The Economic Perspective 9/18/2026
The Latest Trending Economic, Environmental and Infrastructure News Curated for You by The Balmoral Group
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Happy Friday!
Greetings, and thank you for joining for another edition of The Economic Perspective! This weekend marks World Cleanup Day, an event dedicated to raising awareness and working towards countering the global waste crisis. As communities around the world come together to make a difference, TBG was recently recognized for leadership in sustainability efforts! View cleanup events in your area here!
Updates on construction input costs include asphalt prices inching back up, with crude values increasing to above $100/bl after another round of escalations with the war in Iran. US oil and asphalt stocks continue to decline, and OPEC has cut growth forecasts for 2026 oil demand. Saudi Arabia has also cut oil shipments to Europe after their Red Sea port was struck by drones. Canada has retaliated against the US in the ongoing trade war, placing significant tariffs on over 650 products.
Articles this week cover research and projects centered around sustainability efforts, a convention discussing solutions against hurricane impacts, and trucking associations pushing back on the federal excise tax. Our data visualization features the comparison between organic farming and conventional farming across various metrics.
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Lessons Learned from Hurricane Helene
On September 28th, transportation leaders will present information at the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's (ARTBA) 2026 National Convention about recovery efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Helene. The southeast dealt with significant damage to roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure. Recovery efforts were extensive and lasted well past the storm's impact in 2024. Speakers will include contractors and public representatives from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The goal of the convention is to share information to mitigate damages and expediate recovery efforts during future storms. Read more here and register for the convention here.
Trucking Organizations Target Excise Tax
The American Trucking Association (ATA) has pushed for a repeal of the federal excise tax set at 12% on the retail sale of certain heavy trucks, tractors, and trailers. Supporters of the repeal argue that it punishes the purchase of newly designed trucks that have better fuel efficiency and cleaner technology and therefore makes fleet modernization more difficult. The tax revenue goes into the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which aids in construction and maintenance of federal highways. Legislation was introduced in March 2025. Read more about the excise tax and other legislative efforts by the ATA here.
Washington Department of Ecology to Research Energy Storage Systems
The State of Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) is researching battery energy storage systems (BESS) in response to the state’s growing energy demand and changing climate. BESS store excess energy for later use by using large, rechargeable batteries. These systems can be used in times of emergency, when power is limited or unavailable, and can also alleviate the pressures of high electricity demand that utility companies face. The DOE recognizes the importance of researching safety concerns and environmental impacts and will therefore prioritize those factors in their research. A document detailing the planned approach for implementing BESS in Washington was released to the public on September 1st with the purpose of receiving stakeholder review and comments. Read more here.
Google Agrees to Carbon Sequestration Project
Google is partnering with Terradot on a carbon-removal and methane-reduction project at rice farms in Brazil. The project will use Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) to reduce methane emissions and Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which uses crushed volcanic rock to remove carbon dioxide. As data centers increase environmental pressures on water and energy resources, tech companies have shown growing interest in environmental credits. The project aims to generate 1 million metric tons of methane-abatement credits by 2030 and 1 million tons of carbon-removal credits by 2040. Read more about the project here and from Google's website here.
Washington State Coal Plant Open Once Again
In an update to last month's article, the TransAlta plant in Centralia, WA has yet again been ordered to continue operations. As reported originally, the plan for the plant was to shift the facility to natural gas by 2028 in order to reduce emissions and breathe new life into a plant that has not been needed to provide power since late last year. However, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has since issued its fourth order for the plant to remain open for at least the next 90 days. Washington State is not alone in this matter, as the DOE has also ordered plants in four additional states to remain open, though environmental groups have opposed this order in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Read more here.
Rollout of USDA's Agricultural Statistics Tool
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched AgInsights, a streamlined collection of agricultural statistics for crops along with animal agriculture. Data includes location, commodity type, estimated harvest numbers, price, and percent harvested. This consolidated information provides producers, industry leaders and organizations, and researchers the ability to gather information from one source. View the press release here, and view AgInsights for yourself here.
New Plan for WDFW on Proactive Conservation Action
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) recently released its revised State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) which has new guidelines on fish, wildlife, and habitat conservation. Maintained since 2005, and last updated in 2015, their SWAP has helped maintain ecosystem health and the abundance of species in their local ecosystem. Public comments, surveys, updates to the WDFW, and other input from the public were included in these changes. You can read more info about these changes here, here, and here.
Data Visualization of the Week
Organic Farming Land Use vs Conventional Farming
The perception of organic farming options leading to better environmental outcomes compared to conventional farming options may not always be the case. In the data visualization below, organic farming benefits are represented in purple and conventional farming benefits in pink, with each point representing a study finding. Organic farming shows underperforming data in land use due to heightened needs for land as smaller yields are generated. Organic farming performed better in ecotoxicity, which is a measure of how harmful a farming system’s chemical inputs are on the local environment. The three remaining categories, greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, and eutrophication show mixed results. Read more and see other graphs here.
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