§ 35-A §10103 — Efficiency Maine Trust

1.
Establishment; purpose.
The Efficiency Maine Trust is established for the purposes of developing, planning, coordinating and implementing energy efficiency and alternative energy resources programs in the State to:
2.
Governance; board.
The trust is created as a body corporate and politic and a public instrumentality of the State and is governed by the independent Efficiency Maine Trust Board, established in Title 5, section 12004‑G, subsection 10‑C, in accordance with this section.
3.
Administration of trust; director.
The board shall appoint, using a full and competitive search process, a qualified full-time director of the trust. The Director of the Efficiency Maine Trust serves at the pleasure of the board. The director must have demonstrated experience in the planning, design or delivery of energy efficiency programs or the management of organizations that plan, design or deliver those programs. The board shall establish the rate and amount of compensation of the director and all other employees of the trust. The director:
4.
Program funding.
The board may apply for and receive grants from municipal, state, federal and private sources for deposit into appropriate program funds, including funds for both residential and business programs. The board may deposit in appropriate program funds the proceeds of any bonds issued for the purposes of programs administered by the trust. The board may receive and shall deposit in appropriate program funds revenue resulting from any forward capacity market or other capacity payments from a regional transmission organization to promote or to supplement incentives that support beneficial electrification measures that are cost-effective and reliably reduce electricity rates over the life of the measures, including high-performance air source heat pump technology and electric vehicles. The board shall deposit into appropriate program funds revenue transferred to the trust from the energy infrastructure benefits fund pursuant to Title 5, section 282, subsection 9 for use in accordance with subsection 4‑A. The board may also deposit any grants or other funds received by or from any entity with which the trust has an agreement or contract pursuant to this chapter if the board determines that receipt of those funds is consistent with the purposes of this chapter.
4-A.
Use of revenues from the energy infrastructure benefits fund.
The trust shall use revenues transferred to the trust from the energy infrastructure benefits fund pursuant to Title 5, section 282, subsection 9:
5.
Administration fund.
The board shall establish an administration fund to be used solely to defray administrative costs. The trust may annually deposit funds authorized to be used for administrative costs under this chapter into the administration fund. Any interest on funds in the administration fund must be credited to the administration fund and any funds unspent in any fiscal year must either remain in the administration fund to be used to defray administrative costs or be transferred to program funds.

Legislative History

PL 2009, c. 372, Pt. B, §3 (NEW). PL 2009, c. 518, §7 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 655, Pt. B, §§3, 4 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 637, §2 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 655, Pt. MM, §18 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 655, Pt. MM, §26 (AFF). PL 2013, c. 369, Pt. A, §§3-6 (AMD). PL 2013, c. 424, Pt. B, §14 (AMD). PL 2019, c. 306, §2 (AMD). PL 2023, c. 646, Pt. A, §§43, 44 (AMD). PL 2025, c. 45, §1 (AMD).