Home buyers factor climate risks

More than 4 in 5 U.S. home buyers are factoring in climate risks when they shop for a new house, according to a new survey by real estate firm Zillow.

Some 83% of respondents said they weighed at least one climate risk such as floods, extreme temperatures, wildfires, hurricanes or droughts in their purchase plans, according to Zillow’s poll of almost 12,000 prospective buyers conducted between April and July 2023.

The perceived climate risks generally aren’t proving to be dealbreakers but they are affecting attitudes, according to the study.

Younger buyers, in particular, “want to know if their home will be safe from rising waters, extreme temperatures and wildfires,” said Zillow senior population scientist Manny Garcia.

While the concern over climate risks is nationwide, it’s strongest among home buyers in the West, according to Zillow.

Even so, most home buyers across the country aren’t weighing a move to a region they consider less risky, and roughly one-quarter of them said they are considering moving to areas with more risks, the study said.

United grounds planes Tuesday

United Airlines suffered a temporary grounding of its aircraft nationwide due to an unspecified equipment outage, but the airline resumed flights at U.S. airports after less than half an hour.

The Chicago-based carrier requested the grounding for its main operation and subsidiaries on Tuesday after its aircraft were unable to contact flight dispatchers using normal means, according to a posting on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.

The FAA confirmed in an email to Bloomberg the airline had asked it to pause departures nationwide, but declined further comment.

Spokespeople for United didn’t provide an explanation for the outage other than saying in a tweet it had experienced “a systemwide technology issue.”

It later announced that the ground hold had been lifted.

United shares pared a drop of as much as 4.7% to trade down 3.2% to $48.15 as of 2:11 p.m. in New York.

The problem occurred eight months after an FAA system outage forced a nationwide grounding of aircraft, triggering renewed scrutiny from members of Congress and aviation industry leaders over the resiliency of systems running the nation’s flight operations.

The FAA shutdown in January delayed more than 10,000 trips.

United suffered a company-wide technology outage in January 2022 that led to delays on some flights.

United has two flights in and out of Spokane International Airport a day.

Only one of those flights was listed as delayed, but it was unclear whether the grounding caused the pause.

Chevron targets Latin America

Chevron is planning to source feedstocks including animal fat from Latin America to feed its U.S. renewable diesel plans, according to the oil giant’s renewable energy head.

“The industry in Latin America is not really developed yet, but I can see that happening,” Kevin Lucke, president of Chevron Renewable Energy Group, said Tuesday in an interview at a conference in Sao Paulo.

He cited changes in the U.S. – where biofuel growth caused the nascent used-cooking oil industry to develop – as an example of what he expects in Latin America.

Chevron already imports some biofuel feedstocks from the region, but Lucke said he sees the opportunity to import more materials such as used cooking oil, animal fat and distillers corn oil, which is derived from production of corn-based ethanol.

Chevron would be less likely to source soybeans from Brazil, though, he added.

From staff and wire reports