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Feds Offer $1.25M in Energy Grants for Maine Farmers and Small Business Owners

AUGUSTA, Maine - The federal government is making around $1.25 million available for rural agricultural producers and small business owners to purchase and install renewable energy systems, or make energy efficiency improvements.

Virginia Manuel, director of U.S Department of Agriculture Rural Development in Maine, says $163,000 of the Rural Energy for America Program funds is available for grants of $20,000 or less, and more than $1 million for grants of more than $20,000.

"The bottom line is that it reduces not only carbon emissions, because that's one of the criteria, but also their operating costs," Manuel says, "which, from our perspective, helps them be more viable in the long run."

Manuel says just about any type of business can apply. She says applications for the smaller grants are due April 30.  For the larger grants, she says the deadline for the first of two application rounds is April 30, while the deadline for the second round comes at the end of June.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.