The Latest Trending Economic, Environmental and Infrastructure News Curated for You by The Balmoral Group
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Happy Friday!
Hello Dear Readers,
This week has brought unusual weather to Florida with cold temperatures and rare snowfall hitting the panhandle. Pensacola received 5 inches of snow while Milton got 8.8 inches. This broke Florida's record for snowfall of 4 inches set back in 1954. You can read more about these strange winter storms here and here.
TBG team member Cortney Cortez will be attending the 34th Annual Southwest Florida Water Resources Conference. The theme of the conference will be opportunities for resilient recovery in southwest Florida. Speakers will include members from the Army Corps of Engineers, local government officials in the southwest, and a special guest, Saskia Pardaans, who is a Senior Advisor of Infrastructure and Water management from the Netherlands.
In this edition, we bring you articles on rebuilding in California, the Florida citrus industry, the renewable energy outlook for 2025, and more. Our data visualization this week covers payroll and unemployment data from December.
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Have a great weekend!
A California Economist and Wildfire Survivor Hopes to Tackle the State's Insurance Crisis
Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at UC Berkeley, and Oakland Hills wildfire survivor is leveraging her expertise to address rising insurance costs and coverage limitations faced by residents in high-risk areas, such as California. Her work focuses on creating sustainable insurance solutions, balancing the needs of insurers and homeowners, and mitigating climate risks. Dr. Wallace notes that artificially low insurance prices have encouraged folks to build close to risk prone areas. She is using maps of burn areas and documented damages to create forecasting models to better estimate wildfire risk, thereby allowing more accurate insurance pricing to be assigned to those living in risk-prone regions. NPR.
California Leaders Promise a Quick Rebuild, but that May Put Homes at Rick of Fire Again
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are promising a speedy rebuilding of the thousands of destroyed home in the California Wildfires. However, this will likely make them vulnerable to future blazes. Urban planners, engineers, and disaster management experts have stated neighborhoods need to be built with resilience in mind. Buffer zones between properties and wildland and greater space between homes have been suggested as needed changes. Planting more native species, using flame resistant building materials, and inside sprinkler systems have been listed as effective building practices. Read More here and here.
Florida Citrus Industry Struggles Amid Orange Crops Dwindling
In the last 20 years, the USDA has recorded a 90% decrease in citrus production from Florida, going from over 300 million boxes in the 2003-04 season to under 20 million in the 2023-24 season, with the 2024-25 season expected to produce just 12 million boxes of citrus. The main problem to producing oranges in Florida is citrus greening, an uncurable bacterial disease that has eluded researchers since 2005, which still has no good strategy for treatment of afflicted trees. Further impacting the already weak and stressed trees are regular hurricanes, which can collapse entire groves and push out growers and drive citrus producers out of business. And as many producers sell off former grove lands, developers are quick to snatch them up as many groves are located on high, dry, and sandy soils which have already been leveled and drained, making for excellent building locations. Read more here.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Releases harmful Algal Bloom Report
The Florida FWC released this week the third consensus document of the Florida Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Task Force that provides information on priority actions to address management of red tides and to document its progress in the focus areas of Public Health, Communications, and Management & Response. The report identifies areas of long-term focus, including actions to reduce nutrient loads, policy and procedure improvements, stakeholder collaboration enhancements, and strategic research and modeling needs on the biology and ecology of species that create HAB’s to improve prevention, control, and mitigation of blooms. Read more here and read the full report here.
2025 Renewable Energy Outlook
President Trump's administration is prioritizing fossil fuels by halting offshore wind leases and freezing funding to clean energy loans, affecting renewable projects nationwide. Despite this, geothermal energy is receiving favorable attention due to its steady electricity generation and technological similarities to oil and gas. Also, the Inflation Reduction Act continues to drive record investments in renewables, with U.S. electricity demand projected to rise by 128 GW over the next five years. However, interconnection requests remain clogged, and the administration's stance introduces uncertainties, particularly for offshore wind, solar, and electric vehicle sectors. Even with the energy storage sector experiencing significant growth, with global installations up 76% in 2024, future expansions may be impacted by policy shifts despite the hope from the industry to improve moving forward. Read more on the story here and here.
U.S. Withdraws Once Again from Paris Agreement
In an effort to combat global warming and prevent the worst impacts of climate change, a group of several countries around the world signed the Paris climate accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from this agreement for the second time arguing that it imposes unfair burdens on the American economy. However, environmental groups have heavily criticized this move, since the human and economic consequences of climate will become worse if the U.S. does not play its role in limiting global warming. Read more here.
Data Visualization of the Week
U.S. payrolls Grew by 256,000 in December, Much More than Expected; Unemployment Rate Falls to 4.1%
Job growth was much stronger than expected in December, providing the Federal Reserve less incentive to cut interest rates. Payrolls surged by 256,000, which was up from 212,000 in November and above the 155,000 forecast from the Dow Jones consensus. Unemployment edged down to 4.1%, which was 0.1% below expectations. Discouraged workers metrics also decreased 0.2% down to 7.5%, which was the lowest since June. Wage increases over the whole year were slightly below expectations, which is indicative of lower wage inflation. Read more here.
Click the visual below for more information.
