Develop Austin Texas

Forbes just recently published their “Best States for Business” list, ranking all states from 1-50. The list factors in six categories of data, with 33 points of data from nine different sources. Business costs including labor, energy and taxes were weighted most heavily.

 Texas ranked first for Economic Climate, and third in Growth Prospects. It also ranked tenth in Regulatory Environments. Strong rankings in these three categories, and three others, put Texas in the eighth spot on Forbes’ top ten list.

"A common theme with our top-ranked states is an expanding, educated workforce," writes Forbes.

The top ten states were:

1. Virginia

2. Washington

3. Utah

4. Colorado

5. North Carolina

6. Georgia

7. North Dakota

8. Texas

9. Nebraska

10. Oregon

You can see all fifty states ranked here.

This is not the first time Texas has been recognized as a top state for business – in June, Directorship named Texas number one.

Turbines

For the second quarter of this year, Texas added 454 megawatts of wind generating capacity, giving the state of Texas’ capacity more than 8,000 megawatts for the first time, and to be the first state that has done so.

One megawatt of wind powers 225-300 homes.

The state of Texas is first in new wind power generating capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Iowa is second, with around 3,000 megawatts. Missouri, Washington and California also appear on the list. Texas was second in wind growth, behind Missouri’s push to expand more than 90%.

Central Texas is home to the Roscoe Project, the nation’s largest wind project, which helped push Texas to its 8,000 megawatts.

According to American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode, “Our challenge now is to sieze the historic opportunity before us to unleash this entrepeneurial force and build up an entire new industry here in the U.S. that will create jobs, avoid carbon and strengthen our energy security.”