The Economic Perspective 2/13/2026
- Feb 13
- 4 min read
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!
Welcome back readers to another edition of the Economic Perspective! The Balmoral Group was well represented at the Australian Agricultural & Resource Economic Society conference in Adelaide, Australia with Valerie Seidel, Shima Madani, and Wendy-Lin Bartels in attendance. The team enjoyed reconnecting with colleagues and engaging with keynotes and fascinating research on transmission, sustainability, and renewable energy! Here in Florida, Cortney Cortez presented an Economic Outlook to local business leaders in central Florida at the Lake 100 February meeting on Wednesday. She offered insight into trends shaping local growth, investment, and business opportunities across Lake County!
Articles this week cover a diverse set of topics, including signing of the U.S. transportation and spending legislation; recent moves in AI infrastructure spending; brand new plant-sensing technology, and more! The data visualization of the week covers NASA's new PACE satellite products publicly available through Esri's ArcGIS Living Atlas, extremely useful for water quality, habitat health, and air quality analysis.
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Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation Spending
The White house recently signed Congress’ transportation and spending legislation bill. This bill will handle funding until September 30th and include $74.5 billion for highway programs, $9.6 billion for airports, and $20.8 billion for transit programs. The bill passed with bipartisan support. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) hopes that with funding passed, efforts can focus on on-time renewal of a robust, long-term surface transportation reauthorization. You can find a complete breakdown of the bills spending here, and read more from ARTBA here and here.
New Study Finds Global Heating to Impact Socially Vulnerable Communities the Most
The Nature Conservancy has recently published a paper highlighting increasing concerns related to air conditioning costs and impacts on vulnerable communities as global temperatures continue to rise. Low-income, elderly, and/or working-class families that may struggle to afford higher cost air conditioning options may lost the ability to stay cool in brutal summer months when cheaper cooling options are not sufficient. While this might be considered a simple inconvenience, during record breaking heat waves, the lack of air conditioning can become a serious health concern for such communities. Read more from The Nature Conservancy here.
Alphabet Secures $32B Bond Deal After Major AI Infrastructure Commitment
Google’s parent company Alphabet has raised nearly $32 billion through a series of bond offerings, including a rare 100-year bond, shortly after announcing massive capital spending plans for 2026. The debt issuance comes just one week after executives revealed that Alphabet expects to nearly double its capital expenditures to $175-185 billion, with most of that going toward data center and AI infrastructure. The bond sales spanned multiple currencies and maturities, attracting strong demand, particularly for the long-dated bonds. This move reflects trends in the tech industry, where major cloud providers are increasing debt to fund record infrastructure spending. Read more here.
New Sensor Technology Can Measure Real-Time Plant Nutrient Requirements
Researchers funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) are developing a tool that notifies farmers when and where plants should be irrigated and/or fertilized. Miniature sensors are placed in various locations around and on the crop measuring temperature, humidity, bioelectric signals, and nitrate levels. The sensor information is combined with machine-learning software that uses drone images, satellite data, and a crop-growth model to interpret and communicate results. This cost-effective tool enables farmers to make decisions that can reduce excess nitrogen levels and water usage, protecting both water supply and quality to surrounding water bodies. Read more here. (Image source: USDA).
Feds Approve SpaceX Rocket Amid Environmental Concerns
Last Tuesday, SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy rocket received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration to execute launches. Although this marks a major step forward in the approval process, the final environmental impact statement highlighted risks to wildlife, air quality, and noise. If a license is granted, the Starship would take off over forty times in a year and would “allow the greatest development and growth of the U.S. commercial space launch industry,” according to the federal agency. Read more here
Coastal Resilience Efforts in WA Continue
Washington Department of Ecology launched a Coastal Hazards Organizational Resilience Team (COHORT) back in 2023 to collaborate with counties, tribes and cities all in an effort to bolster Washington’s coastal resilience to climate change impacts. COHORT’s main focus areas include coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion and increased storm severity impacts. The report released by Ecology highlights key projects and milestones completed by COHORT, such as the 350 community meetings attended with outreach involving 5,500 residents, and securing $85 million in federal funding. Currently underway are marsh restoration projects in Puget Sound, riverside restoration in the Olympic Peninsula, and natural shoreline initiatives on the Pacific Coast. You can read the full COHORT report here, and read more about the highlights here. (Image source: Washington Department of Ecology)
Data Visualization of the Week
New PACE Satellite Products Now Available in ArcGIS Living Atlas
NASA has added 11 new PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) satellite imagery products to its Earthdata GIS services, making them easily discoverable and usable through Esri’s ArcGIS Living Atlas. These global, 8-day composite layers covering ocean, land, and atmosphere conditions like chlorophyll-a, vegetation indices, and aerosol metrics help users monitor environmental changes and support applications such as water quality, vegetation health, and air quality analysis. See here for more product information, or click on the visual. The visualization below is simulated images of NASA's EGIS web-based Map Viewer tool and three different PACE imagery services. Credit: EGIS Team.
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