Final list

Amazon names Dallas a prime candidate for $5 billion second headquarters

Dallas has made Amazon's top 20.

Widely lauded as a prime candidate, Dallas now officially appears on Amazon’s new shortlist for the e-commerce giant’s $5 billion second headquarters.

On January 18, Amazon revealed it narrowed the field of 238 North American candidates for the so-called HQ2 project to 20 finalists, including Dallas. Austin also made the cut; Houston did not.

Seattle-based Amazon says it eventually will create up to 50,000 jobs at its second headquarters. In announcing the 20 finalists, the company emphasizes that HQ2 will be a true headquarters, not a satellite office.

Aside from the potential for 50,000 high-paying jobs, Amazon HQ2 is expected to generate tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the metro area that lands the project.

Amazon says it evaluated each of the 238 bids based on criteria outlined in the company’s call for proposals. Now, Amazon will work with the 20 finalists to dig deeper into their proposals, request further information, and evaluate how they’d accommodate the company’s hiring plans and workforce needs. Amazon plans to make a decision about HQ2 in 2018.

“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan, an executive with Amazon Public Policy, says in a release. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

In alphabetical order, here’s the list of the 20 finalists for Amazon HQ2:

Atlanta
Austin
Boston
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County, Maryland
Nashville
Newark, New Jersey
New York City
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Toronto
Washington, D.C.

technology hot-headlines

bluer skies ahead

American Airlines inks record-breaking deal with Google for cleaner jet fuel

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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Fort Worth-based American Airlines has sealed a record-breaking deal with tech giant Google to bolster the use of cleaner jet fuel.

The deal involves Google’s purchase of sustainable aviation fuel certificates tied to fuel that American will use at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, one of the airline’s hubs. These certificates enable companies like Google to pay for the environmental benefits of sustainable jet fuel without actually using the fuel.

American and Google say this is the largest publicly announced certificate deal between an airline and a corporate customer.

Google says environmental gains from the certificates will help it cut emissions from employees’ business travel.

The agreement covers 35 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel over three years, resulting in a nearly 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. American has agreed to buy the fuel from San Antonio-based Valero.

“Our industry-leading agreement with Google is a critical step forward in reducing emissions from our operations,” Jill Blickstein, American’s chief sustainability officer, said in a news release. “By working with leaders like Google who share our commitment to innovation, we’re helping to grow demand for [cleaner jet fuel] and support the development of a stronger, more resilient market.”

Sustainable aviation fuel can reduce emissions by up to 80 percent compared with traditional jet fuel. It is made from feedstocks, like waste oil and fats, or it can be produced synthetically using captured carbon dioxide and renewable electricity.

The aviation industry accounts for about 2.5 percent of carbon dioxide emissions around the world, according to the International Energy Agency.

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This story originally was published on our sister site EnergyCapitalHTX.