Steve Koller

AEA Statement on Dismissal of BLS Comm.

"The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions."

For six months, I've said that threats to economic data have been more collateral damage than intentional harm.

No longer.

Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system.

LA mayor bans duplexes in Palisades burn zone after getting permission from governor Following uproar from homeowners and local elected leaders, a state law allowing denser housing in single-family areas will no longer apply to the Pacific Palisades.

LA mayor bans duplexes in Palisades burn zone after getting permission from governor | LAist share.google/RHe330MsOLiu...

Outstanding podcast.

Great post zeroing in on the affordability challenges homeowners face when it comes to repairing, maintaining, and improving their properties.

Affordable and effective retrofits will be a key lever for meeting resilience and emissions reduction goals, particularly for low-income property owners.

The U.S. invented these technologies. Then China dominated them. China dominates the global market for clean energy technology like electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels, which were all invented in the U.S.

China calls them the "New Three" -- solar panels, EVs, and batteries -- a set of technologies the country dominates.

But once, the US had a headstart.

New from me and @naemas.bsky.social on how the US lost its lead in clean energy -- and how China took over.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

"flood extent is predicted to vary by a factor of six" (!!!) depending on groundwater conditions in Miami rainfall flood testing

Bet things are going to get super weird when sea level rise means groundwater is high all the time then...

Honestly, this 8.8-mag quake and tsunami seems a fabulous demonstration of the capabilities that the US, Japan, and others have marshalled to protect their citizens.

This doesn't just exist. It has to be built and maintained.

Helpful for intuition. Here's a decent set of slides highlighting some key differences between tsunami waves and storm surge waves. Evacuation considerations for tsunami are very different from tropical storm since the underlying physical drivers are different.

education.wm.edu/centers/oshe...

Survey of 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami inundation and run‐up High-density and high quality post tsunami survey data was obtained 40.4 m run-up height was measured Long distance inundation distance is presented

Whew, didn't know the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 had a "run-up" height of 40 meters (130+ feet).

Hoping folks on the west coast are taking NOAA's communications seriously and listening to local emergency managers.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

“In Florida and Louisiana, 15 property and casualty insurers collapsed from 2021 through 2023, felled by hurricanes and high costs related to lawsuits filed by homeowners over claims. All but one had been rated A by Demotech within a year of its insolvency.”

Who is rating the rating companies? 🤔

And here's @costasamaras.com with his own strong submission to the Podcast Oscars in the category "Best Post-OBBB Podcast on What's Next for Climate and Clean Energy Transition" www.latitudemedia.com/news/open-ci...

The Future of Buildings: Heatmap in Boston · Luma Join Heatmap in Boston on August 7! America needs more housing — but it also needs to decarbonize housing. Join Heatmap News and leaders from across government…

Heatmap is coming to Boston! If you're in the area, we are hosting an event on decarbonizing buildings. We'll be joined by Senator Ed Markey and many others. More info here: lu.ma/uyxi23jn

To Build Affordable Housing, One State Could Loosen Flood Protections

This case in NJ highlights some fundamental tensions between affordability and climate-resilient development. Two priorities for tackling this challenge are 1. steering housing supply growth into lower-risk areas, and 2. bringing down costs for resilient construction.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/n...

The Potential and Perils of Financializing Climate Risk Governance: Insights for Urban Policymakers | Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy In this roundtable discussion, Savannah Cox speaks with three experts about the financialization of climate risk governance: Kelly Hereid, a climate scientist at Liberty Mutual, Madison Condon, an ass...

Many thanks to @savannahcox.bsky.social for bringing @kellyhereid.bsky.social, Emma Colven, and me together to talk about financialized climate risk governance for this new (full of hits!) special issue of City Climate Policy & Economy:

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change

If EPA implemented a rule like the one reported here, it would directly contradict the reams of peer-reviewed scientific evidence supporting EPA's endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act and Massachusetts vs. EPA (2007).

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

Home insurance costs so much that people can’t pay their mortgages. This threat could make things worse. A sharp rise in homeowners-insurance premiums is connected to rising levels of financial distress, especially among first-time buyers.

Rising home insurance costs are pushing some homeowners to a breaking point. Higher premiums driven in part by climate-related disasters are putting particular pressure on homeowners who are already cost-burdened, and especially those with lower incomes.

www.marketwatch.com/story/home-i...

Led by BYD, China Is Flooding the World With EVs, Driving Down Prices Globally The surge in Chinese car exports is reshaping auto markets around the world, triggering a price war that’s rippling across Mexico to Malaysia.

The surge in Chinese car exports is reshaping auto markets around the world, triggering a price war that’s rippling across Mexico to Malaysia ⤵️

Why the Subway Still Floods in New York After Billions in Renovations

“'The system is not a hermetically sealed submarine,' Mr. Lieber said."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/n...

Check out our new paper in Earth’s Future!

We mapped 78 flood events in eastern NC from 1996-2020 and found flooding (& repeat flooding) is more common than we previously thought.

Paper: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Data (NC-FLDEX): dataverse.unc.edu/dataset.xhtm...

2 dead in New Jersey after floodwaters carry away vehicle during heavy rains that hit Northeast Authorities say two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in floodwaters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight.

Authorities say two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in floodwaters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight.

Time to rewatch “Your Inner Fish” on @pbs.org!

The BLS's issues with CPI data collection appear to be getting worse. The share of uncollected items subject to "different cell" imputation (meaning they're based on different items or items from different geographies) hit another record last month. (Data goes back to 2019.) #EconSky #NumbersDay

Opinion | We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse. The Trump administration is fighting the last war while China marches toward dominating the industries of the future.

“Policymakers are spending far too much time looking backward,” write the economists David Autor and Gordon Hanson. “They should be spending much more time examining what’s emerging as a new China Shock. Spoiler alert: This one could be far worse.”

Mitigation behaviors of homeowners and renters in the wildland urban interface Residential development within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has greatly expanded in the United States since the 1990s, amplifying wildfire risk …

New @floodlab.bsky.social paper on wildfire risk mitigation - Mitigation behaviors of homeowners and renters in the wildland urban interface

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Looks like DHS's Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data open access platform is scheduled to be discontinued on September 30.

400+ public data sets on US critical infrastructure, free to download here for another few months.

hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com

TODAY at 1pm ET

Where I'll be talking about how you can get pretty fancy with wildfire risk analysis with some not-that-fancy climate science.

A Year for the Record Books: The State of the Nation’s Housing in Perspective It has been a record year for housing. Our latest State of the Nation’s Housing report highlights an eye-popping list of milestones that were set in

✅ The highest monthly mortgage payment on record
✅ The highest median existing home price
✅ A record number of renters with cost burdens
✅ A record number of billion-dollar weather-related disasters in a 2 year span

2024 was a year full of housing records.

www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/year-re...

losses in the future, keeping better data will be an important step.

Also PSA, it only takes 6" of rushing water to knock down an adult and 12" to destabilize a sedan. "Turn around don't drown" should become as commonly-known as "stop drop & roll." (5/5)

www.weather.gov/safety/flood...

applications reporting vehicle flood damage. In reviewing academic literature and talking with NOAA staff and insurers, it's clear the US lacks thorough public statistics on vehicle-related flood fatalities and flood damages.

We can't improve what we don't measure, so to avoid these tragic..(4/5)