Mar. 6--Business people, environmental advocates and community officials jammed a meeting at Save the Bay yesterday to learn more about the federal stimulus money targeted for environmental projects in Rhode Island. Expect lots of spending, they were told, but details will come later.

Most important, be ready to spend the money quickly

The briefing was hosted by Save the Bay and Environment Rhode Island, an advocacy group. It attracted so many people, some had to park at the far end of the Save the Bay access road.

Specifics were offered on federal funding for drinking water ($19.5 million) and sewer plant projects ($26.5 million). Anthony Simeone, director of the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency said he expects to use the money to generate $100 million in bond proceeds that communities must spend within a year. The loans would be heavily subsidized to reduce costs.

It's a lot of money, Simeone said, and it will go right to Rhode Island communities to spend on engineers, contractors and supplies.

Funding is also expected for solar projects, wind-power generators, energy-efficiency efforts and brownfield reclamation projects on the Providence waterfront and at city schools. But details may remain sketchy for a few weeks or months.

For instance, billions of dollars will be spent nationwide on alternative energy, but the U.S. Department of Energy doesn't expect to have details ready until April or May, according to Joy Fox, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. James Langevin.

"We don't know exactly how it's going to be spent yet, but we know some will go toward renewable energy," said Julian Dash, director of the Renewable Energy Fund for the state Economic Development Corp.

For ideas on how the agency might spend more federal money, Dash said people should look at how it spent about $4 million during the last year. It is helping to bring the United Natural Foods company from Connecticut to Providence by offering tax breaks and money to install a solar array on the roof. It is subsidizing the wind turbine that went up this week in Portsmouth. And it's funding the studies paving the way for the massive Deepwater solar project off Block Island.

W. Michael Sullivan, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, said he will chair an administration committee that will determine how to spend environmental stimulus money coming to Rhode Island, but no one knows how much that will be.

Rhode Island's cities and towns have submitted plans for $435 million in projects, Sullivan said. He said he is reminding local officials that their projects must be "shovel ready." They can't be dependent on bond issues scheduled for next year, for instance.

Sullivan said he has already ordered changes at the DEM so that the permitting process won't be blamed for delaying projects. And he plans to make the process so transparent that it will "rat out" consultants who do poor work and then blame delays on the DEM.

Business people asked the officials if they would spend some of the money on small businesses, do more to encourage commercial recycling and ensure that the spending doesn't cause ecological harm.

Chris Benzak of Newport Biodiesel, a company that converts used cooking oil into diesel fuel, said the company is ready to expand into a regional operation converting one million gallons or 60 percent of the used oil in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Can it expect help from the state?

Dash said yes, he thinks the state will be supporting a wide range of alternative energy projects.

Bob Chew of president of Alteris Renewables Inc., a solar power company, said he is concerned Rhode Island licensing requirements restrict the number of people available to install solar panels at the very time business is expected to take off. Sullivan said he would look into the issue.

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