Comment on Schools slash heating bills with stimulus project

Schools slash heating bills with stimulus project

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Years after federal stimulus dollars funded a Maine Forest Service Project to heat with local wood products, schools and other facilities report they have slashed energy bills in half while supporting jobs in the state's struggling timber industry. In the heating season ending in 2013, the Forest Service credited its Wood to Energy Grant Program with helping 24 facilities replace upward of 900,000 gallons of heating oil with locally produced wood chips and pellets that provide the same energy output for less than half the price. The Forest Service paid around half the cost of installing furnaces known as wood boilers that burn wood pellets or chips — which the industry calls "biomass"— for steam or water central heating instead of heating oil or natural gas. Maine has numerous other programs, some also funded with stimulus grants, that give tax rebates or smaller grants to help residents and businesses pay for energy studies and retrofit their homes with high efficiency lighting, new heating systems and better insulation. The other 11 recipients were hospitals, university campuses, a community college and public buildings such as town offices.

 

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