Maine Unifies Energy, Jobs Programs of Stimulus

Editor's Note: As states struggle to coordinate the Recovery Act's many disconnected funding "silos" for energy efficiency, renewable energy, green jobs, and workforce development, Maine has enacted a solution: the Efficiency Maine Trust. The EMT will coordinate and/or consolidate Maine's Recovery Act funding streams -- $100 million over the two years -- to help ensure that the state captures permanent improvements in skills, wages, contractors, and efficiency. Rob Brown, executive director of Opportunity Maine, which began pushing this agenda last year before there was a Recovery Act, explains the new system signed into law last Friday. More on the campaign here.

by Rob Brown

Maine has the oldest housing stock in the nation and 80% of it is heated with oil. We also are the oldest state in the nation and have the lowest incomes in New England. Policymakers were compelled to address the need for a long term plan for energy independence when oil climbed to nearly $5 per gallon in 2008, meaning the average home was spending over $4000 for heat. High and volatile energy costs were not just threatening the poor and the elderly, they were threatening everyone.

A governor's task force was created and the legislature created the Joint Select Committee on Maine's Energy Future to develop a long-term response, long before passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Because of this, Maine had a leg up on thinking through these issues and developing a comprehensive, coordinated policy response, but crisis thinking dominated the debate.

Opportunity Maine wanted to turn the energy crisis into an economic and workforce development opportunity and we crafted bold legislation creating an economy-wide energy efficiency, renewable energy and workforce development strategy to make our built environment at least 30% more efficient, create thousands of good jobs, and cut energy bills for residents and businesses. The governor and Speaker of the House also submitted bills and all three major bills pushed generally in the same direction, although they varied in scope and scale. After a long and robust legislative debate, a final consensus bill was drafted and passed with broad bipartisan support.

The bill creates the semi-independent and highly accountable Efficiency Maine Trust. Consolidation of numerous existing government programs under one roof, a commitment to reduce electricity and natural gas usage by 30% and heating fuel consumption by 20%, and a commitment to workforce development that ensures quality work and sustained job creation are all part of the final package. In fact, the legislation includes a requirement for investment in sector-based workforce development proportional to the size of the overall program.

Most importantly, this far-reaching legislation becomes the conduit through which all stimulus monies for energy efficiency and green-skilled workforce development will be channeled. Formula funds granted for LIHEAP, our State Energy Office, and half of our WIA training monies, as well as other funding streams, will catalyze a long term effort to reach 100% of homes and 50% of businesses, and to create the green-skilled workforce we need to get the job done. This sector strategy even includes explicit mandates for workforce development programs to reach women and other target populations that are underrepresented in green occupations.

Having one comprehensive strategy to expend a variety of stimulus funds will provide a much greater bang for the buck, and will allow Maine to jumpstart our economy, create good jobs, and "put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century."

See also my op-ed on the program.