Wyoming will have more authority over the siting of wind farms and the state will begin taxing wind energy production under bills that Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed into law Friday, the Billings Gazette reported. The $1-per-megawatt-hour tax on wind energy generated in the state goes into effect in 2012. The wind industry fought the tax bill unsuccessfully this session. Industry lobbyists had urged lawmakers ...

ConAgra says it is going to shut its Slim Jim manufacturing plant in Garner, NC within 15 to 18 months. The company says it will cost too much to rebuild the portion of plant damaged in last June’s explosion; compared to what it costs to make Slim Jims in Troy, Ohio. “Our facility in Troy is larger, more modern and is more conducive to the expansion we need for this product line,” said ConAgra’s Greg Smith. ...

Dow AgroSciences has announced plans for a $340 million expansion of its Indianapolis headquarters that is expected to create 577 high-paying jobs over the next five years. The investment will greatly expand the company's research and development capacity. The company expects most of the positions to pay between $65,000 and $95,000 annually. Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Midland, MI-based giant Dow Chem ...

Top business leaders from Pueblo and Colorado Springs have formed a new partnership to champion Southern Colorado's economy.  The region's chambers of commerce and economic development agencies will participate in a regional group called the Southern Colorado Business Partnership, the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper reports. A regional group already exists in Northern Colorado, linking the Fort Collins and Greel ...

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has announced the expansion in Princeton, KY of Bremner Food Group, the nation’s largest supplier of private label cookies and crackers. Bremner Food Group, a subsidiary of Ralcorp Holdings, will install new production lines, relocate production lines from other facilities and increase its warehouse space to handle increased capacity.  The expansion project will result in 111 new ...

Ontario will more than quadruple its promised support to help keep Ford's Windsor engine plant working, according to a report in the Toronto Sun. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello - both Windsor-area MPPs—made the $81 million funding announcement in Windsor Friday. "This investment reaffirms our government's commitment to strengthening our local economy and wi ...

There are some things we assumed we never would see in our lifetime: The melting of the polar ice caps; a car that runs on electricity; the ocean running out of fish; a labor shortage in China; the Mets winning back-to-back championships. Well, with the exception of the item relating to the long-suffering denizens of Flushing Meadow, you can throw that list out the window. From Saturday’s front page of The ...

A pair of initiatives by Dow Chemical Co. will bring hundreds of green jobs to the state, Michigan Economic Development Corp. confirmed to the Detroit News this week. Dow Kokam MI LLC, a joint venture formed last year between Dow Chemical Co and South Korean partner TK Advanced Battery LLC, will construct a manufacturing facility in Midland for its lithium-polymer batteries for electric vehicles. The projec ...

A consortium of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley organizations, regional planners, and the Department of Energy have formed the Oak Ridge Energy Corridor, an initiative to promote alternative-energy-based mass transit and a network of recharging facilities for electric and hybrid vehicles. Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley organizations participa ...

The Quonset Development Corporation (QDC), a subsidiary of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC) was awarded a $22.3 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the US Department of Transportation, Governor Donald L. Carcieri has announced. According to a report on the Gov Monitor Web site, the grant will support wind energy manufacturing and logistica ...