Community Action Awarded $50,000 "EmPower" Grant

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Apr. 22, 2010

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced last Wednesday that Garrett County Community Action was among the recipients for round one of the "EmPower Clean Energy Communities" grant program. The initiative helps local governments and nonprofits fund energy efficiency projects specifically for low to moderate income Marylanders.
Community Action will use its $50,000 grant to help purchase energy efficient appliances for a new 36 unit housing development currently being constructed in Oakland called Liberty Mews.

The EmPower 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 Maryland. The first round of these funds will be used to perform energy makeovers to save money for at an estimated 1,000 low and moderate income Maryland families.

O'Malley also announced the start of round two for additional counties who did not exhaust their available funding for projects in 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," said 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."

Approximately $2 million in grants are being awarded in round one to a wide variety of projects that are expected to jumpstart energy savings and decrease monthly electricity bills. The MEA is providing a total of 24 grants to 13 Maryland counties in round one, with projects ranging from an energy efficiency retrofit of the Annapolis Boys and Girls Club building in the St. Ambrose Senior Community in Baltimore City, to supporting the efforts of the National Association of American Veterans to weatherize homes of low to moderate income veterans in Prince George's County.

"The Maryland Energy Administration is thrilled to be able to help hundreds of Maryland families reduce their energy bills with investments in their homes that will save them money today and for years to come," said MEA director Malcolm Woolf. "This marks yet another big step forward in meeting Governor O'Malley’s EmPower Maryland goal of 15 percent reduced energy consumption by 2015."

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