Daniel Englander

Sal DiMasi’s Green Jobs Bill Mandates Cake, Eating Too May 20, 2008 at 2:25 PM

Yesterday Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi, flanked by Gov. Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray, held a press conference introducing the Speaker’s $100 million green jobs bill. DiMasi, speaking at the press conference, said the bill “combines our commitment to jobs creation and economic development with our duty to protect the environment and increase energy efficiency.” All good things, right? Certainly the Massachusetts greentech sector, which is “poised to be the 10th largest cluster in the state” (pdf) with 14,400 jobs created so far, needs ongoing support for both economic and environmental reasons. The support itself, which calls for the creation of a Clean Energy Technology Center with a five-year, $65 million fund, $5 million in research grants, a $500,000 per year clean energy fellowship program, and $2.5 million for workforce development, is a sign Massachusetts is ready to get behind greentech in a big way.

But did anyone bother to check where this money’s coming from? Buried deep in the last page of the proposed legislation is a paragraph stating (pdf) the “state comptroller shall, for state fiscal years 2009 through 2013 inclusive, annually transfer moneys from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust Fund established in said section 4E of chapter 40J in an amount not less than $5,000,000 annually for deposit” in the new program. For anyone not familiar with the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust Fund, it’s a branch of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative that “provides financial assistance to individuals and business for solar panels and wind turbines at their homes and facilities.” As far renewable energy subsidies go in Massachusetts, the Trust Fund is it. Taking $5 million out the Fund represents a 21 percent annual revenue reduction. The Fund has subsidized 479 projects in the past ten years, adding up to 87,301 kW of installed renewable capacity, with another 149,082 kW of capacity in the development pipeline. While not a large number, it’s also nothing to sneeze at. These are projects that likely would not have been built otherwise.

So this leads us to an interesting series of questions. Why would DiMasi cannibalize funds from a renewable energy installation subsidy fund to promote green jobs and early stage research? If the amount of funding available to install renewable capacity decreases, won’t the number of projects being installed also decrease? And, if that’s the case, won’t the number of people needed to install these projects also decline? As for all the early-stage research and entrepreneurship receiving grants from this program, what happens when this research matures and the entrepreneurs behind the research start shopping around for ramp up and commercial production? If the Trust Fund is too small to help subsidize these commercial projects, where will all the startups go?

I hear California’s nice this time of year.

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