by Eric Richard

This post is my summary of the MCAN 2007 Conference.

I thought it was an good, productive day.

If there was one theme that came out loud and clear it is that big things are happening in Massachusetts. There was a palpable level of energy over both the Green Communities Act (the energy bill put forth by Speaker DiMasi) and the Global Warming Act.

I don’t think anyone thinks that either of these is perfect, but I think people are excited that after years of Republican governors, you are finally seeing major movement on the environmental front.

There was definitely a strong sense of optimism that Massachusetts will finally go from lagging behind on environmental issues to really being a leader. As one audience member said, “With all of the changes going on, I will finally be able to be proud to be an environmentalist from Massachusetts.”

There was also a very strong sense that if we really push hard here, this can result in a huge boost to the state’s economy, creating a large number of highly paid, technical jobs. This has been Gov. Patrick’s position from day one — that you can have a focus on environmentalism and job growth at the same time and, if done right, this could lead to a real boon to the state’s economy.

I really enjoyed Ian Bowles’ presentation. I don’t think you could walk away from his presentation without thinking that the Patrick administration is moving aggressively to make things happen. I also thought his point that we should be focusing on efficiency rather than new energy was very interesting. He seemed to be quite convinced that if we can get the Green Communities Act passed, that it will result in pretty wide sweeping changes around efficiency.

I also enjoyed Warren Leon’s presentation. There have been discussions on this blog about the role of individual action vs. governmental regulation and where we should put our energies and I thought he had a very interesting perspective on why individual action is a prerequisite to action at the legislative level. I thought one of the more interesting questions of the day was when someone asked Mr. Leon what he thought of the provision in the Green Communities Act that would bascially eliminate the organization that he runs. He gave a very direct answer!

One thing that was moderately surprising is that I never heard a question come up about the NSTAR Green program, what its status is, what people think of it, etc. I would have expected a little more discussion on this front.

On a very practical level, kudos to the staff that put the conference together. The registration process was much better than last year. And I also appreciated their focus on practicing what they preach by minimizing handouts and ensuring that as much as possible was recyclable.

Anyway, it was an interesting day. I’d love comments from anyone else who was able to attend on what they liked, didn’t like, what they thought was interesting, etc.