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Every morning, before looking at anything else, I read Heather Cox Richardson, a nonpartisan political historian who puts current affairs in historical perspective.
Today was a special treat. Economist Paul Krugman published an article about the growth of renewable energy and what the transition from fossil fuels means. Richardson linked to it but also gives us a relevant contemporary parallel: The Erie Canal.
The impact of renewable energy, downplayed by the MAGA crowd, is growing every day, even with the cut of federal subsidies and the denial by some that climate change is real.
The perspective Richardson offers today is to compare the economic impact of the Erie Canal, and the societal change it represented to what’s going on with increased reliance on solar and wind power.
She even notes that, when everyone thought the canal was a good idea, and funding passed the House and Senate, President James Madison vetoed it.
Trade with Canada was controversial in those days as well. That was part of the reason the canal connected to Lake Erie, not Lake Ontario.
Lake Ontario would have facilitated more trade with Montreal, made Rochester a bigger boomtown as the terminus and kept the other four lakes disconnected because of the need to get around where the Niagara River plunges over the escarpment.
Gov. DeWitt Clinton funded the construction in Albany. The canal remains a state facility 200 years later. You can read her musings here.
