State Representative Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, testified at a legislative hearing Monday on a pair of bills before the General Assembly's Energy and Technology Committee.

One of the bills, S.B. 450, would exempt buyers of vehicles like electric and fuel cell cars from having to pay Connecticut's sales tax on those purchases through 2014. The proposed legislation would create a fund of up to $10 million through a gross receipts tax on petroleum that would be used to help home and business owners pay for more efficient oil heating burners and other types of equipment.

Another piece of legislation, S.B. 451, would add boilers to the list of heating devices that would be eligible for a state-backed loan program. The purpose of the program is to help make purchase of more efficient equipment more affordable.

"I would like these bills to be combined because many of my constituents live in old housing stock, heated by oil," said Mushinsky, who is show in the photo above. "Without an energy audit followed by furnace replacement and plenty of insulation, they face impossibly high energy bills. People who never applied for heating assistance in their lives applied this year and in 2011 because their small monthly incomes can not keep up."

Following the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge may never attain the popularity of following a baseball pennant race. But it has attracted enough interest in Cheshire to enable the town to move into third place in the energy efficiency competition.

Cheshire is third among the 14 towns taking part in the competition. trailing only Westport and Ridgefield. Bethany, the only other New Haven area town taking part in the competition is in last place, according to the standings listed Thursday on the Neighbor to Neighbor web site.

The goal for each of the participating towns is to get at least 1,000 people in each community to cut their energy usage by at least 20 percent. Each person enrolled in the program can score points for their community and help reduce their home energy bills by taking certain steps to reduce their energy consumption.

Towns with the highest scores will receive premiums such as electric car-charging stations and solar-powered LED lighting systems.

Despite its strong showing in the competition thus far, Cheshire isn't resting on it laurels. A workshop on how to join the program and reduce home electric bills will be held July 20th at 7 p.m. at Temple Beth David on Route 10.

Registration is required to attend this workshop. For more information, e-mail Pat Brosnahan at Office@TBDCheshire.org or call 203-272-0037 by July 18th.