Axios

California is never immune to big fires, but a look at the past 13 months reveals a horrifying path of destruction that deserves equal screen time to the latest political intrigues.

Driving the news: Parts of the state are blanketed in smoke, with temperatures dropping as a result and residents scrambling to get specialized masks to help filter the air. The state's air quality is currently the worst in the nation as a result of the fires, Bloomberg reports.

During the Medal of Freedom ceremony Friday, President Trump said he was nominating acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, to head the agency permanently.

What's next: Wheeler, who is a former coal lobbyist and has said he is skeptical that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, has been temporarily filling in as EPA chief since July following Scott Pruitt's departure. Wheeler will need to be confirmed by the Senate before before becoming the new head of the agency.

California's Camp Fire has now claimed 63 lives and destroyed at least 9,844 homes, 336 commercial and 2,076 other buildings. A staggering 631 people are now listed as missing, a up from previous figures of around 200.

Why it matters: The Camp Fire is California's most destructive and deadliest wildfire on record, surpassing records set just 13 months ago. The fire is causing dangerously poor air quality to blanket the San Francisco Bay Area, threatening to aggravate chronic health conditions including asthma, heart and lung disease. Schools are closed due to the poor air quality, and many people have had to wear masks to block particulate matter from getting into their lungs.

Between early August and early October, crude oil prices shot up by approximately $20 per barrel in anticipation of the Trump administration's Nov. 5 re-imposition of oil export sanctions on Iran. But in the first week of October, amid speculation of a $100-per-barrel market, crude prices suddenly reversed course.

Between the lines: The reversal illuminates the influence of geopolitics on the crude market, including the shifting role of Saudi Arabia as a major balancing force. Saudi Arabia ultimately bowed to U.S. pressure, but its hesitation speaks to an erosion of the U.S.–OPEC relationship as Russia’s influence has grown.

Falling oil prices are bad news for the oil industry — but they're great news for corporations that could use the relief from other expenses.

Why it matters: With a tight labor market that's forcing companies to pay more to attract workers, plus the costs of tariffs from President Trump's trade war, oil is one less expense that will cut into companies' profits. "The oil price decline offsets other cost pressures that businesses have," Conrad DeQuadros, an economist at RDQ Economics, told Axios.

The fires that wiped out the town of Paradise, California, and burned all the way to the Pacific Ocean in Malibu are the latest in a 13-month string of the deadliest and most destructive blazes the state has ever seen.

The big picture: These fires have parameters in common — unusually warm and dry preceding conditions, strong winds that caused the fires to spread rapidly, extreme fire behavior and populated areas that are difficult to evacuate on short notice.

For Californians — many of them inured to routine annual fires, mudslides and earthquakes — a key question is not whether to rebuild when catastrophe strikes yet again. It's whether they can afford it.

Driving the news: For many fire victims, insurance — or the government — makes it so they can rebuild on the same lot. But in some of California's most recent spate of fires, that hasn't been enough. And a lot of experts see signs that more homeowners could find it hard to rebuild as insurers reassess the risk of a new future of fire.

Health effects from the California wildfires — mainly from stress, inhalation of small particulates and the disturbance of people's health care needs — may reverberate for some time after the fires are finally smothered out.

Why it matters: Once people are situated in an area away from the fire, people need to take steps to ensure they are not breathing the smoke and that they are handling the stress in a healthy manner. As health officials declare a public health emergency in California, they also warn people in areas near the wildfires to limit their time outdoors.

President Trump plans to travel to California on Saturday to meet with individuals who have been impacted by the wildfires that have ravaged the state, according to spokesperson Lindsay Walters.

The big picture: The Camp Fire, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, is the deadliest fire in California history. So far it's taken at least 56 lives, and that number could still climb. As of Wednesday, 130 people are still missing and around 130,000 acres of land have been scorched, CBS reports. President Trump blamed the fires last week on "gross mismanagement of the forests" in California.

Go deeper:

• How this year's wildfire season compares to past years
• Why it's so hard to issue a fire warning

Deadly wildfires continue to rage in California, destroying homes and engulfing the state in smoke. President Trump last weekend blamed “gross mismanagement of the forests” for the disasters, suggesting there’s a simple solution.

Reality check: Neither the causes of wildfires nor the strategies for mitigating them are straightforward, and forestry practices are only partially responsible. Climate change also plays a role, as do community building practices, insect infestations that increase tree mortality and even random chance.

At least 8.5 million acres have been torched by wildfires so far this year across the United States, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center — about 2.1 million acres above the 10-year average of 6.3 million acres burned by this point in the year. California has been particularly hard hit.

The big picture: California's Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in the state's history, has burned more than 140,000 acres so far and claimed at least 56 lives. It was only 40% contained as of Thursday morning. It's already historic in both its size and destructiveness, having burned over 8,500 homes.

Oil-and-gas giant Royal Dutch Shell and two partners rolled out a new business unit Thursday that provides a suite of energy services to buildings, such as heating and cooling, efficient lighting, controls, and electric vehicle charging.

Why it matters: It's the latest wrinkle in the growing movement of some of the largest multinational oil companies — especially European-headquartered players — into the electricity space, although it remains a small part of their overall portfolios.

Commercial and residential buildings account for 39% of carbon emissions in the U.S., making them a critical site for reducing the country’s energy consumption and tackling climate change. One way to reduce their carbon footprint is the subscription model, also known as “as-a-service,” whereby a central entity owns and upgrades equipment for customers.

How it works: Subscription companies purchase, install and maintain energy-efficient technologies such as HVAC and LED lighting in a customer’s building. The customer saves money on the expense of purchasing and maintaining the equipment over the long term and, because the equipment is energy efficient, on their utility bill.

In the U.S., there are warnings for tornadoes, floods and hurricanes — but the nearly 30,000 residents of Paradise, California got no official warning through the National Weather Service that an explosively growing wildfire was headed for their community on Nov. 8.

Why it matters: This was the deadliest wildfire in California history, and with more than 130 still missing, the toll is expected to rise. That so many people could perish in a single disaster due in part to the lack of warning means something is clearly wrong with how we're handling fire emergencies.

Authorities said the death toll in California's Camp Fire, the most destructive wildfire in the state's history, rose to 56 on Wednesday. 130 people are missing.

Our thought bubble: The fire has destroyed much of the town of Paradise, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, and the death toll is likely to rise further. Already an all-time state record, it raises questions about how to warn people of a new type of fast-moving, rapidly spreading wildfire of the sort California and other areas are seeing more of as climate change, land use, and population growth combine to raise risk.