The Economic Perspective 12/19/2025

The Latest Trending Economic, Environmental and Infrastructure News Curated for You by The Balmoral Group

The Balmoral Group provides practical, professional and precise Economics, Data Analytics, and Engineering Consulting services and is part of a globally integrated team.

Happy Friday! 

Hello and welcome, readers, to our final Economic Perspective of 2025! All of us here at TBG would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the partners and collaborators that we have worked with over the past twelve months. We wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful New Year!

This week, TBG’s Laila Racevskis is attending the Florida Smart Agriculture Work Group Meeting in Clermont where she will be presenting information about the Florida Wildlife Corridor Payment for Ecosystem Services pilot program for agricultural landowners in the Avon Park Air Force Range Sentinel Landscape.

In our final edition, we cover the historic Washington flooding taking place along with good news for Florida land and natural resource conservation efforts. We also take a look at AI regulatory news as well as its implications, and our data visualization covers the probability of a white Christmas across the U.S.! 

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested. If you’d like to view previous editions please click here, or to subscribe please click here!

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FY 26-27 Floridians First Budget Released

Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, released a budget aimed at protecting the state’s valuable landscapes and natural resources. $1.4 billion is allocated to Everglades restoration and water quality that will be used to accelerate the completion of existing projects as well as advancing new ones such as grant programs, spring flow restoration, and algal bloom management. $220 million is allocated to conservation, in the form of state park maintenance and land acquisition via Florida Forever. Finally, $283 million will support shoreline enhancements, beach nourishment efforts, and increase resilience through the Resilient Florida Program. Read more here.

AI Regulatory Landscape Changing Amidst Executive Order

With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly widespread across the U.S., as well as required data centers following closely behind, some have called for greater regulation of the industry. Data centers require large amounts of energy to function and use water to cool the systems, leading to concerns about environmental impacts and increasingly large electricity bills. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposed legislation aiming to address these concerns by protecting consumers from AI-related price hikes and implementing various other guardrails for its development. However, the White House recently signed an executive order that limits state regulation of AI. Currently, every state in the country has an organization supporting heightened AI regulations before further data center development takes place. Read more here. 

I-25 Greenland Wildlife Overpass Completed in Colorado

Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) completed their $15 million wildlife overpass project this year, making the 200-feet-wide, 209-feet-long crossing in Douglas County, Colorado, the largest in North America. The crossing now connects almost 40,000 acres of habitat to each other, and is expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle crashes by 90% by providing a safe connection for elk, pronghorn, black bears, and other wildlife to utilize when crossing I-25. This project is part of a larger wildlife crossing system in Colorado that spans 18 miles, aiming to preserve open space, facilitate wildlife migration, and reduce safety concerns for both drivers and wildlife in the area Read more here, and here

State of Emergency Declared in WA due to Historic Flooding

An atmospheric river crossed Washington State late last week, bringing a torrential downpour of 5 trillion gallons, and costing an indeterminate amount in infrastructure damages, power outages, and evacuations. The atmospheric river is responsible for two levee failures and several historic flooding events, many in rural and tribal communities. The Skagit River for example, crested just under 10 feet above flood stage, causing 100,000 people living in its flood plain to be evacuated. In total five locations experienced record flooding, prompting additional evacuation orders and landslide warnings. With levee breaks and significant vulnerability implications, some are wondering what the future of flood infrastructure will look like to address events such as this. Read more here, and here.

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Data Visualization of the Week

White Christmas Probabilities Across the U.S.

Ahead of the holidays, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has mapped out the probability of a white Christmas happening in each state in America. According to meteorologists, the definition of a white Christmas is having at least one inch of snowfall on Christmas morning. Their data reports that an average of 36% of the contiguous U.S. experiences this phenomenon annually. The data visualization below illustrates the historical chance of a white Christmas, using data from 1991-2020. Whether you are wishing for a white Christmas, or another holiday happening, we hope your wish comes true! Read more on the data visualization here. (Image source: The Weather Channel, data from NOAA)