Welcome to Maine Interfaith Power and Light’s e-Bulletin, a periodic update to keep you informed of our products, services and work to promote renewable energy and counteract global warming. In this edition we are proud to announce that Maine Interfaith Power and Light is now a membership organization and offering supporters a way to stay connected and get clean power as a benefit! Please read below for more details.  

What's Inside:

• Power Up, Become a Member

• Putting Faith in Nature

• Sunny Day Fund: Putting Solar on ME Roofs

• Growing Maine’s Future…Sustainably

• GO TO WWW.MEIPL.ORG

Lighten Up & Power Up Today!

Get on a Low-Carbon Diet

Join Maine Interfaith Power and Light as a Member

Lighten up & power up! Relax, this isn’t a pitch for another low-carb diet plan. Rather, it’s a pitch for a low-carbon diet plan! So, go ahead and eat that bowl of pasta and consider trimming the carbon-dioxide (CO2) from your life by joining Maine Interfaith Power and Light as a member!

Joining Maine Interfaith Power and Light makes getting on a low carbon diet plan easy! By signing up at one of three membership levels (see box below for more information about Power Up, Lighten Up and Lighten Up Plus membership plans) you will receive:

·        our information packed e-bulletin: keep up to date on our efforts to curb global warming and learn ways to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions and lighten your footprint on Planet Earth;

·        a voice in a national campaign to reduce carbon dioxide pollution and curb global warming: join thousand of others across the nation who are slimming down their carbon dioxide emissions and just saying “no” to global warming; and

·        climate neutral electricity from wind power: receive renewable energy credits from NativeEnergy to help offset your ‘carbon footprint’ from using power generated from fossil fuels.

Members are a vital part of Maine Interfaith Power and Light’s mission: to protect the environment by purchasing electric power that has the least possible adverse effect on this fragile earth. As a member you will not only learn how easy it is to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions, but as a benefit of membership, you will get NativeEnergy renewable energy credits (RECs) – a direct way to offset the carbon dioxide from your electricity and/or automobile use. What’s more, by getting NativeEnergy RECs you will help build new Native American wind farms on the Great Plains through NativeEnergy’s WindBuilders™ program! 

Here’s how it works. When you join as a member, Maine Interfaith Power and Light will purchase on your behalf a share of the estimated amount of credits a wind farm will generate over its expected operating life.  This way, you help cover its costs up front when the wind farm needs it most. The farm’s clean, renewable electricity will displace electricity from fossil fuels, thereby reducing carbon dioxide pollution on your behalf.  The power will be sold as “generic” electricity, reserving the environmental attributes for you.  WindBuilders™ is a powerful way to compensate for the climate impacts of your electricity service, which you will continue to purchase from your electricity supplier or other carbon dioxide producing activities such as driving a car or flying in a plane. 

Already supplying your home with clean power? Then consider signing up as a member to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from a relative, friend or neighbor. The point is that your membership is an important way get our world on a low-carbon diet plan and keep Planet Earth cool!

 To learn more about membership level please go to www.meipl.org or to sign up please click below.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is…

and behind Solar for Maine Roofs

 $8,000 Donated to Downeast Solar Coop 

Thinking globally and investing locally underlies Maine Interfaith Power and Light's approach to supplying clean, renewable electricity. For every dollar you spend on our clean power supply, Maine Interfaith Power and Light donates up to 20% to a special fund to help install solar and other renewable energy technologies in Maine. Maine Interfaith offers its clean electricity product line with a commitment to its customers – that through their purchases they are directly assisting with the implementation of new renewable energy systems in Maine.

Consistent with this purpose, Maine Interfaith Power and Light has created the Sunny Day Fund. Like a rainy day fund, the Sunny Day Fund is a pool of money that we have been setting aside since the first residential electricity customer switched to our premier renewable power supply product (Green Supply). Unlike a rainy day fund, however, the money in the Fund is not in reserve in case of disaster, rather, these funds are destined for investment in renewable energy projects in Maine that will help prevent the many potential disasters that await us as a result of our persistent reliance on diminishing supplies of polluting fossil fuels. This pool of money has been named the "Sunny Day Fund" because the funds will be used to help ensure a clean, bright and renewable energy future for Maine.

While both state and federal programs exist to help Mainers invest in solar systems, the cost is still out of reach for many. That is where the Sunny Day Fund comes into play. To help put more solar on Maine roofs, Maine Interfaith Power and Light recently accessed the Sunny Day Fund and contributed $8,000 to the Downeast Solar Coop. Bolstered by contributions from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Interface Fabrics, and the Maine State Energy Program, Maine Interfaith's grant has created a limited rebate pool to offer assistance for qualifying photo-voltaic solar system installations in Maine.

While installing a solar energy system can get expensive, the benefits outweigh the costs in reduced fuel costs for years ahead and represents a return in free solar hot water or electricity for the next 20 to 30 years. Moreover, every new solar energy system helps hold down electricity prices, replaces uncertain petroleum, keeps installation jobs and energy dollars in Maine while keeping Maine's air clean. Helping Mainers invest in solar today is in everyone's interest.

Installers of qualifying solar energy systems may apply for assistance through the Downeast Solar Coop. For more information, please contact Erika Morgan at 729-9665.

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Young Sugar Maple a Gift to Future Generations   

A young sapling now stands beside a venerable 150 year-old maple at the Pine Tree State Arboretum in Maine’s capitol. The tree has been called a "gift to the seventh generation", bringing "shade, shelter, sweet sustenance, beauty, joy and comforting solitude" to all who will be living in Maine many generations from now, both people and animals. 

On a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon in November, 2005 this young sugar maple tree was dedicated to make a statement of commitment to the sustainable future of Maine's environment. Guided by Christine James, Congregation Outreach Coordinator for Maine Interfaith Power and Light, and Andy Burt, Director of the Environmental Justice Program of the Maine Council of Churches, the tree planting was part of an event that included a talk about small farms, local foods, and their role in sustainable communities by John Carroll, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, and a warm meal made from local ingredients. 

Of course the tree will also be doing its part, as all green things do, to take in carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen, thus giving us oxygen to breathe and helping us to combat climate change. Christine James drew a link between the planting of the tree and the themes of sustainability and local foods that were highlighted in John Carroll's talk and in the meal that was shared.  "We have planted this tree as a witness to making daily living choices which will better protect our environment," she said at its dedication.  In order to highlight such daily living choices, Christine and others cooked a simple meal for the afternoon's event using only locally grown ingredients.  Two hearty soups and warm apple cider were a welcome part of the program.  "The food is a way to show people that it really wasn't hard for me to find the ingredients, and it wasn't that expensive either," James observed. 

"We're trying to get people in local congregations to pledge to support and buy foods from local growers, and to really think about the impact their choices have on the future," said Andy Burt, reminding all of us that the transportation of foods grown farther from home amount to considerable hidden costs in terms of environmental impact.  Eating foods grown locally both reduces the "ecological footprint" of the food purchase and supports and strengthens small farms and the sustainable fabric of our communities. 

In addition to the dedication of the sugar maple, the talk by John Carroll, and the enjoyment of shared food, the afternoon included an expression of thanks for the work that Christine James had done as Congregation Outreach Coordinator for Maine Interfaith Power and Light.  Her work helped to launch and develop the Earth Care Team initiative, which continues to be cosponsored by MeIPL and the Environmental Justice Program of the Maine Council of Churches.  Christine moved from Maine to Massachusetts later in November; her work with Earth Care Teams was a positive force for members of many congregations in Maine seeking to bring environmental stewardship and concern about global warming into the heart of their faith. 

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