Increasing jobs was a key point in last week’s discussion of the NStar / Northeast Utilities merger, and economic development is a thread throughout two op-eds in yesterday’s Worcester Business Journal by Secretary Rick Sullivan and Clean Energy Council President Peter Rothstein. With wires buzzing around job creation in clean energy, the following is an important point that deserves more attention.
Erin Ailworth has a great piece in today’s Boston Globe highlighting one example of how manufacturers are integrating their businesses into the supply chain for the emerging clean energy industry. Mass Tank, which manufactures steel tanks for industrial use, is utilizing its resources to produce support towers for wind turbine blades.
As Ailworth writes:
Mass Tank is another example of how firms in traditional industries adapt to changing times and changing markets, and a reminder that Massachusetts’ innovation economy is hardly limited to technology and biotechnology … For companies like Mass Tank, “Clean energy is providing a new marketplace for them,’’ said Greg Bialecki, the state’s secretary of Housing and Economic Development.
As a result, Mass Tank will create additional shifts to cover this project while maintaining current positions.
Last week I attended the first meeting of the Green Economy Caucus, a forum created by MA State Representative Frank Smizik and State Senator Jamie Eldridge to promote legislation and policy fostering job creation and sustainable development. The Caucus, formed due to activity by student group at Harvard University, will focus on various themes, including energy and clean technology in the Commonwealth.
It is this combination of efforts by policy makers, industry partners and universities that produce the innovation economy that New England holds proud. The cleantech space has a very broad base, and we need reminders of just how many parts combine to create the whole.
