Tagged: OCI

Unemployment figures released Friday had bad news and good news for Texas. 

The good news is that over the past year, unemployment in the state has declined almost a full percentage point and remains below the national rate of 7.9 percent for January.

The bad news is that unemployment rose slightly in Texas for the month of January to 6.3 percent; prior to January, the jobless rate had been declining for six months.

Today CPS Energy and city officials joined OCI Solar Power executives in a toast to the first phase of construction on a mega solar power agreement that promises 800 jobs for the city over several solar farm locations.

Officials made a ceremonial first dig with shovels at the site of Alamo I, the first solar farm location, to symbolize the massive construction project that has already begun.

South of Loop 410 and IH-37, Alamo I will soon be buzzing with hundreds of solar panels that will generate 41 megawatts.  

In exchange for creating hundreds of jobs, the city has agreed to a business deal with solar manufacturing company Nexolon America.

Nexolon will build a manufacturing plant at Brooks with ordinances to create a reinvestment zone at the base including: A 10-year 100 percent tax abatement, $400,000 in grant money to create 400 jobs, and $12 million for future infrastructure improvements.

Mayor Julián Castro believes the project contributes to the vision of SA2020 to create a highly skilled workforce.

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and CPS-Energy are responding to a CNN news story about a solar energy deal that casts the political rising star in a negative light.

When Mayor Julian Castro stepped onto the stage of the Democratic National Convention he was also stepping into a more critical arena of national politics where nearly every move is scrutinized.

And on Friday, a story on the CNN program "Erin Burnett’s Out Front" covered a CPS-Energy solar energy deal that Castro was involved in that went to a South Korean company and not a company in the United States.