A new state energy efficiency fund has awarded MaineHousing $500,000 to help low-income Mainers winterize their homes.

The Energy and Carbon Savings Trust was created last year to distribute money raised through the sale of carbon pollution allowances to large power plants. The plants are required to buy allowances from the state as part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an effort to slow global warming pollution in the Northeast.

The trust decided to allocate some of its initial funding for home weatherization programs and awarded the state's housing agency the biggest share. Community Concepts Inc., a social service agency that serves Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, was awarded $110,000 and the Passamaquoddy Tribe was awarded $40,000.

MaineHousing said the award will increase funding for Gov. John Baldacci's weatherization program from $1.5 million to $2 million and increase the number of homes weatherized from 300 to 425. MaineHousing also said it is using federal funding to weatherize more than 3,000 additional homes.

Weatherizing a home, or making it more energy efficient by sealing leaks and adding insulation, typically reduces the homeowner's energy use by 20 percent to 30 percent, the agency said.

For more information about the programs, go to www.mainehousing.org

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