MIT Enterprise Forum Podcast on Energy & Clean Tech Innovation

Massachusetts is uniquely poised to benefit from the innovative environment that has grown up in the wake of the reality of climate change. At the November Innovation Series event of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, Ian A. Bowles, Secretary, Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs (EEOEA) for Massachusetts, describes the entrepreneurially friendly atmosphere and specific state initiatives that are allowing progressive leaders and venture capitalists to seize the moment and positively impact the energy equation.

Panel moderator Scott Kirsner of The Boston Globe is less sanguine about how the fight over global warming is faring. His Sunday Globe report of the meeting captures his own perspective in a pithy lead: “We are all lab partners in a large science fair project, and it doesn’t seem to be going well.”

Despite Kirsner’s pessimism, Bowles assures that with over 550 firms and 14,000 jobs in the energy sector locally, and the promise of “trillions of dollars in turn over” as pre-existing power plants and other energy sources are converted to clean energy, there is fertile ground here for many to act responsibly and benefit at the same time. Bowles oversees the Commonwealth’s six environmental, natural resource and energy regulatory agencies. Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to combine energy and environmental agencies under one Cabinet secretary.

Bowles is joined on the panel by:

• Daniel Schrag, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, who notes, “We haven’t even scratched the surface on serious climate mitigation policy yet.”
• Phillip Boyle, president of Powerspan Corporation, Portsmouth, NH, who describes his company’s pilot project to remove 90% of carbon dioxide from a flue gas stream.
• Daniel Goldman, executive vice president and CFO of GreatPoint Energy, headquartered in Cambridge, MA who describes his firm’s catalytic gasification technology to convert coal, petroleum coke, and biomass into pipeline-quality natural gas, and
• Finally, Emily Kreps of Goldman Sachs confirms a significant increase in the public market’s appetite to finance companies in the renewable energy space, driven primarily by the solar sector.

* * * * *

For additional information, feel free to contact one
of the attorneys listed below or any member of Mintz Levin’s
Energy and Clean Tech Practice Group.

Tom Burton
617.348.3097 | TRBurton@mintz.com

Ralph Child
617.348.3021 | RChild@mintz.com

Richard A. Kanoff
617.348.3070 | RAKanoff@mintz.com

Patrick Kealy
617.348.1679 | PJKealy@mintz.com

Paul Scapicchio
617.348.3031 | PScapicchio@mintz.com

Cameron Kerry
617.348.1671 | CFKerry@mintz.com

Copyright © 2008 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

The above has been sent as a service by the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. and may be considered an advertisement or solicitation. The content enclosed is not intended to provide legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. The distribution list is maintained at Mintz Levin’s main office, located at One Financial Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02111. If you no longer wish to receive electronic mailings from the firm, please notify our marketing department by going to www.mintz.com/unsubscribe.cfm.