In 1988,  Peter Vadasz and two of his friends conducted a study to find out how fast money was leaving their community to pay for imported energy and fuels. Four years later, Vadasz was elected mayor of Gussing after running on a platform to create jobs by stopping the leakage of energy dollars. By 1996, he had completed the first phase of Gussing's biomass-fired district energy system, fueled by wood waste from a local forestry cooperative. Over the next ten years, the system was credited with creatings more than a thousand jobs as businesses moved to Gussing to support the system and to take advantage of the stable, affordable heating costs. Gussing became a shining example of how to structure an energy project to benefit the local economy, and the tiny town has now become a major center for renewable energy research. Eco-tourism has also been big.

See the story by Richard Douthwaite here:  Recession to Renewables...the World's Leading Energy Community