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State energy offices (SEOs) play a vital role in fostering local energy entrepreneurship and innovation through targeted programs and policies. It's important for SEOs to understand the current local energy ecosystem—including existing businesses, workforce capabilities, research institutions, funding sources, community partnerships, and market dynamics—to enable this cohesion to thrive.

IEDC's Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) program recognizes organizational excellence in the areas of internal and external operations, structures, and procedures. This series profiles recently accredited AEDOs, putting some of economic development's highest-performing organizations in the spotlight. This edition: Salt River (Ariz.) Project Economic Development.

In August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The act is designed to fight inflation, invest in domestic energy production and manufacturing, and reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030. Specifically, the bill includes $369 billion in investments towards energy security and climate change. Below is a brief overview of the energy provisions and the potential implications the act has for consumers, employers, and manufacturers. Lowers energy costs for Americans – The incentives in the bill will alleviate the burden of high energy costs and decrease utility bills. Additionally, it includes incentives that will help consumers afford more energy efficient and cleaner technologies. The bill ...

The new CitiesSpeak podcast, hosted by National League of Cities CEO and executive director Clarence Anthony, gives listeners a close look at local leadership across the United States. His guest on the first episode was Mitch Landrieu, who served as the mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018 and is now a senior advisor under the Biden Administration in charge of coordinating the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The episode focused on the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, part of the Build Back Better plan. Landrieu’s experience as mayor has assisted him in his new role. His tenure as mayor was “where the rubber meets the road” whereas federal positions often feel as if they are ...

The last two-plus years of the pandemic have brought complications for businesses and industries across the globe. One unifying issue has been supply chain disruptions. Despite some recent improvements, with geopolitical tensions rising around the world it is likely that these issues will not go away anytime soon. IEDC’s recent webinar “Resolving Supply Chain Hurdles” brought together a panel to speak on the current and future state of supply chains. Tony Clement, a former federal politician in Canada and co-chair for Reshoring Canada, started the discussion by remarking on the impact the geopolitical climate has had on the supply chain. The United States has been experiencing a decoupling from countries such as China ...

IEDC held its Annual Conference last week in Oklahoma City featuring dozens of sessions covering today’s most important economic development topics. Here are a few of the highlights.

A classic rule of thumb used to define a recession is that the economy is in recession when it experiences two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. The U.S. economy met this definition in the first half of 2022, contracting 1.6% in the first quarter and 0.9% in the second. While every recession that has hit the United States in the last century saw a significant increase in unemployment, job growth has been exceptionally strong this year. Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal used the expression “jobful downturn” to refer to the current environment. The unusual situation raises the question: how will the impacts of a potential “jobful” recession differ from previous downturns?

IEDC’s 2022 Annual Conference will be held next month in Oklahoma City. A few of our local conference speakers shared some exciting economic development projects happening around the state.