The Economic Perspective 7/3/2025

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 Thursday! And Happy 4th of July! 

This week, Balmoral Group and the wider industry lost a legend. After a hard-fought battle with brain cancer, we said farewell to Grant Leslie, FIML.  It would be difficult to improve on Annalisa Contos' post about Grant's industry-changing efforts over the years, and we at Balmoral Group were so privileged to have him leading our Sydney office for the past ten years.  

Additionally, our interns curated articles this week on FL State Budget, Cancellations of Clean Energy Projects, Construction Growth Stalling Amid Uncertainty, and more. This week's data visualization covers Weighted-Trade Tariff Percentage and Geopolitical distance from the US.        

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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FL State Budget Signed 

On June 30^th, Governor Ron DeSantis finalized Florida’s State Budget for the 2025-26 Fiscal Year. The approved legislative budget underwent a reduction of $567 million in line-item vetoes, taking it from $117.9 billion to $117.4 billion. One of the line-item vetoes was for the Florida Wildlife Corridor with a budget allocation of $200 million. However, the vetoing of the $200 million from the budget is actually a shift of funds. The veto keeps money in the land acquisition fund for Florida Forever. Read more about the State Budget here, line-item vetoes here, and more on the Florida Wildlife Corridor veto here.

Cancellations of New Clean Energy

In May, clean energy factories and projects worth $1.4 billion were canceled by companies. This includes General Motors $300 million EV manufacturing facility and Li-Cycle’s $960 million battery storage manufacturing facility alongside them canceling and closing four battery manufacturing plans in three states. Since the beginning of the year, nearly $15.5 billion in new factories and electricity projects have been cancelled. Additionally, in 2025, 30 clean energy projects have been downsized, canceled or closed. Read more here.

Benefits of Living Shorelines

Living shorelines are an infrastructure technique that uses native vegetation and other natural materials to stabilize shorelines against erosion while enhancing biodiversity. Compared to other stabilization techniques such as seawalls, living shorelines are more environmentally friendly. Seawalls can be harmful towards coastal habitats because they may displace species which live in coastal wetlands such as oysters. This hurts the shoreline long term because oysters themselves are natural stabilizers of shorelines. By implementing living shorelines ecosystems can be restored and stabilize the coastline. Read more here.

WSDOE Releases Three New Studies for Clean Energy  

The Washington Department of Ecology released three environmental studies highlighting the impacts and offset strategies associated with wind, solar and other green energy projects. They worked with state agencies, Tribes, and energy developers, among other stakeholders, to identify the issues and challenges associated with the projects. Ecology’s hope for the studies is that they be used as part of a toolkit that future developers and interested parties can utilize for future green energy project applications, streamlining the process. Read more here.

Construction Growth Stalls Amid Uncertainty

In 50% of metro areas between May 2024 and May 2025 construction employment increased. According to the Associated General Contractors of America this is the lowest year-over-year gain amongst metro areas since March 2021. Additionally, in their analysis of employment they said it supports other indicators that investors and developers are delaying or canceling planned projects until they know how they will be affected from tariffs and workforce policies. While growth existed in 180 metro areas, 121 metro areas experienced a decrease, and the rest experienced no change. Read more here.

FDEP Adopts Updated BMAPs 

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has adopted 28 updated nutrient Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs). These updates help advance actions to improve water quality and fulfill requirements established by the Clean Waterways Act. BMAPs use a science and stakeholder-driven adaptive framework to identify projects and strategies that will improve health of the state's water-bodies. The plans use a phased approach and are expected to evolve along with science and local conditions. The 28 BMAPs were signed on the 27th of June 2025 and should evolve with science as well as the conditions on the ground. Read more here.  

WA Gas Tax Increases Again

Now in effect since July 1st, 2025, the WA gas tax sees another increase of 6 cents per gallon. This is the first time the tax on gas has increased in almost a decade. With the increase on July 1st, it marks the 21st time the state has raised its gas tax and brings the total tax to 55.4 cents per gallon. The tax is used for many projects statewide such as ferry programs, pothole repairs, and mega-projects. However, with many people switching to EV's, cars with better mileage, or no car; policymakers acknowledge new pathways to funding may be needed. Read more here.  

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Data Visualization of the Week

Geopolitical Distance and Weighted-Trade Tariff Percentage 

Tariffs have received significant attention recently, with many deployments of new tariffs by the US occurring in April 2025. A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute shows the impacts of those tariffs on countries based on their geopolitical distance from the US. Countries with greater geopolitical distance from the US such as Russia and China face higher tariffs than other countries like Mexico and Canada. Read more here.