Welcome to Material Way

2/5/2025   Between gigs, deciding what to work on next.

Interesting times. Hard to judge what merits attention, much less the best actions to take - but then another notice regarding substantive events passes by to remind me that there are real crisis that we should work on.  Jan 2025 set another temperature record, surpassing the previous high for Januarys set in 2024. There does seem to be a pattern! If the Earth were a manufacturing line (meant solely to produce a habitat for humanity?) - the process engineer in charge of the line would be hitting the big red button for an emergency stop for fear that the system is out of control and probably in jeopardy of permanently damaging itself.

The fact that TX, as the leading energy producer and largest US green house gas producer, has relatively shallow and narrow energy policy narratives dominating policy debate is painful. The fact that preserving biosphere stability doesn't enjoy even line item attention from state leadership continually draws my attention. I find myself contemplating what I can or should do to address this challenge. I did a volunteer stint on the Electric Utility Commission of the City of Austin a few years back, and enjoyed a policy success at the municipal level through the City of Austin. REACH may well now represent the largest and most cost effective emission reduction program in the state*, and mechanistically it could be easily replicated at the state level and generates only benefits for the state (primary pollutants reduction, GHG reduction, likely more cost effective grid stabilization, and is so low in cost that few notice it), no new construction required.

That said, problems are still interesting. If you encounter an issue that I might help address, please feel free to send an Email. I will try to aid as I can - be it policy, energy, climate, process engineering, metrology, or project and account management spaces:    info@materialway.com

Sincerely,

           Matt Weldon

ps:  For someone who crosses this site by happenstance, Material Way = Matt Weldon. What social media I maintain can be found at LinkedIn.
* I don't know that it is - but would like to know what policy or project in TX holds that title so that we might all do more of it too.

What else am I doing these days? Note the pictures below.

Some related Austin Energy update links:  nice 2024 Generation Planning video from Austin Energy that devotes a few minutes to REACH program review , Nov. 2021 REACH Update, a disappointing FPP announcement - where AE leans on REACH (too much?), 2020 REACH Update

Trying to convince political leadership to acknowledge the issue, to take mitigating action, and embrace the idea that competitive markets not only make sense but can be good for us, is more challenging than it should be. We certainly seem more interested in protecting the corporate status quo than actually enabling competitive capitalism, solving problems, improving everyone's situation, but I find volunteering time to the task to be a rewarding if still Sisyphean pursuit. 

The US still has great opportunity for economic growth and world policy leadership on this issue - the net good of action looks large. Inaction simply looks silly - embracing all risk with no upside potential, while forfeiting many real benefits such as better near term pricing value for American fossil fuel products (the US enjoys high energy/carbon ratio natural resources - but we get no environmental bonus for these better raw fuels in the current market design). Pricing emissions at $0 perfectly socializes all risks and damages. Inaction is the path to maximize risk and damages - and unfortunately the one we are currently on. Taking action can address a number of physical, market, and social issues at the same time. Some links for consideration:

February 2016 - and Science Olympiad which still occupies hearts and mind

An Unusual Dairy Farm

It's a story...

UT Austin Pickle Research Campus

A Bluebonnets photo I took at the campus' east entrance

Puppies!

An oldie but goody from 2012. We lost Aspen Nov. 2021

JJ Pickle Research Campus entrance off of Burnet Road, north Austin, TX. Photo taken by Matthew Weldon March 2017

Mix Lake near Platoro, Colorado

May 2017