiency efforts and work force training for new weatherization work; and to promote alternative energy resources programs in the state.

There is much more to this bill, which runs to 58 pages. It is somewhat more than a good start, but somewhat less than what many hoped for.

Beyond initial funding, mostly by two-year federal stimulus funds, no decisions have been made about how to make these efforts self-sustaining. The legislation also delays the electric transmission corridor initiative – a particularly promising idea. On energy, much remains to be sorted out.

The only significant disappointment in the session was the lack of real progress on the education front – but I’ll say more on this in another column.

All in all, though, there is much to praise in the work of the Legislature this session. Leadership, in particular that of House Speaker Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, deserves credit for a deft touch in the management of several major initiatives.

AUGUSTA – Governor John E. Baldacci today signed into law LD 1485, An Act Regarding Maine’s Energy Future. The emergency measure sets aggressive goals to end Maine’s dangerous dependency on foreign fuels.

“Maine is a leader in addressing clean, renewable energy and pursuing green jobs,” said Governor Baldacci. “This law is a significant and bold next step. It sets the course for ambitious and achievable measures to reduce the stranglehold of fossil fuels on our pocketbooks and environment.”

The Governor has pursued growth of renewable energy, recognizing the great potential for energy self-sufficiency and lower energy prices for Maine people and businesses.

The law establishes the Efficiency Maine Trust and Board, bringing together under one roof Maine’s energy rebate, efficiency and conservation programs. The Board will design, coordinate and integrate energy efficiency, weatherization and alternative energy programs in the State for all energy consumers in Maine. Individuals, families and businesses will have a one-stop shop that they can go to for help with all of their energy efficiency needs.

In addition, the law sets goals to:

o Weatherize all residences and 50 percent of businesses by 2030;

o Reduce peak electric energy consumption by 100 Megawatts by 2020;

o Reduce the State’s consumption of liquid fossil fuels by at least 30 percent by 2030;

o Build private sector jobs in clean energy businesses, providing a much needed boost to our economy and putting our people to work in good jobs;

o Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of our environment and the health of our people; and

o Achieve significant reductions in electricity and natural gas by 2020.

A fund is also established to build and rehabilitate affordable housing, making them more energy efficient, affordable and available.

The law also sets up a reasonable process for managing opportunities to take advantage of Maine’s location to develop new renewable energy resources.

“With this law, Maine will send fewer energy dollars out of the State; we’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and we’ll create thousands of jobs for Maine workers,” said Governor Baldacci.

The law is a compilation of provisions introduced in separate legislation by the Governor (and sponsored by Representative John Martin), Senate President Libby Mitchell, House Speaker Hannah Pingree, and House Majority Whip Seth Berry. The Governor also noted in the signing ceremony the significant contributions of the Chairs and Leads of the Special Select Committee on Maine’s Energy Future and the Joint Standing Committee on Utilities and Energy.

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.