States known for big oil and gas employers are generating thousands of jobs in clean energy manufacturing through projects supported by Inflation Reduction Act subsidies and tax credits.
Quick-hitting stories catch you up on Boehringer Ingelheim’s expansion in Koropi, Greece; Bharat Petroleum in Kerala, India; SABIC and Fujian Fuhua Gulei Petrochemical in China; Google’s new data center near London; and Samsung’s battery bet in Ulsan, South Korea.
Seraphim Energy Group looks to build solar modules in its home country of China. Nvidia partners with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison on an AI center in Indonesia. And Fujifilm Diosynth is investing $1.2 billion more in North Carolina.
Photo courtesy of the Office of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Tax day is as good a day as any to read this update by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts exploring the new JETI tax incentive program that replaced Chapter 313. Among other aspects, in the new program “the Legislature added a performance bond requirement as a mechanism to ensure a company receiving JETI benefits for building a project in a Texas community has skin in the game,” explains John Villarreal, the manager of the Comptroller’s economic development team that oversees JETI applications. Site Selection published a point/counterpoint about the now-expired 313 program in September 2021.
“The Legislature designed the JETI program to encourage projects that strengthen the state’s power grid and unleash potential in the research, development and manufacturing of high-tech equipment, among other categories — all while boosting statewide employment,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.
Site Selection Editor Emeritus Mark Arend talks with the governor about recent successes, the EV boom, the importance of FDI and how the commonwealth is retaining young graduates.
Delta Star, a maker of mobile power transformers and substations, is another company expanding in Lynchburg that is finding credentialed talent.
Last week Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited Lynchburg to sign SB 436 into law. The measure, said Senator David Suetterlein, “helps develop more pathways for success by increasing the availability of high-demand, industry recognized credentials through data and a strengthened relationship between industry and workforce education.” Gov. Youngkin said the bill “demonstrates our shared commitment to nurturing a skilled, adaptable, and resilient workforce in the Commonwealth and will create additional apprenticeship opportunities so that more Virginians are on a path to good-paying jobs.”
Site Selection staff have reported a number of workforce stories from Lynchburg over the past few years, including, this Workforce 2022 piece, a Workforce 2023 piece about, a unique makerspace in town, and a conversation in Workforce 2024 with nuclear fuel processor BWXT Advanced Technologies President Joe Miller about an industry partnership that works.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
An archival photograph highlights the architectural detail of the Great Hall in the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. “Founded in 1862, the IRS was a minor division within the Treasury Department until passage of the 1913 income tax law,” a web page about the building’s history explains. When the number of staff reached more than 6,000 in the 1920s, it was time for a new building. “Authorized in 1926, just one month after approval of the Federal Triangle legislation, the IRS building was designed by architect Louis Simon,” the General Services Administration explains. “The building was occupied four years later, on June 1, 1930, having been completed 16 months ahead of schedule. In addition to a state-of-the-art fire alarm system, it contained 1,400 telephones and a synchronized system of 861 clocks, the largest system of its kind at the time of construction.”
Speaking of ticking clocks: In a release last Friday, the IRS stated it has already received more than 100 million tax returns, with tens of millions more expected to be filed as today’s tax deadline approached. The agency estimates 19 million taxpayers will file for an automatic extension.
