If North Dakota’s booming economy and 3.5-percent unemployment rate is any indication, there is prosperity to be mined in domestic energy production, and the rest of the Central Plains states are on the brink of realizing some of that prosperity. Much will depend on where the political football that is the Keystone XL pipeline project lands in the coming weeks as federal approval of the project rides the fortunes of pending legislation.

Silicon carbide in Starkville. Solar industry components in Senatobia, Grenada and Hattiesburg. Mission support for Lockheed in Clinton. Advanced composites for GE in Ellisville. Process equipment in Natchez. Biofuels from Columbus to Tupelo and beyond.

A Chinese solar company has big plans for a former IBM R&D facility. Linuo Solar Group expects to start shining new light in 2012 into the long-vacant IBM West Campus in East Fishkill, N.Y

A national laboratory expansion and a new yogurt manufacturing project will deliver significant economic impact to their cities and to Idaho. Several thousand jobs are being attributed to work now getting under way at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, the centerpiece of which is a new, $50-million, 148,000-sq.-ft. (13,750-sq.-m.) research and education laboratory.

Maine life sciences firms run the gamut from animal care to cloud-based records. IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, Athenahealth, more.

Can the land of the wild, wild West become the next high-tech haven of choice? It can if more executives follow the example of Kent Holliday, the founder of Eleutian Technology in Cody, Wyo. The world’s largest network of certified instructors who teach English as a second language, Eleutian recently made its home in the town.

Air cargo hubs in the Pacific Northwest help global firms streamline supply chains. For global companies using the Pacific Northwest as a gateway to the Americas, many are increasingly turning to air transport. One reason Anchorage is so popular as an air cargo hub is because it is 9.5 hours or less from 90 percent of the industrialized world.