Jul. 31--WESTFORD -- When there is a choice between paying bills and protecting the environment, it looks as if Mother Earth may be coming in second place.

Resident Kimberly Macey is waging a campaign encouraging homeowners to buy renewable energy through National Grid's GreenUp Program, and she believes people are too worried about the economy to spend the extra $5 to $12 per month for the cost of renewable energy.

She fell short of a goal to get 3 percent of the community signed up for the program by June 30 but is continuing to woo supporters.

"I think every person who enrolled in the program is doing their small part, and I think it's wonderful, so I'm not discouraged by a lack of success," she said. "It would be more exciting if signups were happening more quickly."

Macey is setting up a tent at the Farmer's Market on Tuesdays to explain the program's benefits.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Clean Energy Choice Program is offering incentives for people to buy electricity created by renewable sources. It offers a two-for-one match so for every $1 a consumer spends on renewable energy, it donates $2.

The first matching dollar goes into a Clean Energy Account to fund renewable energy projects for the town.

The second matching dollar is used to fund renewable energy and energy conservation projects benefiting the state's low-income residents.

According to the collaborative's Web site, Westford had just 94 of the 6,808 households

signed up by the end of June. The 1.38 percent signed up were well below the needed 3 percent.

So far, Westford has $19,500 in its account for a project, Macey said.

"I really feel that this technology is here, that we can get energy from sun and from the wind and from these biofuels instead of the coal and the gas and the polluting fuels, then we should just be moving more and more to this direction. Here is one way that everybody can contribute to moving up in that way," Macey said.

Overall, the Clean Energy Choice Program has awarded more than $2.5 million to 259 communities, said collaborative spokeswoman Emily Dahl.

The program gave another $1 million for low-income customers that resulted in more than 100 kilowatts of solar electric systems installed around the state to benefit the low-income community.

"We consider that as being very successful," Dahl said.

Funding is through the Renewable Energy Trust.

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Story Source: The Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts)