Mexico abolished slavery in 1829. The people in what would later be called Texas would fight the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 and later, in 1845 join the United States to keep slavery alive.

Just 15 years later, in 1861 Texas would join the Confederacy in yet another bid to maintain slavery.  This would only last until the end of the Civil War in 1864 when slavery was abolished in the United States.  In the years before and during the US Civil War, many slaves escaped to freedom in Mexico.  A good article from National Endowment of the Humanities.

South to Freedom

So the “Free Market” grid run by the likes of ERCOT in Texas turns out to be free only when oil and gas have no competition.  Suddenly, as clean cheap solar, wind and battery are all but shutting down legacy thermal technologies, massive amounts of tax dollars (plus the dollars from consumers forced to buy more expensive electricity) come rolling out.  Why not just spend the money on the clean, cheap solutions of the future?

It’s as if a hundred years ago the government would fund horse and buggies because they were worried about the rapid adoption of automobiles.  Abolish ERCOT and hook us up to the rest of the US grid already.

Texas to double $5 billion state fund aimed at expanding the power grid

Saw a few reports on the news of unusually bad air quality in Austin. Found this map with live air quality reporting.  We seem to be getting more winds form the south, bringing some pollution from the Houston area.  Of course, with recent Supreme Court decisions it isn’t clear that there is any regulation at all for air quality in the US.  This map should be even more useful in the future, unfortunately.