OPINION
The State Is Thinking Big on Energy
Thinking big is not something new to Massachusetts. It was a president from here who declared his goal in 1961 to put someone on the moon, and less than a decade later the country did. In the 1970s, the government wanted a communications network that would survive a nuclear attack, and in Cambridge the Internet was born. When the demand for computers spread to private business, Digital Equipment invented the minicomputer here in 1964. And today, the state is at the leading edge of the biotech revolution. The list of big ideas that have been realized here is long and dramatic.
Gov. Deval Patrick, who is often accused of being big-idea-happy, has touched the surface of an idea that could once again put us at the forefront of another technology revolution. The governor recently advanced a program that will provide incentives for the development and use of solar panels in this state and does so in a way that is economically feasible.
The idea is so good that it encouraged a local company, Evergreen Solar, to stay and manufacture its product in this state rather than take it to Germany, which was its original intention.
Its funny how far a little government support can go to stimulate economic activity.
Now imagine what would happen if Massachusetts became a haven for any company that produced new energy-saving technology.
Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, has taken a leadership role in addressing the energy issue and has met with political and industry leaders to look at what role research institutions can play in addressing these challenges.
MIT has the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, which focuses exclusively on issues related to energy and environmental policy in order to support both government and industry in decision-making. MIT is also organizing the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize, which will give a $200,000 award for commercially viable energy ideas. MIT is a resource that no other state in America has and gives Massachusetts instant credibility on this subject.
But MIT cannot go it alone, and the opportunity before the state requires a full-court press from the governors office to create our equivalent of President Kennedys call to put a man on the moon.
If the governors office, with support from U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, spearheads a sweeping initiative that sets a two-decade goal of producing enough new energy-saving products and technologies from Massachusetts to free the country from its addiction to fossil fuel, the impact would be global. It would also energize the states economy, which ranks 49th in job creation.
Unlike the federal government, which is headed by a president from an oil-producing state, Massachusetts has no obvious conflicts of interest. Indeed, given the states climate, the need for creating economical solutions to the countrys energy problems is particularly acute.
To find the precedent for individual states creating de facto national policy, one need only to look at California, which has driven the automobile emission standards for the rest of the country. Massachusetts can do the same for other energy issues.
Though a combination of creative tax incentives, free utilization of surplus state land for energy-related manufacturing, streamlined approval processes, state grants, encouragement of university participation, commitments to purchase these new technologies for state use, incentives for Massachusetts residents to purchase home-grown technologies, rewards for products brought quickly to market, accelerated depreciation for venture investments, and incentives for technology companies to relocate to Massachusetts, the state could well become the nations center of energy technology. Massachusetts may also help change the world in the process.
Bruce A. Percelay is chairman of the Mount Vernon Co. This article first appeared in the Boston Globe.
