There exists in this state the continuing need for programs to alleviate and prevent conditions of unemployment, and the legislature finds that it is accordingly necessary to assist and retain local industrial and commercial enterprises, including employee-owned corporations, to strengthen and revitalize the economy of this state and its municipalities; that accordingly it is necessary to provide means and methods for the encouragement and assistance of industrial and commercial enterprises, including employee-owned corporations, in locating, purchasing, constructing, reconstructing, modernizing, improving, maintaining, repairing, furnishing, equipping, and expanding in this state and in its municipalities; and that it is also necessary to encourage the location and expansion of industrial and commercial enterprises, including employee-owned corporations, to more conveniently provide needed services and facilities of the industrial and commercial enterprises to municipalities and the residents of the municipalities. It is also necessary to promote economic activity in the forestry and agricultural sectors by providing incentives to combat inflation, to reduce energy consumption, to retain the family farm unit, to reduce the rate at which urban sprawl has been devouring our productive farm lands, and to provide our farmers and foresters with a more favorable export market; all this to be accomplished by reducing costs of production. It is also necessary to encourage the development of facilities designed to produce energy from renewable resources. Therefore, the powers granted in this act constitute the performance of essential public purposes and functions for this state and its municipalities.