Haas-Kaiser Aff

Adv 1) FOSSIL CAPITALISM

Energy production under fossil capitalism creates redundant populations. For example, coal mining communities become ignored after their profitability is depleted,

Fox 5 Julia Fox [University of Oregon]“Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia: An Environmental Sacrifice Zone” Leslie King, Deborah McCarthy, 2005. Environmental Sociology: From Analysis to Action http://books.google.com/books?id=ol2b0nmgGwEC&dq

Historically, West Virginia is a state that has been controlled by coal interests.
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this apparent increase in efficiency lie human and ecological costs that are incalculable.

Coal politics creates cycles of poverty – turning both the environment and humans into sacrifice zones

Hedges 12    Chris, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and war correspondent specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies. 7-20, http://billmoyers.com/segment/chris-hedges-on-capitalism%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98sacrifice-zones%E2%80%99/

There are forgotten corners of this country where Americans are trapped in endless cycles of
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the part of people who seek personal enrichment to destroy other human beings…

Centralized energy is what makes large-scale factories possible  - creating a critical nexus point for the commodification of work

Hildyard et al 12 Nicholas, The Corner House, Larry Lohmann and Sarah Sexton.12 Energy Security For Whom? For What? February 2012

Uppercase Energy is an “abstraction which became true in practice.”27 In addition
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, place or context helped mould the belief in infinite economic growth.37

Centralization repeats the authoritarian and capitalist energy past

Ruggero 9  E. Colin,  The New School for Social Research in New York,
Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, University of Delaware, Radical Green Populism: Climate Change, Social Change and the Power of Everyday Practices, 11-11, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/e-colin-ruggero-radical-green-populism-climate-change-social-change-and-the-power-of-everyday-p

To provide the variety of goods and services that sustain them, modern societies have
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more immune to the humbling enormity of the issue than is popular discourse. 

Corporate rule creates a doomsday economy sacrificing public self-governance in the name of corporate profit – the impact is the end of the planet’s life support systems

REINSBOROUGH 3, Grassroots Organizer and Popular Educator,
(Patrick, worked on a range of issues including forest protection, police brutality, peace in Northern Ireland, indigenous rights, organizing director of the Rainforest Action Network, JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & PROTEST, Aug, vol 1, # 2, http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/1/de_colonizing/index.html)

Cancer Kills the host. Cancer’s suicidal destiny is a product of its initial perversion
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that slowly starves the many while normalizing over-consumption for the few.

The 1AC represents a new way of framing energy discussions that exposes how energy exclusions under security regimes hide inequality and perpetuate conflicts

Hildyard et al 12 Nicholas, The Corner House, Larry Lohmann and Sarah Sexton.12 Energy Security For Whom? For What? February 2012

Both the word “energy” and the word “security” have in fact
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about, and organisation for, a democratic, fossil-free future.

Only by STARTING from the perspective of the survival of the commons will we create truly pragmatic politics. Public debate must seize the understanding of “Energy Security” away from corporate interests.

Hildyard et al 12 Nicholas, The Corner House, Larry Lohmann and Sarah Sexton.12 Energy Security For Whom? For What? February 2012

In the bewildering, sometimes frightening, talk about “energy security” that bombards
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“energy security” and the most pragmatic starting point for practical action.

ADV 2) Energy Ontology
The centralized grid has shaped our understanding of energy- the public is conceived of as a passive consumer. This conception of detachment fuels the centralized system- policymakers continue to pass out of sight and out of mind legislation and developers build new centralized power plants far from city centers. This cycle of centralized energy creates a self-fulfilling prophecy because the system prevents any public engagement about energy systems. 

Devine- Wright 7 Patrick chartered environmental psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society, committed to working in interdisciplinary contexts on research with significance for policy makers and practitioners. I joined the University of Manchester in 2006, having previously held posts as Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University. I have a degree in Psychology from Trinity College, Dublin; an MSc in Environmental Psychology (Surrey) and a PhD in Social Psychology (Surrey). Governing Technology for Sustainability Chapter 4 Energy Citizenship: Psychological Aspects of Evolution in Sustainable Energy Technologies http://oro.open.ac.uk/4026/1/#page=80

The four different ways of representing energy identified by Stern and Aronson (1984)
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); prioritize policies to maintain low energy prices, consumer choice and reliable supply

Our relationship with energy is mediated by the technologies we use- our interactions with energy are limited to plugging a cord into an outlet or turning on a light switch. Energy to us is invisible and intangible and something we do not consciously experience.

Pierce and Paulos 10 James Pierce, researcher and designer focused primarily on the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Design. I am currently a PhD student at the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University working with Eric Paulos in the Living Environments Lab. Previously I was at Indiana University where I earned a master's in Human-Computer Interaction Design. Eric Paulos, Assistant Professor University of California, Berkeley Berkeley Center for New Media Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. “Materializing Energy” Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf

A common observation among designers and researchers  interested in sustainability and energy is that energy
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energy-asmateriality involving collecting, keeping, sharing, and activating energy.

The disinterested approach to technology is represented in our unending reach to control and abuse the natural world for our desires, ontologically compromising our very being. 

Sabatino 7
Charles J., Daemen College. “A Heideggerian Reflection on the Prospects of Technology” reprinted in Janus Head 10.1. p. 63-76. PDF

It is important to keep this perspective in mind as we turn our atten-
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how we viewed it as strictly the result of our own power of achievement

The plan creates focal engagement with the environment and energy – we need to aim for engagement that focuses on the material relations we have to the energy devices and the source of energy itself.

Pierce and Paulos 10 James Pierce, researcher and designer focused primarily on the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Design. I am currently a PhD student at the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University working with Eric Paulos in the Living Environments Lab. Previously I was at Indiana University where I earned a master's in Human-Computer Interaction Design. Eric Paulos, Assistant Professor University of California, Berkeley Berkeley Center for New Media Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. “Materializing Energy” Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf

While Borgmann concludes, in line with Heidegger, that only “pretechnological things”
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might we navigate between the two extremes of both strategies of energy engagement?

Our aff is an interrogation into how we use and relate to energy by challenging traditional notions of energy design. Our goal is not to provide a technical panacea, but rather undergo a conceptual exploration and material actualization of alternative energy designs.

Pierce and Paulos 10 James Pierce, researcher and designer focused primarily on the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Design. I am currently a PhD student at the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University working with Eric Paulos in the Living Environments Lab. Previously I was at Indiana University where I earned a master's in Human-Computer Interaction Design. Eric Paulos, Assistant Professor University of California, Berkeley Berkeley Center for New Media Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. “Materializing Energy” Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf

Our approach is grounded in a belief that sustainable interaction design can benefit from and
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radically sustainable ways of being to materialize as our normal ways of being.  

Our aff is an attempt to respect different meanings of existence that exceed biological survival. You can choose to resign yourself to end of the times or you can choose to fight for a way of existence – which is critical to providing meaning to our lives. This enunciation of sustainability that creates new forms of existence and re-seizes the logic of sustainability away from neo-liberal theory and pre-figured notions of the environment and society

Powell 6, M.A. in Anthropology @ UNC-Chapel Hill ¶ (Dana E., “Technologies of Existence: The indigenous environmental justice movement”, Development (2006) 49(3), pp. 125–132,http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v49/n3/pdf/1100287a.pdf)

In this sense, wind and solar projects on reservations are not technologies of existence
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a call for ‘environmental justice,’ implemented through specific material technologies.

Plan: The United States federal government should exempt customer-generators of solar power from interconnection tariffs, institute federal interconnection standards, and give cash grants for new community and residential solar projects.  

Solvency

These restrictions disincentivize local generation of energy

Baker-Branstetter 11 (Shannon, “ARTICLE: DISTRIBUTED RENEWABLE GENERATION: THE TRIFECTA OF ENERGY SOLUTIONS TO CURB CARBON EMISSIONS, REDUCE POLLUTANTS, AND EMPOWER RATEPAYERS”. Villanova Environmental Law Journal. Shannon Baker-Branstetter serves as policy counsel for Consumers Union and is a member of the California Bar. She earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University, Master's in Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.) Lexis

C. Actions for Congress¶ Congress 4should institute minimum federal standards for net metering
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the maximum value for excess generation that does not burden other customer classes.

Interconnection tariffs are a key barrier to DG

Baker-Branstetter 11 (Shannon, “ARTICLE: DISTRIBUTED RENEWABLE GENERATION: THE TRIFECTA OF ENERGY SOLUTIONS TO CURB CARBON EMISSIONS, REDUCE POLLUTANTS, AND EMPOWER RATEPAYERS”. Villanova Environmental Law Journal. Shannon Baker-Branstetter serves as policy counsel for Consumers Union and is a member of the California Bar. She earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University, Master's in Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.) Lexis

One reason some states do not provide cash payment for net excess generation may be
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imposed on independent generators to remove any legal gray area for net billing.

Cash grants for residential solar solves new projects and prevents banks from upping the price of energy

Farrell 11 (John, “Democratizing the Electricity System: A Vision for the 21st Century Grid” The New Rules Project, June 2011)

In addition to limiting participation in renewable energy development, the federal tax incentives also
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million of dollars in overpayments of federal tax credits to bankers.[10]

Distributed generation fights economic colonialism, returning political power and economic benefits to local communities

Farrell 11 (John, “Democratizing the Electricity System: A Vision for the 21st Century Grid” The New Rules Project, June 2011)

The cornerstone of the distributed generation revolution is its potential democratizing influence on the electric
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outweigh the economic colonialism of absentee owners profiting from local renewable energy resources.

The plan is fast-scaling and will build a political constituency supporting more decentralized renewables 

Farrell 11 (John, “Democratizing the Electricity System: A Vision for the 21st Century Grid” The New Rules Project, June 2011)

Distributed generation offers a cost-effective and fast-scaling alternative to centralized generation
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fueled generation, helping step away from a carbon-based electricity system. 

The US local production movement spills over to the developing world and democratizes and stabilizes the global economy, improving the future of millions of people through clean energy.

Marsden 10 D ISTRIBUTED GENERATION SYSTEMS : A NEW PARADIGM FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Janet, Member, IEEE, Syracuse School Research Fellow November 15, http://syr.academia.edu/JanetMarsden/Papers/430835/DISTRIBUTED_GENERATION_SYSTEMS_A_NEW_PARADIGM_FOR_SUSTAINABLE_ENERGY

Providing local power for US energy production will drive growth in manufacturing and other industries
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in addition to improving the future of millions of people through clean energy.

Distributed generation creates community-based people’s energy movements, which expand the meaning of democratic participation and revamp institutional structures that have failed to respond to their constituents and be environmentally responsible

Hoffman and Pippert 5 (Steven M. Hoffman, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Angela High-Pippert, PhD, Director of Women's Studies at the University of St. Thomas, and serves on the ACTC Women's Studies Coordinating Committee, “Community Energy: A Social Architecture for an Alternative Energy Future”, Bulletin of Science Technology & Society 2005 25: 387)

Community-based energy is also seen by many advocates as a major step in
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the vitality of our spiritual life” (1977, 59).4¶ 

Our form of politics protects PLACE-BASED COMMUNTIES from being controlled by global corporations. Only the plan JOINs FORCES WITH COMMUNTITIES who are building a more equitable global economy

Hess 9 David J. professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University and member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment. Localist Movements in a Global Economy, Sustainability, Justice, and Urban Development in the United States

However, it is also possible that participation in localist politics may open the door
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it encourages businesses not to let economic profitability trump social and environmental goals.

Our anti-capitalist demand on the state uniquely strengthens movements against a flawed energy system and empowers others to demand the same. 

Yanity 4  Electrical Designer responsible for a variety of energy projects. NANA Pacific, Columbia, Brian, Engineering, International Socialist Organization, Socialism and the Energy Question, 4/27, http://www.upsidedownworld.org/energyquestiontwo.htm

When decisions about energy production and consumption are decided democratically by the majority of people
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only strengthen our argument that the system as a whole is not reformable.