Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Green Jobs Act, worth more than $100M, sent to committee

By Mass High Tech Staff

The Massachusetts House of Representatives sent House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s Green Jobs Act of 2008 to the Economic Development Committee for review Tuesday, according to the State House News Service.

The act, first proposed by DeMasi in March, aims to provide a $50 million bond and $65 million in direct state funding over a five-year period to help generate new jobs and revenue in the state’s clean energy industry. No timetable has been provided regarding when the Economic Development Committee will discuss the legislation. The next meeting of House members is scheduled for next Wednesday.

The five-year plan would be funded by a $5 million per year set-aside from the $43 million Bay State Competitiveness Fund, which was approved by the Legislature last year, as well as by an additional $5 million per year that is now being used for economic-development programs funded through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC).

Among the bill’s initiatives is the creation of a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which would oversee the budget and allocate some of the funds now spent by the MTC.

According to the New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC), the plan could create as many as 21 new clean energy companies and attract $500 million in venture capital, yielding 13,000 new jobs and $51 million in new annual income taxes.

The region’s clean energy cluster ranks as the 10th largest sector in the region and is growing at a rate of more than 20 percent per year, according to a study by the MTC and the NECEC last fall. State officials, including Gov. Deval Patrick, have highlighted  the cluster as a key component to the state’s economic growth.