I am appalled at Maryland's misuse of cap-and-trade funds ("How cap-and-trade pays," Dec. 16). That money is supposed to penalize the burning of fossil fuels, and it is supposed to be used to make progress on renewable, nonpolluting resources. It is an outright crime for Maryland to use only 6 percent of those funds for renewable energy (the objective) and to spend 73 percent of it on givebacks to consumers who will only use it to continue to consume more energy instead of learning to conserve!

This is particularly frosting to me as I try to invest in my own home conservation and energy savings and also invest in solar power, only to be told by the Maryland Department of Energy that there may be a shortage of funds for these grant programs this year due to their popularity and that they are backed up beyond April of next year.

Note: "Popularity" means many people are making changes and investments in energy conservation and solar power. The state should reward those investments and not spend that money to offset the electric bills of people still stuck in last century's mentality of mindless consumption so they can consume even more polluting fuel.

Something stinks here, and it is not CO2.Bob Bruninga, Glen Burnie