Tournament: Weber RR | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge: 

Contention One: Religion of Energy
First, Energy and religion are inseparable. The secular society demands production to achieve the dream of progress while the religious preach austerity to achieve a higher standard of worship. The inevitable shortage of stockpiled energy is fueling both a crisis of civilization and of faith.

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. XI-XII, rcheek)

Now along with a permanent energy crisis, or rather a permanent shortage of cheap
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culture that survived and flourished in the profound absence of fossil fuel.5
And, both the secular and religious fail to understand that God’s sacrifice is our beginning. The energy of God is the energy of everything. The first law of thermodynamics teaches us that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only expended in our participation with the universe.

McMath in 2012
(Judie C., Holistic Health Practitioner with a Master’s Degree in Behavioral Science and a pH.D in Religion, “"God" is the Sum Total of Universal Energy”, http://www.unhinderedliving.com/energyGod.html, rcheek)

Many people debate about whether there is a God, or what God is.
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is part of God and IS God, so there are no mistakes.   
And, ALL IS ENERGY. We live in a sea of energies, even if we are not aware of it. We ourselves are coenergies of energies, and all of these energies are interrelated and connected to the etheric body of the planet and the solar system and thus are expressions of the divine life.

Lucis Trust explains
(“Energy Follows Thought”, http://www.lucistrust.org/en/service_activities/triangles/literature__1/energy_follows_thought, accessed 1/23/13, rcheek)

In the modern world we constantly meet the concept of energy. Yet few ever
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groups, for humanity as a whole, for the planet and beyond.
Contention Two: Restricted Economy
First, restricting energy to the demands of humanity shatters our intimate connection to the universe. A mechanized process of stockpiling replaces our participation as coenergies of energies and we are left as inert lumps of mass to be expended only when purpose demands it.

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 55-57, rcheek)

The answer, I think, is to be found in the nature of the
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which the person has been transformed in and through death, have disappeared.
And, restrictions on energy production play to a fantasy of the austere sustainability advocate. The secular ecological saint offers a religion bred by ressentiment to secure a truncated and small existence. 

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 122-123, rcheek)

At least in the Middle Ages the simple life, the accession to authenticity through
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grand scale that we associate with life in the “developed” countries.

And, these metaphysicians of asceticism express a hatred of this world that denies the value of being

Turlani in 2003
(Aydan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty of Letters and Sciences
Istanbul Technical University, “Nietzsche and the Later Wittgenstein: An Offense to the Quest for Another World”, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 26 (2003), 55-63)

The craving for absolutely general specifications results in doing metaphysics. Unlike Wittgenstein, Nietzsche
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the way out of the fly-bottle" (PI §309).
Therefore, we affirm that energy should be free.
It is up to us to imagine a new relationship to energy. We must free energy from its servility to work by practicing religion as a scattering of doctrine. God’s gift is in the dispersal of energy, its production as generosity and risk.

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 59, rcheek)

We have no model of such a city. It is up to us to
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as the non -place, the u -topos, of scattering.
Contention Three: Sovereignty
And, the generosity of the sun teaches us that there is no such thing as “Good” or “Evil”, rather, that existence just IS. Events are not good or bad, they merely occur and death is not the end of life, it is a new beginning. We must learn to walk in both the light AND the dark, only then will we find value in both. 

Nelson in 2009
(Judie C., Master's Degree in Behavioral Science, “Lessons from the Sun”, http://www.unhinderedliving.com/sunlessons.html, rcheek)

When doing some research on ancient civilizations and their religious beliefs, I was not
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. Learn to see in them both.  Find the value in each.
And, only our impact matters because we are already dead. What we call “our life” is an experience that takes place in time and space, a physical experience that has already passed. The future likewise doesn’t exist because the future is not here. Our experience is always now. True life is revealed in the present moment. 

Bahder in 2007
(Paul, Medical Doctor, “We Are Already Dead”, http://www.homeopathyusa.com/we_are_already_dead.htm, rcheek)

What we call “our life” is really the experience that takes place in
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time. Time has no entrance into eternal even though eternal permeates time.

And, utilitarian calculation denies true life because it enslaves us to the demands of the future. Instrumental reason subjugates existence to the realm of work. Gripped by the fear of death and the yearning to endure, we are rendered servile to transcendent purpose. This profane existence is not worth saving. It deprives us from sovereignty and the freedom of now.  

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

All such expenditures – useless, diverted from any utilitarian ends –¶ obviously ‘go
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when it lives in immanence’, or continuity (Hollier 1998: 65).

Finally, the ballot is a choice between the restricted economy of productivity and the general economy of the universe. The profane course of Energy’s enslavement to human purpose and utility can be reversed by ending restrictions on its production 

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

The core of this betrayal lay in communism’s negation of human ‘sovereignty’,¶ a
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tears, artistic and poetic¶ exudations, and various forms of intoxication.

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Contention One is the Sacred
The gift of the sun is one without return. It gives without receiving and as such, the surface of the globe is abound with an abundance of solar energy.  This energy is always already in a state of constant production and expenditure by all forms of life.  

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 39-40, rcheek)

Indeed, these assumptions are among those most contested by current energy theorists and experts
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have to be burned off. There will always be too much life. 

Expenditure is the universal tendency of existence toward the excessive production of energy.  Our question now becomes, in what fashion does this expenditure take place?  Energy must be held sacred, expended in the instant that leads nowhere.  It is in the instant of uselessness that sovereignty is attained.
Eggington in 2008
(William, Chair and Andrew W Mellon Professor in the Humanities German and Romance Languages and Literatures The Johns Hopkins University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability (review)”, symploke, Volume 16, Numbers 1-2, 2008, pp. 346-348, pMUSE, rcheek)

In this book, Alan Stoekl argues that Georges Bataille’s theories of energy and religion
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anyone or anything else: sovereign, in Bataille’s sense. (xiii)

However, status quo energy production is profane.  Rather than be made an intimate religious experience, energy and its expenditure have been put to work through a mechanized process of utility that renders intimacy impossible.  The raw passion of life is turned into a standing reserve, a thing among other things, which enables its destruction.

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 55-57, rcheek)

The answer, I think, is to be found in the nature of the
AND
which the person has been transformed in and through death, have disappeared.

The useless and radically anti-utilitarian ethic of the 1AC restore expenditure to the realm of the sacred.  This operates in opposition to a restricted economy based on the tenets of utility and calculations that deprive humanity of its sovereignty.  Such an economy reduces energy to a thing so as to exercise dominion.  This denial of the animality of existence separates humanity from itself and makes life a profane denial  of itself.

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

All such expenditures – useless, diverted from any utilitarian ends –¶ obviously ‘go
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when it lives in immanence’, or continuity (Hollier 1998: 65).

This mortal anxiety establishes an ascetic hatred of the world that denies life.  The only escape is through a chaotic embrace of life.

Turlani in 2003
(Aydan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty of Letters and Sciences
Istanbul Technical University, “Nietzsche and the Later Wittgenstein: An Offense to the Quest for Another World”, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 26 (2003), 55-63)

The craving for absolutely general specifications results in doing metaphysics. Unlike Wittgenstein, Nietzsche
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the way out of the fly-bottle" (PI §309). 

And, hyper-consumerism is not our potlatch – It entails a stock-piled self that is still reliant upon a static conception of energy as product and not religion.  The affirmation of intimate expenditure counters this stockpiled self and puts at risk the stability energy and subjectivity.  The irony of this reckless abandon is that it creates a post-sustainable aftereffect more capable of sustaining life than a restricted economy.

Stoekl in 2007
(Allan, professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University, “Bataille’s Peak: Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability”, p. 57-59, rcheek)

Bataille, then, should have distinguished more clearly between intimate and impersonal varieties of
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but the movement of bodies in transport, in ecstasy, in despair?
Therefore, the ballot represents a choice between two economies of energy production:  The status quo represents a restricted economy of productivity of which the quintessential nature is endless violence while an affirmative ballot endorses a general economy of sacred expenditure.   

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

The core of this betrayal lay in communism’s negation of human ‘sovereignty’,¶ a
AND
tears, artistic and poetic¶ exudations, and various forms of intoxication.

Contention Two is Sacrificing God
Politics operates from a standpoint of reason, fear of death, and securing a future.  This profane world of utility upholds such values as a transcendent God that denies the possibility of intimate expenditure.  We must sacrifice the God of reason to restore sovereignty. In being destroyed, we render it useless, which frees us from servility to instrumental utility.

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

The anxious desire for durability corresponds to a demeaning substantialisation¶ of the sacred.
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undergoes a fleeting experience of dissolution¶ in the realm of the sacred.

This sacrifice is a utility of non-utility – far from a quest for masterful control of the resolution, our ecstatic abandonment of it ruptures restricted economies that lash out in exclusionary and violent ways to establish a true moment of communal unity
Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

In this sense, then, a sacrifice is always a sacrifice of God,
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¶ the closed, individual self as formed through social prohibitions and work.

We sacrifice the God of reason that enslaves us as instruments of work. Only voting affirmative frees you from the domain of utility that the resolution has elevated to a metaphysical beyond.  Use reason against itself and vote affirmative as a counter-operation to the status quo.

Biles in 2011
(Jeremy, PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, “The Remains of God: Bataille/Sacrifice/Community”, Culture, Theory and Critique, 2011, 52(2–3), 127–144, rcheek)

This communication, this ecstatic and often tormenting loss of self in continuity¶ with
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the refusal to put off existence in some beyond (1988: 47).
Thus we ask you to vote affirmative to sacrifice the resolution.

Contention Three Is Curriculum
Refuse debate’s traditional curriculum. It’s hatred of chance enslaves us to utility. The sacrificial curriculum of the affirmative is a an embrace of the rupture of unreasoned life that opens spaces for desire.

Sirc in 1996
(Geoffrey, Ph.D.: Composition Theory, University of Minnesota, “Godless Composition, Tormented Writing”, http://jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol15.3/sirc-godless.pdf, rcheek)

What Lingis feels in his journeys in Honduras is a sense of two worlds,
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going out; they have¶ a certain amount of control over that.

The resolution embraces a God of Reason that must be sacrificed. We are a new pedagogy of heterogeneity that transgresses possibility and radically opposes debates educational stagnation 

Sirc in 1996
(Geoffrey, Ph.D.: Composition Theory, University of Minnesota, “Godless Composition, Tormented Writing”, http://jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol15.3/sirc-godless.pdf, rcheek)

What Bataille wants-the laceration, the communication of loss, the¶ ecstasy
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sacred and its replacement by an other worldly deity" (Comay 69).

The resolution forces us to profane ourselves, our bodies, and our world – by installing a composition that centers on the contemporary project of technological advancement, we enable the destruction of sovereignty and life.  

Sirc in 1996
(Geoffrey, Ph.D.: Composition Theory, University of Minnesota, “Godless Composition, Tormented Writing”, http://jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol15.3/sirc-godless.pdf, rcheek)

Composition's notion of "productive" writing, in the way it has abandoned¶
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soul-deadening torture-scene; another modern waste of the possible.

Tournament: Val | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Inherency
Despite the outdated safety mechanisms, the Obama administration continues to back nuclear power as the keystone of its non-carbon energy policy.

Popular Science, 2011
March 15th, “Secretary Chu Says U.S. Administration Remains Committed to Nuclear Power” http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/secretary-chu-says-administration-remains-committed-us-nuclear-power-industry, V. Guevara

In testimony today before a Congressional subcommittee, Energy Secretary Steven Chu stood behind the
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Congress today that “We will learn from this.” Let’s hope so.
The American nuclear fleet is comprised of the finest 1970’s technological innovation has to offer

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 156, V. Guevara

 To get a sense of where the nuclear power industry stands technologically, it’s
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1970s, except PCs don’t blow up and spread radioactivity across the countryside.
The issue is not with nuclear power but with the reactor design. LFTRs, can’t meltdown and can’t be weaponized.

Blue Ribbon Commission, 2011
May 19th, "The Thorium Paradigm" http://www.brc.gov/sites/default/files/meetings/presentations/thorium_paradigm_package_m_conley.pdf, V. Guevara

In the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, the cooling system failed
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would roll right over it, like a truck over a manhole cover. 

Plan
Plan:  the United States Federal Government should remove all restrictions to the formation of a thorium bank in the United States. 

Advantage 1: Prolif
The START II negotiations yielded a significant arms reduction agreement.  The U.S. and the Russians are already disarming to historic levels

Kissinger and Scowcroft, 2012 Henry Kissinger, Frmr. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor and Brent Scowcroft, Frmr National Security Advisor,  Washington Post, " Nuclear weapons reductions must be part of strategic analysis"  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nuclear-weapon-reductions-must-be-part-of-strategic-analysis/2012/04/22/gIQAKG4iaT_story.html, V. Guevara

A New START treaty reestablishing the process of nuclear arms control has recently taken effect
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round of nuclear reductions to bring about ceilings as low as 300 warheads. 

The impact to disarmament is linear - each decommissioned warhead reduces the risk of the ultimate tragedy

Freeman, 2009 Lawrence, Prof of war studies at King's College in London and vice principal of the college, "A new theory for nuclear disarmament" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, V. Guevara
The numbers ¶ games became complicated by questions of first and second strikes, ¶
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or mitigation of the ultimate tragedy ¶ should nuclear exchanges begin in earnest.

In order to reach Schell’s “end state” we must do more than dismantle our nuclear arsenal, we have to make it disappear.  The primary consideration is not the number of remaining weapons but our capacity to rebuild them.

Drell and Goodby, 2009  Sidney D. Drell, physicist and arms control expert. He is a professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, James E. Goodby, Frmr specialist with the US Atomic Energy Commission, vice chairman of START I and non proliferation expert, Fellow at Hoover and Brookings, "A World without Nuclear Weapons: End Stat Issues"  Hoover Institution, http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/Sidney_Drell_James_Goodby_A_World_Without_Nuclear_Weapons_1.pdf, V. Guevara

In his 1984 book, The Abolition, Schell describes a condition that we think
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that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

LFTRs consume the nuclear materials of decommissioned weapons and turns it into fuel for the reactor.  The end product of which can never be weaponized

Sorensen, 2010 Kirk, Fmr NASA engineer and Founder of Flibe Energy, TEAC2 Conference Keynote, http://energyfromthorium.com/2010/03/29/, V. Guevara

Then there’s thorium. Thorium has a special property—it breeds to uranium-
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fuel is magnified by about 1000 to 1500% over a fast reactor. 

If we don’t deplete the weapons stockpile by consuming the fissile material for power, then the state will continue to hold nuclear weapons as an inexorable legacy worthy of noncontingent preservation

Taylor and Hendry, 2008 Bryan C.,  Associate Prof of Communication @ UC Boulder and  Judith, Lecturer Dept of Communication and Journalism at University of New Mexico Albuquerque,  Summer "Insisting on Persisting:  The Nuclear Rhetoric of 'Stockpile Stewardship'" Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 11.2, V. Guevara

There is much at stake, then, in how nuclear stewardship rhetoric is produced
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these¶ claims through a critique of three themes in SSP rhetoric.8

The elimination of nuclear weapons provides a site of resistance to the military industrial complex’s use of nuclear material.  This debate demands that the state reconceive nuclear use as a civilian program instead of normalizing nuclear as a strictly weaponized product that is owned and maintained only by the state.  

Taylor and Hendry, 2008 Bryan C.,  Associate Prof of Communication @ UC Boulder and  Judith, Lecturer Dept of Communication and Journalism at University of New Mexico Albuquerque,  Summer "Insisting on Persisting:  The Nuclear Rhetoric of 'Stockpile Stewardship'" Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 11.2, V. Guevara

¶ What then, we may ask, does this debate portend for the future
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anticipate¶ or reflect upon the appropriations and consequences of their creations.86

The affirmative ballot is a call to challenge state-activism.  Lifting federal restrictions on access to thorium allows private individuals to develop LFTRs, which are designed to consume the nuclear state.  It is only by restricting government activity, that we can achieve a free life. Affirming individual liberty versus a status quo of statist control is the only way to avoid extinction.

Kateb, 1986 George, Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University, "Nuclear Weapons and Individual Rights"  Dissent Magazine, V. Guevara

One task of a renewed and revised individualism is to challenge everyday state-activism
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and in behalf of avoiding¶ massive ruin and the possibility of extinction.

Advantage 2: Pu-238

Pu-238 is critical for deep space missions and NASA is running out. Without more, the space program will collapse and the U.S. will cease to be the leader in space.  Up to now, the only way Pu-238 could be created was as a byproduct of nuclear warhead production

Chow, 2011 Denise, staff writer @ Space.com, November 22nd “Mars Mission May Be Curtain Call For Plutonium-Powered Spacecraft”  http://www.space.com/13709-plutonium-shortage-nasa-planetary-science-future.html, V. Guevara

For 50 years, NASA has used plutonium-238 as the fuel source for
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be that close to the edge before we’re out of capability is irresponsible."

But LFTRs solve Pu-238 shortages.  Each ton of thorium produces about $100 million worth of Pu-238  

Sorenson, 2010 Kirk, retired NASA engineer and founder of Flibe Energy, December 6th “Is Nuclear Waste Really Nuclear Waste” Google Talk, http://thoriummsr.com/tag/chloride-reactor/, V. Guevara

Each metric tonne of thorium consumed in a LFTR could produce:¶ 9900 GWe*
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and neodymium¶ and many lives saved through clean electricity and medical radioisotopes.

Every year that the U.S. goes without producing Pu-238 is time lost on humanity’s clock to explore deep space

Aerospace Industries Association, 2012
"Continued U.S. Leadership in Deep Space Exploration Depends on Restarting Plutonium Fuel Production"  http://www.aia-aerospace.org/assets/2012%20AIA%20Pu-238%20White%20Paper%20-%20SC%20FINAL.pdf, V. Guevara

AIA is deeply concerned that the U.S. government cannot produce an adequate
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losses of technical capability and expertise for ¶ important deep space power generators. 

The cost of every second that we postpone the development of deep space technology is 100 trillion lives.

Bostrom, 2003
Nick, Professor, Faculty of Philosophy and Oxford Martin School Director, Future of Humanity Institute, “Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development” Utilitas Vol. 15, No. 3 pp. 308-314 http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.html, V. Guevara

With very advanced technology, a very large population of people living happy lives could
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point in time (no time-discounting), the conclusion will hold.¶
Colonization solves Earth extinction scenarios- nuke war, super-volcanoes, asteroids, ect.

Collins and Autino 08
(Patrick, econ professor-Azabu University (Japan) and a Collaborating Researcher with the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science, and Adriano, President of the Space Renaissance International, “What the Growth of a Space Tourism Industry Could Contribute to Employment, Economic Growth, Environmental Protection, Education, Culture and World Peace, “http:www.spacefuture.com/archive/what_the_growth_of_a_space_tourism_industry_could_contribute_to_employment_economic_growth_environmental_protection_education_culture_and_world_peace.shtml) 

Investment in low-cost orbital access and other space infrastructure will facilitate the establishment
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to be achievable only through the development of a vigorous space tourism industry.

Advantage 3: Warming

Warming is real and anthropogenic- Prefer scientific consensus to their hack deniers
Lewandowsky and Ashley 2011 (Stephan Lewandowsky, Professor of Cognitive Studies at the University of Western Australia, and Michael Ashley, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of New South Wales, June 24, 2011, “The false, the confused and the mendacious: how the media gets it wrong on climate change,” http://goo.gl/u3nOC)

But despite these complexities, some aspects of climate science are thoroughly settled. We
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the 19th century, pre-dating even Sherlock Holmes and Queen Victoria.

Tipping points are coming soon – Uranium mining independently ensures devastating warming
Rincon, 08 Paul, BBC Broadcasting, “Nuclear's CO2 cost 'will climb'”, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7371645.stm
The case for nuclear power as a low carbon energy source to replace fossil fuels
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an important contribution to clarifying the impact of nuclear energy on CO2 emissions.
In order to avoid the catastrophic consequences of Climate Change, drastic change in our greenhouse gas emissions are necessary
Romm 2012 Joe, June 10, Dan Yergin’s Dilemma: Energy ‘Reality’ Vs. Climate Reality, Think Progress, http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496960/dan-yergin-dilemma-energy-reality-vs-climate-reality/ RR

The 2007 U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “Fourth Assessment Report
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95 percent below 1990 levels), even if developing countries make substantial reductions.
Warming magnifies every impact and causes extinction
Burke 2008
(Sharon, sr fellow and dir of the energy security project at the Center for a New American Security, Chapter 6 of Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change, edited by Kurt Campbell, p 157-165) 

At the same time, however, the implications of both trends for human society
AND
, given the collapse of the MOC, which will compromise agricultural productivity.

Jumpstarting development of LFTR reactors averts runway warming – reliance on uranium is counterproductive and doesn’t achieve sufficient levels of reduction
Hansen, 08 heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He has held this position since 1981Letter to Obama, http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2008/20081121_Obama.pdf
The Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) is a thorium reactor concept that
AND
goals’, half-measures, greenwashing, and compromises with special interests. 

Even if they win a solvency deficit establishing a formal precedent through thorium will jumpstart a “green” economy
Johnson 6 (Brian, BS Nuclear Engineering from Oregon State U, later received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from M.I.T., "Thorium for Use in Plutonium Disposition,Proliferation-Resistant Fuels for DevelopingCountries, and Future Reactor Designs,"  www.wise-intern.org/journal/2006/Johnson-ANS.pdf, jam)
As it stands, the joint plutonium disposition plans of the United State and Russia
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, the United States could become a leader in thorium-based technology.
This would trigger key reductions in carbon emissions—that’s essential to slow and reverse anthropogenic climate change
Hargraves and Moir ’11 Robert Hargraves, teaches energy policy at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth, PhD in physics from Brown, and Ralph Moir, Sc.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, published 10 papers on molten-salt reactors during his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, “Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors,” Physics and Society, January 2011, http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/201101/hargraves.cfm
Burning coal for power is the largest source of atmospheric CO2, which drives global
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years, ending 10 billion tons per year of CO2 emissions from coal plants
Solvency

All the private sector needs is for Congress to authorize a cooperative thorium bank to allow for the development of thorium for energy

Halper, 2012
Mark, Smart Planet Contributing Editor and Forbes writer, “Join the Thorium Bank” Smart Planet, http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/solve-the-energy-and-rare-earth-crisis-join-the-thorium-bank/17845, V. Guevara

¶ Two problems: Most countries in the West lack policy that supports thorium nuclear
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give us a pathway so that people can invest intelligently¶ and safely.”

The time is now.  The American economy, its culture of innovation and the world’s ability to fulfill its energy demands hinges on the creation of a federally sanctioned thorium bank

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 189, V. Guevara

A centralized rare earths facility would enable producers to invest¶ together in federally sanctioned
AND
,” Kennedy told me. “If we miss it, we’re toast.”

In less than 20 years, the U.S. could have 1000 LFTRs online

Sorensen, 2010
Kirk, Fmr NASA engineer and Founder of Flibe Energy, TEAC2 Conference Keynote, http://energyfromthorium.com/2010/03/29/, V. Guevara

With this approach, plutonium from weapons and reactor fuel will start about 70 chloride
AND
can make it happen. May we have the wisdom to do so.
LFTRs are safer, produce far less waste, solve proliferation concerns and cost less to provide more energy to the grid.

Blue Ribbon Commission, 2011 May 19th, "The Thorium Paradigm" http://www.brc.gov/sites/default/files/meetings/presentations/thorium_paradigm_package_m_conley.pdf, V. Guevara

A Uranium reactor is an atomic pressure-cooker – it works just fine until
AND
the size of a basketball) will take while longer to mellow out.

Lastly, thorium power could reverse a few millennia of the creeping risk of mass extinction in less than a century

Martin, 2012
Richard, editorial director for Pike Research, the leading clean energy research and analysis firm, Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, p. 215, V. Guevara

¶ So, when I think about what I’ve seen reflected in thorium’s glossy surface
AND
are favorable, and the need is urgent. The choice is ours. 

Tournament: Districts | Round: 5 | Opponent:  | Judge: 

¬¬¬1AC

Contention One: Secular Energy Policy

First, the end of the fossil fuel interlude is upon us. God has called on us to shape our destiny. We need an energy policy based in hope to transition from the death of this era to a renewal of life in the next.

Rasmussen in 2011
(Larry L., Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, "ENERGY: THE CHALLENGES TO AND FROM RELIGION", Zygon, vol. 46, no. 4, rcheek)

As nature abhors a vacuum, so human history resists a dead end. Many
AND
is¶ the world we have, graphed by scientists tracking global trends.

And, the transition requires a new ecological phase of religion. We must be converted to Earth and God in the same moment so that all impulses are measured by their contribution to the well-being of creation.

Rasmussen in 2011
(Larry L., Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, "ENERGY: THE CHALLENGES TO AND FROM RELIGION", Zygon, vol. 46, no. 4, rcheek)

What is the challenge to religion? The same as for all things human.¶
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the heart, in theology¶ and ethics together with rituals and practice.

And, status quo energy production transforms the ethic of dominion into one of domination over the environment. This perversion is a sin of idolatry that sacrifices the wholeness of creation.

Birch in 1978
(Dr. Bruce, professor of Old Testament, "Energy Ethics Reaches the Church’s Agenda" Christian Century, November 1, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1782-http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1782, Dil)
In the biblical theme of creation we are reminded of the interconnectedness of humanity with
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ones that the church must wield what actual and moral power it possesses.

And, fossil fuels are the backbone of a secular religion that separates God from the polis by deifying unlimited economic growth. Any benefit to this energy intense consumerism is tethered to a pathological indifference toward life.

Rasmussen in 2011
(Larry L., Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, "ENERGY: THE CHALLENGES TO AND FROM RELIGION", Zygon, vol. 46, no. 4, rcheek)

The same curves on all the graphs have been possible because of fossil¶ fuel
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19). Neighborkeeping at the expense of Earthkeeping is a sure dead end.

And, secular energy policy exacerbates poverty and endangers creation by dislocating theology from human participation in the environment. Our objective should be to instill the virtues of a world we wish to inhabit based on stewardship, justice and hope

Birch in 1978
(Dr. Bruce,  professor of Old Testament, "Energy Ethics Reaches the Church’s Agenda" Christian Century, November 1, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1782-http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1782, Dil)

The proposed policy statement will certainly be a controversial document, but it is also
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the biblical witness to creation, redemption, stewardship, justice and hope."

And separating God from the polis is a form of self-mutilation that replaces God with self-legislation. This results in a violent denial that takes being-towards-death as our only future

Blond in 1998
(Phillip, Senior Lecturer in Christian theology at the University of Cumbria, Post-Secular Philosophy: Between Philosophy and Theology, p. 1-3)

We live in a time of failed conditions. Everywhere people who have no faith
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until their deaths, unaware of that which they never sought to address.

Contention Two: Eucharistic Hope

In response to the idolatry of status quo energy production, we affirm the resolution as a starting point to imagine the Eucharistic community we hope for:

The United States federal government should substantially reduce restrictions on and/or substantially increase financial incentives for a dispersed grid of wind and/or solar energy production.

In the Eucharist, we consume without impoverishing others. Our consumption strengthens the community and establishes a connection with God. A dispersed grid of energy production comes from and strengthens the community as a vital resource distributed and accessible to all, bringing us closer to the vision of a fulfilled world.

Hartman in 2011
(Laura M., Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College,  January 26, "The Christian Consumer", Pages 165-166, Dil)

In the Eucharist, the people of God consume in a way that enriches them
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as much as, or more than, they take away from it.

Hope is a precondition to energy policy. A theology of energy policy requires flexibility. Voting aff is an act of hope that moves us beyond status quo fear and guilt over energy policy towards the eschatological fulfillment of life

Laurendeau in 2011
(Normand M., Bailey Professor Emeritus of Combustion, School of
Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, "AN ENERGY PRIMER: FROM THERMODYNAMICS TO THEOLOGY", Zygon: Journal Of Religion %26 Science, 46(4), 890-914, rcheek)

Why should religion be involved in energy policy? Three reasons come¶ to mind
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, lest we drop the ball and fail our children and¶ grandchildren.

And, hope stands outside of and in opposition to the apocalyptic prognostication of status quo politics.  It reclaims the future as something beyond control or prediction and filled with possibility.

Mathewes in 2007
(Charles ~Prof Religious Studies @ Univ of Virginia~ A Theology of Public Life, pp.219-220)

A critic might say; but how, precisely, do they manifest the virtue
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message, but also its deepest ascesis. We turn to that next.

And, hope is an embrace of the vulnerability that gives human life significance

Mathewes in 2007
(Charles ~Prof Religious Studies @ Univ of Virginia~ A Theology of Public Life, pp.219-220)

Hope’s patience, its openness to the new, enables realistic vision. This may
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and how engagement in public life enriches our inhabitation of hope as well.

And, hope is politically mobilizing in both its resistance and its recognitions. We refuse to live in the lie that condemns us to a living death and instead imagine a counter-polis that we can work to transform reality closer to.

Mathewes in 2007
(Charles ~Prof Religious Studies @ Univ of Virginia~ A Theology of Public Life, pp.219-220)

Hope’s civic contributions begin with its power to mobilize people’s energy for civic change,
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way and adds to the memory of Being. (1997: 239)