Gov. Martin O'Malley awarded 21 grants tototaling $1.2 million to area non-profits in round two of the "EmPOWER Clean Energy Communities" grant program. The program helps local governments and nonprofits fund energy efficiency projects aimed at low to moderate income Marylanders. The grants, overseen by the
Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), are providing a total of over $3 million this fiscal year, broken into two rounds, to local governments and nonprofits across our One Maryland. The first round of these funds were used to perform energy retrofits to save money for at an estimated 1,000 low and moderate income Maryland families. This second round of funding, is going primarily to Maryland counties who did not exhaust their available funding for projects in round one.
"Building on the success of round one, these grants are an example of exactly the type of efficiency projects we had intended for Maryland communities and families when we entered into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first multi-state collaborative carbon cap-and-trade program," says Gov. O'Malley. "These grants are another step forward in our goal to make Maryland's future cleaner, greener, and more sustainable for all our citizens."
The grants are being awarded to a wide variety of projects that will build on the momentum of energy savings and decrease monthly electricity bills accomplished in round one. The round two projects range from Home Performance with Energy Star programs through Habitat for Humanity in Caroline, Calvert and St. Mary's Counties, among other locations across the State, to projects focused on the weatherization of homes and apartments in Kent and Talbot Counties.
Each Maryland county and Baltimore City was provided an allocation based on the number of low-to-moderate income households residing in the respective area. A listing of grants awarded in round two is detailed below.
Funding for the program comes from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, which was created from public auctions of carbon credits through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Source: Maryland Energy Administration
Writer: Walaika Haskins