On the Issues: Fires in the Southern US, Avoiding Storm Damages, and More

Matt Fleck, Maya Krainc, and Elizabeth Wason

Twice a month, we’re compiling the most relevant news stories from diverse sources online, connecting the latest environmental and energy economics research to global current events, real-time public discourse, and policy decisions. Keep reading, and feel free to send us your feedback.

Here are some questions we’ve been asking and addressing with our research chops lately:

Major extreme weather events have struck the United States in quick succession since Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Southeast in September 2024. Hurricane Milton followed, and in January this year, devastating wildfires burned through Los Angeles; these fires likely will go down as the most damaging wildfire event in US history to date. In this week’s newsletter, we’ll focus on the causes of the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather in the United States—climate change, first and foremost—along with the consequences of these disasters. Certain types of policy approaches can help mitigate risk and damage moving forward; research from Resources for the Future (RFF) points to those viable solutions.

What factors are exacerbating wildfires in the United States, and what policies can help mitigate wildfires in the future?

Dry and windy conditions have helped spark and spread hundreds of wildfires in North and South Carolina and Georgia this week. Residents in several counties were ordered to evacuate, and Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) declared a state of emergency. “Fires [in the United States] are becoming increasingly frequent, large, severe, and destructive,” says Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer in a recent blog post that examines the wildfire crisis in the United States, and California in particular, following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles this January. “By investing in vegetation management to reduce fire hazard, hardening homes and communities against fire, and reducing the pace of development within the highest-hazard areas, we can minimize the damage from wildfires in the future,” says Wibbenmeyer. Learn more about how wildfires intersect with declining affordability and availability of homeowners insurance in a related In Focus video that features Wibbenmeyer.

How has the federal government made a concerted effort to reduce damages from storms in coastal communities?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) achieved record accuracy in 2024 for predicting the paths of Atlantic hurricanes. Even so, recent staff cuts may hinder the agency’s ability to monitor hurricanes and prevent NOAA from effectively and accurately communicating weather threats to the public moving forward. Improved forecasting may have saved $2 billion–$5 billion per hurricane in storm-related costs in recent decades; by comparison, the money that NOAA spent to improve the accuracy of the forecasts totaled just $250 million in a similar time period. The federal government also has reduced spending on disasters by changing development patterns in disaster-prone areas. The Coastal Barrier Resources Act, a bipartisan law passed in the 1980s, disincentivizes development in certain coastal areas by withholding federal flood insurance and disaster aid in those parcels of land. The law has yielded “savings in federal flood claims that amount to about $389 million per year,” says RFF Fellow Yanjun (Penny) Liao, who joined a recent episode of the Resources Radio podcast to discuss the aims and effects of the law.

How are extreme weather events straining home insurance markets?

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara recently rejected an emergency request from State Farm to increase premiums for homeowners insurance by 22 percent. State Farm, the largest provider of homeowners insurance in the California, cited the strain on company finances, after spending more than $1 billion in payouts for the wildfires in Los Angeles in January. The situation underscores the growing instability of insurance markets as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe. Insurers increasingly are forced to deliver massive payouts in short order, while homeowners living in disaster-prone areas struggle with increasing premiums. Carolyn Kousky, associate vice president for economics and policy at Environmental Defense Fund, joined Resources Radio this week to discuss strategies that can help stabilize the market, improve the affordability and accessibility of insurance, and build community resilience against disasters. “[Disasters] need to also be considered as an important opportunity to build differently … Insurers have a natural role there,” says Kousky.

Evergreen Time Machine

RFF research from our archives offers historical background and possible solutions for the challenges in today’s news.

Among areas of environmental research that will benefit from creation of [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] are those air-sea interactions that result in weather patterns across the world; the ecology of the ocean; and, through improved measurement and modeling of the world’s great natural systems of oceans, atmosphere, and ecology, a better understanding of the global impact of [human] activities on the environment to a degree not now possible.

Resources staff (1971)

Last week: Over 600 employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were fired. In 1971, Resources magazine published an article about the creation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the US Environmental Protection Agency; and the Council on Environmental Quality, which conducts environmental reviews of infrastructure projects and issues environmental regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency may see its budget slashed by more than 65 percent, and a recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump has limited the authority of the Council on Environmental Quality.

Expert Perspectives

Wildfire Risk Increases in the Southeastern United States

Wildfires continue to burn in North and South Carolina and Georgia, with the largest fires blazing near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and in Polk County in southwestern North Carolina. Georgia faces an increased risk of wildfire throughout March, according to public officials.

“Our research projects that wildfire will become an increasingly large problem in the Southeast in the coming decades,” says RFF Nonresident Senior Fellow David Wear. “The region is experiencing warmer temperatures and lower humidity due to climate change, and dry vegetation that accumulates in forested areas acts like tinder when windy conditions fan a spark. The population in certain areas of the Southeast also is expected to grow, so more people will be at risk. But local and state governments, and the federal government, can enact smart policies to reduce this risk, including the removal of flammable vegetation from forests and connecting vulnerable communities with resources that can help them plan for and respond to fires.”

Resources Roundup

Identifying Job Matches for Fossil Fuel Workers

What does a transition to a low-emissions energy economy mean for people who work in the coal, oil, and natural gas industries? In a new working paper, RFF Fellow Daniel Raimi and PhD candidate Jacob Greenspon discuss how fossil fuel workers can leverage existing skills to find new jobs in other sectors of the economy while maintaining a comparable salary or more. Raimi and Greenspon shared their research in a webinar that RFF hosted on March 5, which featured a panel discussion with workforce experts. Raimi and Greenspon also demonstrated a new interactive data tool that allows users to explore the jobs that may be a good match for those who have worked in the coal, oil, and natural gas industries. “We found a substantial number of good-match jobs in emerging energy technologies,” Raimi said. “We primarily found them in critical minerals mining, hydrogen production and utilization, carbon capture, and energy-related engineering and construction.”

How Are Liquefied Natural Gas Exports Affecting Domestic Energy Prices and Emissions?

In the past decade, the United States has become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This expansion of the domestic LNG industry has prompted discussions about effects on prices for domestic oil and gas, along with implications for global greenhouse gas emissions. At the end of last year, the US Department of Energy released a report about these effects. In a new issue brief, RFF researchers Brian C. Prest, Alan Krupnick, and Jordan Wingenroth analyze how the Department of Energy modeled economic, environmental, and social impacts of LNG exports and offer their own assessment of the effects. “[The agency] is likely underestimating the methane emissions and price increases that will be driven by increased US LNG exports,” say the researchers.

Changes in Electricity Price Regulation Can Support an Efficient Grid

An increase in demand for both electricity broadly and renewable energy in particular requires scaling up the capacity of the electric grid to transport power. Grid-enhancing technologies are an efficient and cost-effective option to improve this capacity, but current regulations for electricity pricing discourage the adoption of these technologies, instead favoring the construction of new transmission lines. In a new report, RFF Senior Fellow Timothy Brennan explores the benefits, challenges, and implications of an alternative regulatory approach known as price cap regulation that can incentivize cost reductions in the expansion of electricity transmission and promote the use of more efficient technologies.

#ChartOfTheWeek

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are two landmark policies that were enacted during the Biden administration. Both laws appropriate billions of dollars in federal funding for climate, clean energy, and infrastructure projects across the United States. Have you ever wondered what projects these laws have funded in or near your own community? In this interactive map, you can explore local federal investments by entering a ZIP code; city, county, or town; or geographic coordinates. The map offers details about the amount of funding allocated, the federal agency administering the funding, and the type of project. However, the Trump administration has paused funding for many of these projects, and the future is uncertain for the projects that have not yet received the funding they’ve been allocated.

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