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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Ray of Hope: Moving Maine Out of “Last Place” in Solar

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Monday, July 13, 2015   

AUGUSTA, Maine - The Public Utilities Commission will soon hold meetings to figure out how to help Maine residents afford solar installations. The commission is responding to the resolve that became law last month after an override of Governor LePage's veto.

Resolve 1235 calls for the state to find a way to fairly compensate people who generate energy. Dylan Voorhees, clean energy director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, says it's a welcome first step that could help jump-start the state's use of solar.

"It tells the Public Utilities Commission, you need to propose a way that people in Maine who do solar can get compensated and have some appropriate incentives so that it's easier for them to install solar," says Voorhees.

Lawmakers directed the PUC to begin gathering input from stakeholders. Those meetings should start late this summer or early fall.

Voorhees says there is little cost with solar once the panels are up and running, but it can take a sizable investment.

"So, helping get over that upfront barrier is what a lot other states are doing around us and we're seeing the number of solar installations and the number of solar jobs through roof all around us," he says. "Maine is in last place, per capita, on the number of solar panels and the number of solar jobs."

Voorhees says the timing of the action is also important, because it gives time for the utilities, the industry and solar advocates to collaborate on a long-term solar incentive policy, before the federal tax credits expire in 2016.


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