I hope everyone has enjoyed their week and the new snow! My kids are happy!

As most everyone knows, we voted in the supplemental budget (really a supplemental reduction) on Tuesday evening. The vote was pretty much unanimous. I voted for the budget… let me reword that, I voted for the hard, painful work that was done to get our state back in the black and on track. In a perfect world, this would not have be the budget I would have like to see for the State. Now we will be doing committee work and working on the budget for 2010-2011.

We started public hearings in the Utilities and Energy Committee this week. One public hearing that is very interesting and surprisingly controversial is LD 73 An Act To Protect the Right To Use Solar Energy. I was very surprised by how many people showed up in support and opposition of this proposed bill. The bill would allow people to install or use solar collectors or clothes lines or other equipment for the solar drying of clothing. (To put it simply, it allows you to have an outdoor clothes line!) This bill brought out a lot of people… some even had props. We will be having a work session on this bill in the next couple of weeks.

You can see a schedule of public hearings or work sessions at http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/phwkSched_ps.asp?snum=124&PID=1456. I will post this link on my links page for future reference. If you will be coming up to the State House, please contact me and if I am available I would love to meet you!

This was a busy week in Augusta. On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to add our Indian Representatives from the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquaddy Tribe, to the roll call board. It was a historic moment for Maine. I am honored to have Rep. Wayne Mitchell and Rep. Donald Soctomah among us.

One of my bills has made it’s way back to me from the Revisor’s Office. The bill is a resolve to finally get a traffic light installed at the intersection of Route’s 126 and 132. Any of you who use the intersection regularly know how dangerous it is. Living on 126 and using the road on a daily basis, I have seen many major accidents and people who just ignore the stop sign and just drive on through. I have heard that the traffic light was scheduled to be put up last year. My resolve will just get the Maine DOT to move on the issue. I am working on getting my bill sponsors now. There will be a public hearing on this bill. I will post it when I have the date. If you are someone who has been waiting for this to happen, please take the time to come to the public hearing and express your concern.

Next week, I expect to have more of my bills coming out of the Revisor’s Office. I will post them here as I get the papers.

If you are a dairy farmer or if you know one, you may want to keep the milk issue from this week in mind. The Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation Committee is recommending that price supports to Maine’s dairy farmers be slashed by $4.8 million (http://bangornews.com/detail/97655.html). Senator Nutting from Leeds, who is a dairy farmer, is working on the issue. He has expressed to me that we need to get the small dairy farmers involved in the issue. At the hearing this past week, the big guys showed up, but very few of the small farmers where represented. When I get the date of the public hearing, I will be calling local dairy farmers from Greene and Sabattus. If you know of any, please e-mail me their contact information.

Tomorrow, January 16th is cloture date for submitting bills. I have been working hard to put in my bill ideas. I have six bill ideas going in. When I receive my bill jackets and they become public knowledge, I will outline them here. If a bill idea interests or concerns you, please contact me and even attend a public hearing in Augusta if you like.

I have had a few calls within the past few weeks about the LIHEAP program. People are concerned because they are applying and not hearing from Community Concepts about whether or not they are accepted and for how much. This is a huge problem! If people receive their oil in March, it will not help them through the coldest months of the year. I am concerned and I am making calls to try and see how the program can be more successful next year.  

If you are in dire need of oil, contact your local town office to see if you qualify for General Assistance. The next few days are going to be some of the coldest we have seen in years. Also, if you live in Sabattus, the town office is a warming shelter. You can find phone numbers for the Greene and Sabattus town office’s on the Resources/Links page on this website.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission has just released a press release on a new Wind Energy Rebate. Below is more information on the program.

Efficiency Maine, a program of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, has established a new incentive for state residents, businesses and others seeking to install small wind energy systems.

Rebates up to $2,000 will be available for qualified residential wind systems and $4,000 for non-residential systems that meet program requirements, under rules adopted by the Maine Public Utilities Commission in accordance with recent statutory changes.

The MPUC and Efficiency Maine also announced renewed but limited availability of rebates for solar thermal installations under a program that was temporarily suspended this year when demand exceeded available funding. Applications for these solar thermal rebates must be postmarked from January 2nd through January 16th to be considered.

In addition, the level of rebate available for solar thermal systems has been changed. As of January 2nd, the maximum rebate for qualified systems will be $1,000 or 25% of the installed cost, whichever is less, for both residential and commercial applications.

Rebates for solar photovoltaic systems are set for the coming year at a maximum of $2,000 per qualified installation.

In response to recent cases in which demand for renewable energy incentives has outpaced available funding, a random selection system may be utilized. Thus, qualified applications for solar thermal rebates that are postmarked from January 2nd through January 16th will be subject to a random drawing by a third-party contractor.

Based on the level of demand for solar thermal rebates experienced in 2008, it is expected that qualified applications received during the 14-day period will exceed available funding. Should that occur, the program will then be suspended for the remainder of the calendar year.

Qualified applications for the new wind incentive program received through the first quarter will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. If after the first quarter demand appears to be on track to exceed available funding, then a random selection system may be instituted.

For more information and to download applications, go online to efficiencymaine.com and click on “Renewable Energy.” Or call 1-866-376-2463 and ask for Richard Fortier.

Yesterday, January 7th, was our first day in session. The bus tour went on as planned. Because of the weather, I decided not to attend the Northern Maine bus tour. Instead, I stuck around the State House after session. I got a chance to find my locker, meet some other legislators, and also attended public hearings on the budget. Because of the large budget shortfall, budget hearings have started early this year.

Some of us have not had our first committee meeting as of yet. My first committee meeting on the Utilities Committee is next Tuesday the 13th. I am looking forward to meeting the other committee members. We have many bills coming before us. Bills on solar power, power lines, alternative power sources, etc.

I am submitting 5 or 6 bill ideas and I will present them here when all of the details are worked out and they have been passed on to the Reviser’s office. 

Janet Mills was sworn in as Attorney General this week. She gave a very eloquent speech. Janet is a wonderful speaker. You can read her acceptance speech here… http://www.turnmaineblue.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2241.