The stage is set for the nation’s biggest wind energy investment. Plus:
a glimpse into the roadmap for $400 billion of clean energy funding from
the Inflation Reduction Act.
Quick-hitting stories on FREY’s huge battery-making investment in
Georgia; the $8.5 billion polyethylene venture from Chevron Phillips and
QatarEnergy in Texas; Molex in Guadalajara; BMW’s latest growth in South
Carolina; projects in Minnesota and Iowa from Cambrex; Fiserv in
downtown Milwaukee; and P&G’s $500 million plant in Arizona.
Pumping drinking water for your fellow bike-packer in Bears Ears National
Monument may not qualify as informally helping your neighbor, but it shows
how much Utahns care for others in the No. 1 state for formal volunteering.
Photo courtesy of Visit Utah
Curious about how civically active a location you’re considering for
growth may be? Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps
this month reveal the top states and trends in the nation’s 12 largest
metro areas for formal and informal volunteering. (Search out your state or region here.) Utah and
Wyoming led by rate of formal volunteering, while Montana and Nebraska
led in informal category. Among the 12 metros, Philadelphia lived up to
its brotherly love trademark slogan while Boston led in informal
volunteering.
Among national findings: At the height of the pandemic between September
2020 and September 2021, nearly 51% of the U.S. population age 16 and
over, or 124.7 million people, informally helped their neighbors, and
more than 20.3%, or 60.7 million, said they formally volunteered through
an organization. “The research, released every two years, shows that
those who formally volunteered gave more than 4.1 billion hours of
service with an estimated economic value of $122.9 billion,” the Bureau
stated. Trends in formal volunteering from 2019 to 2021 included:
The rate drop was substantially larger for women (8 percentage
points) than men (5 percentage points) but women continued to
volunteer at a higher rate.
Generation X (ages 41 to 56 in 2021) had the highest rate of all
generations.
People ages 16-17 had the highest rate of all age groups at 28%,
followed by people ages 45 to 54 at 27%.
Parents with children under 18 formally volunteered at a higher rate
(30%) than those without children in their household (21%).
Veterans informally helped their neighbors at a rate of 59%, 8
percentage points higher than nonveterans.
“Volunteering and civic engagement in America,” the Bureau said,
“complements a large body of other AmeriCorps’ research demonstrating a substantial
return on investment in national service for
both the government and the communities served, such as improved
employment outcomes and mental and physical health benefits for those
who volunteer.” — Adam Bruns
The full Digital Edition of the 2023 Colorado – Business Comes to Life
publication is now available. Featuring interviews with business, state
and community leaders, this year’s edition examines such topics as the
state’s talent attraction advantages, smart government, the
semiconductor opportunity, outdoor recreation, and research and higher
education activity. Spotlights focus on four economic centers in the
state, while also profiling such industry sectors as cleantech,
financial services and fintech, aerospace, energy, bioscience and
quantum technologies. Digest it all and you’ll see why a top official at
Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade used
one word to describe the state’s economic future: “Bright.”
The manufacturing supply problem isn’t raw materials — it’s talent.
That’s why Lumina Foundation, The Century Foundation and the Urban
Manufacturing Alliance are partnering to create a model of credentialing
programs at 12 community colleges to build pathways for workers of color
and women across manufacturing careers.
Among the many practical resources and
insights about doing business in China offered by
Dezan Shira & Associates’ “China Briefing” series is this new analysis of local GDP in
2022 in China’s 31 mainland provinces,
municipalities, and autonomous regions. Cross-reference that
analysis with new research from the International Federation
of Robotics about “World Robotics R&D Programs,” which
finds among other things that China has advanced in its goal
of being a global leader for robot technology and industrial
advancement by growing in robot density per 10,000
manufacturing workers from No. 20 worldwide in 2018 (140
units) to No. 5 in 2021 (322 units).
PROJECT WATCH
Wyoming
Last week, South San Francisco, California–based Plenty Unlimited Inc.
announced it is scaling its R&D capabilities by building the world’s
largest and most advanced vertical farming research center in Laramie,
Wyoming. The project is supported by a $20 million grant from the State
of Wyoming through the Wyoming Business Council to the City of Laramie
to help with construction and infrastructure costs. Additional funding,
land and support for the project is being provided by the City of
Laramie and the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance (LCBA). “We’ve already
built one of the top indoor farming research ecosystems in the world in
Wyoming,” said Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai. “Our new facility will expand
our capability to grow the widest variety of crops, which is key to
unlocking the potential of this category and addresses a major
limitation for the industry today. This continued commitment to
innovation is what’s needed to push indoor farming forward and make
fresh food accessible to everyone.” The new center is projected to be a
more than 60,000-sq.-ft. facility built on 16 acres of land in the
Cirrus Sky Technology park in Laramie, which was contributed to the
project by the LCBA. The new facility will double Plenty’s research
space compared to the Laramie facility it has occupied since 2016 and
will welcome 125 new jobs the company expects to create over the next
six years. The project now shifts into the design phase, with plans to
begin construction later this year and open the facility in early 2025.
“About 25% of the methane emissions in California are emitted from dairy
waste lagoons. When fully built, the Aemetis biogas project plans to
connect dairy digesters spanning approximately 60 dairy farms, capturing
more than 1.65 MMBtu of dairy methane each year,” says Cupertino-based
renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company Aemetis. A system of
36 miles of additional biogas pipeline; two biogas digesters, this
Biogas-to-Renewable Natural Gas upgrading facility and a utility gas
pipeline interconnection unit that were accepted into service in late
January. Two additional dairy digesters will be commissioned and
operating in February, with another dairy digester fully operational in
March. Aemetis RNG is being sold into the PG&E utility gas pipeline and
will be stored underground until Aemetis Biogas receives approval from
the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the issuance of credits
under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). In addition to long-term
federal financing, the pipeline project and the $12 million biogas
cleanup facility are funded in part by a $4.2 million grant from the
California Energy Commission and a $5 million grant from the CPUC RNG
Pipeline Interconnection Incentive Program. “California, and especially
Merced and Stanislaus Counties, recognize that the adoption of dairy
biogas as a negative carbon intensity fuel to replace diesel in heavy
trucks and buses is essential,” said Andy Foster, president of Aemetis
Biogas, Inc. “Aemetis is taking action to reduce carbon pollution and
improve local air quality in the most impacted Central Valley
communities while creating jobs in an expanding green economy for future
generations.”
Managing Editor Adam Bruns made this photo last weekend after Sunday
brunch at H&H Soul Food in downtown Macon, Georgia. The mural by Steven
Teller unveiled one year ago outside the 64-year-old establishment
honors founders Inez Hill and “Mama” Louise Hudson and their
relationships with the Allman Brothers. In addition to feeding them
frequently, Hudson (who passed away in November at age 93) once
accompanied the band on their tour bus 51 years ago. “Mama Louise is and
always will be the mama of southern rock,” reads a plaque in the lower
left corner of the mural. “She nurtured countless bellies and souls
inside these walls and will be forever remembered as a shining example
of the power of love and kindness.”
Closed for a time after Hill’s passing, the restaurant was reopened in
2014 under the ownership of the Moonhanger Group and has been recognized
by The Wall Street Journal as one of the nation’s top five
meat-and-three joints. Bruns recommends the soul rolls and Kirk’s Mystic
Gravy Biscuits, with a cup of banana pudding on the side.
