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Economic Development

NC Chamber supporting push to lower H-2A wage rates

The NC Chamber is backing a Trump administration move to lower the minimum wage rate for migrant farm workers hired under the H-2A visa program. Lawyers representing the Chamber in late January filed a friend-of-the-courtbrief in a California federal-court case, opposing an attempt by the United Farm Workers to get...

By Ray Gronberg

February 11, 2026

NCSU involved in “Golden Dome” anti-missile project

NC State has a chance to participate in a $151 billion federally funded R&D program designed to bolster the country’s defenses against missile attacks. The Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency in December and January qualified 2,440 companies and universities to compete for grants under what it’s calling the “Scalable Homeland...

By Ray Gronberg

February 10, 2026

Growth putting pressure on DOT project rankings

A decade and a half on, some legislators are having second thoughts about the system they and former Gov. Pat McCrory ushered in to take some of the politics out of funding road projects. The state’s prioritization system is shortchanging local-level projects and also pushing “P3” initiatives — toll roads...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2026

DOT favors double-deck plan for I-77 in Charlotte

N.C. Department of Transportation officials say they’re “moving forward” with the idea of building a deck atop part of Interstate 77 in Charlotte to add express toll lanes to the highway. Radical though it may be, DOT says the proposal seems the “least impactful design alternative” for some of the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2026

Duke avoids setting new power-load record

Following up on yesterday’s item about Duke Energy’s storm-related pollution waivers, the company says the load on its network didn’t set a record during Winter Storms Fern (ice) and Gianna (snow). The January 2025 record load was almost 37.3 gigawatts and this time around, loads “peaked just shy” of that...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2026

Small reactors lack economies of scale, legislators hear

When it comes to building nuclear reactors, a consultant’s advice to legislators is easily summarized: Go big or go home. Elaborating, the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy heard testimony on Tuesday that said small modular reactors can’t match the economic efficiency of the large ones utilities like Duke Energy...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2026

Wolfspeed gets feds’ OK for Japanese investor

Durham-based Wolfspeed says federal regulators have given permission for a Japanese company to take an equity stake in the chipmaker. The decision came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and stems from Wolfspeed’s Chapter 11 restructuring last year. One of the company’s largest creditors going into...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Lumbee land buy could accommodate casino

The Lumbee tribe has bought land in Robeson County that could someday host eastern North Carolina’s first casino. State Rep. John Lowery, the tribe’s chairman, recently announced that Lumbee Tribe Holdings has acquired 241 acres that “can be utilized for long-term economic development initiatives that benefit our people for generations to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

Solar farms using but 40,284 acres in N.C.

North Carolina’s utility-scale solar farms are using only 0.31% of the state’s farmland, the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association says. All told, 733 solar arrays capable of generating more than 1 megawatt of power are using 40,284 acres, the group says, basing the assessment on a review of aerial photography and...

By Ray Gronberg

January 27, 2026

N.C. Electric Co-ops sets CEO transition

N.C. Electric Cooperatives has hired a new CEO who will take the helm early in April. Amadou Fall has been the COO of the N.C. Electric Membership Corp. since early 2021. NCEMC is one of three groups under the Electric Cooperatives umbrella and handles its power generation and transmission work....

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

Locke looks at farm exposure to trade wars

An analysis commissioned by the John Locke Foundation warns that trade wars could take a $695 million bite out of North Carolina’s agriculture sector. Written by NC State professor Jeffrey Dorfman, it says the state’s tobacco, sweet potato and cotton farmers are particularly vulnerable to retaliation from China, the European...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2026

Stein: Make data centers pay their own way

Gov. Josh Stein and the Trump administration agree data centers should bear the cost of any new power-generation capacity they require. Stein recently joined two U.S. cabinet secretaries and a bipartisan coalition of Mid-Atlantic and Midwest governors in urging the PJM Interconnection to revamp its pricing and resource planning. PJM runs...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Judge rules against Trump on Dominion wind farm

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down work on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker ruled both that Dominion’s “likely to prevail” in its lawsuit against the administration’s stop-work order and that it needs a preliminary injunction to...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

NC Children’s hospital in Apex lands first big donation

Charlotte-based Coca-Cola Consolidated says it’s going to donate $25 million toward the launch of NC Children’s, the new hospital UNC Health and Duke Health intend to build in southern Apex. The company is the country’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and its donation is the first “significant gift” NC Children’s has received,...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2026

NC economy in 2026: steady, but masking problems

It’s long been a truism that there are two North Carolinas economically, but that is both an oversimplification these days and a symptom of flaws in the state’s development strategy. That’s the view, at any rate, of most participants in Business North Carolina’s2026 economic forecast roundtable at the Campbell University...

By Ray Gronberg

January 12, 2026