Tournament: UMKC | Round: 4 | Opponent: UTD LV | Judge: Mike Weitz

Plan Text

Text:  The United States federal government should establish a feed-in tariff program for solar power in the United States.

Advantage One: Energy Democratization

Feed-in Tariffs or are the most effective policy for renewable energy growth, but have not been instituted nationally in the U.S.

Barber in 2012
(D.A., EnergyTrend, "U.S. Feed-in Tariffs will Increase PV Demand", 5-16-12, http://www.energytrend.com/Barber_PV_20120516-http://www.energytrend.com/Barber_PV_20120516, rcheek)
FITs have not been instituted nationally in the United States even though the U.
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a number of international solar firms moving factories specifically to that Canadian province.

We’ll Isolate 3 scenarios:

Scenario 1:  Energy Policy

The U.S. needs a national FiT to incentivize clean energy production

Aguillon 12 
( Cecilia, 8/7/12, Director of market development for Kyocera Solar, "Feed-In Tariffs: A Good FIT for the U.S. Solar Market", http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/2012/08/feed-in-tariffs-a-good-fit-for-the-u-s-solar-market/-http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/2012/08/feed-in-tariffs-a-good-fit-for-the-u-s-solar-market/, Dil)

"The U.S. needs a system — like a feed-in
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already live and work – distributed generation won’t disturb protected lands or wildlife.

FiTs cause a paradigm shift toward the democratization of energy

Aguillon 12 
(Cecilia, 8/7/12, Director of market development for Kyocera Solar, "Feed-In Tariffs: A Good FIT for the U.S. Solar Market", http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/2012/08/feed-in-tariffs-a-good-fit-for-the-u-s-solar-market/-http://www.dailyenergyreport.com/2012/08/feed-in-tariffs-a-good-fit-for-the-u-s-solar-market/, Dil)

Because of these obvious benefits, some U.S. municipal utilities are actually
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producing renewable energy — not just those who are hungry for tax incentives.

FiTs enable decentralization of the grid and democratization of energy production – minimizes the risk of resource conflict by utilizing local venues and limits environmental degradation

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. xxiii-xxv, rcheek)

Our options then are centred on making our lifestyles, our way of making ¶
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to such subsidies each year (United Nations Environment ¶ Programme, 2008). 

====Absent our own resources, violent lash-out is inevitable due to dwindling supplies – comparatively the most deadly source of armed conflict====
Klare 2006,
professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, 2006
(Michael, Mar 6 2006, "The coming resource wars" http://www.energybulletin.net/node/13605)

It’s official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major
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be channeled into contests over valuable sources of water, food and energy.

And, US energy policy is environmentocidal – waste and inefficiencies guarantee planetary destruction

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. 10-12, rcheek)

Danish and American experience shows that renewable energy deployment ¶ is accelerated or held back
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planet for future generations ¶ instead of ruining it to satisfy today’s desires. 

Scenario 2:  Energy Poverty

This decentralization is necessary to combat energy poverty

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. 67, rcheek)

Providing access to essential energy services (such as food, light, comfort,
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to avoid volatility of prices and to guarantee relatively stable incomes for producers. 

====Combating energy poverty key to food security.====

Bogdanski et. al 2011
~[Bogdanski, A.; Dubois, O.; Jamieson, C.; Krell, R. "Making integrated food-energy systems work for people and climate: an overview 2011 pp. v + 107 pp." ¶ Environment and Natural Resources Management Working Paper, 2011. pdf  dsturgeon~]

Background: Reducing "Energy Poverty" is increasingly acknowledged as the "Missing Development
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in developing countries, but also regarding issues related to global climate change.

Food insecurity triggers genocidal wars threatening survival—it is comparatively worse than, and contributes to, nuclear war
Trudell 2005 - Trudell,  J.D. Candidate 2006, 05 (Robert H., Fall, Food Security Emergencies And The Power Of Eminent Domain: A Domestic Legal Tool To Treat A Global Problem, 33 Syracuse J. Int’l L. %26 Com. 277, Lexis)

2. But, Is It Really an Emergency?  In his study on environmental
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emergency and we must put that fuse out before it is too late.

Scenario 3:  Energy Grid

====Blackouts are coming and we lack sufficient reactive power to effectively cope====
Severson in 2012
(Deb, member of StopPATH, "Learning from the Cascading Power Failures that Brought Down the Power Grid in India", http://stoppathwv.com/1/post/2012/8/learning-from-the-cascading-power-failures-that-brought-down-the-power-grid-in-india.html-http://stoppathwv.com/1/post/2012/8/learning-from-the-cascading-power-failures-that-brought-down-the-power-grid-in-india.html, rcheek)

It is time to for utilities to embrace another approach and to more fully acknowledge
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is now, before what happened in India threatens half the American public.

====Decentralization of energy solves efficiency losses and blackouts ====
Farrell 2011
~[John Farrell (ILSR senior researcher specializing in energy policy developments), "Democratizing the Electricity System¶ A Vision for the 21st Century Grid" New Rules, June 2011 pdf dsturgeon ~]
Furthermore, distributed generation reduces efficiency losses from long-distance transmission of electricity and
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times greater economic returns of local ownership compared to absentee ownership are compelling. 

And, incentivizing solar PV is key to reactive power generation

Braun in 2007
(M., Institut fuer Solare Energieversorgungstechnik, "REACTIVE POWER SUPPLIED BY PV INVERTERS -
COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS", http://renknownet2.iwes.fraunhofer.de/pages/photovoltaics/data/2007_Braun_PVSEC.pdf-http://renknownet2.iwes.fraunhofer.de/pages/photovoltaics/data/2007_Braun_PVSEC.pdf, rcheek)
This paper introduces in a first step the capabilities¶ and availabilities of reactive power
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. These schemes¶ should lead to a win-win-situation.

These would cause hundreds of Chernobyl-level meltdowns

Caldicott 05, Australian physician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and is the president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, May 18, 2005, U.S. Russia still face mutual destruction threat, UPS, http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-77621.html
 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. 

That outweighs a conventional nuclear war

World Press Review 03, "Eye on the United States: America in the Dark," August 18, 2003, Vol. 50 No. 11, http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/1579.cfm-http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/1579.cfm, Accessed 10/27/04
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.

Advantage Two: Economy

First, Feed-in Tariffs are the most effective policy for renewable energy growth, but have not been instituted nationally in the U.S.

Barber in 2012
(D.A., EnergyTrend, "U.S. Feed-in Tariffs will Increase PV Demand", 5-16-12, http://www.energytrend.com/Barber_PV_20120516-http://www.energytrend.com/Barber_PV_20120516, rcheek)

FITs have not been instituted nationally in the United States even though the U.
AND
a number of international solar firms moving factories specifically to that Canadian province.

FiTs are key to economic growth. Three internals: increases investor confidence, boosts manufacturing industry, and creates jobs.

Rickerson, Sawin and Grace in 2007
(Wilson H., Boston-based energy consultant focusing on renewable energy policy and markets, Janet L. Sawin is Director of the Energy and Climate Change Program at the Worldwatch Institute and Robert C. Grace specializes in technical and policy analysis of renewable energy markets, "If the Shoe FITs: Using Feed-in Tariffs to Meet U.S. Renewable Electricity Targets", The Electricity Journal, Volume 20, Issue 4, May, p. 73-86, ScienceDirect, rcheek)
In 2005, the European Commission (EC) released its report comparing the effectiveness
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(and therefore high costs for consumers) but low growth rates."39

It’s also key to international exports

Renee 12 (January 28, CalFinder, Solar News, "Good for the environment, good for the economy", http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/news/good-for-the-environment-good-for-the-economy/, Dil)
Record growth in the solar industry is good news, not only because it decreases
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stay in the U.S. and help reduce the trade deficit.

FiT’s are a key policy driver for renewables deployment, which is key to job creation

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. 9, rcheek)
As Section 6.1.1 of this book shows, Germany has become
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climate change, A Blueprint for a Safer Planet (Stern, 2009). 

De-carbonizing the economy will, grow industry, provide a clean environment and energy security, which solves U.S. military intervention in the Middle East

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. 1-2, rcheek)
’The green economy’ is a somewhat bemusing term from the perspective of ¶ the
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and Joe Biden promised to create five million new jobs through green measures. 

Growth is infinite and sustainable.

Daniel Ben-Ami, journalist/author specializing in economics, editor of Fund Strategy,11/7/2010, "Response to Tim Jackson," http://danielbenami.com/2010/11/07/response-to-tim-jackson/

• He fails to take up the central point of my introduction: that human
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  Jackson. More generally it is what separates classical humanism from green thinking.

Those conflicts go nuclear

Morgan, Political Writer, 07
(Stephen J., Political Writer and Former Member of the British Labour Party Executive Committee, "Better another Taliban Afghanistan, than a Taliban NUCLEAR Pakistan%21?", 9-23, http://www.freearticlesarchive.com/article/_Better_another_Taliban_Afghanistan__than_a_Taliban_NUCLEAR_Pakistan___/99961/0/)

However events may prove him sorely wrong. Indeed, his policy could completely backfire
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in a new Cold War with China and Russia pitted against the US.

US econ collapse causes power vacuum – multiple nuclear wars, terrorism and extinction

Aaron Friedberg Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University. Gabriel Schoenfeld  a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute 2008 ~[8/21/08, "The Dangers of a Diminished America," http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122455074012352571.html~~]

Then there are the dolorous consequences of a potential collapse of the world’s financial architecture
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of these countries seek to divert attention from internal travails with external adventures.

And, economic growth solves poverty and violent conflict

Pottebaum in 2005
(David, Chief of Party of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Promoting Governance, Accountability, Transparency and Integrity project, "CONFLICT, POVERTY, INEQUALITY, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH PRO-POOR GROWTH JANUARY", USAID Conflict issue paper, January, 2005, rcheek)
The relationship of poverty, inequality, and economic growth with violent conflict has direct
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Introducing policy change in these environments is not an easy or straightforward task.

And, poverty is the root cause of every impact – it causes disease spread, terrorism, environmental destruction, failed states and civil conflict.

Rice – Senior Fellow at Brookings – 2006 (Susan, "The threat of global poverty", The National Interest, http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2006/spring_globaleconomics_rice.aspx)

When Americans see televised images of bone-thin children with distended bellies, their
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effective action by states everywhere is necessary to reduce and combat transnational threats.   

Economic growth are the only way to prevent U.S-China Conflict

HSU 11-~["Economic Ties Could Help Prevent US-China War" Jeremy Hsu, Innovation NewsDaily Senior Writer; 01 November 2011 05:32 PM ET;
http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/660-china-military-cyber-national-security.html~~]

As the U.S. faces China’s economic and military rise, it also
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in the defense as well as economic field," the Rand analysts say. 

And, China will escalate the conflict – perception of rational escalation ensures US gets drawn into a nuclear war

Glaser, PolSci Prof at Goerge Washington, ’11 (Charles, March/April, "Will China’s Rise Lead to War?" Foreign Affairs, Vol 90 Issue 2, EbscoHost)
ACCOMMODATION ON TAIWAN? THE PROSPECTS for avoiding intense military competition and war may be
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military efforts and a general poisoning of U.S.-Chinese relations. 

====No disads – Trade creates structural disincentives for state war and deters terrorism====
Griswold 2011
Daniel Griswold is director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and author of Mad about Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization. "Free Trade and the Global Middle Class," Hayek Society Journal Vol. 9 http://www.cato.org/pubs/articles/Hayek-Society-Journal-Griswold.pdf Accessed 6/30/12-http://www.cato.org/pubs/articles/Hayek-Society-Journal-Griswold.pdf Accessed 6/30/12

Our more globalized world has also yielded a "peace dividend." It may not
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and less likely those gains will be destroyed by civil conflict and war.

And, FiTs are key to readying solar power for mass market adoption

Aheam in 2010
(Mike, Chairman of FirstSolar, a Foreward in "Powering the Green Economy: The Feed-in tariff handbook", p. xiii, rcheek)

German policy makers including Alternative Nobel Prize winner Hermann Scheer and Green Party Energy Spokesman
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world but also one of the most sustainable ¶ manufacturers of any type. 

And, the most successful FiTs are based on the real generation costs plus a small premium to help renewables generation achieve profitability

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. xxi-xxii, rcheek)

One of the most urgent questions for policy makers dealing with FITs is how to
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there be ¶ an economic incentive to invest in cleaner forms of energy. 

And, FiTs are a revolutionary tool that are key to producing a green and stable economy

Mendonça, Jacobs, and Sovacool in 2010
(Miguel, Researcher, author and advocate of sustainability and resilience strategies, David, Director Renewable Energy, IFOK GmbH, and Benjamin K., Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, "Powering the Green Economy: The feed-in tariff handbook", p. xxi-xxii, rcheek)

This book is about the most effective policy for promoting renewable energy, and ¶
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them tax revenue and high-paying jobs that stay within the community. 

First, FiTs would accelerate renewable energy market growth in the U.S.

Rickerson, Bennhold, and Bradbury in 2008
(Wilson, President of Rickerson Energy Strategies, LL C, a Boston-based consulting ¶ firm focusing on renewable energy policy and markets, Florian, s Director for Regulatory Affairs at Wilson TurboPower, Inc., a Boston-based start-up company developing advanced energy efficiency and decentralized power generation technologies, and James, Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee (WA-1), developing energy and climate policies, "Feed-in Tariffs and Renewable Energy in the USA –a Policy Update", May 2008, http://www.wind-works.org/FeedLaws/USA/Feed-in_Tariffs_and_Renewable_Energy_in_the_USA_-_a_Policy_Update.pdf-http://www.wind-works.org/FeedLaws/USA/Feed-in_Tariffs_and_Renewable_Energy_in_the_USA_-_a_Policy_Update.pdf, rcheek)

During the past decade, there has been remarkable progress in renewable energy policy ¶
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the emerging policy mechanisms that are being considered are feed-in tariffs.