Wyoming Business Council

There will soon be a Wyoming Pacific Asia office based in Taiwan. The Wyoming Business Council (WBC) has entered into a 22-month contract with a Taiwanese representative to help create business relationships between the state and country.

A large federal investment is coming to Wyoming as Congress is investing $90 billion in modernizing Intercontinental Ballistic Missile weapon systems (ICBMs). ICBMs are stored at three locations across the United States, including F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

A foreign trade zone, or FTZ, near the Casper International Airport will be expanded to cover most of Natrona County.

The Wyoming Broadband Advisory Council meets for the first time next week. The Wyoming Legislature created the council during the 2018 session as a part of an effort to increase access to high-speed internet in unserved areas of the state.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead has agreed to provide a $5 million loan to a private group to keep Laramie’s WyoTech open. The previous owners had planned to close the automotive college. During the 2018 budget session the state legislature supported efforts to keep the school open.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping Wyoming clean up contaminated areas for future redevelopment. Three state and local organizations will split $1.4 million. Wyoming is among 144 grantees in the competitive national process. The EPA gave out over $54 million in total.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Douglas, and the Wyoming Business Council will receive the funds. The DEQ and the Business Council are partnering to combine their grants and create a revolving loan for clean-up available to any Wyoming community. 

Each year, Wyoming is given Federal Housing and Urban Development funds to pay for various services and infrastructure improvements across the state. The Wyoming Business Council is surveying the public to help decide how to spend $3 million over the next five years.

Federal Housing and Urban Development dollars can be used towards building affordable housing, fixing streets and sewers, as well as public services like childcare, transportation, and mental health. 

In Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin, the city of Sheridan is exploring how renewable sources of energy might fit into its future. The local government applied for a $44,000 research grant that the Wyoming Business Council approved earlier this month.

Now their proposal will go before the governor’s State Land and Investment Board for final approval. The town’s leaders have been looking into wind, solar, and hydropower development since the 1990s, and a recent economic study found that a lack of renewable development in Sheridan could be a deal-breaker for tech companies.

Last year, the Wyoming legislature created a task force to make the state’s communities more attractive to bicyclists and pedestrians. That group will host a phone meeting Monday morning to discuss the value of these modes of transportation, as well as the projects and policy changes that would make them more workable.

Task Force Chairman Tim Young says it’s all part of a report they’ll submit to the legislature in October.

Wyoming communities are encouraging holiday shoppers to forego Black Friday and visit their local downtowns on Small Business Saturday instead. American Express initiated Small Business Saturday seven years ago to promote shopping locally during the holiday season rather than buying gifts online. Wyoming Business Council member Tom Dixon said small businesses are part of what makes Wyoming special.

Wyoming farmer’s markets aren’t just good for community spirit--they’re also making the state money. That’s according to a new survey by the Wyoming Business Council. 

Agribusiness Manager Cindy Garretson-Weibel says the number of farmers markets has been increasing for several years with 49 now in Wyoming. Weibel says some of them are held twice a week, adding up to significant income.

Last week, Sheridan County commissioners approved an amendment to planning and zoning rules that will give local farmers an edge on more direct sales to their customers. It will now be easier for them to put up farm stands and greenhouses on their property, as well as sell jams, salsas and other products made from their produce. Such activities either weren't allowed or required special permits in the past. Director Bill Benzel with Powder River Resource Council worked on the amendment.

Green River will return $1 million it got from the state to renovate its historic Union Pacific train depot.

The community received a $1 million grant through the Wyoming Business Council, but those funds were contingent upon the city raising the other $2 million needed to complete the project.

The Business Council denied a two-year extension to come up with the funds. Green River City Councilwoman Lisa Mays says they had little choice but to give the money back.

According to a recent analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, mining occupied approximately 35 percent of Wyoming’s GDP in 2013, up from around 29 percent in 2003. That makes Wyoming the most mining-dependent state in the country.

The increase comes despite calls from the Wyoming Business Council to diversify the state’s industries.

Wyoming Principal Economist Jim Robinson said that after concentrating on energy for so long, growth in areas outside energy is slow.

A Wyoming program that incentivizes businesses’ use of green energy has won a national innovation award.

The Wyoming Renewable Energy Credit program was named the 2014 Economic Development Award Recipient by Business Facilities Magazine, a national publication on business expansion.

The initiative is a partnership between the Powder River Energy Corporation and the Wyoming Business Council. It offers a discount on energy costs for Wyoming businesses interested in using green power.

Smaller Wyoming communities considering public transportation programs can get help from the Business Council starting in July.

While federal funds exist to support transportation programs, many towns and cities need help financing the pre-planning. Energy efficiency program manager Sherry Hughes says that there’s where these grants come in.

Wyoming Business Council CEO Bob Jensen is resigning.  Jensen has led the Business Council for over a decade and oversaw projects like the expansion of the rail industry in Evanston, expansion of data centers in the state, and growth of the manufacturing sector in Gillette. Governor Matt Mead has thanked Jensen for his service. Jensen will step down at the end of March to spend more time with his wife, who has multiple sclerosis.

The Wyoming Business Council Board of Directors has unanimously approved $13 million in state grants and loans to help one of the country's largest producers of ammunition magazines for guns relocate to the state.
 
     Erie, Colo.-based Magpul Industries is planning to move its production, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne. The company vowed to leave Colorado after that state enacted gun control laws last year.
 

Last year, 13 companies received grants from a Wyoming initiative which they then used to apply for larger, federal grants. The Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Program was established to help small businesses in the state get more federal grants that could be beneficial to their businesses. Each award is for up to $5,000 and can be used for any purpose that would improve a federal grant proposal.

Wyoming is aggressively working to attract data centers to the state.  The industry magazine Expansion Solutions recently recognized the Cowboy State’s efforts to accommodate companies looking to build or expand their computing operations.

Wyoming Business Council CEO Bob Jensen says his organization targets trade shows, real estate directors and data management industry publications to promote Wyoming’s offerings, including a cool climate, cheap power, and lots of space to build.

Jensen says Wyoming has a lot of competition to attract these businesses.

Wyoming exported more goods to foreign markets in 2012 than in 2011.

Total revenue went from 1-point-2 billion dollars to 1-point-4 billion dollars. The largest market is Canada, followed by Australia and Brazil. Machinery and raw commodities like coal, and oil and gas are the top exports.

C-E-O of the Wyoming Business Council, Bob Jensen, says there are several factors that contributed to the growth.

After a harrowing drought and a wet spring, Wyoming’s hay inventory is down and prices are holding steady.

Still, the forage market is a fickle industry, says Wyoming Business Council Crop and Forage Program Manager Donn Randall. He says hay values are not standardized the way other commodities are.

“It’s so subjective to the buyer’s preference,” Randall says. “Horse people, they want it green and leafy, and you know, dairy people, they have to have relatively high feed values.”

The State Loan and Investment Board or SLIB approved over eight million dollars in Business Ready grants.  

Among the highlights, SLIB approved funding for a major road project in Sweetwater County to benefit Uranium production and the board also agreed to a managed data center cost reduction grant for Green House Data in Cheyenne. 

It will give the company the opportunity to expand by providing it a two-point-25 million dollar utility break.  Shawn Mills of Green House Data says the action will help his company and the state’s economy.   

A new report, released by several stakeholders including the Wyoming Business Council, the University of Wyoming, and the Idaho National Laboratory, says there’s potential to add value to the state’s abundant energy resources. Ideas to generate value include a carbon-conversion industry to produce synthetic transportation fuels, and diversifying power generation in the state to include more wind and nuclear energy.

Wyoming Business Council CEO Bob Jensen says the report looks at both the near and distant future.

Laramie will receive nearly $5.5 million to build a technology park in the city. The grant is one of five the Wyoming Business Council recommended to the State Loan and Investment Board, or SLIB, and today SLIB approved it. In total, SLIB approved almost $10 million for projects around the state.

Laramie Economic Development Corporation’s Board Chair, Megan Goetz, says now the pressure is on to make the project a reality.

The Wyoming Business Council found that farmers markets contributed more than a million dollars to Wyoming’s economy last year.

The Business Council’s Cindy Garretson-Weibel says that includes direct sales from the markets, plus additional money people spend in communities when attending farmers markets.

She says farmers markets give producers marketing opportunities, and that meeting consumers face-to-face can be good for business.

Governor Matt Mead’s efforts to land a Data Center for the state has paid off. Microsoft is going to build a 112 million dollar facility near Cheyenne that could employ up to 40 people. 

To attract Microsoft, Governor Mead says the state offered nearly 11 million dollars in incentives, but he believes that the state should get a great return on its investment and he says it will provide high paying jobs.  Mead has been touting the need for Data Centers and he says this is an important start.