Tournament: CEDA | Round: 1 | Opponent: Kansas DS | Judge:
1AC

Plan: The United States federal government should exempt customer-generators of solar power from interconnection tariffs and provide cash grants to nontaxable entities and individuals for distributed generation of solar power in the United States 

Contention 1: Risk Management
Warming is inevitable and creates devastating natural disasters; the cost of inaction is too high.
Baker-Branstetter, 2011 (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.
II. "Business as Usual" Will Destroy Living as Usual Human-driven
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and the real risks too high for business as usual to continue. 30

Natural disasters will cause a spike in long term blackouts
Bruch 11 Michael Bruch, Michael Bruch of Allianz Risk Consulting, Michael Kuhn, Martin Weymann (Swiss Re), Gerhard Schmid (Munich Re) Power Blackout Risks Risk Management Options Emerging Risk Initiative – Position Paper November 2011 http://www.agcs.allianz.com/assets/PDFs/Special%20and%20stand-alone%20articles/Power_Blackout_Risks.pdf

Blackouts during the last ten years in Europe and Northern America have demonstrated an increasing
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or terrorist attacks, the impacts on society and economy might be significant.

Large cascading outages cause mass suffering and death from extreme temperatures over several weeks.
NAS 12 (“Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System” Committee on Enhancing the Robustness and Resilience of Future Electrical Transmission and Distribution in the United States to Terrorist Attack, National Academy of Sciences, October 2012) (1)
A terrorist attack on the power system would lack the¶ dramatic impact of the
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deaths due to heat stress or extended exposure¶ to extreme cold.ˆ

Small grid failure brings down the entire system – impact is chemical plant explosions, worse than atom bomb 

Latynina 3 World Press Review (VOL. 50, No. 11) www.worldpress.org/Americas/1579.cfm
The scariest thing about the cascading power outages was not spoiled groceries in the fridge
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in power, and finally a cascading outage of the entire grid system. 

Grid shutdown causes nuclear meltdowns.
Caldicott 5
(Helen, president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, “Nuclear-war threat still very real” Interview with Martin Sieff, 18 May 2005, lexis)

This would of course ruin the U.S. economy and utterly disrupt
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a truly cataclysmic outcome, and it would be very easy to do.
Meltdowns cause extinction
Lendman, 2011
(Stephen, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, 03/ 13, “Nuclear Meltdown in Japan,”, The People’s Voice http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/03/13/nuclear-meltdown-in-japan, accessed 8-2-12, RSR)
Reuters said the 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage, up to
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entire region. "It could be, literally, an apocalyptic event.

Distributed renewable generation solves cascading failures and ensures power for critical infrastructure.
Andres and Loudermilk 12  Richard B. Andres, PhD, is Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College and Senior Fellow and Chair of the Energy and Environmental Security Policy Program with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. Micah J. Loudermilk is Senior Research Associate for the Energy and Environmental Security Policy Program with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, contracted through ASE, Inc. “National Security and Distributed Power Generation” No. 24, Sep 2012 http://livebettermagazine.com/eng/magazine/article_detail.lasso?id=352and-session=user_pref:42F9487313cd739475NXKWN2440B
TODAY, PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES ARE ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON ELECTRICITY FOR SURVIVAL.
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edge” capability to facilitate restoring regional grids after a large scale failure.

Plan solves- islanding supports critical services.
CEE 12
Clean Energy Exchange “Smart Grid sustains social services during blackout” july 9 http://www.thecleanenergyexchange.org/posts/view/smartgrid-sustains-social-services-during-blackout/6fkfnh0tce/
Keeping the lights on' can be a challenge during extreme weather and other disasters like
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fault-handling equipment and control software to ensure the smaller grid's reliability.

Resilience and adaptation through localist approaches is the most immediate way to mitigate the effects of climate change
O’Brien et al 9 (Karen O'Brien, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Bronwyn Hayward, 2School of Political Science and Communication, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Fikret Berkes, University of Manitoba, Canada Climate Change and Social Contracts, “Rethinking Social Contracts: Building Resilience in a Changing Climate”, Ecology and Society)
The creation of governance systems with multilevel¶ links, supporting partnerships and boundary¶
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the terms themselves in ways that cannot be ignored¶ in political debates.
As the northern Canada case shows, communities¶ empowered by indigenous rights and able
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climate change through the co-production¶ of knowledge (Jasanoff 2004).
Implications for Resilience Thinking¶ We have considered how resilience scholarship can¶ contribute to
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, social, and¶ technological factors traditionally linked to¶ adaptive capacity.
The social-contract literature underscores the¶ understanding that adaptation is not a predetermined
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be resolved without¶ much wider dialog, debate, and political struggle.

Contention 2: Energy Finance
The financialization of energy turns the power to decide energy decisions over to Wall Street. It disenfranchises the people who would benefit most from critical discussions of an energy-responsible society.

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

“Moving to the market,” however, was proposed as a way of ensuring
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start because minimal change is contemplated in financing this “energy security revolution.” 

PTCs for large, centralized renewables projects make solar developers dependent on Wall Street who consumes up to half the value of these credits.

Farrell 12 John Farrell is an Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) senior researcher specializing in energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy. Energy Self Reliant States, 4-19 

A regular tax credit reduces the amount of taxes a business or person pays dollar
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project owners wouldn’t require big tax bills or Wall Street to finance projects.

Depending on third party Wall Street financing leaks community money and jacks up the cost of renewable energy, making it less competitive with traditional electricity 

Farrell 10  John, GRIST, How renewable incentives affect project ownership, 12-7

It’s not just the owner who benefits when projects don’t require complex partnerships to get
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impact by a multiplier, whereas local ownership would keep most revenues local.

Enron proves – shortage empirically caused higher energy prices and cost billions of dollars
Hildyard et al 12 Nicholas, The Corner House, Larry Lohmann and Sarah Sexton.12 Energy Security For Whom? For What? February 2012
Market manipulation and outright criminality are frequent features of the increased use of financial markets
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dramatically in the wake of the Enron scandal, the practices still continue.
As companies financialize their debt -- they are creating the conditions for another recession – high energy means consumers can’t pay mortgages and can’t pay for food
Lipson 11 Daniel N. Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at SUNY New Paltz, New Political Science Volume 33, Issue 4, pages 555-575
At the macro level, home construction and sales were two sectors that kept economic
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primarily because of rises in energy costs) for most goods and services.
Rising energy prices cause resource wars, inhumane austerity measures, famine, pandemics and turn America into a post-industrial wasteland
Lipson 11 Daniel N. Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at SUNY New Paltz, New Political Science Volume 33, Issue 4, pages 555-575
Peak oil experts predict that volatile but sharply rising energy costs along with supply disruptions
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natural gas hydrofracking as leaders perceive pressure from the voters to lower gas prices
Resource wars cause prolif and nuclear war.
Wooldridge 9 political writer and former lecturer at Cornell University (Frosty, “Humanity galloping toward its greatest crisis in the 21st century” http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_contentandview=articleandid=10042:humanity-galloping-toward-its-greatest-crisis-in-the-21st-centuryandcatid=125:frosty-wooldridgeandItemid=244)
It is clear that most politicians and most citizens do not recognize that returning to
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worst (and not unlikely) case, a nuclear war ending civilization.

The financialization of energy is part of a larger attempt by capital to decide life and death. This form of neo-liberalism creates disposable populations and feed’s a disinterest in politics

Giroux 8   * Henry A. McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada Social Identities, Vol. 14, No. 5, September 2008, 587-620

Most of these stories place the blame for these crimes on individualized acts of cruelty
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in the hyper-circuits of power that characterize the New Gilded Age.

Contention 3: Solvency

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

Utility restrictions disincentivize local energy generation, only federal standards solve

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.

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 and 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¶ 

Localist production politics protects PLACE-BASED COMMUNTIES from being controlled by corporations and builds 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.