Suveer Bahirwani

Organization

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Program

Rappaport Public Policy Fellow

Year

2014

Rappaport Public Policy Fellows spend 10 weeks each summer serving within the highest levels of state and municipal governments in the Greater Boston Area. The program includes students from graduate and professional programs at local universities.

Graduate School
Tufts University

Undergraduate School
University of Mumbai, India

Mentor
Neil Veilleux, Meister Consulting Group and Former Rappaport Policy Fellow

Agency
Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources

Supervisor
Birud Jhaveri, Deputy Commissioner

Description of Fellowship
Suveer’s anchor project at the MassDOER was the management and coordination of the Carbon Tax Study. Working closely with the project’s consultants, Suveer oversee all aspects of the technical work and the stakeholder process so as to inform its analysis. In the stakeholder work, he ensured that the study is accompanied by a process that includes a wide range of interests, environmental non-profits to private institutions and business associations, all vested in the introduction, implementation and impact of a carbon tax. This work will assist the state and legislature’s full consideration of the tax. More information on the study can be found at: www.cbuilding.org/project/MACarbonTax

Additionally, Suveer worked with the Renewables Team on three other projects: On the Residential Solar Loan program, Suveer was task with providing analytical support by developing key decision- making scenarios. This work offered the team visibility into the range of possibilities that would result from the credit enhancement tools available to the state agency; in effect, maximizing the leverage of a $30 million program budget for credit enhancement. Drawing on his past experience, Suveer also played a consultative role on the team assessing barriers and opportunities, particularly in energy finance in the current marketplace. On the Battery Storage project, Suveer wrote an Internal Memo apprising the Renewables team on the current state of the battery storage industry in Massachusetts, as well as its potential for in meeting the Commonwealth clean energy and electric reliability goals.

Furthermore, as part of an Inter-Departmental (MassDOER & MassDEP) team, Suveer provided research and analytical support on EPA’s Proposed Rule 111(d) as it impacts Massachusetts.