The Economic Perspective 7/11/2025

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! 

The Balmoral Group is headed to the 39th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School next week! Join us as our very own Cortney Cortez is speaking during two sessions, continuing the impactful tradition established by our President, Valerie Seidel. Don’t miss these important discussions - we hope to see you there!

📌 Fresh from Florida: Emerging Issues in Agriculture and Their Effect on the Environment🗓️ July 17 | 🕜 1:30 PM – 3:10 PM EST

📌 The Evolution of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Resiliency Efforts

🗓️ July 18 | 🕣 8:30 AM – 10:10 AM EST

Additionally, our interns curated articles this week on WA State Stream Buffering, Solving Food Waste in Australia, AI Weather Forecasting, and more. This week's data visualization covers the state's design to build Hybrid-Electric Ferries in Washington State.

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!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

---

Washington State Ecology Releases Draft Analysis on New Stream Buffer Ruling

Washington State Department of Ecology’s draft analysis examines different aspects of a proposed Washington State ruling that aims to “reduce warming in non-fish bearing in perennial streams in Western Washington”. This new rule would decrease warming by requiring tree buffers of 50 to 75 feet, depending on site conditions. These buffers, or riparian areas, contribute to temperature regulation, erosion reduction, filtering out pollutants, and increase nutrients for aquatic life in the streams. The rule that is currently in place is not sufficiently cooling WA streams, while the newly proposed rule will, at a positive cost-benefit as reported by Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Practices Board. Read more here.

Solving Food Waste Initiative Starting in Australia

The New South Wales (NSW) Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has announced it is working with The Great Unwaste, a nationwide campaign led by End Food Waste Australia, aimed at reducing food waste and promoting food sustainability. The mission is complementary to the EPA’s goal to halve food waste in NSW by 2030 through its Love Food Hate Waste program. The campaign provides easy and feasible tips to reduce food waste at home. Even though over half of NSW councils offer FOGO services, which collect organic waste in residential areas, and the government has invested over $100 million to help find solutions for local businesses, greater efforts are underway to stop food waste at the source. Read more here.

AI Could Forecast Hurricanes and Tropical Weather

NOAA’s National Hurricane Council (NHC) partnered with Google to make improvements to a new weather forecast model that uses AI. This model will help NOAA reach its goals of improving the country’s economy and mitigating hurricane property loss by providing enhanced forecasts of hazardous weather events. Scientists from NHS’s Technology and Science Branch and Hurricane Specialist Unit and scientists from Google Deep Mind and Google Research will come together as per the new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). Read more here.

Marketing Sustainability with AI

Food and consumer goods companies have been embracing AI to refine marketing strategies. With AI implementation, brands are able to communicate sustainable practices effectively by analyzing which sustainability messages will engage consumers. Whether it’s highlighting eco-friendly packaging or ethical souring of goods, AI is able to help corporations showcase these through marketing campaigns and ads. The AI does this by scanning millions of data points online across social media and the internet and identify trends real time. The scanning insights allow brands to market more effectively and showcase sustainability within their product. Read more here.

Thriving Biodiverse Ecosystems in Urban Areas

With the development of urban areas, maintaining biodiversity is important. Urbanization and industrialization have led to species displacement and lower quality of life. However, developing urban areas into biodiverse hubs can benefit ecosystems and the species within them. For example, an urban cemetery in Vienna has developed into a biodiverse hub. This region is home to the European hamster, once considered a pest, now a critically endangered species in Europe due to habitat destruction. They find solace in the cemetery where landscapers take care to not disturb their burrows, and they have resources to survive. Implementing practices in the cemetery that drive growth within such as mowing less and allowing the grass to grow longer benefit other species, too. This allows creatures like bugs to thrive, which in turn brings birds, and could spike ecosystem growth. Read more here.

FDOT Shares Survey for New Multi-Use Path SUN Trail Project

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) shared Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s feasibility study survey to gather insights into the new shared-use path project, which, when completed, will become part of FDOTs Shared-Use Non-motorized Trail (SUN) network. The path would be constructed in Fort Meyers and North Fort Meyers, crossing the Caloosahatchee River, connecting with other paths in the SUN network. The planning process is slated to span 18 months, which includes the project’s advisory committee convening to discuss the survey results and then moving to possible design and construction aspects of the trail. Read more here.  

---

Data Visualization of the Week

Florida Firm to Build Three New Hybrid-Electric Ferries for Washington State

Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson announced on July 1st, 2025 that he has selected Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group to construct three new hybrid-electric ferries for the state. This move was made in an effort to restore service to pre-pandemic levels while minimizing costs to taxpayers, as Eastern's bid was 6% lower than Washington State Ferries (WSF) own engineer's estimate. The new ferries will carry around 160 vehicles each and reduce emissions by 90% compared to the old diesel ferries. WSF is the largest contributing agency to greenhouse gases in WA State, so the new ferries will drastically reduce emissions while saving millions on fuel costs. Read more here, here, or here. Image credit: Washington State Ferries (Mark Nowlin/The Seattle Times).