The nationwide supply of EVs in stock has swelled nearly 350% this year, to more than 92,000 units.

That's a 92-day supply — roughly three months' worth of EVs, and nearly twice the industry average. For comparison, dealers have a relatively low 54 days' worth of gasoline-powered vehicles in inventory as they rebound from pandemic-related supply chain interruptions. In normal times, there's usually a 70-day supply. Notably, Cox's inventory data doesn't include Tesla, which sells direct to consumers.

Some brands are seeing higher EV inventories than others.

Genesis, the Korean luxury brand, sold only 18 of its nearly $82,000 Electrified G80 sedans in the 30 days leading up to June 29, and had 210 in stock nationwide — a 350-day supply, per Cox research. Other luxury models, like Audi's Q4 e-tron and Q8 e-tron and the GMC Hummer EV SUV, also have bloated inventories well above 100 days. All come with hefty price tags that make them ineligible for federal tax credits. Imported models like the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Nissan Ariya are also stacking up — likely because they're not eligible for tax credits either. Tesla's price-cutting strategy could be taking a toll, too: The once-hot Ford Mustang Mach-E now has a 117-day supply. Ford says that's the result of ramped-up production in anticipation of stronger third-quarter sales.

Environment Texas tested 61 beaches across the state. Of those, 55 tested positive for fecal contamination at least one day, meaning they exceeded the safety threshold set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Eight beaches exceeded the EPA’s threshold more than 25% of testing days.

Those beaches include Cole Park in Corpus Christi, which tested positive for fecal contamination on 54% of days, Ropes Park in Corpus Christi (41%), and Texas City Dike in Galveston Bay (28%), according to the report.

Sylvan Beach Park in La Porte tested positive for fecal contamination 21% of days, and Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard at 25th Street tested positive 26% of days.

Nationwide, 55% of beaches exceeded the EPA’s safety threshold at least once last year, according to the report. Roughly 84% of Gulf coast beaches tested positive at least once.

Swimmers should check TexasBeachWatch.com for water quality reports, avoid swimming with open wounds and near storm drain outfalls.

For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South — Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee — are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting.

A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data.

In Waco, four years of construction just finished on part of the interstate. The Waco Herald-Tribune reported in mid-June that the final phase of construction on Interstate 35 in Waco could start as soon as 2024.

"We thought there would be this big break in between. And, you know, I think we're all just like, 'Rip the band-aid off and let's get it done,'" Baylor University assistant vice president of media and public relations Lori Fogleman said. "I think we all know our alternate routes. We know what the construction does with that, and what happens when you improve infrastructure through the city. I think we are all ready for that one last area to be done."

But as we look further south to Austin, where a $4.5 billion dollar project is slated to begin in 2024, not everyone thinks adding more lanes is the most efficient way to go.

"A boulevard with bus lanes, bike lanes, and some car lanes would actually move a lot more people," said Adam Greenfield, board president of the group Rethink 35, which advocates for a different use of the land. "Highways are actually very poor. Movers of large numbers of people because cars are very space inefficient. They lock up in congestion. That's a basic-level bug that they have."

Desalination is an idea that keeps reappearing in the Golden State, where overdrawn groundwater and shrinking reservoirs are critical problems. On a superficial level, it seems simple: take the salt out of the abundant salt water just offshore. But typical desalination facilities are big, expensive to operate, and environmentally unfriendly, especially when the resource-intensive process is powered by fossil fuels. The Carlsbad desalination plant in Southern California, for example, sits on 2.4 hectares of land and uses 246,156 megawatt hours of electricity per year—equivalent to the usage of roughly 23,000 homes.

Oneka’s experimental water desalination device isn’t like California’s other desalination plants: it’s a 6.5-meter-wide buoy. The small footprint is a bonus, but the device’s main advantage is that it’s ocean powered. As the buoy moves back and forth with the waves, it draws water through a filter and then through a reverse osmosis membrane, which removes the salts and other tiny particles. “Surprisingly simple,” says Smith.

Some excerpts:

Sales tax emphasis is the wrong strategy for the future. By 2028, every baby boomer will be over 65. Statistically speaking, this means that every boomer will have cut their spending by 40% on average. This is the generation most devoted to brick and mortar retail transactions. Keep in mind that millennials prefer to shop online and members of Generation Z are more than twice as likely as millennials to do so.

I could list countless lost opportunity costs of cities that instead choose to have large boxes remain empty or parcels undeveloped. The most common reason: the uses selected are the ones the market wants (storage, multifamily, or industrial), but are not boujie enough for decision-makers. Take the bird in the hand — pretty soon there are not going to be new birds.

City leaders need to understand other uses pay off better in the long term. Retail is inexpensive to build — among the least expensive. Often, we see small retail buildings cost $3 million or less. You can expect lower and lower ad valorem taxes as well as the decline in sales tax.

Multifamily, however, is expensive to build. Typically, the taxable value is $250,000 to $350,000 per unit, or more. The value of these buildings holds up much stronger than retail buildings, despite how much people hate on multifamily.

By nearly every measure, buying a car has become extremely expensive.

Not only are new vehicle prices near an all-time high, but the interest rate to finance a purchase has also jumped dramatically. Now, fewer affordable new cars even hit the market, according to recent reports.

Today, new cars priced under $30,000 make up just 8% of the market’s supply, down from 38% pre-pandemic, car shopping app CoPilot found.

“It’s the least affordable car market in modern history,” said CoPilot’s CEO Pat Ryan.

Car shoppers like luxury

Well before the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer tastes had started to steadily shift away from sedans toward more expensive SUVs and trucks. Then, car buyers piled on options, such as high-tech touch screens, ambient lighting, 360-degree cameras and heated and cooled seats.

“There’s a war of features,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights.

In response to increased demand, dealers began stocking more cars with all the bells and whistles, he said, and carmakers upgraded their lineups with high-end packages, or trim levels, and scaled back on less-expensive cars.

“It only makes sense to continue to ratchet up the price to offer more features and increase the size of the vehicle with each redesign,” Drury said.

Car prices near a record high

For new cars, the average transaction price was $47,892 in May, near an all-time high, according to Edmunds. Now, 10% of all vehicles sold cost more than $70,000, up from 3% five years ago.

On the flipside, there are fewer options available at lower price points. Just 0.3% of new vehicles sold cost less than $20,000, compared with 8% five years ago, Edmunds found.

That’s leaving more car shoppers priced out of the new car market, Ryan said.

How to get the best used car for the money

Instead of getting a new car, buyers on a budget are purchasing older cars with more mileage, which means their cost of ownership is going to go up, Ryan said.

“Those that have the least ability to pay are getting the car that’s going to cost the most to own.”