Wyoming Business

To the point that "Wyoming wrote a bigger check," that check was written to the University of Wyoming. Well before the supercomputer lab was looking for a new home, Wyoming was investing heavily in UW with the awareness, and mission, that investment in the future begins with the education system.

More and more people are moving to outlying areas of Jackson Hole — especially Alpine and Teton County, Idaho — as Jackson home prices soar. A real estate analyst published a report last month saying the median sale price of a home in Jackson as of July 1 was nearly $1.18 million.

The project is expected to bring at least 40 well-paid employees to the area and has been billed as a potential catalyst for tech development in southeast Wyoming.

"We have a bull’s-eye on our back," Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said. "I see it as an imbalance. The BLM has one objective and that is drilling. It wasn’t always this way. There used to be some concern for habitat preservation, and I’m worried that’s gone out the door."

"I think the No. 1 problem in Wyoming is work force, and you can’t get a work force if you don’t have the housing."

The Glenrock Wind Energy Project will generate 99 megawatts of renewable energy for Rocky Mountain Power’s parent company, PacifiCorp. That’s enough electricity to power almost 30,000 homes.

Will we use our energy boom to build long-term prosperity, or will we export it, in the form of paychecks taken home by out-of-staters?

The University of Wyoming has nearly finished planning a $50 million renovation and expansion at the College of Business, which was built in 1960 and now serves more than three times as many students as it did then.

"Economic development experts say they like to get clusters of businesses that are related to each other, and this offers the potential for two locations in the county that could have this advanced data infrastructure."

Wyoming’s community colleges should work more closely with the state’s Department of Workforce Services to address the state’s shortage of trained workers, a state official says.