WITH THE NEWS that the state's premier solar energy company, Evergreen Solar, is facing financial struggles, many are questioning whether the state was wise to "bet" on solar energy by providing an unprecedented level of state loans, grants, and land deals. Indeed, the rationality of states bidding against each other to attract biotech, information tech, and now renewable energy companies by offering the biggest subsidy package is part of a decades-long debate.
A case could be made that Massachusetts is better positioned to develop a wind production industry than solar. But the bigger question is whether the United States will be a leading player in the production of renewable energy and other clean technologies -or cede that role to Germany, Japan, and increasingly China.
In the absence of a coherent national renewable energy policy, states and cities have been moving forward on their own. The predominant strategy has been to require utilities to purchase a set percentage of their energy - known as a renewable portfolio standard - from renewable sources, invest in some research, offer subsidies to attract companies, and maybe provide some worker training.
Northeastern University's Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, which has become a player in the commonwealth's housing and economic development scenes, has reached critical mass.
After attracting top economists and policy specialists from around the country for a decade, the faculty drawn from several departments will be tenured in the university's School of Urban Affairs and Public policy.
"Very rapidly, in the matter of months, we have become one of the major public policy schools, not just in New England, or in Boston, but nationwide, given our track record of research in so many of these critical urban issues, from housing, to economic development, to transportation, to workforce development," said Barry Bluestone, the school's dean.
This year Alan Clayton Matthews, one of the region's foremost economic forecasters and a member of Gov. Deval Patrick's council of economic advisers, has joined the school. Mathews previously taught at the University of Massachusetts- Boston. The school also now boasts Bill Dickens as a full professor. Dickens is an internationally recognized labor market and macroeconomics specialist who advised former President Bill Clinton.
"You want people to sort of bang together in a space to think about things," said Christopher Basso, association dean of the school. "You would think they would do that already; you want people at a university to interact with each other. The creation of the school is one of those catalytic events, we're hoping."
Nonnie Burnes (Law '78), who has worked as Massachusetts State Commissioner of the Division of Insurance since February 2007, will join the Northeastern faculty Oct. 1 as a senior fellow.
Burnes said she plans to teach an interdisciplinary course which will cover law, business, public policy, political science and governmental regulation.
The senior fellow is a new position, she said, and the specifics of the job are still in the works because the entire process progressed very quickly. She said she thinks the title is flexible enough to meet both her and Northeastern's expectations.
"I think that the practical experience really can illuminate the theory," Burnes said. "As we might be talking about 'How would you regulate this market?' If you want people to behave a certain way, how can you structure a regulation to get there?' And having seen the way people respond to regulation, I think I'll have much more insight into it and kind of assist students in thinking about that."
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