Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Index
1AC Action
Index..............................................................................................................................................................................................1
This Page is Blank.........................................................................................................................................................................6
RPS 1AC – Contention 1...............................................................................................................................................................7
RPS 1AC – Plan............................................................................................................................................................................8
RPS 1AC – Fossil Fuels Adv.........................................................................................................................................................9
RPS 1AC – Fossil Fuels Adv.......................................................................................................................................................10
RPS 1AC – Fossil Fuels Adv.......................................................................................................................................................11
RPS 1AC – Fossil Fuels Adv.......................................................................................................................................................12
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................13
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................14
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................15
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................16
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................17
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................18
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................19
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................20
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................21
RPS 1AC – Economy Adv..........................................................................................................................................................22
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................23
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................24
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................25
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................26
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................27
RPS 1AC – Competitiveness Adv...............................................................................................................................................28
RPS 1AC – China Adv................................................................................................................................................................29
RPS 1AC – China Adv................................................................................................................................................................30
RPS 1AC – China Adv................................................................................................................................................................31
RPS 1AC – U.S.-E.U. Relations Adv..........................................................................................................................................32
RPS 1AC – U.S.-E.U. Relations Adv..........................................................................................................................................33
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................34
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................35
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................36
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................37
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................38
RPS 1AC – Solvency...................................................................................................................................................................39
Environment Ext – Coal Consumption Increasing......................................................................................................................40
Environment Ext – RPS Reduces Coal Use................................................................................................................................41
Environment Ext – Renewables Conserve Water........................................................................................................................42
Environment Ext – Conventional Energies Pollute Water..........................................................................................................43
Environment Ext – Fossil Fuel Production Destorys Environment............................................................................................44
Environment Ext – Renewables Reduce Land Use.....................................................................................................................45
Environment Ext – Air Pollution – 2AC.....................................................................................................................................46
Environment Ext – Coal Casues Acid Rain.................................................................................................................................47
Environment Ext – SO2 and NOxAcid Rain...........................................................................................................................48
Environment Ext – Acid Rain Impacts........................................................................................................................................49
Environment Ext – RPS Solves Acid Rain..................................................................................................................................50
Environment Ext – Health Impact...............................................................................................................................................51
Environment Ext – Global Warming – 2AC................................................................................................................................52
Environment Ext – Global Warming Internals............................................................................................................................53
Environment Ext – Global Warming Internals............................................................................................................................54
Environment Ext – Global Warming Internals............................................................................................................................55
Environment Ext – Global Warming Solvency...........................................................................................................................56
Environment Ext – Renewables Reduce Pollution & Greenhouse.............................................................................................57
Environment Ext – U.S. Environmental Leadership Solves Globally........................................................................................58
Economy Ext – RPS Reduces FF Transportation Costs..............................................................................................................59
Economy Ext – Biz Con Internal Link........................................................................................................................................60
RPS Aff 2
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Economy Ext – Biz Con Internal Link........................................................................................................................................61
Natural Gas Ext – Steel Industry Addon – 2AC..........................................................................................................................62
Natural Gas Ext – Prices Increasing............................................................................................................................................63
Natural Gas Ext – Prices Increasing............................................................................................................................................64
Natural Gas Ext – High Prices Destroy the Chemical Industry..................................................................................................65
Natural Gas Ext – High Prices Destroy the Chemical Industry..................................................................................................66
Natural Gas Ext – Fertilizer Food Impacts..................................................................................................................................67
Natural Gas Ext – Fertilizer Pakistan Impact..............................................................................................................................68
Natural Gas Ext – Renewables Reduce LNG Imports................................................................................................................69
Natural Gas Ext – RPS Reduces Gas Demand & Prices.............................................................................................................70
Natural Gas Ext – RPS Reduces Gas Demand & Prices.............................................................................................................71
Natural Gas Ext – RPS Solves Price Spikes / AE Helps Chemical Industry..............................................................................72
Natural Gas Ext – Alternative Energy Helps Chemical Industry................................................................................................73
Blackouts Ext – Investment in Transmission Needed.................................................................................................................74
Blackouts Ext – Utilities Intentionally Promote Congestion......................................................................................................75
Blackouts Ext – Blackouts Coming Now....................................................................................................................................76
Blackouts Ext – Blackouts Coming Now....................................................................................................................................77
Blackouts Ext – A2: Blackouts Don’t Happen............................................................................................................................78
Blackouts Ext – A2: 2005 Energy Act Fixed Problem................................................................................................................79
Blackouts Ext – Minor Failures Snowball...................................................................................................................................80
Blackouts Ext – Impacts..............................................................................................................................................................81
Blackouts Ext – Impacts..............................................................................................................................................................82
Blackouts Ext – Impacts..............................................................................................................................................................83
Blackouts Ext – Renewables Solves............................................................................................................................................84
Blackouts Ext – RPS Solves........................................................................................................................................................85
Blackouts Ext – RPS Solves........................................................................................................................................................86
Blackouts Ext – RPS Solves........................................................................................................................................................87
Grid Security Ext – Grid Vulnerable Now..................................................................................................................................88
Grid Security Ext – Grid Vulnerable Now..................................................................................................................................89
Grid Security Ext – Impacts........................................................................................................................................................90
Grid Security Ext – Impacts........................................................................................................................................................91
Grid Security Ext – Renewable Solves / Key to Distributed Generation....................................................................................92
Grid Security Ext – Renewable Solves / Key to Distributed Generation....................................................................................93
Grid Security Ext – Renewable Solves / Key to Distributed Generation....................................................................................94
Grid Security Ext – A2: Wind Turbines Will be Attacked...........................................................................................................95
Unemployment Ext – Economy Internals...................................................................................................................................96
Unemployment Ext – RPS = Jobs...............................................................................................................................................97
Unemployment Ext – RPS = Jobs...............................................................................................................................................98
Unemployment Ext – RPS Increases Manufacturing..................................................................................................................99
Unemployment Ext – RPS = Jobs in Midwest / Rural Areas....................................................................................................100
Competitiveness Ext – RPS Will Boost Competitiveness.........................................................................................................101
Competitiveness Ext – RPS = Export Capabilities....................................................................................................................102
Competitiveness Ext – Increased Renewables Key to Exports Markets...................................................................................103
Competitiveness Ext – Solar Key to Tech Leadership..............................................................................................................104
Competitiveness Ext – RPS Key to Create Demand For RE....................................................................................................105
Competitiveness Ext – Renewable Market Key to Tech Leadership........................................................................................106
Competitiveness Ext – Renewable Market Key to Tech Leadership........................................................................................107
Competitiveness Ext – Competitiveness Key to Heg / Heg Impact..........................................................................................108
Competitiveness Ext – RE has Huge Market Potential.............................................................................................................109
Competitiveness Ext – U.S. Falling Behind / Small Threshold for Adv...................................................................................110
Competitiveness Ext – A2: Renewables Manufactured Abroad................................................................................................111
China Ext – Climate Impact / U.S. Solvency [1/2]...................................................................................................................112
China Ext – Climate Impact / U.S. Solvency [2/2]...................................................................................................................113
China Ext – Energy Consumption / Pollution Increasing..........................................................................................................114
China Ext – China Not Solving Now........................................................................................................................................115
China Ext – Death Impacts .......................................................................................................................................................116
China Ext – Agriculture Impact.................................................................................................................................................117
China Ext – Economy Impact....................................................................................................................................................118
China Ext – Economy Impact....................................................................................................................................................119
China Ext – Pollution Impacts...................................................................................................................................................120
RPS Aff 3
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
China Ext – Warming / Biodiversity Impacts............................................................................................................................121
China Ext – U.S. Export Solvency............................................................................................................................................122
China Ext – U.S. Export Solvency............................................................................................................................................123
China Ext – Energy Cooperation Key to Relations...................................................................................................................124
China Ext – Energy Cooperation Key to Relations...................................................................................................................125
Terrorism Ext – Cooperation ....................................................................................................................................................126
Terrorism Ext – Impacts............................................................................................................................................................127
Hegemony – Energy Policy Key to Global Leadership............................................................................................................128
Hegemony – Renewables / Market Key to Leadership.............................................................................................................129
Hegemony – Concessions on Climate Key to Coop & Heg......................................................................................................130
Hegemony – Concessions on Climate Key to Coop & Heg......................................................................................................131
No Renewables Now.................................................................................................................................................................132
No Renewables Now.................................................................................................................................................................133
State RPSs Undermines Renewables.........................................................................................................................................134
A2: States Solving Now............................................................................................................................................................135
A2: States Solving Now............................................................................................................................................................136
Federal RPS Good – Laundry List............................................................................................................................................137
Federal RPS key to Expand Renewables...................................................................................................................................138
Federal RPS key to Expand Renewables...................................................................................................................................139
Federal RPS key to Expand Renewables...................................................................................................................................140
Renewables Good – Laundry List.............................................................................................................................................141
Renewables Good – Laundry List.............................................................................................................................................142
Federal RPS Good – National REC Market..............................................................................................................................143
Federal RPS Good – National REC Market..............................................................................................................................144
RECs = Transition to Renewables.............................................................................................................................................145
RECs = Transition to Renewables.............................................................................................................................................146
A2: RPS Bad Arguments ***....................................................................................................................................................147
A2: RPS Bad Arguments ***....................................................................................................................................................148
A2: Renewables are Intermittent / Unreliable .........................................................................................................................149
A2: Renewables are Intermittent / Unreliable .........................................................................................................................150
A2: Renewables are Intermittent / Unreliable .........................................................................................................................151
A2: RPS Only Increases Wind Power.......................................................................................................................................152
A2: No Interconnection / A2: RPS Causes Electricity Restructuring.......................................................................................153
A2: Long Timeframe for Renewables.......................................................................................................................................154
A2: Meet Targets.......................................................................................................................................................................155
A2: RPS Hurts Certain States / Regions ...................................................................................................................................156
A2: RPS Hurts Certain States / Regions ...................................................................................................................................157
A2: Southeastern Region Can’t Meet RPS................................................................................................................................158
A2: No Enforcement..................................................................................................................................................................159
A2: No Enforcement / Coordination with State RECs..............................................................................................................160
A2: No Materials for Renewables.............................................................................................................................................161
Wind Solves Pollution / CO2....................................................................................................................................................162
Wind Solves Pollution / CO2....................................................................................................................................................163
Wind Helps Environment..........................................................................................................................................................164
Wind Key to Competitiveness...................................................................................................................................................165
Wind Increases Jobs..................................................................................................................................................................166
Wind Solves Rural Economy....................................................................................................................................................167
Wind Increases Tourism ...........................................................................................................................................................168
Wind Can Meet All Energy Needs............................................................................................................................................169
Wind Has Larget Potential in Electiricty Market......................................................................................................................170
Wind Solves Natural Gas Price Shocks.....................................................................................................................................171
Wind Solves Terrorist Attacks...................................................................................................................................................172
Wind is Key to Transition to Hydrogen ....................................................................................................................................173
Wind is Key to Transition to Hydrogen ....................................................................................................................................174
Wind is Key to Transition to Hydrogen ....................................................................................................................................175
A2: Wind Kills Birds.................................................................................................................................................................176
A2: Wind Kills Bats...................................................................................................................................................................177
A2: Wind Kills Animals ...........................................................................................................................................................178
A2: Wind Hurts Soil / Environment / Causes Emissions..........................................................................................................179
A2: Wind Disrupts Radar..........................................................................................................................................................180
RPS Aff 4
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Wind Disrupts Radar..........................................................................................................................................................181
A2: Wind Disrupts Radar..........................................................................................................................................................182
A2: Wind is Expensive..............................................................................................................................................................183
A2: Wind Still Needs to Be Backed Up....................................................................................................................................184
Wind Power Popular With Public..............................................................................................................................................185
Bush Supports Wind Power.......................................................................................................................................................186
A2: States CP – Permutation.....................................................................................................................................................187
A2: States CP – Empowers / Gives States Flexibility...............................................................................................................188
A2: States CP – States More Expensive....................................................................................................................................189
A2: States CP – Predictability & Investment............................................................................................................................190
A2: States CP – Predictability & Investment............................................................................................................................191
A2: States CP – Predictability & Investment............................................................................................................................192
A2: States CP – Industry Wants Federal RPS............................................................................................................................193
A2: States CP – Uncertainty & Cost.........................................................................................................................................194
A2: States CP – Uncertainty & Cost.........................................................................................................................................195
A2: States CP – Key to Effective REC......................................................................................................................................196
A2: States CP – Key to Effective REC......................................................................................................................................197
A2: States CP – Federal Key to Clarify Renewables................................................................................................................198
A2: States CP – Natural Gas Prices...........................................................................................................................................199
A2: States CP – Can’t Solve Environmental Leadership..........................................................................................................200
A2: States CP – Uniformity Answers........................................................................................................................................201
A2: States CP – No Federal Modeling......................................................................................................................................202
A2: States CP – Lawsuits – 2AC...............................................................................................................................................203
A2: States CP – Lawsuits – 1AR...............................................................................................................................................204
A2: States CP – Lawsuits Will Collapse Energy Policy ...........................................................................................................205
A2: States CP – Implemenation = Dormant Commerce Clause Problems................................................................................206
A2: States CP – Texas & Pennsylvania Face Constitutional Challenge....................................................................................207
A2: States CP – Constitutional Challenges Inevitable..............................................................................................................208
A2: States CP – Constitutional Challenges Inevitable..............................................................................................................209
A2: States CP – Litigation Risk Discourages Investment.........................................................................................................210
A2: States CP – Can’t Fiat Out of Commerce Clause Argument..............................................................................................211
A2: States CP – A2: In-State Consumption Avoids Legal Challenge.......................................................................................212
A2: States CP – National RPS Prevents Lawsuits.....................................................................................................................213
A2: Any PIC..............................................................................................................................................................................214
A2: CPs that Stipulate Additional Regulations.........................................................................................................................215
A2: Exclude “X” Power Plant CP.............................................................................................................................................216
A2: Exclude “X” State Counterplan..........................................................................................................................................217
A2: Safety Valve CP..................................................................................................................................................................218
A2: CP to Favor One Type of a Renewable...............................................................................................................................219
A2: Expand Beyond 20% CP....................................................................................................................................................220
A2: Smaller Percentage (15%, etc) CPs....................................................................................................................................221
A2: Smaller Percentage (15%, etc) CPs....................................................................................................................................222
A2: Include Clean Coal / Energy Efficiency in RPS.................................................................................................................223
A2: Include Nuclear or Clean Coal Technology in RPS...........................................................................................................224
A2: CPs to Expand Renewables................................................................................................................................................225
A2: Energy Efficiency or Transportation CPs...........................................................................................................................226
A2: Cap-and-Trade CP..............................................................................................................................................................227
A2: Cap-and-Trade CP / A2: Carbon Tax CP............................................................................................................................228
A2: Production Tax Credit CP...................................................................................................................................................229
A2: Production Tax Credit CP – Unpopular in Congress..........................................................................................................230
A2: Production Tax Credit CP – Unpopular in Congress..........................................................................................................231
A2: Free Market CP / Coercion.................................................................................................................................................232
A2: Free Market CP / Coercion.................................................................................................................................................233
A2: Education CP......................................................................................................................................................................234
A2: Education CP......................................................................................................................................................................235
A2: Education CP......................................................................................................................................................................236
A2: Nuclear Power CP..............................................................................................................................................................237
A2: Nuclear Power CP..............................................................................................................................................................238
A2: Nuclear Power CP – Permutation Evidence.......................................................................................................................239
A2: Clean Coal CP....................................................................................................................................................................240
RPS Aff 5
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Clean Coal CP....................................................................................................................................................................241
A2: Coal DA ***.......................................................................................................................................................................242
A2: Industry / Business DAs ....................................................................................................................................................243
A2: Industry / Business DAs ....................................................................................................................................................244
A2: Industry / Business DAs ....................................................................................................................................................245
A2: Nuclear Power DA .............................................................................................................................................................246
A2: Nuclear Power DA.............................................................................................................................................................247
A2: Energy Prices DA...............................................................................................................................................................248
A2: Energy Prices DA...............................................................................................................................................................249
A2: Federalism DA...................................................................................................................................................................250
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................251
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................252
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................253
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................254
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................255
A2: Federalism DA....................................................................................................................................................................256
A2: Kritiks.................................................................................................................................................................................257
A2: Kritiks.................................................................................................................................................................................258
A2: Topicality – RPS is an Incentive ........................................................................................................................................259
RPS Aff 6
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Individuals States are adopting renewable portfolio standards – creating an uncertain regulatory environment for
investors and fueling market distortions. Only a federal RPS can create a diverse, predictable and stable national
renewable market
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
State-based renewable portfolio standards (RPS) create regulatory uncertainty for investors and inherent inequities among
ratepayers. Ultimately, federal legislation can help create a more just, diverse and predictable national market for renewable
resources without significantly increasing aggregate electricity prices.
"There are times when we are 50 states and there are times when we're one country and have national needs. And the way I
know this is that Florida did not fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights." - (the fictional) President Josiah
Bartlett, The West Wing
Arguably, we face no greater national priority than crafting a coherent national energy strategy. Americans face energy
challenges over the next several decades - growing dependence on foreign sources of fuel, continued exposure to the threat of
terrorist sabotage,1 increasing vulnerability to impending climate change, and environmental threats - that demand
progressive federal leadership. Yet federal legislation to establish a national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) has failed no
less than 17 times in the past 10 years.
While supporting state-based RPS efforts, the Bush Administration has officially opposed a national RPS on the grounds that
it would create "winners" and "losers" among regions of the country and increase electricity prices in places where renewable
resources are less abundant or harder to cultivate.2 In the meantime, 21 states (and the District of Columbia) have adopted
their own RPS mandates, and eight others - Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont, and
Virginia - are considering some form of RPS.
With so much state-level action, one might be tempted to agree with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
(NRECA) that "activities on a number of fronts supplant the need for a federal RPS."3 But looks can be deceiving. Because
the accumulated demand for electricity is expected to accelerate over the next several decades, the penetration of renewable
energy technologies in individual states, while noteworthy, is not likely to substantially alter the national fuel mix nor
materially address the energy risks we all face.
Framing the debate as a choice between a perfectly functioning, undistorted energy market and a clunky, artificial federal
intervention, opponents of a national RPS tend to ignore the unique drawbacks associated with a complex web of state-based
mandates.4 Indeed, the most compelling argument for federal action is that a national RPS may help correct many of the
market distortions brought about by a patchwork of inconsistent state actions. Not only does reliance on state-based action
make for an uncertain regulatory environment for potential investors, it creates inherent inequities between ratepayers in
some states that are paying for "free riders" in others. Ultimately, federal legislation can help create a more just, more diverse
and more predictable national market for renewable resources without significantly increasing aggregate electricity prices. A
national RPS may help correct many of the market distortions brought about by a patchwork of inconsistent state actions.
RPS Aff 8
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The Unites States federal government should require that retail power providers meet at least 20 percent of electricity
demand with renewable energy by 2020 and establish renewable energy credits to facilitate this goal.
Plan #2
The Unites States federal government should require that by 2020 regulated utilities meet 20 percent of net electricity
demand from electricity generated by qualified renewable sources (generators harnessing electricity from sunlight,
wind, falling water, sustainable biomass, waste, and geothermal sources) and establish renewable energy credits to
facilitate this goal.
RPS Aff 9
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Conventional energy sources results in thousands of systemic deaths – outweighs the one-shot risk of their disad
Dr. Sovacool, 8 – Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant
Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA
(Benjamin K., also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
“The Costs of Major Energy Accidents, 1907 to 2007,” 4-29-2008,
www.scitizen.com/stories/Future-Energies/2008/04/The-Costs-of-Major-Energy-Accidents-1907-to-2007/) // JMP
Conventional energy technologies-- namely nuclear, coal, oil, gas, and hydroelectric power generators-- may kill more people
than you think.
From 1907 to 2007, a new study finds that 279 major energy accidents in the coal, oil, natural gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear
sectors have been responsible for $41 billion in damages and 182,156 deaths.
The claim that humans are imperfect needs no further citation. It is unsurprising, then, that major energy accidents occur. But what counts as an energy
“accident,” especially a “major” one?
The study attempted to answer this question by searching historical archives, newspaper and magazine articles, and press wire reports from 1907 to 2007.
The words “energy,” “electricity,” “oil,” “coal,” “natural gas,” “nuclear,” “renewable,” and “hydroelectric” were searched in the same sentence as the words
“accident,” “disaster,” “incident,” “failure,” “meltdown,” “explosion,” “spill,” and “leak.” The study then narrowed results according to five criteria:
The accident must have involved an energy system at the production/generation, transmission, and distribution phase. This means it must have occurred at an
oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, renewable, or hydroelectric plant, its associated infrastructure, or within its fuel cycle (mine, refinery, pipeline, enrichment
facility, etc.);
It must have resulted in at least one death or property damage above $50,000 (in constant dollars that has not been normalized for growth in capital stock);
It had to be unintentional and in the civilian sector, meaning that military accidents and events during war and conflict are not covered, nor are intentional
attacks. The study only counted documented cases of accident and failure;
It had to occur between August, 1907 and August, 2007;
It had to be verified by a published source;
The study adjusted all damages—including destruction of property, emergency response, environmental remediation, evacuation, lost product, fines, and
court claims—to 2006 U.S. dollars using the Statistical Abstracts of the United States.
Unsurprisingly, the data concerning major energy accidents is inhomogeneous. While responsible for less than 1 percent of total energy accidents,
hydroelectric facilities claimed 94 percent of reported fatalities. Looking at the gathered data, the total results on fatalities are highly dominated one accident
in which the Shimantan Dam failed in 1975 and 171,000 people perished.
Only three of the listed 279 accidents resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, and each of these varied in almost every aspect. One involved the structural failure
of a dam more than 30 years ago in China; one involved a nuclear meltdown in the Ukraine two decades ago; and one involved the rupture of a petroleum
pipeline in Nigeria around ten years ago.
The study found that only a small amount of accidents caused property damages greater than $1 billion, with most accidents below the $100 million mark.
The second largest source of fatalities, nuclear reactors, is also the second most capital intense, supporting the notion that the larger a facility the more grave
(albeit rare) the consequences of its failure. The inverse seems true for oil, natural gas, and coal systems: they fail far more frequently, but have
comparatively fewer deaths and damage per each instance of failure.
While hydroelectric plants were responsible for the most fatalities, nuclear plants rank first in terms of their economic cost, accounting for 41 percent of all
property damage. Oil and hydroelectric come next at around 25 percent each, followed by natural gas at 9 percent and coal at 2 percent.
By energy source, the most frequent energy system to fail is natural gas, followed by oil, nuclear, coal, and then hydroelectric. Ninety-one accidents occurred
at natural gas facilities, accounting for 33 percent of the total; oil, 71 accidents at 25 percent; nuclear, 63 accidents at 23 percent; coal, 51 accidents at 18
percent; hydroelectric, 3 accidents at 1 percent.
Therefore, energy accidents exact a significant toll on human health and welfare, the natural environment, and society. Such
accidents are now part of our daily routines, a somewhat intractable feature of our energy-intensive lifestyles. They are an often-ignored negative externality
associated with energy conversion and use. This conclusion may seem quite banal to some, given how fully integrated energy technologies are into modern
society. Yet energy systems continue to fail despite drastic improvements in design, construction, operation, and maintenance,
as well as the best of intentions among policymakers and operators.
Perhaps one striking difference between energy accidents and other “normal” risks facing society concerns the involuntary
aspects of energy accidents. Alcoholics, rock climbers, construction workers, soldiers, and gigolos all take a somewhat active and voluntary role in
their risky behavior. Those suffering from nuclear meltdowns, exploding gas clouds, and petroleum-contaminated water do not.
The death and destruction associated with large-scale energy technologies is significant. Tallied as a whole, the 182,156
energy-related deaths total more than twice the number that died in the Vietnam War. Indeed, if averaged out for each year,
energy technologies have been responsible for the equivalent of a September 11, 2001 happening every 1.65 years, year after
year.
The fact that such deaths are systemic means that they can be predicted to occur, with certainty, well into the future. Therein
also lies hope, for recurring events can be anticipated and responded to. Their “high probability” means that they can be more
easily predicted, planned for, and minimized than unforeseen and catastrophic events.
RPS Aff 10
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
B. Water Conservation
If projected electricity demand is met using water-intensive fossil fuel and nuclear reactors, America will soon be withdrawing more water for electricity production than for
farming. Perhaps the
most important—and least discussed—advantage to a federal RPS is its ability to displace electricity generation that
is extremely water-intensive. The nation’s oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear facilities consume about 3.3 billion gallons of water each day.244 In 2006, they accounted
for almost 40 percent of all freshwater withdrawals (water diverted or withdrawn from a surface- or ground-water source), roughly equivalent to all the water withdrawals for
irrigated agriculture in the entire United States.245
A conventional 500 MW coal plant, for instance, consumes around 7,000 gallons of water per minute, or the equivalent of 17
Olympic-sized swimming pools every day.246 Older, less efficient plants can be much worse. In Georgia, the 3,400 MW Sherer coal facility consumes as much
as 9,913 gallons of water for every MWh of electricity it generates. 247 Data from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) also confirms that every type of traditional power
plant consumes and withdraws vast amounts of water. Conventional power plants use thousands of gallons of water for the condensing portion of their thermodynamic cycle. Coal
plants also use water to clean and process fuel, and all traditional plants lose water through evaporative loss.
Newer technologies, while they withdraw less water, actually consume more. Advanced power plant systems that rely on re-circulating, closed-loop cooling
technology convert more water to steam that is vented to the atmosphere. Closed-loop systems also rely on greater amounts of water for cleaning and therefore return less water to
the original source. Thus, while modern power plants may reduce water withdrawals by up to 10 percent, they contribute even more to the nation’s
water scarcity.248
Nuclear reactors, in particular, require massive supplies of water to cool reactor cores and spent nuclear fuel rods. Because much of the water is turned to steam, substantial
amounts are lost to the local water table entirely. One nuclear plant in Georgia, for example, withdraws an average of 57 million gallons every day from the Altamaha River, but
actually “consumes” (primarily as lost water vapor) 33 million gallons per day from the local supply, enough to service more than 196,000 Georgia homes,.249
With electricity demand expected to grow by approximately 50 percent in the next 25 years, continuing
to rely on fossil fuel-fired and nuclear generators
could spark a water scarcity crisis. In 2006, the Department of Energy warned that consumption of water for electricity production could more than double by 2030,
to 7.3 billion gallons per day, if new power plants continue to be built with evaporative cooling. This staggering amount is equal to the entire country’s water consumption in
1995.250
Water Shortages
The electric utility industry’s vast appetite for water has serious consequences, both for human consumption and the environment.
Assuming the latest Census Bureau projections, the U.S. population is expected to grow by about 70 million people in the next 25 years.251 Such population growth is already
threatening to overwhelm existing supplies of fresh and potable water.
Few new reservoirs have been built since 1980 and some regions have seen groundwater levels drop as much as 300 to 900 feet over the past 50 years as aquifers extract water
faster than the natural rate of replenishment.252 Most state water managers expect either local or regional water shortages within the next 10 years, according to a recent survey,
even under “normal” conditions.253 In fact, 47 states in the country reported drought conditions during the summer of 2002.254
Water shortages risk becoming more acute in the coming years as climate change alters precipitation patterns. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, global warming is expected
to induce a dramatic loss of snow-pack as more precipitation falls as rain. As a result, numerous studies have suggested that the hydrology of the region will be fundamentally
altered with increased flood risks in the spring and reductions of snow in the winter. 255 Consequently, power retailers in the region have expressed concern that large
hydroelectric and nuclear facilities will have to be shut down due to lack of adequate water for electricity generation and cooling.256 During the steamy August of 2006, the record
heat sparked unplanned reactor shutdowns in Michigan and Minnesota as nuclear plant operators scrambled to find enough water to cool radioactive fuel cores.257
Thermal Pollution
The Argonne National Laboratory has documented how
power plants have withdrawn hundreds of millions of gallons of water each day for
cooling purposes and then discharged the heated water back to the same or a nearby water body. This process of “once-through” cooling
presents potential environmental impacts by impinging aquatic organisms in intake screens and by affecting aquatic ecosystems by discharge effluent that is far hotter than the
surrounding surface waters.259 Drawing water into a plant often kills fish and other aquatic organisms, and the extensive array of
cooling towers, ponds, and underwater vents used by most plants have been documented to severely damage riparian environments.
In some cases, the thermal pollution from centralized power plants can induce eutrophication—a process where the warmer
temperature alters the chemical composition of the water, resulting in a rapid increase of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Rather than
improving the ecosystem, such alterations usually promote excessive plant growth and decay, favoring certain weedy species over
others and severely reducing water quality. In riparian environments, the enhanced growth of choking vegetation can collapse
entire ecosystems. This form of thermal pollution has been known to decrease the aesthetic and recreational value of rivers, lakes, and estuaries and complicate drinking
water treatment.260 // pg. 97-100
RPS Aff 11
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Coyne and Hoekstra, 07 - *professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago AND **
Associate Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University (Jerry and Hopi, The
New Republic, “The Greatest Dying,” 9/24, http://www.truthout.org/article/jerry-coyne-and-hopi-e-hoekstra-the-greatest-
dying)
Aside from the Great Dying, there have been four other mass extinctions, all of which severely pruned life's diversity. Scientists agree that we're now in the midst of a sixth such episode. This new one,
We are relentlessly taking over the
however, is different - and, in many ways, much worse. For, unlike earlier extinctions, this one results from the work of a single species, Homo sapiens.
planet, laying it to waste and eliminating most of our fellow species. Moreover, we're doing it much faster than the mass
extinctions that came before. Every year, up to 30,000 species disappear due to human activity alone. At this rate, we could
lose half of Earth's species in this century. And, unlike with previous extinctions, there's no hope that biodiversity will ever
recover, since the cause of the decimation - us - is here to stay.
To scientists, this is an unparalleled calamity, far more severe than global warming, which is, after all, only one of many threats to biodiversity. Yet global warming gets far more press. Why? One reason is
that, while the increase in temperature is easy to document, the decrease of species is not. Biologists don't know, for example, exactly how many species exist on Earth. Estimates range widely, from three
million to more than 50 million, and that doesn't count microbes, critical (albeit invisible) components of ecosystems. We're not certain about the rate of extinction, either; how could we be, since the vast
majority of species have yet to be described? We're even less sure how the loss of some species will affect the ecosystems in which they're embedded, since the intricate connection between organisms means
that the loss of a single species can ramify unpredictably.
But we do know some things. Tropical rainforests are disappearing at a rate of 2 percent per year. Populations of most large fish are down to only 10 percent of what they were in 1950. Many primates and all
the great apes - our closest relatives - are nearly gone from the wild.
And we know that extinction and global warming act synergistically. Extinction exacerbates global warming: By burning rainforests, we're not only polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide (a major
greenhouse gas) but destroying the very plants that can remove this gas from the air. Conversely, global warming increases extinction, both directly (killing corals) and indirectly (destroying the habitats of
Arctic and Antarctic animals). As extinction increases, then, so does global warming, which in turn causes more extinction - and so on, into a downward spiral of destruction.
Why, exactly, should we care? Let's start with the most celebrated case: the rainforests. Their loss will worsen global warming - raising temperatures, melting icecaps, and flooding coastal cities. And, as the
forest habitat shrinks, so begins the inevitable contact between organisms that have not evolved together, a scenario played out many times, and one that is never good. Dreadful diseases have successfully
jumped species boundaries, with humans as prime recipients. We have gotten aids from apes, sars from civets, and Ebola from fruit bats. Additional worldwide plagues from unknown microbes are a very real
possibility.
But it isn't just the destruction of the rainforests that should trouble us. Healthy ecosystems the world over provide hidden services like waste disposal,
nutrient cycling, soil formation, water purification, and oxygen production. Such services are best rendered by ecosystems that are diverse. Yet, through both
intention and accident, humans have introduced exotic species that turn biodiversity into monoculture. Fast-growing zebra mussels, for example, have outcompeted more than 15 species of native mussels in
North America's Great Lakes and have damaged harbors and water-treatment plants. Native prairies are becoming dominated by single species (often genetically homogenous) of corn or wheat. Thanks to these
with increased pollution and runoff, as
developments, soils will erode and become unproductive - which, along with temperature change, will diminish agricultural yields. Meanwhile,
well as reduced forest cover, ecosystems will no longer be able to purify water; and a shortage of clean water spells disaster.
In many ways, oceans are the most vulnerable areas of all. As overfishing eliminates major predators, while polluted and
warming waters kill off phytoplankton, the intricate aquatic food web could collapse from both sides. Fish, on which so many humans
depend, will be a fond memory. As phytoplankton vanish, so does the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. (Half of the oxygen we breathe is made by phytoplankton, with the rest
coming from land plants.) Species extinction is also imperiling coral reefs - a major problem since these reefs have far more than recreational value: They provide tremendous amounts of food for human
populations and buffer coastlines against erosion.
In fact, the global value of "hidden" services provided by ecosystems - those services, like waste disposal, that aren't bought and sold in the marketplace - has been estimated to be as much as $50 trillion per
year, roughly equal to the gross domestic product of all countries combined. And that doesn't include tangible goods like fish and timber. Life as we know it would be impossible if
ecosystems collapsed. Yet that is where we're heading if species extinction continues at its current pace.
Extinction also has a huge impact on medicine. Who really cares if, say, a worm in the remote swamps of French Guiana goes extinct? Well, those who suffer from cardiovascular disease. The recent
discovery of a rare South American leech has led to the isolation of a powerful enzyme that, unlike other anticoagulants, not only prevents blood from clotting but also dissolves existing clots. And it's not just
this one species of worm: Its wriggly relatives have evolved other biomedically valuable proteins, including antistatin (a potential anticancer agent), decorsin and ornatin (platelet aggregation inhibitors), and
hirudin (another anticoagulant).
Plants, too, are pharmaceutical gold mines. The bark of trees, for example, has given us quinine (the first cure for malaria), taxol (a drug highly effective against ovarian and breast cancer), and aspirin. More
than a quarter of the medicines on our pharmacy shelves were originally derived from plants. The sap of the Madagascar periwinkle contains more than 70 useful alkaloids, including vincristine, a powerful
anticancer drug that saved the life of one of our friends.
Of the roughly 250,000 plant species on Earth, fewer than 5 percent have been screened for pharmaceutical properties. Who knows what life-saving drugs remain to be discovered? Given current extinction
rates, it's estimated that we're losing one valuable drug every two years.
Our arguments so far have tacitly assumed that species are worth saving only in proportion to their economic value and their effects on our quality of life, an attitude that is strongly ingrained, especially in
Americans. That is why conservationists always base their case on an economic calculus. But we biologists know in our hearts that there are deeper and equally compelling reasons to worry about the loss of
biodiversity: namely, simple morality and intellectual values that transcend pecuniary interests. What, for example, gives us the right to destroy other creatures? And what could be more thrilling than looking
around us, seeing that we are surrounded by our evolutionary cousins, and realizing that we all got here by the same simple process of natural selection? To biologists, and potentially everyone else,
apprehending the genetic kinship and common origin of all species is a spiritual experience - not necessarily religious, but spiritual nonetheless, for it stirs the soul.
But, whether or not one is moved by such concerns, it is certain that our future is bleak if we do nothing to stem this sixth extinction. We are
creating a world in which exotic diseases flourish but natural medicinal cures are lost; a world in which carbon waste
accumulates while food sources dwindle; a world of sweltering heat, failing crops, and impure water. In the end, we must
accept the possibility that we ourselves are not immune to extinction. Or, if we survive, perhaps only a few of us will remain,
scratching out a grubby existence on a devastated planet. Global warming will seem like a secondary problem when
humanity finally faces the consequences of what we have done to nature: not just another Great Dying, but perhaps the
greatest dying of them all.
RPS Aff 12
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
But what if it can't? What if the global economy stagnates - or even shrinks? In that case, we will face a new period of
international conflict: South against North, rich against poor. Russia, China, India - these countries with theirbillions of
people and their nuclear weapons will pose a much greater danger to world order than Germany and Japan did in the '30s.
First is pollution – particulate matter from power plants kills tens of thousands and has a devastating impact on the
U.S. economy
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
The electricity sector demand for natural gas is increasing – making future price spikes inevitable
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America:
The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Bezdek and Wendling, 04 – work for Management Information Services Inc. (Roger and Robert, PUBLIC UTILITIES
FORTNIGHTLY, “The Case Against Gas Dependence”, April, lexis)
Moreover, two articles last year in Public Utilities Fortnightly that addressed natural gas supply, demand, and price issues seemed to confuse the solution with the problem. Robert
Linden noted that high gas prices would lead to "demand destruction" in the industrial sector, which would, in part, counterbalance
increasing power sector demand. n17 He further stated, "This price-induced demand destruction can be added to the other causes of reduced
gas demand, including the closure of industrial facilities using natural gas as a feedstock." n18 Similarly, John Herbert, after noting
that high natural gas prices have forced U.S. fertilizer plants to shut down, stated, "As fertilizer and other chemical plants
continue to shut down, this will reduce demand for natural gas and increase overall supplies." n19
Both authors are correct in pointing out that high natural gas prices will tend to reduce industrial natural gas demand as industrial plants shut down, and that this will temper future
natural gas price increases. However, the "destruction" of the nation's industrial sector is an extremely serious problem for the United States;
it is not a "solution" to the natural-gas pricing problem. We
should be very concerned with the strongly negative impact high natural gas prices
are having on the U.S. industrial sector and the potential implications of this for the U.S. economy.
Despite all of the hype in recent years about the new economy, the information economy, the service economy, etc., manufacturing is, by far, the most critical
sector of the U.S. economy, and it creates the broad foundation upon which the rest of the economy grows. n20 Manufacturing
drives the rest of the economy, provides a disproportionate share of the nation's tax base, generates innovation, and
disseminates new technology throughout the economy. The average manufacturing job creates 4.2 jobs directly and indirectly throughout the economy,
whereas the average service and retail job generates about one other job, directly and indirectly.
The manufacturing sector uses 40 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States, and virtually every manufacturing
industry is heavily dependent on natural gas as a fuel, feedstock, and, increasingly, as a source of electricity generation. Price
spikes in the cost of natural gas and electricity in the fall of 2000 precipitated the current manufacturing recession. During the past
three years, this sector has been severely affected, losing more than 2.5 million jobs. n21 The current manufacturing recovery is slower than the first year of any recovery in 40
years. n22 Manufacturing is suffering from intense global competition and cannot pass though increased energy costs via
product price increases.
Reliance on low-cost natural gas has been an often-unrecognized factor in the U.S. manufacturing sector's global
competitiveness, and an ample supply of reasonably priced natural gas is critical to its competitiveness. This sector is bearing the brunt
of the energy impacts of the natural gas crisis and is suffering from a triple whammy: High natural gas prices are causing industrial electricity prices to
increase, the cost of natural gas as a feedstock and fuel is greatly increasing manufacturing costs, and industrial operations
are the first to be cut off from natural gas supplies when winter emergencies occur. The natural gas crisis has become a matter of exporting
profits and jobs to countries with cheaper natural gas.
Thus, the impact of high natural gas prices is, indeed, to destroy the U.S. industrial sector. However, instead of viewing this as an effect that will serve to moderate future natural
gas price increases, this must be viewed as a very serious problem resulting from high natural gas prices. To the extent natural gas demand and prices are being driven by the
increasing use of gas for electric power generation, the solution should be to substitute other fuels, such as nuclear and coal in this sector, and not to accept demand destruction in
the nation's industrial sector.
The case against natural gas for electricity generation is quite clear. Specifically:
. The use of gas for electricity generation is forecast to more than double by 2025, and, according to both EIA and industry analysts, this demand increase may not be achievable.
Natural gas imports are forecast to increase dramatically over the next two decades and, at a time when we are concerned about the nation's increasing dependence on imported oil,
America is becoming increasingly dependent on imported natural gas from the same politically unstable regions that contain most of the world's oil supplies.
. The increasing use of gas for electric power generation is placing strains on natural gas supplies and the gas transmission and distribution infrastructure, and this will further
hinder the provision of adequate gas supplies.
. This increasing use is causing the price of natural gas to increase and to become more volatile. Increased prices and price
volatility are having adverse consequences for natural gas consumers and are resulting in market disruptions. Gas price volatility will
likely increase in the future, thus causing further market disruptions
. Natural gas shortages and price volatility can have adverse economic and employment effects, and they can increase U.S. dependence on imported oil.
. High natural gas prices are having a devastating impact on U.S. manufacturing industries, and this should be viewed as the most serious effect of the current (and future) gas
crisis.
The chemical industry is a keystone industry in the U.S. economy – critical to global competitiveness
Baum 99 – editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society's Chemical and Engineering News [Rudy M. Baum, C&E
News, “Millennium Special Report,” 12-6-99, http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/991206/7749spintro2.html] // LDK
Providence Journal 4 (Mark Reynolds, staffwriter, “Lloyd's executive likens LNG attack to nuclear explosion” 9-21-2004,
www.projo.com/massachusetts/content/projo_20040921_ma21lng.134600.html) AMK
A terrorist attack on an LNG tanker "would have the force of a small nuclear explosion," according to the chairman of
Lloyd's, a British insurer of natural gas port facilities like the ones being proposed in Fall River and Providence.
The assertion, which is contested by industry experts, was in a speech that the chairman, Peter Levene, delivered last night to
business leaders in Houston.
Levene described Texas as a "state at risk" and said that securing its remote oil facilities is a "particular challenge."
"Gas carriers too, whether at sea or in ports, make obvious targets," said Levene. "Specialists reckon that a terrorist attack on
an LNG tanker would have the force of a small nuclear explosion."
Levene did not name the specialists in his remarks, although a text of his speech contains a footnote. The footnote attributes
the observation to the author of an article posted, in an abbreviated form, on the Web site of Jane's Terrorism and Security
Monitor in July. The same abstract, apparently authored by the same person, Dr. J.C.K. Daly, was also posted on the Internet
weblog Talk Show American.
Levene also did not specify Texas LNG port facilities and tanker ships that might be at risk.
Records kept by federal regulators show that several LNG port facilities have been proposed in Texas. They do not show any
existing facilities.
Levene's company, Lloyd's, is the world's second-largest commercial insurer.
The chairman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Some critics of the proposal in Fall River have spoken in apocalyptic terms of potential LNG disasters.
But to date, no official reports by government regulators have made comparisons between the various LNG catastrophes that
experts have hypothesized and destruction from an atomic bomb.
One report does describe hypothetical fires that might erupt if gas leaks from a tanker in its liquid form changes into a
gaseous form and ignites when it comes into contact with a flame.
In one instance, the blaze, in less than a minute, would be capable of inflicting third-degree burns a little less than a mile
away.
Expanding renewables solves – provides a hedge against natural gas price volatility and reduces harmful LNG
imports
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
In response to high gas prices, and the declining productivity of North American gas wells, EIA projects imports of liquefied
natural gas (LNG) to increase more than seven-fold over the next 20 years.26 This trend threatens to push the U.S. down the
same troubled road of rising dependence on imported gas that has been followed for oil. By reducing the demand for natural
gas, renewable energy can reduce imports.
Lacking long fuel supply chains, renewable energy facilities are also not vulnerable to supply shortages or disruptions, price
spikes, price increases, or price manipulation. And because they do not use volatile fuel or produce dangerous wastes,
renewable energy facilities (except large hydropower dams) do not present inviting targets for sabotage or attack.
B. Reduced exposure to natural gas price risk
Typically, contracts for natural gas generation are variably priced, which leaves utilities and their customers exposed to
periods of price volatility such as that which has plagued the U.S. gas industry since 2000. By contrast, generation from
renewable energy systems is normally sold under fixed-price contracts. Increasing the amount of renewable energy included
in a utilities’ energy portfolio can provide an important hedge against this gas price risk.
RPS Aff 19
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The archaic transmission grid will inevitably breakdown – causing blackouts that grind the economy to a halt
Reuters, ‘7 (Timothy Gardner, “Business Books: Strain on U.S. grid to make blackouts common,” 7-16-2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0718520720070616?pageNumber=2&sp=true)
Most people in the United States only think about where electricity comes from when the lights go out suddenly.
But unless the antiquated transmission grid is fixed, expensive blackouts that bring modern life to a grinding halt will become
ever more common, according to "Lights Out" (Wiley, $27.95), a new book by Jason Makansi.
Before the 1980s, power generating companies were responsible for the entire chain of supply, from securing fuel to
transmitting power to homes. Deregulation, meant to increase competition, has busted that chain apart and left the wires and
substations that deliver electricity as a "neglected stepchild," Makansi writes.
As demand for electricity rises, especially in the hot summer months when air conditioners are humming, the result is an
overstretched grid, exploding transformers, brownouts and blackouts.
Transmission only accounts for about 10 percent of the industry's assets, and for decades utilities and regulators have focused
on more expensive parts of the system. Now, even electricity generated in ultramodern plants is dependent on the brittle
transmission grid. "Imagine driving a Maserati over a road littered with potholes," Makansi writes.
Even without blackouts, power outages cause a continual and significant drag on the economy
IEEE, 7 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, “Reliability and Blackouts,” 4-25-2007+,
http://www.electripedia.info/reliability.asp) // SM
Preventing outages and blackouts is of utmost concern to the nation and the world. Some estimates claim that the costs of
electric power outages are $26 billion each year in the US alone and have been increasing as the electric power industry is
restructured [2]. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimates that power outages and insufficient power quality
cost the US economy over $119 billion per year [2, 5]. Not enough effort is put towards ensuring reliability; some argue that
US electric reliability improvements have lagged behind other improvements, such as efficiency and conservation, and this
lagging has compounded the occurrence of blackouts [6].
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and
Christopher Cooper, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, “State Efforts to Promote Renewable Energy: Tripping the Horse with the
Cart?” Fall 2007, 8 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 5, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
CNN, 7 (Jeanne Meserve, “Mouse click could plunge city into darkness, experts say,” 9-27-2007,
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/power.at.risk/index.html#cnnSTCText)
Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the government and
electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned. Sources
familiar with the experiment said the same attack scenario could be used against huge generators that produce the country's
electric power. Some experts fear bigger, coordinated attacks could cause widespread damage to electric infrastructure that
could take months to fix. CNN has honored a request from the Department of Homeland Security not to divulge certain
details about the experiment, dubbed "Aurora," and conducted in March at the Department of Energy's Idaho lab. In a
previously classified video of the test CNN obtained, the generator shakes and smokes, and then stops. DHS acknowledged
the experiment involved controlled hacking into a replica of a power plant's control system. Sources familiar with the test
said researchers changed the operating cycle of the generator, sending it out of control. Watch the generator shake and start to
smoke » The White House was briefed on the experiment, and DHS officials said they have since been working with the
electric industry to devise a way to thwart such an attack. "I can't say it [the vulnerability] has been eliminated. But I can say
a lot of risk has been taken off the table," said Robert Jamison, acting undersecretary of DHS's National Protection and
Programs Directorate. Government sources said changes are being made to both computer software and physical hardware to
protect power generating equipment. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is conducting inspections to ensure all
nuclear plants have made the fix. Industry experts also said the experiment shows large electric systems are vulnerable in
ways not previously demonstrated. "What people had assumed in the past is the worst thing you can do is shut things down.
And that's not necessarily the case. A lot of times the worst thing you can do, for example, is open a valve -- have bad things
spew out of a valve," said Joe Weiss of Applied Control Solutions. "The point is, it allows you to take control of these very
large, very critical pieces of equipment and you can have them do what you want them to do," he said. Adding to the
vulnerability of control systems, many of them are manufactured and used overseas. Persons at manufacturing plants
overseas have access to control system schematics and even software program passwords, industry experts say. Weiss and
others hypothesize that multiple, simultaneous cyber-attacks on key electric facilities could knock out power to a large
geographic area for months, harming the nation's economy. See how America's power grid works » "For about $5 million and
between three to five years of preparation, an organization, whether it be transnational terrorist groups or nation states, could
mount a strategic attack against the United States," said O. Sami Saydjari of the nonprofit Professionals for Cyber Defense.
Economist Scott Borg, who produces security-related data for the federal government, projects that if a third of the country
lost power for three months, the economic price tag would be $700 billion. "It's equivalent to 40 to 50 large hurricanes
striking all at once," Borg said. "It's greater economic damage than any modern economy ever suffered. ... It's greater then the
Great Depression. It's greater than the damage we did with strategic bombing on Germany in World War II." Computer
experts have long warned of the vulnerability of cyber attacks, and many say the government is not devoting enough money
or attention to the matter. "We need to get on it, and get on it quickly," said former CIA Director James Woolsey on Tuesday.
Woolsey, along with other prominent computer and security experts, signed a 2002 letter to President Bush urging a massive
cyber-defense program. "Fast and resolute mitigating action is needed to avoid a national disaster," the letter said.
RPS Aff 22
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The latest job market report has crushed consumer confidence and set the stage for a more serious decline in the
economy
Reuters in 8 (“Weak Confidence, Prices Stroke U.S. Stagflation Fears; Housing Worsens. Collapse in Home Prices
Accelerates to Record Pace”, 2-27-08, Lexis-Nexus Academic)
U.S. consumer confidence slumped to its worst in five years this month as a tough job market helped produce the grimmest
future outlook in 17 years, while soaring inflation among producers at the year's start stoked fears of stagflation.
Bad news also poured in from the beleaguered housing market, other data showed yesterday. The collapse in U.S. home prices accelerated to a record pace in the fourth quarter of
2007, with prices plunging 8.9 per cent last year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.
A government report showed U.S. producer prices jumped one per cent in January on rising energy costs and posted the biggest 12-month gain in more than 26 years, which was
the last time the U.S. was emerging from a stagflationary period of low growth and high inflation.
The Conference Board said its index of consumer sentiment fell to 75.0 in February, significantly worse than economists' forecasts and its lowest in five years. The Conference
Board's expectations index fell to 57.9 - its lowest in 17 years.
"It looks like there is no confidence in an economy where inflation is getting out of control," said Andrew Brenner, market analyst at MF Global in New York.
"This is a classic stagflation scenario."
It was the biggest monthly drop in the consumer confidence and expectations indexes since September 2005, following
Hurricane Katrina. The present situation index saw its biggest tumble since October 2001, the last time the United States was
in recession.
Sentiment suffered amid a worsening view of the jobs market. The measure of "jobs hard to get" rose to 23.8 in February - its highest since October
2005 - from 20.6 in January.
The measure of "jobs plentiful" fell to 20.6 - its lowest since April 2005 - from 23.8.
The proportion of respondents identifying jobs as plentiful fell by 3.2 percentage points, the biggest drop in a year and a half.
The jobs hard to get response shot up by the most in nearly five years.
Kennedy and Richter in 7—Bloomberg News Staff Writers (*Simon and **Joe, “Rising Oil Prices May Tip U.S. Into a
Recession”, 11-12-07, Bloomberg News, http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/11/bloomberg/bxecon.php)
Manufacturers are among the first to feel the pinch: Rising energy prices are increasing their costs, while drooping consumer
and business confidence erodes demand.
In the United States, the manufacturing index of the Institute for Supply Management fell to a seven-month low in October as gauges of orders and production declined.
Caterpillar, based in Illinois, the
biggest maker of bulldozers and excavators, cut its profit forecast last month and said the U.S.
economy would be "near to, or even in, recession" in 2008.
A federal RPS will generate thousands of new jobs in manufacturing States that have suffered the most recent job
losses
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Perhaps themost important, if not the most obvious, potential benefit of a national RPS is economic development and job creation. In
projecting the impact of a 20% national RPS, the Union of Concerned Scientists determined that, by 2020, such an
RPS "would generate more than 355,000
jobs in manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, and other industries - nearly twice as many as fossil fuels,
representing a net increase of 157,480 jobs ... ." n61 Further, it was determined that renewable energy would "provide an additional $ 8.2
billion in income and $ 10.2 billion in gross domestic product in the U.S. economy in 2020." n62 Although premised on a national RPS
percentage higher than that in the Proposed RPS, these numbers nonetheless indicate that a national RPS could provide significant economic benefits.
The most compelling job creation claims come from a report developed by the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP). The group determined that more
than 16,000
firms in all fifty states have the technical potential to enter the growing wind turbine manufacturing sector. n63 The twenty
states that would potentially benefit the most, receiving 80% of the job creation, are the same states that account for "76% of
the manufacturing jobs lost in the [U.S. over the] last 3 1/2 years." n64
The report considered the impact on U.S. manufacturing jobs if there were eight times more wind energy installations, which
would mean a capital investment of $ 50 billion. n65 Again, while this report is an estimate based on a [*59] number of major assumptions, the conclusions
are still compelling, especially in states that have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the past six years. n66
RPS Aff 23
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The global renewable market is rapidly expanding – the U.S. will miss out on this multi-billion dollar energy
revolution without strong and consistent government support for domestic renewable energy production
The United States once led - actually, began - the clean energy revolution. As recently as 1990, U.S. industries played the
dominant global role in wind and solar PV development and deployment.
But, due to a lack of appropriate and consistent government support for clean energy technologies, and government subsidies
that continue to favor dirty, conventional fuels and technologies, we are losing our role as technological leaders.
We are now falling farther and farther behind as Japan and Europe surpass us with regard to total installed clean energy
generating capacity, share of the global market, and ownership of manufacturers.
U.S. companies must compete in the global marketplace.
If this trend is not reversed, America will lose millions of potential high-wage, high-tech jobs, billions of dollars in potential
investment and revenue. The US will also fail to glean multiple benefits not traditionally measured in economic terms that
come with clean, safe, domestic and renewable energy technologies - including cleaner environment, reduced risk of global
warming, improved human health, better quality of life, and a more secure future.
With only 4.5 percent of the United States land area and a fraction of its wind resource potential, Germany has more than
double the U.S. installed wind energy capacity. Denmark, a small nation of about five million people, is the world's leading
manufacturer of wind turbines, with several turbine companies that consistently rank in the global top ten. The U.S. share of
global PV shipments reached a peak in 1996, declining from 44 percent that year to 27 percent in 2001.
Total grid-connected PV in the United States is now estimated to be only 15 percent of that in Japan, and 31 percent of that in
Germany.
The rising demand for Japanese and European made technology is due primarily to the dramatic increases in demand for
renewable energy capacity in these countries, sparked by successful government policies aimed to develop markets for
renewable energy. Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to subsidize fossil fuels and nuclear power, at levels many
times that for renewable energy technologies.
Around the world, leaders in business and government are calling for a transition to a clean energy economy to address global
climate change, increase national security and meet rising demand for energy worldwide. Perhaps most importantly, the
American public wants clean energy.
In poll after poll, Americans have expressed their preference for investment in renewable energy technologies over
conventional energy. According to a Gallup poll taken November 8, 2001, 91 percent of Americans favor investments in new
sources of energy, such as solar and wind.
Top level advisors under Clinton, Reagan and Nixon have urged Congress to adopt strong measures now to advance
renewable energy in order to advance America's energy security. "They [renewable energy technologies] are now ready to be
brought, full force, into service…. Speedy action by the Administration and the Congress is critical to establish the regulatory
and tax conditions for these renewable resources to rapidly reach their potential."
David Freeman, who has held top positions at the New York Power Authority and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and
now heads the California Power Authority, notes that "our whole system of electric
power supply is hard to defend against attack. The worst is nuclear."
Sir Mark Moody Stuart, former CEO of Shell Oil company last month called on governments of northern countries "to
expand renewable energy targets, removing inappropriate subsidies and switching some to renewable energy to provide a
level playing field in the energy sector."
Russian Vice Prime Minister Ylia Klebanov recently said that "using traditional energy technologies, it's hard to talk about [a]
competitive economy. And for renewable energy technologies we do too little…."
Every region and state in this nation has significant renewable energy potential - wind and solar energy, geothermal energy,
ocean power, crops for biomass, and environmentally sustainable hydropower. In fact, North America has some of the world's
greatest wind energy resources; North Dakota alone has enough to produce 1.2 trillion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity
each year , 37 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 1999 (3 trillion kWh ). Every minute, the sun drenches earth's
surface with more energy than the world consumes in a year. The United States has the best solar resource of any
industrialized country.
Fitzgerald, 6 – directs of the Law Policy and Society program at Northeastern University
(Joan, The American Prospect, “Help Wanted – Green; Green development could be a big generator of good jobs -- if
America will seize the opportunity,” 12-17-2006, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=help_wanted_green) // JMP
There are good jobs to be had in environmentally friendly development, and construction jobs are just the beginning.
Thousands of jobs are in products that go into green buildings. The job potential in renewable energy production is even more
impressive. The Renewable Energy Policy Project estimates that producing 10 percent of the nation's electricity with
renewable sources would create 381,000 jobs producing the component parts of the systems. Already, renewable energy
(biomass, solar, wind, geothermal) employ more than 115,000 people directly. These new jobs more than compensate for
ongoing job loss in the coal and oil industries as clean forms of energy replace polluting ones.
Renewable energy is labor-intensive. It generates more jobs in construction, manufacturing, and installation per megawatt of
power than coal and natural gas. These jobs start with research and development. They produce an array of goods and
services from renewable energy itself to products made from high-tech or recycled materials. The majority of the jobs created
would be in manufacturing, although there are many in operations and maintenance and in system installation.
These jobs, often called greentech or cleantech, could provide middle-class wages for hundreds of thousands of Americans
while reducing our dependence on foreign oil and improving the environment. Producing for export could improve the
balance of trade. That's the potential. The reality is that we're falling behind other countries. Solar power was invented in the
United States, but Japan and Germany moved ahead of us in production in the late 1990s and China is not far behind. In wind
power capacity, we're behind Germany and Spain. We're also behind on enacting policies to spur the growth of cleantech
industries -- and it is public policy that drives research and development, as well as the employment that follows.
Forty-three countries have renewable portfolio standards that require a specified percentage of energy be from renewable
sources by a given year. But the U.S. Congress has failed to enact such a standard for our country. Instead, states and cities in
the United States are trying to fill the policy vacuum.
RPS Aff 26
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Rynn, June 20th – frequent contributor to the Grist environmental blog and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus
(Jonathon, Asia Times, “Guns Blight US Energy Choices,” 6-20-2008,
www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JF20Dj01.html)-CMM
When New York City wanted to make the biggest purchase of subway cars in US history in the late 1990s, more than US$3 billion worth, the only companies that were able to bid
on the contract were foreign. The same problem applies to high-speed rail today: only European or Japanese companies could build any of the proposed rail networks in the United
States.
The US has also ceded the high ground to Europe and Japan in a broad range of other sustainable technologies. For instance, 11
companies produce 96% of medium to large wind turbines; only one, GE, is based in the United States, with a 16% share of the
global market. The differences in market penetration come down to two factors: European and Japanese companies have become more competent producers for these
markets, and their governments have helped them to develop both this competence and the markets themselves.
Take Germany as an example. Even though the sun is not so shiny in that part of Europe, Germany has put up 88% of the photovoltaics for solar power in Europe. Partly, this was
the result of a feed-in tariff; that is, Germany guarantees that it will pay about 0.10 euro (15 US cents) per kilowatt/hour of electricity to whoever produces wind or solar electricity.
The average for electricity that is paid for nonrenewable sources is about 0.05 euro per kwh, so Germany is effectively paying double for its renewable electricity in a successful
effort to encourage its production. Every year, the guaranteed price is lowered, so that the renewable sector can eventually compete on its own, having gotten over the hump of
introducing new technology.
Germany's other advantage is that it is a world leader in manufacturing renewable technology equipment - 32% of the solar equipment
manufacturers in the world are located in Germany. In addition, almost 30% of global wind turbine manufacturing capacity is German.
In Denmark we can see the advantages of good policy plus competence in building machinery. The world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, is Danish. According to the
Earth Policy Institute, "Denmark's 3,100 megawatts of wind capacity meet 20% of its electricity needs, the largest share in any country." The Danes have created a fascinating
experiment in democracy by building most of their wind turbines through the agency of wind cooperatives, which may be joined by individuals and families.
Spain has undertaken one of the most ambitious programs in wind, solar, and high-speed trains. The Gamesa Corporation is the second-largest wind turbine manufacturer, and
Acciona Energy is the largest wind-park developer. The Spanish government has very ambitious plans for wind production, and occasionally wind power provides as much as 30%
of the country's electrical power.
Spain is also the world's fourth-largest producer of solar energy equipment and is a leader in the development of concentrated solar power - a form of solar power obtained by
using a very large quantity of mirrors, typically, to concentrate solar rays onto a tower that produces steam, which then turns a turbine, generating electricity. They are often built in
deserts and can spread over several acres. These new solar technologies will probably result in lower-cost electricity for long-distance applications than photovoltaics.
Asia is an important producer of renewable energy and train equipment as well. As of 2006, Japan produced about 39% of the solar cells in the
world and has encouraged solar energy in Japan with subsidies for purchasing the equipment as well as generous research budgets. Japan's Shinkansen high-speed rail network
covers much of the country. China is set to take off as one of the world’s biggest producers of solar and wind equipment owing to its rise as a manufacturing nation.
Europe sets the pace
But Europe and Japan's dominance in renewable technologies is really based in a broader domain of competitive competence.
They dominate the most fundamental sector of the economy, namely the production of machinery for manufacturing
industries in general (often referred to as the mechanical engineering sector).
The European Union produces almost twice as much industrial equipment overall as the United States, according to data compiled by the EU, Japan produces almost as much as
the US, with about half the population. The split among the EU, US, and Japan, which together produce most of the world's machinery, is 52%, 27% and 21%, respectively.
A robust industrial sector is the infrastructure we need for building the tools that will help us to avert climate catastrophe.
Think of the industrial sector of an economy as an ecosystem. Instead of the grass and leaves that feed the plant-eaters that feed the meat eaters, a
modern economic ecosystem contains industrial equipment that makes production technology that creates the goods and
services that people consume.
The different niches of an economic ecosystem, such as the various machinery and equipment sectors, thrive as a self-reinforcing web of engineers, high-skill production workers,
operational managers and factories. As of 2003, Europe's manufacturing sector made up 32% of its nonfinancial economy, while the manufacturing sector of the United States
comprised only 13% of its nonfinancial sectors. The
decline of American machinery and manufacturing sectors, in conjunction with the on-
again/off-again nature of American renewable energy policy, explains why Europe and Japan are so far ahead of the United
States in the transition to a more sustainable economy.
And America's decline can be traced to one overriding factor: a military budget that comprises nearly half of the world's military spending. For decades, as the late Professor
Seymour Melman showed in many books (such as After Capitalism) and in numerous articles, the Pentagon has been draining not just money but also the engineering, scientific
and business talent that Europe and Japan have been using for civilian production. As Melman often pointed out, the US military budget is a capital fund, and American citizens
can use that fund to help finance the construction of the trains, wind and solar power, and other green technologies that will help us to avoid economic and environmental collapse.
That economic collapse, if it comes, will be caused by two major factors: the end of the era of cheap oil, coal and natural gas; and the decline
of the manufacturing and machinery base of the economy. Both problems can be addressed simultaneously, as Europe and
Japan are showing, by moving the economy from one based on military and fossil fuel production to one based on electric transportation and the
generation of renewable electricity.
RPS Aff 27
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UPI, 7 (Rosalie, Westenskow, United Press International, “Analysis: Nation ripe for a federal RPS,” 6-8-2007,
http://www.upi.com/Energy/Analysis/2007/06/08/analysis_nation_ripe_for_a_federal_rps/4681/) // JMP
WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- A national renewable energy portfolio standard could decrease greenhouse gas emissions and simultaneously shrink electric bills, some experts
say.
The mandate would require electric utility companies to generate a specific percentage of their power from renewable energy sources or buy renewable energy credits from others.
Almost half of the states already have renewable portfolio standards in place -- 23 plus the District of Columbia, and including Oregon and New
Hampshire, the two most recent to pass RPS legislation.
However, this medley of standards has created confusion among electricity providers, many of whom operate in multiple states,
said Marilyn Brown, a commissioner for the National Commission on Energy Policy.
"Many large companies now ... face this hodgepodge of different rules," she told United Press International. "Different renewable
resources qualify in one state and not the other, so it really is a competitiveness issue. How can the U.S. compete and be
effective if the regulations aren't uniform?"
A federal RPS would attempt to reconcile the current patchwork of standards and distribute the burden of renewable-energy
development among the states, eliminating so-called "free-rider" states that benefit from the efforts of their neighbors but impose no mandates within
their own borders.
U.S. technological leadership is crucial to America’s global primacy and economic prosperity
The United States' global primacy depends in large part on its ability to develop new technologies and industries faster than
anyone else. For the last five decades, U.S. scientific innovation and technological entrepreneurship have ensured the
country's economic prosperity and military power. It was Americans who invented and commercialized the semiconductor, the personal computer, and the
Internet; other countries merely followed the U.S. lead.
Today, however, this technological edge-so long taken for granted-may be slipping, and the most serious challenge is coming
from Asia. Through competitive tax policies, increased investment in research and development (R&D), and preferential policies for science and technology (S&T) personnel,
Asian governments are improving the quality of their science and ensuring the exploitation of future innovations. The percentage of patents issued to and science journal articles
published by scientists in China, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan is rising. Indian companies are quickly becoming the second-largest producers of application services in the
world, developing, supplying, and managing database and other types of software for clients around the world. South Korea has rapidly eaten away at the U.S. advantage in the
manufacture of computer chips and telecommunications software. And even China has made impressive gains in advanced technologies such as lasers, biotechnology, and
advanced materials used in semiconductors, aerospace, and many other types of manufacturing.
Although the United States' technical dominance remains solid, the globalization of research and development is exerting considerable pressures on the American system. Indeed,
as the United States is learning, globalization cuts both ways: it is both a potent catalyst of U.S. technological innovation and a significant threat to it. The United States will
never be able to prevent rivals from developing new technologies; it can
remain dominant only by continuing to innovate faster than everyone
else. But this won't be easy; to keep its privileged position in the world, the United States must get better at fostering technological
entrepreneurship at home.
Under the third option, the United States would seek to retain global leadership and to preclude the rise of a global rival or a return to multipolarity for the indefinite future. On
balance, this is the best long-term guiding principle and vision. Such a vision is desirable not as an end in itself, but because a
world in which the United States
exercises leadership would have tremendous advantages. First, the global environment would be more open and more receptive to American values -- democracy, free
markets, and the rule of law. Second, such a world would have a better chance of dealing cooperatively with the world's major problems, such as
nuclear proliferation, threats of regional hegemony by renegade states, and low-level conflicts. Finally, U.S. leadership would help
preclude the rise of another hostile global rival, enabling the United States and the world to avoid another global cold or hot war and all the
attendant dangers, including a global nuclear exchange. U.S. leadership would therefore be more conducive to global stability than a
bipolar or a multipolar balance of power system.
RPS Aff 28
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Walsh & White, 8 – * national policy director for Green For All and ** senior policy associate with the Center on Wisconsin
Strategy
(Jason Walsh and Sarah White, Asia Times, “Jobs up for grabs in cleaner economy,” 5-20-2008,
www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE20Dj07.html) // JMP
Employment opportunity
In the United States, green-collar jobs offer new opportunities for low-income and working class people who have been at the short end of persistent and
increasing inequality in this country. Despite significant boosts in worker productivity over recent decades, median wages remain stagnant. The decline in
manufacturing jobs over the past decade gathered steam with an 18% national job loss after the 2001 recession, plummeting with particularly devastating
consequences in the industrial heartland, which bore up to a third of the national job loss recorded between 2000 and 2005.
Nationally, median family income has not recovered to the pre-recession levels of 2000, and job insecurity threatens workers at all levels. This trend toward
greater inequality, wage stagnation, job loss and insecurity stems from many factors, not least economic and trade policies that have encouraged offshoring,
real and threatened, and wage triage on a global scale.
The new-energy economy will not solve all of the problems of economic inequality, environmental degradation and energy insecurity. But it can
contribute mightily to a resurgence of the American middle class and a sustainable environmental ethos. By expanding
existing industries and creating new ones, the emerging green sector can retain and create significant numbers of domestic
jobs.
What are these green-collar jobs? We define the core of this sector as family-supporting, middle-skill jobs, most of them in the primary sectors of a clean-
energy economy - efficiency, renewables and alternative transportation and fuels. There are many ways to count them, none perfect. One respected source,
using a broad set of parameters, estimates that the renewable and efficiency sectors may account for as many as one in four jobs by 2030. This projection
includes both the full range of jobs in these industries - from accountants to mechanics - and those created indirectly by them. Whatever the relative merits of
such approximations, even the most modest modeling indicates that the green economy holds much promise for urban and rural revitalization.
A large part of this promise is based on the reality that green-collar jobs are community-based: because they focus on transforming the immediate natural and
built environment, they are harder, in some cases impossible, to offshore. No one will ship a building from Chicago to be retrofitted in China. The energy
efficiency industry provides perhaps the most exciting opportunity. Substantially reducing energy waste through systematic retrofitting and upgrading of
residential and commercial buildings is a key area where environmental and equity agendas can come together to create good jobs in plentiful numbers. The
work requires a multi-skilled, local workforce, and it feeds a building-materials industry that is still largely domestic.
Make no mistake: we are talking about a lot of jobs here. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority estimates that for every gigawatt
hour saved, the agency's programs create or retain 1.5 jobs. A recent report for the American Solar Energy society counts eight million jobs created in the US
energy efficiency industry in 2006 alone (3.7 million directly in efficiency).
Building-trades jobs are not the only green-collar occupations resistant to offshoring. The manufacturing sector, which has borne the brunt of
job losses in this country could receive a marked job creation boost from a substantial shift to renewable energy. The Renewable
Energy Policy Project has published a series of reports identifying the potential for states with existing industrial infrastructure and skilled labor to become
component manufacturing leaders for the wind industry.
If the country can muster the US$62 billion investment required to expand wind capacity by 125,000MW over the next 10 years - the amount needed to
stabilize US carbon emissions - the wind energy sector could create nearly 400,000 domestic manufacturing jobs. And the top 20 states
that stand to benefit are some of the most populous and hardest hit by recent manufacturing job loss. California and Texas lead the list, followed by the Great
Lakes states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Industrial capacity and transportation networks are key assets to turbine production. Wind turbines are massive and extremely heavy machines. The towers
alone are up to 250 feet tall, 16 feet in diameter and weigh more than 100 tons. An assembled nacelle - the fiberglass case that sits on top of the tower and
houses the gearbox and generator - weighs around 70 tons, and the rotor assembly with blades, each of which can be up to 200 feet long, weighs in at around
40. It is no surprise that most new facilities in the US are sited close to water and rail, like the Gamesa plant on the Delaware River in Fairless Hills,
Pennsylvania, or the Siemens factory on the Mississippi in Fort Madison, Iowa.
The United States is playing catch-up to others, especially the Europeans and the Japanese, who have invested heavily in developing the
expertise and manufacturing base for this production. But there are good reasons to believe we can and should catch up. Transporting huge turbines
overseas is unsound from a carbon perspective; with oil periodically breaching $100 per barrel, it is financially irrational as well. Soaring shipping costs (and
a foundering dollar) are already driving greater domestic production. Some of the key wind turbine manufacturers serving the US market, such as Vestas
(Denmark), Siemens (Germany), Gamesa (Spain), Mitsubishi (Japan), and Suzlon (India), have already started to produce turbines locally.
The siting by foreign companies of manufacturing facilities in the United States, and the potential of US manufacturers to be the
links in a supply chain for the wind industry, are signs of progress. They should not obscure the additional promise that US-
based green industries hold to be globally competitive sectors. With the right policy supports, US-based renewable energy
and energy efficiency industries can capture large shares of these rapidly expanding global markets and export their products,
from solar cells to energy efficiency appliances, to consumers around the world.
Sound national policy
The possible future, then, is compelling, as long as we demonstrate the policy smarts and political will to achieve it. This
means crafting sound national policy to create stable domestic markets for renewable energy and using related energy
standards as green job creation tools.
RPS Aff 29
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
China has set itself on a course of environmental destruction by increasing reliance on coal. A strong commitment
from the U.S. – including technology transfers and cooperation – is essential to solve China’s growing greenhouse
crises.
The impacts of this environmental and agricultural destruction are sure to intensify as China accelerates its economic
growth
BBC 7 [“Pollution 'hits China's farmland,” 4-27-07, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6582571.stm]
Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] // LDK
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can
take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.
But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem
has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international
repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political
challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air
pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe
drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe
air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex
machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial
cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a
coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But
the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and
urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source.
“It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden,” says Wang
Jinnan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers. “There is pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept
that we need a new approach so soon.”
China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power
plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles originates in
China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research.
RPS Aff 31
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
Build Jobs Across Socioeconomic Groups – the Green Jobs Program in the U. S. and Overseas
Green jobs can accrue across the entire economy, from laboratory research and development positions, to traditionally
unionized work in plumbing, electrical wiring, and civil engineering. Following the critically important Green Jobs initiative
Senator Sanders spearheaded in the Senate, the House Green Jobs Act (initially sponsored by Solis and Tierny, HR 2847, now
part of the HR 3221, the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Act of 2007) invests in worker training and career
opportunities for low-income Americans. These efforts are to be applauded, and could be the model for expanded job access
and development efforts in a wide range of energy related industries.
In addition to supporting domestic job creation, clean energy is an important and fastest growing international sector, and one
where overseas policy can be used to support poor developing regions – such as Africa (Jacobsen and Kammen, 2007) and
Central America – as well as regaining market share in solar, fuel cell and wind technologies, where European nations
and Japan have invested heavily and are reaping the benefits of month to year backlogs in clean energy orders. Some of those
orders are for U. S. installations, but many more could be if we choose to make clean and green energy a national priority for
both domestic installation and overseas export.
Technology exports have impacts well beyond domestic job creation. In fact, if properly managed, the development of a
thriving ‘cleantech’ sector can address a vital global issues, namely the emissions trajectories of major developing nations.
China and India are often singled out for attention as major, emerging global emitters. China, in fact, will become the
world’s largest greenhouse emitter in the near future, if it has not already. This fact, is often used – mistakenly in my view –
to argue against unilateral climate protection efforts by nations such as the United States. This view is shortsighted in two
vital respects. First, China is demonstrably already suffering from the impacts of fossil fuel use. Crop yields in many parts of
China are significantly lower than they would be without the significant sulfur and particulate burden that results from
domestic coal combustion. (In fact, coal combustions emissions from China have significant air quality impacts on Japan, and
can be measured in the U. S. as well.) Crop losses of over 20% have been reported in part of China, with the decrease
unambiguously linked to air pollution. China also experiences significant human health impacts from this pollution burden
as well.
Second, China has committed, on paper, to a ‘circular economy’ where waste is reduced and overall productivity is enhanced.
If the United States were to become a major exporter, or even a partner, in the production of low-emissions technologies –
from truly carbon-capture coal-fired power plants, to increased numbers of solar, wind, and biofuel technologies – China
would be an eager trading partner, so that they could install increasing numbers of low-emissions technologies. This would
directly help the Chinese economy and their environmental and public health situation.
On both of these grounds, U. S. domestic expansion of the clean energy sector will likely positively impact the ability and the
actions of a number of emerging economies to ‘go green’.
But imagine a China disintegrating- on its own, without neo-conservative or Central Intelligence Agency prompting, much
less outright military invasion because the economy (against all predictions) suddenly collapses. That would knock Asia into
chaos. A massive flood of refugees would head for Indonesia and other places with poor border controls, which don’t’ want
them and cant handle them; some in Japan might lick their lips at the prospect of World War II revisited and look to annex a
slice of China. That would send Singapore and Malaysia- once occupied by Japan- into nervous breakdowns. Meanwhile,
India might make a grab for Tibet, and Pakistan for Kashmir. Then you can say hello to World War III, Asia style. That’s why
wise policy encourages Chinese stability, security and economic growth – the very direction the White House now seems to
prefer.
RPS Aff 32
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Federal government concessions on climate policy are critical to long-term U.S.-E.U. cooperation on the war on terror
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
IN EUROPE this past February, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the United Kingdom would support a 20 percent
mandatory target for renewable power as a share of European generation capacity. (1) His announcement complements the
policies of 17 other European Union countries that have also set some type of national, mandatory target for promoting renewable
energy. And in terms of climate policy in Europe, the European Union Green-house Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) calls for mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions and allows countries to trade carbon credits. In the past five years, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Israel, Nicaragua, Norway, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and Turkey
have adopted mandatory renewable energy of climate change targets. (2) These countries have frequently linked action on renewable energy and climate change together because
they realize that the combustion of fossil fuels greatly contributes to climate change, and they do not like fouling their own nests.
RPS Aff 33
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Jerusalem Post, 4 (David Rudge, “Terror expert: Worst is yet to come; [Daily Edition],” 5-12-2004, p.06, Proquest) // JMP
Global terrorism is on the rise and is likely to continue unabated for the next 100 years, according to Prof. Yonah Alexander, one of the world's
leading analysts on the subject.
Alexander, director of the Inter-Universities Center for Terrorism Studies, also believes it
is only a matter of time before groups like al-Qaida use non-
coventional weapons as part of attempts to promulgate their ideology and undermine western society.
In this respect, he anticipates that al-Qaida's next theater of operations will be Europe, where the organization has established a
widespread base and network.
"If you ask me whether the worst is yet to come, the answer is definitely yes," Alexander told The Jerusalem Post prior to giving a lecture as guest speaker at the University of
Haifa's National Security Studies Center.
"We can expect to see an escalation in terrorism on a global scale with a continuation of conventional acts of terror, such as suicide bombings and
shooting, as well as mega-terror like September 11 in the US and March 11 in Spain.
"There will also be a move towards the use of non- conventional weapons: biological, chemical, nuclear as in dirty bombs, and cyber-
terrorism, whereby perpetrators will try to disrupt power supplies and air traffic, for example, at the touch of a button."
Alexander, who is based in the US and Israel, has studied the subject of terrorism in the Middle East and the global arena for over 40 years and has published over 100 books on
the issue. The center he heads is a consortium of universities and think-tanks in some 30 countries.
He said there had already been indications of future trends by terrorist organizations such as the anthrax attacks in the US after September 11, 2001, reports that al-Qaida was
trying to produce ricin and, in Israel, the abortive attempt to blow up the Pi Glilot fuel and gas storage depot.
"According to the studies we have conducted, we can expect a continuation of bus bombings like the ones that have occurred in Israel, as well as attempts to strike at chemical
plants and infrastructure targets and super- terrorism with non-conventional weapons," said Alexander.
The supposition that international terrorism will expand and escalate is based, according to Alexander, on factors such as the spread of radical theological ideology, racial
intolerance, ethnic and religious differences and, especially in Africa, tribal rivalries, as well as extremist nationalism and separatism.
Furthermore, he cited the numerous disputes and conflicts throughout the world, such as those in Chechnya, Kashmir, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and South America, as well as
the gap between developed nations and poorer countries.
"Other important factors include the intensification of the link between terrorism and organized crime, and the education of hatred, including anti-Semitism, that we see all the time
on various Internet sites," said Alexander.
"The problem here is that children are being brought up to hate and they will pass this on to their children and so forth, which is why we don't see an end to terrorism in the next
100 years.
"Should we be concerned about the future? Yes, we should, because of the motivation of terrorists, their ideologies, the availability of funds, the proliferation of conventional and
non- conventional weapons, the intrinsic vulnerability of democratic societies and the high cost of trying to counter terror.
"What concerns many is the expansion of international networks as seen after the Madrid bombings, when links were discovered between Spanish citizens and people in North
Africa, Asia, and with various other groups like Hamas.
"It would be a grave mistake, however, to say that Islam is generating this terror. In fact, Islam has been hijacked and taken hostage by extremists who are using it to serve their
own interests."
Alexander, in his lecture, posed the questions of whether nations should submit to terrorism and whether civilization would survive in the event of the use of non- conventional
weapons.
In the first case, he maintained that submission only serves to encourage terrorists and their leaders and boost their motivation, while survival would depend on nations taking all
necessary steps to reduce the risks, including international intelligence cooperation.
"Dealing with terrorism requires a broad range of responses, starting with clear and coherent policies. It is necessary to have
quality intelligence, as well as law enforcement, the military, and the means to counter technological and cyber-terrorism," said
Alexander.
"We also need an educational response because the children of today will be the terrorists of tomorrow. Unless we can defuse the extremist ideological and theological elements
and their propaganda, the measures won't work.
"We have to deal with the root causes and try to improve economic and social conditions - a sort of global Marshall plan - but first it is necessary to deal with the terror leadership.
"To this end some innocent civilians might be harmed but, make no mistake, this is war and to fight it nations have to pool their resources. No nation
can deal with the problem unilaterally.
"In the past, terrorism was regarded as a tactical rather than a strategic threat but it has become a permanent fixture and a challenge to the strategic interests of nations.
"In fact," said Alexander, "it
represents the most threatening challenge to civilization in the 21st century. The question of survival
will depend to a great extent on how civilized society tackles this threat."
Bremmer, 8 – president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy (Ian, 1/18, A Political-Risk Outlook for 2008,
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/a_politicalrisk_outlook_for_20.html, AG)
Most worrying is a pre-election attack in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised its threat
warning over the summer, not based on direct intelligence on a suspected attack in the works (the previous modus operandi),
but rather because of concerns over increasing terrorist capacity and chatter over a change in strategy to accept smaller
attacks in the United States - given increased al-Qaida resources and the long time since a successful attack has been
perpetrated. It's impossible to put a useful quantified prediction on these sorts of concerns, but all of those factors make the
likelihood of a small to medium-scale U.S. attack in 2008 higher than at any other point since 9/11.
RPS Aff 34
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Federal leadership is the only way to provide sufficient investor confidence to develop a renewables market that
boosts U.S. competitiveness
Flavin & Podesta, 6 – *president of the Worldwatch Institute and **president of theCenter for American Progress,
(Christopher and John, American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/AmericanEnergy.pdf)
Americans today are no less clever or ambitious than their great-grandparents were. A new and better energy future is
possible if the country can forge a compelling vision of where it wants to be. Recent developments in the global marketplace
show the potential:
• Global wind energy generation has more than tripled since 2000, providing enough electricity to power the homes of about
30 million Americans. The United States led the world in wind energy installations in 2005.
• Production of electricity-generating solar cells is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, up 45 percent in 2005 to six
times the level in 2000.
• Production of fuel ethanol from crops more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, and biodiesel from vegetable oil and
waste expanded nearly four-fold over this period.
Global investment in renewable energy (excluding large hydropower) in 2005 is estimated at $38 billion—equivalent to
nearly 20 percent of total annual investment in the electric power sector. Renewable energy investments have nearly doubled
over the past three years, and have increased six-fold since 1995. Next to the Internet, new energy technology has become
one of the hottest investment fields for venture capitalists.
These dynamic growth rates are driving down costs and spurring rapid advances in technologies. They are also creating new
economic opportunities for people around the globe. Today, renewable energy manufacturing, operations, and maintenance
provide approximately two million jobs worldwide.
The United States will need a much stronger commitment to renewable energy if it is to take advantage of these
opportunities. As President Bush has said, America is “addicted to oil,” and dependence on fossil fuels is rising, even in the
face of high oil prices and growing concern about global warming. Of particular concern is the well over 100 coal-fired
power plants now on the drawing boards of the U.S. electricity industry—most of which lack the latest pollution controls and
could still be pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a halfcentury from now.
In order to break the national addiction to outdated fuels and technologies, America will need a world-class energy policy.
The prominent positions that Germany and Spain hold in wind power, for example, and that Japan and Germany enjoy in
solar energy, were achieved thanks to strong and enduring policies that their legislatures adopted in the 1990s. These policies
created steadily growing markets for renewable energy technologies, fueling the development of robust new manufacturing
industries.
By contrast, U.S. renewable energy policies over the past two decades have been an ever changing patchwork. Abrupt
changes in direction at both the state and federal levels have deterred investors and led dozens of companies into bankruptcy.
If America is to join the world leaders and achieve the nation’s full potential for renewable energy, it will need world-class
energy policies based on a sustained and consistent policy framework at the local, state, and national levels.
Across the country, the tide has begun to turn. All but four U.S. states now have incentives in place to promote renewable
energy. More than a dozen have enacted new renewable energy laws in the past few years, and four states strengthened their
targets in 2005, signaling fresh political momentum. If such policies continue to proliferate, and are joined by federal
leadership, rapid progress is possible.
RPS Aff 35
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Given such obvious and overwhelming advantages, it is hard to believe that many utilities and policymakers diligently oppose a federal RPS mandate, repeating myths that have
long since been debunked. Largely, the remaining objections to federal intervention constitute a (diminishing) series of canards that mischaracterize a national RPS policy as an
unnecessary federal intervention in a relatively free market. Forgetting
that a majority of states are well on their way to imposing their own
clunky, overlapping, inconsistent, competing and sometimes irrational mess of mandates, opponents of a national RPS wheel
out these war-torn myths every time the issue is considered:
Myth #1: A national RPS would create “winners and losers”
Truth: All
states have renewable resources they can affordably develop. However, under the current system of state mandates,
some RPS states are “losers” by subsidizing the cheap, polluting electricity in non-RPS states. Other RPS states are victims to
inconsistencies between state mandates that produce perverse predatory trade-offs and require them to export their cheap in-state renewable electricity to other states in exchange
for more expensive electricity or renewable energy credits. A national
mandate would level the playing field by creating consistent, uniform
rules and by allowing utilities to purchase RECs or develop renewable resources anywhere they are cost competitive.
Myth #2: A national RPS would increase electricity rates
Truth: In most states, RPS mandates have not significantly increased rates and a consensus of economic models predict that a
national policy would generate substantial consumer savings over even the existing patchwork of state programs. By expanding the
amount of energy that would offset gas-fired generation, a national RPS would reduce demand on a strained and volatile natural gas market.
Renewable energy units with markedly faster lead-times than conventional and nuclear reactors speeds the cost recovery of critical transmission investments and reduces the rate
increases needed to pay for new transmission.
Myth #3: A national RPS would cost the electricity sector
Truth: When utilities say a national RPS “costs” the sector, they are usually assuming future profits they will not be able to recover from consumers through higher electricity rates.
For policymakers, balancing utility profits with electricity prices is one of the hard decisions we elect them to make. However, elected officials should consider that utility claims
of lost profit are short-sited (and strategically unsound). In reality, a
more predictable RPS regulatory environment decreases utility litigation and
compliance costs relative to a growing web of vague and unstable state mandates. Expanding the universe of eligible renewable resource
and establishing clear, uniform trading rules creates far more flexibility for regulated utilities and rewards utility investments on the basis of smart market strategy and not
geography. By
promoting a robust domestic manufacturing sector, a national RPS reduces the costs utilities pay in unfavorable
exchange rates and foreign parts and labor (and redirects those investments to the U.S. labor market).
Myth #4: A national RPS would only benefit one technology – large wind installations
Truth: Experience
from existing state RPS programs proves that mandates with broad eligibility actually have led to the
development of many different renewable resources. Utilities have already demonstrated that they can meet state RPS
requirements by deploying a diverse portfolio of renewable resources that best match their service areas.
A meta-analysis of 25 different RPS studies revealed that each of the states that have already responded to their own mandates by deploying a diverse array of renewable energy
technologies.
By expanding (geographically and monetarily) the market for renewable resources, a
national RPS is likely to diversify the deployment of renewable
energy technologies even further. In Nevada, geothermal energy may be cheaper to develop than wind. In the Pacific Northwest, incremental hydro may be cheaper
than solar. In the Southeast, biomass may be the most affordable. A national RPS mandate with a fuel-based definition of eligible renewable resources ensures that free market
principles (rather than regulatory set-asides or political patronage) determine which technologies will be most cost competitive in certain areas of the country. An added bonus is
that auniform national RPS decreases compliance costs for regulated utilities, since a technology-neutral mandate allows
utilities to meet RPS obligations using the technology that is most cost competitive for the fuels available.
It is time that federal policymakers engage in an informed, comprehensive and rational debate about the few remaining objections to a federal RPS mandate. America faces serious
and mounting energy problems:
- continued dependence on dwindling foreign sources of fossil fuels and uranium
- an undiversified electricity fuel mixture that leaves the nation vulnerable to serious national security threats
- reliance on an ancient and overwhelmed transmission grid that risks more common, more pronounced, and more expensive catastrophic system failures
- an impending climate crisis that will require massive and expensive emissions controls costing billions of dollars and substantially reducing U.S. GDP
- loss of American economic competitiveness as Europe and Japan become the major manufacturing center for new clean energy technologies
It is time to decide. By establishing a consistent, national mandate and uniform trading rules, a national RPS can create a more just and more predictable regulatory environment
for utilities while jump-starting a robust national renewable energy technology sector. By
offsetting electricity that utilities would otherwise generate
with conventional and nuclear power, a national RPS would decrease electricity prices for American consumers while
protecting human health and the environment.
There is a time for accepting the quirks and foibles of state experimentation in national energy policy; and there is a time to take look to
the states as laboratories for policy innovation. Now is the time to model the best state RPS policies and craft a coherent national policy that
protects the interests of regulated utilities and American consumers.
Now is the time for federal leadership. // pg. 151-153
RPS Aff 36
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and
Christopher Cooper, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, “State Efforts to Promote Renewable Energy: Tripping the Horse with the
Cart?” Fall 2007, 8 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 5, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Third, renewable energy generation is subject to a free rider problem. Since everyone benefits from the environmental advantages of renewable energy,
private companies that invest millions of dollars in researching and developing clean energy technologies are often unable to recover the full profit of their investments. Inevitably,
the market allows some consumers to be free riders, benefiting from the investments of others without paying for them.
STATE GOVERNMENT MECHANISMS FOR PROMOTING RENEWABLE ENERGY
State policy interventions intend to stimulate a market for renewable resources and spur additional research, development, and implementation of renewable energy technologies.
So far, state governments in the United States have relied predominately on RPSs and SBCs to level the playing field by neutralizing a legacy of unequal federal subsidies and
directly requiring renewable energy. While
state policies are innovative and well intentioned, the time has come to shift to federal
regulation and intervention. Continued reliance on state-based activity alone will ironically promote more market
externalities and "free riding" than harmonized federal action.
SYSTEM BENEFIT CHARGES
Systems benefit charges (also called public benefit funds, system benefit funds, and clean energy funds) originated in the 1990s at a time when state policy makers were
considering electric utility restructuring legislation. Afraid that gains made in pursuing research, development, and implementation of environmentally-preferable renewable energy
technologies would end after markets were deregulated, advocates of the novel [*6] technologies won concessions in some states for a new funding mechanism for high-risk or
long-term projects. A SBC places a small tax on every kilowatt hour ("kWh") of electricity generated and utilizes those funds to pursue socially-beneficial energy projects. n5
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that SBCs have been responsible for promoting 1,117 megawatts ("MW") of renewable energy capacity. n6
SBCs were first implemented in Washington State in 1994 and were endorsed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 1995 as a way to fund services that had previously
been included in customers' bills from regulated utility companies. n7 As part of the negotiations for California's restructuring law, environmental advocates won a provision for a
public benefit fund that would expend at least $ 872 million on energy-efficiency work from 1998 to the end of 2001 and would allocate $ 540 million on renewable energy
projects. n8 To develop renewable energy technologies and other programs expected to struggle after deregulation, the California Energy Commission created its Public Interest
Energy Research program, which initially drew about $ 62 million annually from the state's SBC. n9
By 2006, fifteen states created SBCs. The seventeen organizations that administer the funds, which are scheduled to total $ 4 billion by 2017, collaborate through a nonprofit
organization called the Clean Energy States Alliance. The organization sponsors original research, collects information and analyses, and seeks to expand the use of clean energy
technologies with a special emphasis on solar, wind, and fuel cells. Moreover, the group seeks to increase the efficiency of state research by eliminating duplication of efforts and
by providing forums for the states to share knowledge and insights. n10
RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS
An RPS is a legislative mandate requiring electricity suppliers (often referred to as "load serving entities") in a given geographical area to employ renewable resources to produce a
certain percentage of power by a fixed date.
An RPS program transfers the risk of renewable energy investments from regulators to investors. n11 RPS uses the market as a mechanism to determine the efficacy of any given
technology; as a result, higher costs, if they occur, are distributed evenly throughout society to those that benefit from them, and are blended with the lower costs of existing
conventional generation. n12
Unlike instruments developed by public utility commissions with long and complex procedures, often followed by litigation, RPSs are bureaucratically simple. n13 RPSs enable
customers to pay producers directly for renewable energy, obviating the need for the administration of funds by government agencies. And, unlike a one-time award for funds, no
project is guaranteed a place in the market. n14
First implemented by Iowa and Minnesota in the 1980s, twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have already passed RPS laws requiring utilities to use renewable
resources as a portion of their overall provision of electricity. n15 Four other states have nonbinding renewable energy goals. n16 Five more states--Florida, Indiana, Louisiana,
Nebraska, and Utah--are considering mandating some form of RPS. Of the approximate 9,000 MW of wind energy in the United States, roughly fifty percent, or 4,500 MW, have
been promoted directly by RPS policies, whereas ten percent, or 900 MW, have been promoted by SBCs from 2001 to 2006. n17
THE CASE FOR FEDERAL INTERVENTION
There are three reasons, however, why continued reliance on state-based efforts such as SBCs and RPSs will be insufficient to promote renewable
energy technologies in the United States on the scale needed to fight climate change.
IMPROVING RELIABILITY
First, federal intervention is needed to improve electricity reliability. Contrary to what some opponents of renewable energy assert, the variability of
renewable resources becomes easier to manage the more they are deployed. Electrical and power systems engineers have long held the principle that the larger a system becomes,
the less reserve capacity it needs. Demand variations between individual consumers are mitigated by grid interconnection in exactly this manner. When a single electricity
consumer, for example, starts drawing more electricity than the system allocated for each consumer, the strain on the system is insignificant because so many consumers are
drawing from the grid that it is entirely likely another consumer will be drawing less to make up the difference. This "averaging" works in a similar fashion on the supply side of
the grid. Individual wind turbines average out each other in electricity supply. n18 So when the wind is not blowing through one wind farm, it is likely blowing harder through
another.
Because the technical availability of one wind turbine rivals that of a single conventional power plant, wind farms of hundreds or thousands of turbines have even greater reliability
because it is unlikely that all turbines would be down at the same time. Furthermore, when turbines do malfunction, they take far less time to recover than massive conventional
power plants or nuclear reactors that have literally millions of individual components, arranged in complex circuits prone to mechanical failure. n19 Analysts already confirmed the
benefit of wind power's greater technical availability in the United States. Indeed, a November 2006 study assessing the widespread use of wind power in Minnesota [*7]
concluded that "wind generation does make a calculable contribution to system reliability" by decreasing the risk of large, unexpected outages. n20
Improved reliability of supply is important, as blackouts and brownouts exact a considerable toll on the American economy.
The U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") estimates that while power interruptions often last only seconds or minutes, they cost consumers an average of $ 150 to 400 billion every
year. n21 The Electric Power Research Institute projects the annual costs of poor power reliability at $ 119 billion, or forty-four percent of all electricity sales in 1995. n22
Hall & Kirkham, 7 – natural resource attorneys with Stoel Rives LLP
(Richard R. Hall and John S. Kirkham, The Enterprise Newspaper, “Coal: Like It or Not, It's Here to Stay,” 6-1-2007,
www.stoel.com/showarticle.aspx?Show=2484) // JMP
Thirty years ago, coal was viewed as the fuel of the past. Nuclear power, natural gas, and renewable energy sources were
going to take us away from coal and place our reliance on cleaner alternatives. However, despite these predictions, the use of
coal for generating electricity has nearly tripled in the last 30 years, and the demand for and consumption of coal is projected
to increase for the foreseeable future. Coal has enabled America’s electric utilities to keep up with ever increasing demand,
and coal is now being used in record amounts. Last year, coal-fired plants contributed 50% of the electricity produced in the
United States, and it is anticipated that coal will maintain this percentage through 2025. But while coal-fired plants contribute
half of the electricity produced in the United States, they also contribute four-fifths of the carbon emissions associated with
electrical generation.
The challenge facing government and industry is reconciling rapid economic growth and energy demand with the
environmental impacts and risks of climate change. Despite the environmental concerns and promising advances in the
development of alternative energy sources, coal will undoubtedly continue to play a significant role in power generation for
decades to come. Attempts to abruptly eliminate coal from current and/or future energy options would be imprudent and
jeopardize the availability, reliability and security of a country’s overall energy supply. To ensure future energy needs are
affordable, support for the development of new energy technologies should include research and development for clean coal
technologies as well as improving competitiveness of alternative energy sources.
RPS Aff 41
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Renewables are key to reduce harmful environmental impacts of coal use and production
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
E. Land Use
Wind and Solar Uses Less Land
Recent advances in renewable energy technologies have made them much less land-intensive. In fact, the Worldwatch Institute recently
estimated that harnessing renewable energy for electricity production requires less land than conventional systems. The study noted that solar power plants that concentrate
sunlight in desert areas, for instance, require 2,540 acres per billion kWh. On a lifecycle basis, this is less land than a comparable coal or hydropower plant generating the
same amount of electricity.327 Similar projections from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) demonstrate that solar
and wind technologies use
extensively less land than conventional systems when their complete fuel cycles are considered.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) estimates that in open and flat terrain a largescale wind plant will require about 60 acres per MW of installed capacity (this drops
to as little as 2 acres per MW for hilly terrain). However, AWEA emphasizes that only 5 percent (3 acres) or less of this area is actually occupied by turbines, access roads, and
other equipment—95% remains free for other compatible uses such as farming or ranching.329
At the High Winds Project in Solano, California, 8 different landowners host 90 separate 1.8 MW wind turbines that total 162 MW of electricity capacity, but are still able to use
almost all of the farmland around and between the turbines.
Using a conservative figure of 26 acres for each wind turbine, researchers from Oberlin College estimated that 40 square miles could support roughly 38,000 turbines producing 3-
4% of total US electric demand each year. The
actual footprint of these turbines would be roughly 10,000 acres, leaving the surrounding
990,000 acres of land either untouched or available for other uses. This figure beats both coal and natural gas in terms of total land use.330
NREL estimates that solar PV could supply every kilowatt-hour of our nation’s current electricity requirements with modules on only 7% of the country’s available roofs,
parking lots, highway walls, and buildings without substantially altering appearances.
Solar PV requires even less new land. A PV system at the California Exposition Center in Sacramento, California, for example, fully integrates 450 kW of PV into
a parking lot. Indeed, NREL concluded that, “a world relying on PV would offer a landscape almost indistinguishable from the landscape we know today.”331
For example, the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at the University of San Diego School of Law recently estimated that the City of San Diego could construct 1,726 MW of solar
PV relying only on available roof area downtown.332 // pg. 123-125
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
C. Air Quality
Conventional electricity generation is by far the largest source of air pollutants that harm human health and contribute to
global warming. In 2003, for example, fossil fuel use (for all energy sectors, not just electricity) was responsible for 99
percent of the country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, 93 percent of its sulfur dioxide (SOx) emissions, and 96 percent of
its nitrous oxides emissions (NOx).269
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health estimated that the air pollution from conventional energy sources kills
between 50,000 and 70,000 Americans every year. These researchers found that the emissions from just 9 power plants in
Illinois directly contributed to an annual risk of 300 premature deaths, 14,000 asthma attacks, and more than 400,000 daily
incidents of upper respiratory symptoms among the 33 million people living within 250 miles of the plants.271
Compiling data from the American Cancer Society, Harvard School of Public Health, and Environmental Protection Agency,
the Clean the Air Grassroots Network estimated that residents in every single U.S. state were at risk to premature death from
air pollution. 272
Children are particularly vulnerable to the pollution from fossil fuels. Because children spend more time outside and have
smaller airways that necessitate more rapid breathing, they are much more vulnerable to develop illnesses associated with air
pollution.273
By promoting technologies that displace conventional forms of electricity generation, a national RPS would substantially
decrease air pollution in the U.S. A single 1 MW wind turbine running at only 30 percent of capacity for one year displaces
more than 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide, 2.5 tons of sulfur dioxide 3.2 tons of nitrous oxides, and 60 pounds of toxic mercury
(Hg) emissions.274
One study assessing the environmental potential of a 580 MW wind farm located on the Altamont Pass near San Francisco,
California, concluded that the turbines displaced hundreds of thousands of tons of air pollutants each year that would have
otherwise resulted from fossil fuel combustion. 275
The study estimated that the wind farm would displace more than 24 billion pounds of nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides,
particulate matter and carbon dioxide over the course of its 20-year lifetime — enough to cover the entire city of Oakland in a
pile of toxic pollution 40 stories high.276 // pg. 102-105
Driesen ’03 - Prof Law – Syracuse, (David, Buffalo Environmental Law Journal, Fall, 2002/Spring ’03, “Sustainable
Development and Air Quality: The Need to Replace Basic Technologies with Cleaner Alternatives” lexis)
Air pollution can make life unsustainable by harming the ecosystem upon which all life depends and harming the health of
both future and present generations. The Rio Declaration articulates six key principles that are relevant to air pollution. These
principles can also be understood as goals, because they describe a state of affairs [*27] that is worth achieving. Agenda 21,
in turn, states a program of action for realizing those goals. Between them, they aid understanding of sustainable
development's meaning for air quality.
The first principle is that "human beings. . . are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature", because
they are "at the center of concerns for sustainable development." n3 While the Rio Declaration refers to human health, its
reference to life "in harmony with nature" also reflects a concern about the natural environment. n4 Since air pollution
damages both human health and the environment, air quality implicates both of these concerns. n5
RPS Aff 47
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
EPA, 2 (Environmental Protection Agency, “What is Acid Rain and What Causes It?” 8-6-2002,
http://www.policyalmanac.org/environment/archive/acid_rain.shtml) -CMM
Almost all of the electricity that powers modern life comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil. acid
deposition is caused by two pollutants that are released into the atmosphere, or emitted, when these fuels are burned: sulfur
dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Coal accounts for most US sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and a large portion of
NOx emissions. Sulfur is present in coal as an impurity, and it reacts with air when the coal is burned to form SO2. In
contrast, NOx is formed when any fossil fuel is burned.
Burning coal is a leading cause of smog, acid rain, global warming, and air toxics. In an average year, a typical coal plant
generates: 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary human cause of global warming--as much carbon dioxide as
cutting down 161 million trees. 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which causes acid rain that damages forests, lakes, and
buildings, and forms small airborne particles that can penetrate deep into lungs. 500 tons of small airborne particles, which
can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, as well as haze obstructing visibility. 10,200 tons of
nitrogen oxide (NOx), as much as would be emitted by half a million late-model cars. NOx leads to formation of ozone
(smog) which inflames the lungs, burning through lung tissue making people more susceptible to respiratory illness. 720 tons
of carbon monoxide (CO), which causes headaches and place additional stress on people with heart disease.> 220 tons of
hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC), which form ozone. 170 pounds of mercury, where just 1/70th of a
teaspoon deposited on a 25-acre lake can make the fish unsafe to eat. 225 pounds of arsenic, which will cause cancer in one
out of 100 people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion. 114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, other toxic
heavy metals, and trace amounts of uranium.
RPS Aff 48
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
EPA, 2 (Environmental Protection Agency, “What is Acid Rain and What Causes It?” 8-6-2002,
http://www.policyalmanac.org/environment/archive/acid_rain.shtml) –CMM
"Acid rain" is a broad term used to describe several ways that acids fall out of the atmosphere. A more precise term is acid
deposition, which has two parts: wet and dry. Wet deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow. As this acidic water flows
over and through the ground, it affects a variety of plants and animals. The strength of the effects depend on many factors,
including how acidic the water is, the chemistry and buffering capacity of the soils involved, and the types of fish, trees, and
other living things that rely on the water. Dry deposition refers to acidic gases and particles. About half of the acidity in the
atmosphere falls back to earth through dry deposition. The wind blows these acidic particles and gases onto buildings, cars,
homes, and trees. Dry deposited gases and particles can also be washed from trees and other surfaces by rainstorms. When
that happens, the runoff water adds those acids to the acid rain, making the combination more acidic than the falling rain
alone. Prevailing winds blow the compounds that cause both wet and dry acid deposition across state and national borders,
and sometimes over hundreds of miles. Scientists discovered, and have confirmed, that sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen
oxides (NOx) are the primary causes of acid rain. In the US, About 2/3 of all SO2 and 1/4 of all NOx comes from electric
power generation that relies on burning fossil fuels like coal.
RPS Aff 49
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
EPA, 2 (Environmental Protection Agency, “What is Acid Rain and What Causes It?” 8-6-2002,
http://www.policyalmanac.org/environment/archive/acid_rain.shtml) -CMM
Effects of Acid Rain: Acid rain causes acidification of lakes and streams and contributes to damage of trees at high
elevations (for example, red spruce trees above 2,000 feet) and many sensitive forest soils. In addition, acid rain accelerates
the decay of building materials and paints, including irreplaceable buildings, statues, and sculptures that are part of our
nation's cultural heritage. Prior to falling to the earth, SO2 and NOx gases and their particulate matter derivatives, sulfates
and nitrates, contribute to visibility degradation and harm public health.
Acid rain hurts sugar maples which are the most economically and environmentally valuable trees in the Eastern US
NSF, 6 (National Science Foundation, “Acid Rain Causing Decline In Sugar Maples, Say Researchers,” 6/5/06,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060605081212.htm) –CMM
Acid rain, the environmental consequence of burning fossil fuels, running factories and driving cars, has altered soils and
reduced the number of sugar maple trees growing in the Northeast, according to a new study led by Cornell University
researchers. The sugar maple is the most economically valuable tree species in the eastern United States because of its high-
priced lumber, syrup and tourist-attracting fall colors. The study, whose lead author, Stephanie Juice '04, was an
undergraduate when the research was conducted, suggests that because acid rain makes the soil more acidic, unfavorable
conditions are created for sugar maples. In acidic soils, sugar maples produce fewer seedlings that survive and mature, and
more adult trees die, the researchers found. They drew these conclusions after adding nutrients to soil in a test plot and
reproducing the favorable soil conditions that existed prior to 20th century industrial pollution. The result: Sugar maples on
the plot rebounded dramatically. The study provides "the most conclusive evidence to date" that the decline of sugar maples
is linked to the effects of acid rain produced by human activity, said Timothy Fahey, professor of forest ecology at Cornell
and co-author of the study, which is published in the May issue of Ecology. Juice wrote the main part of the paper as part of
her senior thesis. "The research addresses how a long-term, human-caused change in the environment is affecting sugar
maples, which are valuable both ecologically and economically as one of the dominant species in our region," said Juice, who
now works for the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Milbrook, N.Y., as a project assistant and is applying to the Peace Corps
for next year. The research was conducted at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), a 3,160-hectare reserve near
North Woodstock, N.H., where scientists have measured soil composition for the past 50 years. The scientists added nutrients
in a test plot to replicate soil conditions that existed prior to the loss of sugar maples over the past 25 years. Nitric and
sulphuric acid in acid rain leaches calcium from the soil. Calcium is the second most abundant plant nutrient (after nitrogen).
In addition, the loss of calcium leads directly to more acidic soils. When soils become too acidic, such trees as sugar maples
become stressed and have a harder time growing or producing seeds and seedlings. "Because of the detailed measurements
for the last 50 years, we know almost exactly how much calcium was removed by acid rain," said Fahey. "Our treatment was
designed to replace just that amount of calcium to bring the system to what it was like prior to the acid rain era." The study
used two 10-hectare (25-acre) watersheds. On one 25-acre site, a calcium-rich mineral called wollastonite was spread in
pellet form by helicopter in October 1999. The other site served as a control. While the pellets dissolve slowly over five to
10 years, the researchers were surprised to find that by summer 2002, the soil acidity in both the top and lower layers of the
test plot neutralized from being highly acidic to more acceptable levels for sugar maples. The researchers also found that by
the second year, calcium levels in the maples' leaves had risen. Acid rain also increases levels of the trace nutrient
manganese in the soil, which can be toxic to trees in higher doses. By year four and five, manganese in the leaves had
declined to healthier levels. In addition, seed production and the density and size of sugar maple seedlings all increased in the
few years following treatment, compared with the untreated neighboring plot.
RPS Aff 50
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Shoock 7 – J. D., expected, Fordham University School of Law, 2008 – [Corey Stephen Shoock, Fordham Journal of
Corporate & Financial Law, “BLOWING IN THE WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL RENEWABLE
PORTFOLIO STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN
ENERGY INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES,” Vol. 12, Iss. 6; pg. 1011-1078, lexis
academic., lexis academic.]
The casus belli for such outside action is the fact that the government's pricing figures neglect to factor in the full costs of
fossil fuel production, including environmental and health costs that are not passed onto consumers directly in their utility
bill.65 For example, utility companies do not have to account for the consequences of approximately six billion metric tons
per year of carbon dioxide emissions, a total that will increase to nearly eight billion metric tons per year by 2030, a twenty-
five-year increase of about 30%.66 Nor is a financial charge indexed to other consequences of fossil fuel burning. Increases
in the emission of sulfur, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, volatile organic compounds, and other
particulate matter wreak havoc on human and natural habitats alike by causing things like acid rain, urban ozone (caused
primarily by nitrous oxide emissions, resulting in respiratory problems in humans), and global climate change.67 Among
fuels used for electricity generation, coal is by far the largest producer of these emissions, producing far beyond its
proportional market share.68 While coal-based power is seen to be the least expensive source of electricity on the market
today,69 the market dynamics that favor coal are substantially flawed.70
The indirect costs associated with the production of electricity from coal are simply staggering.71 During the mining stage
land is permanently damaged, air and water sources are contaminated, ground subsidence causes surface collapses, and
workers can be injured or killed.72 During processing and utilization, heavy metal and acid is given off, and particulate
matter, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, causing seemingly immeasurable
damage and destruction to public and private property, wildlife, and public health.73
Every year, the more than 600 coal-burning plants in the United States74 emit more than 98,000 pounds of mercury into the
air75 while creating another 81,000 pounds of mercury pollution from fly ash and scrubber sludge76, all after 20,000 pounds
of mercury is released in preburning "cleaning" procedures-totaling 200,000 pounds.77 That mercury, along with arsenic,
cadmium, and other heavy metals, seeps out during the coal-burning process and travels either directly through ground water
and airborne particles, or indirectly through the food chain (often through fish), to humans.78 Mercury, even in small doses,
is converted easily through human metabolism into the neurotoxin methylmercury.79 The result of the contamination is that
one out of every six women of childbearing age may have enough of a concentration of mercury to permanently
damage a developing fetus, meaning 630,000 babies a year born in the United States (out of 4 million) are at risk for
severe neurological consequences as a result of gestational mercury poisoning.80 Coal also causes nearly 554,000 asthma
attacks, 16,200 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks each year.81 Not surprisingly, proximity to
coal-burning facilities increases the likelihood that a person becomes one of the 23,600 deaths every year attributed to power
plant pollution,82 each death taking an average of fourteen years off normal life expectancy.83 All told, the health care costs
caused by plant emissions total an estimated $160 billion annually. 84 Other grisly consequences from living near coal
burning include a high rate of stomach cancer,85 autism in children (for every 1,000 pounds of mercury released in a Texas
county, autism rates rose 17%),86 and pneumoconiosis in coal miners (also known as "black lung disease").87
Environmentally, the externality costs of air pollution, acid rain, and global warming are also significant.88 For instance,
according to one set of estimates, the "annual marginal cost of air pollution and acid deposition" is between $10.39 and
$11.02 per short ton of coal; for climate change, the marginal cost is between $0 and $4.50 per million Btu.89 Absent any
consideration of climate change, the approximate "social costs of coal as a percentage of private costs range from about 40%
to 275%."90 The range for natural gas is 12% to 95%, 112% to 123% for petroleum, and 14% to 17% for nuclear. 91 Another
set of estimates emphasizes that "coal is by far the most under-priced energy resource,"92 and that at a price of $30 per ton
would carry with it external costs of almost $160 without including climate change risks which would bring costs to $190 per
ton.93 While monetizing the total social and environmental costs to society of fossil fuel use is an inexact science, the causal
link between polluting fuels and resulting externalities is undeniable.94
Despite arguments and economic models that show wide-ranging and heavy social costs to fossil fuel burning, and in
particular coal consumption, unless and until the industries themselves are compelled to account for these costs, investment
will remain high in traditional energy sources.95 Alternatives, still too underdeveloped as a whole to compete with the
infrastructure96 and reliability of fossil fuels,97 will need time and money to make up the difference.98 With technological
advances in turbine design reducing the levelized cost of output," and not reliant on fossil fuel burning like biomass
power,100 wind energy has the best chance of all truly clean energy sources to make the most immediate and long-lasting
impact on the electricity market.101
RPS Aff 52
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and
Christopher Cooper, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, Fall 2007, 8 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 5, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
[*5] INTRODUCTION
Conventional electricity generation is by far the largest source of air pollutants that harm human health and contribute to
global warming. For instance, emissions from just nine conventional power plants in Illinois directly contributed to 300
premature deaths, 14,000 asthma attacks, and more than 400 thousand daily incidents of upper respiratory symptoms per year
among the 33 million people living within 250 miles of the plants. n1 Moreover, fossil-fueled power plants in the United
States emitted 2.25 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide ("CO[2]") in 2003, more than ten times the amount of CO[2]
compared to the next-largest emitter, iron and steel production. n2 Of all American industries, electricity generation is--by
substantial margins--the single largest contributor of the pollutants responsible for global warming.
Butler, 8- founder and editor of Mongabay.com, a comprehensive environmental science website (Rhett, “U.S. carbon
dioxide emissions reach record high in 2007,” 5-21-08, http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0521-energy.html0) –CMM
Electricity generation continues to be the largest source of emissions in terms of primary energy consumption, followed by
transportation, and industrial, residential, and commercial use. Transportation emissions have grown at about the same rate as
electric power emissions since 1990, while direct-use emissions in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors have
remained relatively flat since 1990. In a hopeful sign, energy CO2 intensity (carbon dioxide emissions per unit of economic
output) fell by about 0.5 percent as the economy expanded by 2.2 percent but emissions grew only 1.6 percent. Between 1990
and 2006, total greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP declined by 27.7 percent. Despite the gains in carbon intensity,
power generation became less efficient in 2007 due to a decline in the proportion of energy generated from hydroelectric
dams. Drier-than-normal conditions meant that power companies had to make up the shortfall by burning more natural gas
and coal. Overall emissions from the power sector rose 3 percent, while electricity generation rose 2.5 percent.
The figure above illustrates the relative contribution of the direct greenhouse gases to total U.S. emissions for the period 1990-2006. The
primary greenhouse gas
emitted by human activities in the United States was carbon dioxide (CO2), representing approximately 85 percent of total
greenhouse gas emissions. The largest source of CO2 was from the combustion of fossil fuels. Methane emissions, which have steadily declined since 1990, resulted
primarily from decomposition of wastes in landfills, natural gas systems and activities associated with domestic livestock. Agricultural soil management and mobile source fossil
fuel combustion were the major sources of nitrous oxide emissions. The emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, which are substitutes for ozone depleting substances, were the primary
component of fluorinated gas emissions. To compare and combine emissions of different greenhouse gases into a national total, EPA uses global warming potentials (GWPs).
The U.S. greenhouse gas inventory also
GWPs compare the radiative forcing or ability to trap heat of one metric ton of a greenhouse gas to a metric ton of CO2.
presents emissions by more commonly used economic categories: agriculture, commercial, electricity generation, industry,
residential and transportation. Using this categorization, emissions from electricity generation accounted for the largest portion of
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2006. Transportation activities accounted for the second largest portion and emissions from industry comprised the third largest
portion. The agriculture, commercial and residential economic sectors, listed in descending order of their contribution, together account for the remaining U.S. greenhouse gas
Electricity, though produced at power plants, is ultimately consumed in the other economic sectors. When emissions
emissions.
from electricity are distributed among these sectors, the industrial sector accounts for the largest share of U.S. greenhouse gas
emissions. Transportation remains the second largest contributor to emissions. Emissions from the residential and commercial sectors increase substantially due to their
relatively large share of electricity consumption (e.g., lighting, appliances, etc.), with agriculture consuming little electricity.
RPS Aff 54
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Komanoff, 8 – director of the consulting firm Komanoff Energy Associates (Charles, “Whither Wind?” February/March
2007, http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/2007-02-01/whither-wind.aspx) –CMM
Casten, 8 – President & CEO of Recycled Energy Development, a company dedicated to the profitable reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions. Past President/CEO of Turbosteam Corporation, and 2007 Chair of the US Combined Heat &
Power Association (Sean, “Beyond coal,” 6/5/08, http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/6/4/123223/5089) –CMM
USA Today, 7 (Dan Verango, “Study: Worldwide carbon dioxide emissions soar,” 5/22/07,
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2007-05-21-carbon-dioxide-emissions_N.htm) –CMM
Warnings about global warming may not be dire enough, according to a climate study that describes a runaway-train
acceleration of industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Fueled by rapid growth in coal-reliant China, rates of carbon dioxide
emission from industrial sources increased from 2000 to 2004 "at a rate that is over three times the rate during the 1990s,"
says a report released by the journal Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences. Carbon dioxide, released when coal,
oil and natural gas burn, is a major "greenhouse gas," so named because it absorbs the sun's heat in the atmosphere. "We
have had rapid economic growth worldwide powered on traditional carbon-emitting sources," says study author Christopher
Field of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's branch in Stanford, Calif. The study compared Energy Department carbon
dioxide emissions numbers with economic growth figures from the International Monetary Fund and United Nations. The
figures show that "carbon intensity," roughly the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to produce something in an economy,
dropped worldwide after 1980. It shot up after 2000 in high-growth China and stalled elsewhere. "The report is saying that if
you wonder what side of global warming's effects — droughts, warming and others — we are going to get, a little or a lot, we
are going to get a lot," says Angela Anderson of the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Trust. In February, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted a 7.2-degree rise in surface temperatures by 2100 if the world pursues
growth reliant on fossil fuels, producing more severe droughts, floods and heat waves. The study's real-world carbon dioxide
emissions rate exceeds the panel's assumptions. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about half of the 1-degree increase in
average surface temperatures attributable to human activities in the past century, the climate change panel says. Countries are
using more energy, and "no region is decarbonising its energy supply," the study says. "This should serve as a notice to the
global community that renewed and stronger efforts are necessary in this political, economic and scientific milieu," says
Robert Andres of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory, who was not
part of the study. The results show that the world is burning more coal than ever. "Coal is abundant and cheap but much
dirtier than other fossil fuels," Field says.
What country is the largest source of global warming pollution? The United States. Though Americans make up just 4 percent
of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- by far the largest
share of any country. In fact, the United States emits more carbon dioxide than China, India and Japan, combined. Clearly
America ought to take a leadership role in solving the problem. And as the world's top developer of new technologies, we are
well positioned to do so -- we already have the know-how.
RPS Aff 56
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, 8 – professor in the Energy and Resources Group and in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley
(Daniel M., San Francisco Chronicle, “Dan Kammen: Clean energy and America's future,” 5-18-2008,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/17/IN3R10MGSK.DTL) // JMP
Over the next five decades, progress to meaningfully address the risk of significant climate change will require an estimated
80 percent - or greater - reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. The United States and China together account for
almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions, so the work needs to begin here.
At the same time, no nation is better positioned to adopt a low-carbon energy diet than we are. The United States not only has
tremendous clean energy resources, but it has major companies looking to take advantage of a change in federal policy to
compete in the global clean energy economy. The United States must mobilize the world's largest R&D if we are to address
climate change.
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
Monica Trauzzi: The study shows that a federal RPS would slow the rate of CO2 emissions growth in the power sector over
20 years.
William Durbin: That's correct.
Monica Trauzzi: But an RPS wouldn't significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. So does it make sense to put so much
focus on something that's not going to have a significant impact on emissions?
William Durbin: It is actually. I mean when we looked at the renewable portfolio standard we saw an overall decline in CO2
emissions of about 10 percent in 2020. That's an important number. That shows that renewables can deliver in helping to
bring down CO2 emissions. But what it also showed is renewables is not the only answer,that we're going to need a portfolio
approach and that's another key piece of information that comes out of this study. There is no one solution. Gas isn't going to
do it. Renewables isn't going to do it. It's going to take a whole slate of options to bring down CO2 emissions.
Monica Trauzzi: And the report does say that an RPS should be part of a large and complicated puzzle.
William Durbin: Yes.
RPS Aff 57
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Renewable energy reduces air pollution, acid rain and greenhouse gases
Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
Nye and Armitage, 07 – *dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government AND ** president, Armitage International
(Joseph and Richard, A SMARTER, MORE SECURE AMERICA, Report of the CSIS Commission on Smart Power
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/071106_csissmartpowerreport.pdf)
In response, American states and cities as well as countries around the world and a growing portion of the private sector are
taking action to re-duce their respective greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) while simultaneously calling for greater
commitments on the part of the U.S. government and other major rising emitters like China and India. Both the U.S.
government and industry are increasingly responding to these trends.
In the past year, there has been increasing awareness of how countries and companies view their own energy production and
use, as well as their environmental footprint. For instance, a July 2007 study by the National Petroleum Council (NPC),
which represents the major oil and gas industry perspective, was entitled Hard Truths: Facing the Hard Truths about Energy
and stressed the importance of energy efficiency and the development of alternative fuels as part of a multi-component
approach. New innovation on energy and climate is being spurred by state and local regulations and company anticipation of
government regulation on a national level.
Many companies are delaying investment in a variety of energy infrastructure projects, however, particularly in the power
generation sector. This is because of uncertainty over the sustained traction of climate policies emerging at the state and local
level and questions of whether and how soon affordable technology for providing low-carbon alternatives will come online.
Companies also are uncertain over the cost and regulatory approach associated with implementing carbon constraints, as well
as the risk of the emergence of future constraints. This delay in investment in infrastructure undermines the reliability of our
current energy supply.
A world operating on differing sets of rules or costs associated with carbon dioxide emissions could have disruptive
implications for trade, energy security, competitiveness, and economic growth. A world, however, that establishes a global
consensus on the cost of carbon could breathe life into new and emerging sectors of the economy, provide new avenues for
U.S. economic growth, and provide a platform for U.S. global leadership on a major issue of concern to the global economy.
U.S. leadership to shape a new energy frame-work in a carbon-constrained world offers a unique opportunity to alter the
geopolitics of energy, improve energy security, reinvigorate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurialism, and engage
disenfranchised portions of the developing world.
RPS Aff 59
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
If the claimed benefits are accurate (and, as noted below, there are many who believe they are not), there are several ways in
which these benefits would be achieved. Probably the most obvious would be the potential environmental benefits. n49
Although electricity accounts for less than 3% of U.S. economic activity, "the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas for power
currently accounts for more than 26 percent of smog-producing nitrogen oxide emissions, one-third of toxic mercury
emissions, and 64 percent of acid rain-causing SO<2> [*57] emissions." n50 One expert has asserted that if "20 percent of
our electricity in 2020 were to be provided by renewables, then we would be displacing the equivalent of 71 million cars
from the nation's highway." n51 Others have noted that the increased use of renewable energy would reduce harmful
emissions or reduce the cost of compliance with requirements to reduce pollution. n52 "And by reducing the need to extract,
transport, and consume fossil fuels, a national RPS would limit the damage done to our water and land and conserve natural
resources for future generations." n53
A federal RPS is critical to reduce the compliance costs of coming cap and trade legislation
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis, AG)
Congressional leaders have expressed a strong interest in adopting a mandatory carbon reduction policy, and even most utility
executives believe that they will have to implement carbon reductions. Yet in response to higher natural gas prices and
increasing energy demand in recent years, more than 150 new coal-fired power plants have been proposed throughout the
U.S.-none of which include plans to capture and store their carbon emissions. As a result, these plants will expose their
owners, power purchasers, and customers to the risk of future price increases from CO2 regulation or installing equipment to
reduce emissions that could be avoided by investing in renewable energy instead. Indeed, under an economy-wide cap-and-
trade approach, the carbon reductions from increasing renewable energy could save money. A 2001 analysis by EIA of a bill
proposing to cap four power plant pollutants, including CO2, found that the addition of a 20 percent RPS to the cap-and-trade
scenario reduced cumulative compliance costs $72 billion by 2020.
RPS Aff 61
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Regulations placed on the business community as a whole and individual businesses lead to increased costs on goods and
services and can help to undermine certain businesses and the economy. That is not to say that some regulation is necessary.
However, excessive regulation is costly and can hurt competitiveness.
Regulations on businesses increase the cost of goods, undermine businesses and the economy, and kill competitiveness.
No study on small business regulatory costs has been conducted in California. The U.S. Small Business Administration has
been analyzing costs of federal regulations since 1995. The update issued on September 19, 2005, found that "small
businesses continue to bear a disproportionate share of the federal regulatory burden."
The report noted that the costs of federal regulations on firms with fewer than 20 employees is $7,647. For small
manufacturers this figure is at least double the compliance cost for medium-sized and large firms.
SBAC has set regulatory reform as a high priority and will monitor and assist in the study and its recommendations.
RPS Aff 62
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
you can't mention higher natural gas prices without thinking of its impact on the steel industry. The dumping of
And Mr. Chairman,
foreign steel into our markets has put American steel makers in a very precarious situation - and high natural gas prices only
make things more difficult. For example, despite the Jersey Shore Steel Company's efforts to modernize their manufacturing process, natural gas prices that have
increased as much as 168% over the previous years have resulted in price increases that resulted in major losses in business for
this small company. Within the last year, Jersey Shore Steel has had to lay off 70 employees due to business conditions - employees who were once making $18 per hour.
Steel is an important jobs issue; it is also an important national security issue. I am here to trumpet one of the great values of
"
America. That's the enterprise of the American worker, the hardworking American citizens who make this economy go. And those are the steelworkers of America. I appreciate what you do for our
country." President George W. Bush, August 26, 2001
steel and national security go hand in hand. The North American Security and Prosperity Partnership
The President and many other U.S. government leaders recognize that
Given the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and the
(SPP), in the first Ministerial “Report to Leaders” (June 2005), identifies steel as a “strategic” industry.
subsequent global war on terror, the importance of a strong and viable American steel industry to U.S. national infrastructure,
homeland security and economic security cannot be overstated.
It is vital to U.S. national economic security and to our homeland security that America does not become dangerously
dependent on offshore sources of supply for:
The steel that goes into our energy infrastructure such as petroleum refineries, oil and gas pipelines, storage tanks, electricity
power generating plants, electric power transmission towers and utility distribution poles;
The steel that goes into our transportation security infrastructure such as highways, bridges, railroads, mass transit systems,
airports, seaports and navigation systems;
The steel that goes into our health and public safety infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs, waste and sewage treatment facilities, the public water supply system and, increasingly, residential construction;
The steel that goes into our commercial, industrial and institutional complexes such as manufacturing plants, schools, commercial buildings, chemical processing plants, hospitals, retail stores, hotels, houses of
worship and government buildings.
In the above context, this paper provides a summary and enhancement of a December
2001 report prepared by America’s steel-producing community, entitled “A Strong U.S.
Steel Industry: Critical to National Defense and Economic Security.” It is submitted here in connection with the revised draft National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). This paper covers: the role played
by steel in all its forms in homeland security and economic security; the nation’s increased need for steel to bolster our homeland security and economic security; and the role that domestically produced steel
must play to meet our overall security objectives.
we are justifiably concerned about the security of the physical underpinnings of our society, especially its
In the wake of September 11,
essential infrastructure. Virtually all elements of this infrastructure -- energy, transportation, health, public safety and buildings -- are dependent upon steel
for their construction and security. The importance of a strong and viable domestic steel industry to U.S. national economic
security and to our homeland security is clear.
The September 11 attacks on the United States illustrate that (1) steel will be needed to “harden” existing
U.S. infrastructure and installations and (2) a strong and viable domestic steel industry will be needed to provide immediate steel deliveries when and where required. We need only consider the potential
difficulties that the U.S. would face in defending, maintaining and rebuilding vital infrastructure in an environment where our nation is largely dependent upon offshore sources for steel. If the U.S. were to
become even more dangerously dependent upon offshore sources of steel, we would experience sharply reduced security preparedness in the face of:
Highly variable, and certainly higher, costs;
Uncertain supply, impacted by unsettled foreign economies;
Quality, design and performance problems;
Inventory problems, long lead times and extended construction schedules.
In this submission, we will examine U.S. infrastructure, segment by segment, all of which are highly steel-intensive. We will cite specific examples of our infrastructure need, the importance of steel as a
material to this need and the importance of a strong and viable domestic steel industry to meet this need.
Even prior to September 11, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that $1.3 trillion would be needed through 2005 alone for major infrastructure improvements in The United States. The situation
has likely worsened since publication of the figures below. According to authoritative government and consuming industry studies:
25 percent of U.S. bridges are currently either structural deficient or obsolete, so roughly 150,000 of our nation’s bridges will need to be modernized and rebuilt;
27 percent of America’s highways are judged to be poor-to-mediocre, so more than a quarter of the U.S. highway system will need to be rebuilt and upgraded;
21 percent of U.S. rail track is rated as “less than good,” so more than a fifth of our nation’s railway system will need to be better maintained or rebuilt; 30 percent of U.S. airport runways are classified as
“needing repair,” so nearly a third of our nation’s airport runways will require upgrading.
Our country depends upon a healthy American steel industry to meet these and other growing U.S. demands for steel-intensive infrastructure. Engineers and contractors on sophisticated infrastructure projects
U.S. national
require an uninterrupted supply of quality steel that they can trust to meet the performance characteristics of their project’s design, delivered on time and at a competitive cost.
economic security requires a strong and viable domestic steel industry to meet all these criteria on a consistent plate steel in
wide and very heavy gauges. Prompt and effective maintenance and restoration of pipelines are vital to our national energy
security infrastructure and to our national economy
Electric power generation is an engine for our economy. Steel is not only present in the structures, but in the huge generators,
which use large quantities of sophisticated electrical lamination steel sheet, and in the boilers, pressure vessels and pipe that
is needed to produce basis. >>
RPS Aff 63
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The Durango Herald 8 [Katie Buford, “Report foresees natural-gas decline,” 4-29-08,
http://durangoherald.com/aspbin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/08/news080629_1.htm] //
LDK
In 2008, natural-gas prices are on the rise again. In June, Atmos Energy, which secures its supplies of natural gas from
producers months in advance, increased the price it charges customers by 25 percent.
Kevin Kerrigan, a spokesman for the company, said that normally the price it pays for gas declines after winter, but this year
has been an exception. The market price of natural gas in June was 72 percent higher than the same month a year before, he
said. This winter could be worse.
"It is not forecasted to come down," he said. Atmos shops around for its gas, which may or may not come from the San Juan
Basin.
FMNN 8 [Free Market Network Corporation, “Natural Gas Prices Set to Jump 52%,” 6-25-8,
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58260] // LDK
The government released a short-term energy outlook last week, revising projections for natural-gas prices upward.
According to a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), natural gas will cost a whopping 52% more this
year than last year.
Two months ago, the same forecast projected a 16.5% hike in the price of natural gas from last year, and last month, the
projection was a 35% increase. Natural gas spot prices averaged $7.17 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) in 2007 and are now
expected to average more than $11 per Mcf in 2008 and 2009.
Coal prices are rising because of growing demand and supply disruptions overseas. Natural gas prices are also on the
upswing due to concerns about supplies, which are below last year's levels, and declining production in the Gulf of Mexico,
according to analysts at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Many power companies are passing these higher fuel costs directly through
to consumers. "The cost of most fuels used in generating electricity has risen significantly since the beginning of the year,"
the Energy Department said in a recent report in which it predicted electricity prices will rise by 3.7 percent this year and 3.6
percent next year. Many analysts expect prices to rise more than that. Global Insight, an energy research firm, thinks rising
coal costs will boost electricity rates by 5.7 percent nationally this year, while Barry Bannister, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus,
says electric rates could jump as much as 69 percent by 2015.
RPS Aff 64
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Exceeding $12 per MMBtu in most parts of country, natural gas prices far surpass historical records for this time of year.
Along with the official start of the summer occurring this week, spot prices at the Henry Hub breached $13 per MMBtu for
the first time since December 2005 in the aftermath of the hurricane season that year. Increases in demand from electric
generators meeting air-conditioning demand have already occurred in the Southwest and part of the East Coast earlier this
month and are expected to expand as the summer proceeds. In addition to the increasing demand from hot temperatures
around the country, the elevated price level for natural gas currently appears related to growing financial investment in many
commodities, including metals, agricultural products and crude oil, resulting in steep prices increases. Since the beginning of
2008, the spot price at the Henry Hub has increased $4.93 per MMBtu, or 63 percent, to yesterday’s average of $12.76.
Nonetheless, with temperatures relatively moderate this week for the country as a whole and a decline in the price of crude
oil, the net change in the Henry Hub spot price this report week was a decrease of 17 cents per MMBtu. Other spot markets
along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and East Texas registered regional price decreases of $0.12 and $0.15 per MMBtu,
respectively. The average regional price yesterday was $12.79 and $12.53 in East Texas and Louisiana. Although
temperatures across the country have not yet reached summer peaks, rising temperatures in the Northeast likely supported
price increases in the region during the report week. The average price in the Northeast region yesterday was $13.65 per
MMBtu, which was 23 cents higher than the previous Wednesday. The Northeast has experienced the highest prices in the
country (outside Florida), owing in part to pipeline transportation costs for deliveries from the Gulf of Mexico region. Of the
18 trading days in June to date, the average price in the Northeast has fallen below $13 per MMBtu only twice. For the week,
the average spot price for delivery in New York off Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco Zone 6-NY) increased by $0.35
per MMBtu to $13.98, a premium of $1.22 per MMBtu to the price at the Henry Hub. In the Rockies region, the average
price yesterday was $10.35 per MMBtu, the lowest average regional price in the Lower 48 States as the region continues to
experience shut-in supplies caused by maintenance of infrastructure and related activities. Maintenance related to pipelines
serving the Opal processing plant in Wyoming has reduced pipeline capacity eastbound. The reduced supplies from this
maintenance, as well as other projects, lowered upstream prices in the Rockies, while increasing the value of Midcontinent
supplies during the week. The average price in the Midcontinent, which is located downstream of the Rockies producing
region as a result of the new Rockies Express Pipeline, increased 38 cents per MMBtu to $11.48. The pace of deliveries of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports remains considerably below last year’s volumes and now appears to have been less than
200 Bcf for the first half of the year, which is less than half of the approximately 460 Bcf received last year during the same
time period. LNG imports in June have averaged about 0.9 Bcf per day (based on sendout data from LNG import terminals),
which is significantly less than the average of 2.8 Bcf per day in June 2007. Most flexible LNG cargoes are heading to
Europe and Asia, where buyers continue to purchase LNG at prices higher than those that have prevailed in U.S. markets. At
the NYMEX, the price of the near-month contract (for July delivery) decreased 45.7 cents per MMBtu during the report week
to $12.753 as prices for competing products decreased and the weather outlook appeared to limit demand by electric power
generators in the near-term. The largest price movement of the week for the near-term contract occurred yesterday (June 25)
as the July contract lost approximately 26 cents per MMBtu. The downward price pressure appeared related to the crude oil
price, which decreased by $2.57 per barrel following the release of a market report by the Energy Information
Administration. Recent high natural gas prices extend throughout the forward curve, suggesting prices are expected to remain
elevated through at least the next winter heating season. At the end of trading yesterday, the 12-month strip, which is the
average for futures contracts over the next 12 months, was priced at $12.804 per MMBtu, a decrease of about 31 cents since
last Wednesday. Beginning with the July 2008 contract, futures prices increase steadily through the beginning of 2009. The
highest-priced contract in the futures strip is the January 2009 contract, which closed at $13.84 per MMBtu on June 25.
RPS Aff 65
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
AP 8 [Associated Press, James Prichard, “Dow Chemical raising prices by another 25 percent,” 6-25-8,
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j06I8ZwwKqhAGklV0SAQAP8N8fjAD91GLKN01] // LDK
Shares of several chemical companies fell Tuesday after industry leader Dow Chemical Co. announced its second set of
wide-ranging price hikes in less than a month, again trying to offset record costs for energy and raw materials.
Midland-based Dow said it will raise the prices of its products by as much as 25 percent in July after implementing across-
the-board price increases of up to 20 percent on June 1.
The company makes everything from the propylene glycols used in antifreeze, coolants, solvents, cosmetics and
pharmaceuticals, to acrylic acid-based products used in detergents, wastewater-treatment and disposable diapers. Its products
are sold in 160 countries.
When Dow raises prices, the increase is felt across dozens of industries that buy its chemicals and plastics to manufacture
products ranging from diapers to automobiles.
Dow says it is trying to survive. Competitors such as Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Co. and Dallas-based Celanese
Corp. also have recently raised prices for their customers.
"We have to get them back to reinvestment levels where we can continue to build our business and to be there for the future,"
said Dow spokesman Chris Huntley.
The chemical maker's profit margins shrank from 9.8 percent in 2005 to 7.6 percent in 2006, and to 5.4 percent last year.
During the 12-month period that ended March 31, the margin narrowed to 5.1 percent, according to Capital IQ.
Dow said it's also adding a freight surcharge for North American customers of $300 per shipment by truck and $600 per
shipment by rail effective Aug. 1. Those surcharges will spread to other regions later this year.
Meanwhile, the company is idling or reducing production at some manufacturing plants and taking unspecified cost-cutting
measures at its automotive plants that have been hurt by a dreadful year for U.S. automakers.
The company had not yet worked out the details of its cost-cutting plan, Huntley said, "but it will certainly involve some
people reductions, it will involve looking at how we can reduce costs around facilities, overhead and the external spending
component."
Dow has automotive facilities in Michigan and throughout the United States, as well as overseas.
Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Liveris said in a statement the steps are "extremely unwelcome but entirely
unavoidable" as global energy costs surge.
"The price increases we announced May 28 helped, but they were not enough to fully cover the additional costs we are now
facing," he said. "Even since our last announcement, the cost of hydrocarbons has continued to rise, and that trajectory shows
no sign of changing."
Bloomberg 8 [Eric Martin, “U.S. Stocks Retreat on Economic Concern; UPS, Dow Chemical Drop,” 6-24-08,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ayaDSf13B7FA&refer=news] // LDK
U.S. stocks retreated to a three- month low after consumer confidence weakened and United Parcel Service Inc. said rising
fuel costs will reduce profit.
UPS, the biggest package shipment company, tumbled the most in almost two years after predicting second-quarter earnings
below analyst estimates. Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical producer, slumped to the lowest since March as
Deutsche Bank AG cut profit estimates. Prospects that the worsening outlook for the economy may forestall interest-rate
increases helped financial shares rebound from the lowest level since 2003
RPS Aff 66
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Markey 8 – Director of Natural Gas Marketing at the Apache Corporation – [Michele Markey, Apache Corporation, “Topic
Report: U.S. Industrial Natural Gas Consumption,” 4-24-8
http://www.apachecorp.com/explore/explore_features/browse_archives/View_Article/?docdoc=698] // LDK
The consumption of natural gas in the industrial sector is sensitive to changes in overall economic activity in the U.S. This topic
report reviews the industrial sectors that consume the largest amounts of natural gas.
Federal Reserve Industrial Capacity Report:
industrial utilization, production and capacity indicates that industrial activity has slowed in
The Federal Reserve’s monthly report on
February. The capacity-utilization rate for total industry in fell 0.6 percent to 80.9, the lowest rate since November 2005. Manufacturing (i.e., manufacturing, logging and periodical industries) production
decreased 0.2 percent in February after having been unchanged in January. The factory-operating (i.e., made-in-factory facilities) rate fell 0.3 percent in February, to 79.3 percent, which is 0.5 percent below its
1972-2007 average. The production of durable goods moved down 0.4 percent. Large production declines were recorded in industrial sectors that consume large amounts of natural gas: wood products, primary
metals, motor vehicles and parts, furniture and related products.
Petrochemicals Sector:
As one of the largest consumers of natural gas in the industrial sector, the petrochemical sector has been a major beneficiary
of relatively flat natural-gas prices in 2007. There has been strong demand for agricultural chemicals and fertilizers due to the
growing world market for biofuels. Fertilizer prices have shot up by as much as 40 percent in the past year. Demand for fertilizer products
has come not only from the U.S., but also from countries such as India and China. However, commodity prices, including corn, dropped sharply last week. A longer-term correction in
agricultural commodity prices could curb farmers' profits and demand for fertilizers. A reduction in fertilizer consumption
could dampen demand for natural gas.
NYT 8 [Abha Bhattarai, “Dow Chemical Raises Prices for Second Time in a Month,” 6-25-8,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/business/25dow.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1214676643-
jmXFycd3OzMHdjyZexWkYQ] // LDK
The Dow Chemical Company said Tuesday that it was raising prices for the second time in a month to offset a “relentless rise” in
energy costs, a sign that companies may increasingly have to pass on price increases to their customers.
The increase of as much as 25 percent — the largest in the company’s history — comes after a 20 percent rise last month that the company
said did not go far enough given the continuing surge in energy prices.
Dow, which makes products ranging from pesticides to plastic wraps, also said it would impose freight surcharges of $300 for each truck shipment and $600 for each rail shipment beginning Aug. 1 in the
United States. In addition, it will scale back production in plants across North America and Europe.
Andrew N. Liveris, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said the changes were “extremely unwelcome but entirely unavoidable” as oil and natural gas continue to set records. Oil prices are up more
ural gas is up more than 70 percent this year.
than 40 percent this year and have risen $9 a barrel since Dow’s earlier price increase. Nat
“There came a point where the surge became so ridiculous that we had to raise prices,” Chris Huntley, a company spokesman, said, adding that the latest price increase would affect everything from fabric and
cushions to CD cases, Styrofoam and car parts.
When Dow announced last month’s increases, it spurred a series of similar increases by
Analysts said they expected other companies to follow suit.
other chemical manufacturers, including DuPont and BASF.
Dow’s announcement is the latest indication that companies are beginning to pass along the burden of high energy prices to consumers. Until now, those prices had largely been
absorbed by company profits because market competition prevented retailers from increasing prices at their stores even as
skyrocketing costs continued to strain earnings. But extreme pressure is building in the production chain.
For example, Lowe’s, the home improvement company, has been receiving “unprecedented requests” for price increases from its suppliers, Robert F.
Hull Jr., the chief financial officer, said at a conference. Mr. Hull added that the company had been absorbing price increases itself “to maintain the supply of product,” which has put a strain on gross margins,
but he forecast that some of that increase would be passed along later this year.In addition to soaring energy costs, companies are also having to deal with the increase in the cost of raw materials.Posco of South
Korea, one of the world’s largest steel producers, said Tuesday that it was raising prices by more than 20 percent. That followed an agreement Monday between the global mining company Rio Tinto Group and
the biggest steel maker in China, Baosteel, to raise the price Baosteel pays for Australian iron ore by as much as 97 percent.“It’s clearly a global trend that the higher costs of raw materials are being passed on
along the production chain,” said Holger Schmieding, chief European economist at the London office of Bank of America. “Companies have no alternative but to pass that along to their
customers.” Producer prices in the United States rose 7.2 percent in May from a year earlier , while comparable euro zone prices rose 6.1 percent in April, the
latest month for which data were available. Chinese producer prices are rising at nearly a 12 percent annual rate.
The rise in prices also partly reflects the weakness of the dollar, as producers outside the United States demand more of the currency for their goods as its buying power declines. In addition, a ripple effect has
been created in which the rise in crude oil costs has carried over into other sectors.
Economists say the $664 billion chemical industry has been among the hardest hit by soaring energy prices. Every $1
increase in crude oil prices costs the industry $660 million a year, said Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American
Chemistry Council.
For Dow Chemical, its feedstock and energy costs, which are up more than 40 percent since last year, have increased fourfold in the last five years, to more than $32 billion this year. Dow, whose
shares fell nearly 3 percent on Tuesday, has been steadily increasing prices for the last several years, but it is only in the last
month that consumers have been directly hit.
“These costs have surged so much that the middle guys say they can’t absorb any more,” Mr. Liveris said in an interview this month. “There is no reason the middle of the supply chain should have to absorb
it.”
RPS Aff 67
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dow Jones Newswires in 8 (“Brazil Vale Speeds Up Projects Linked to Fertilizers”, 6-25-08,
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djhighlights/200806251919DOWJONESDJONLINE000804.htm)
SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Brazilian mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce ( RIO), or Vale, is speeding up existing projects related to supplying raw materials for the
fertilizer industry, a Vale press officer confirmed on Wednesday.
However, the company said that this wasn't due to political pressure from the Brazilian government, which is worried that the high costs of fertilizer is contributing
to rising food prices.
"These projects have been under way for a long time," the press officer told Dow Jones Newswires, without giving details of the acceleration program.
According to the Vale press officer, the mining company has already committed $479 million to complete an open cast phosphate mine in Peru, with a capacity of 3.9 million
metric tons.
Vale also pumped $223 million into its Taquari-Vassouras potassium mine in the northeastern state of Sergipe. The mine has a capacity to produce 850,000 tons of potassium.
Moreover, Vale is undertaking a feasibility study to mine potassium in the Neuquen province in Argentina.
Other companies such as Fosfertil, Bunge, Yara, Copebras and Galvani, have announced some $4 billion in investments over the next four years, Valor said.
Brazil's fertilizer prices have risen between 100% and 150% in the last 12 months, depending on the location, the National Association of
Fertilizer Distributors, or Anda, said recently.
High fertilizer prices have become a major concern for the agricultural lobby, with the National Confederation of Agriculture,
or CNA, complaining that high costs are eating into farmers' profits.
Bloomberg News in 8 (Shamin Adam, “Rising Food Prices Hurting 1 Billion Asians, ADB’s Kuroda Says”, 5-6-08,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&refer=India&sid=at3LhdZJFQJE)
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Surging food prices are hurting 1 billion Asians as the region's poor struggle to cope with rising food and
energy costs that are stoking inflation, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said.
``Soaring food prices are hitting the poor very hard,'' Kuroda told delegates attending the ADB's annual meeting in Madrid yesterday. ``Their purchasing power has
been eroded, placing them at a greater risk of hunger and malnutrition.''
Global food prices surged 57 percent in March from a year earlier, according to the United Nations. Asia's poorest countries including Bangladesh and Tajikistan have borne the
brunt of the increases, Kuroda said on May 3, even as the price gains stoked social tensions in other parts of the world.
``Reduced supplies, increased demands, record high energy prices, the steep depreciation of the U.S. dollar and trade restrictions imposed by some countries have all combined to
cause the price surge in recent months,'' Kuroda said.
Vietnam and other rice-producing nations have curtailed exports to maintain supplies and damp local inflation, pushing up prices for buyers such as the Philippines, the world's
biggest importer of the grain.
The rising prices have led to wider fiscal deficits as governments in the region subsidize food and energy costs for their
people. The ADB last week said it will make ``sizeable'' loans to help countries in Asia and the Pacific meet the cost of higher food prices.
The lender was formed in 1966 to improve the welfare of people in the Asia and the Pacific. Two-thirds of the world's poor reside in the region, and
about 600 million Asians survive on less than $1 a day.
High oil and food prices destroy confidence and tank the economy
Gieve in 8—Deputy Governor of the Bank of England (Sir John, “Global Economy Affected By Two Cycles,” 6-28-08,
Commodity Online, http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/Global-economy-affected-by-two-cycles-10016-
3.html)
As of yesterday, oil was trading at around $130 per barrel. Relative to the rise in the prices of consumer goods and services,
oil prices (in US dollars) are now higher than they were in the 1970s.
The rise in oil prices has pushed up on fuel, retail gas and electricity prices. Similarly, the rising cost of agricultural
commodities has driven up food prices . Taken together energy and food components can account for 1.1 percentage points of
the 1.2 percentage points increase in CPI inflation from 2.1% in December last year to 3.3% in May.
There is no doubt that the emergence of China, India and other Asian economies in recent years is a permanent change in the
structure and balance of the world economy. But there are signs too that an element of their recent growth may be cyclical.
The growing inflationary pressures and the scale of the booms in investment are typical of economies reaching the top of the
cycle. The huge increase in oil and food prices will itself have a dampening effect on consumers in those countries – as it will
in the West. So we may well see the balance of supply and demand shift at some point.
RPS Aff 68
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Deutsche Presse-Agentur in 8 (“Pakistan’s Food Crisis to Worsen on Rising Fertilizer Cost”, 6-19-08,
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1412121.php/ANALYSIS_Pakistans_food_crisis_to_worsen
_on_rising_fertilizer_cost)
Karachi - Rising fertilizer prices are contributing to the global food crisis that is hitting world's poor, and the sixth most-
populous country Pakistan is no exception.
Global price increases of nearly 400 per cent for phosphoric acid in the last 3 months have increased the cost to farmers for
even the heavily subsidized DAP fertilizer by more than 150 per cent.
In some parts of Pakistan, the price of DAP has increased as much as 300 per cent, according to farmer Bilal Soomro in
Jamshoro, an agricultural town in southern Sindh province.
The phosphoric acid market, which is controlled by a handful of producers, was trading at around 576 dollars a ton during the
first quarter of the year, but is now hovering at around 2,100 dollars a ton.
'This is a massive and phenomenal increase in cost in just three months,' said Zohair Abbasi, an analyst at Capital One
Equities.
DAP, a by-product of phosphoric acid, is considered worldwide as an elixir for agriculture growth.
An average 20-kilogram bag of DAP that cost around 1,200 rupees (20 dollars) one year ago, now costs between 2,800 and
3,000 rupees (45-48 dollars), putting further strain on framers already in crisis due to water shortages and higher electricity
prices.
For majority of Pakistan's grain growers, the options are limited: either to cut down the essential fertilizer use, or switch to
other less lucrative vegetable crops which require less fertilizer.
Pakistan produces some of the world's largest crops of wheat, cotton, rice and sugar to feed the growing nation of 170 million
people, most of whom survive on about 1 dollar a day.
'Without fertilizers we can not produce any bumper crop,' Abbasi said.
Pakistan has witnessed a severe food shortage in recent months as flour prices rose by over 200 percent and food riots
erupted in several cities.
The situation may reach crisis levels if the country again fails to produce enough wheat in fiscal 2008-2009 (July-June),
according to food economist Hari Ram Lohano of the Social Policy and Development Center.
Agriculture is the linchpin of Pakistan's economy and a dominant force in the gross domestic product (GDP), representing 60
per cent of the economy and employing 68 per cent of the total labor force.
Any shortfall in the agriculture output also severely jolts the country's growth rate.
The World Bank forecasts relatively low GDP growth of 3.5 per cent for the next fiscal year of 2008-2009, starting from July
1. The country had enjoyed average GDP growth of 7 to 8 per cent during the last eight years, thanks to healthy crops and
massive inflows of US aid money lavished in exchange for Pakistan's cooperation in Washington's wars on Islamic
extremists.
The Ministry of Finance also painted a bleak picture, showing agriculture growth of 1.49 per cent in the current fiscal year
that ends June 30, against the budget target of 4.8 per cent.
Pakistan's total fertilizer demand is 6.6 million tons, of which 5.4 million tones is urea produced from domestically available
abundant natural gas, and 1.2 million tons is DAP fertilizer.
The country has only one DAP plant, the army-owned Fauji Fertilizer, which produces around 465,000 tons. The rest is
imported.
But rising demand for bio-fuels is making availability of phosphoric acid scarce.
According to farmers, an ideal mix is two bags each for urea and DAP but in Pakistan, due to high DAP prices, the customary
usage is just one bag of DAP and three bags of urea.
'This gap will now widen further and may have severe impacts in our agriculture growth in future,' said Abbasi.
Although the government has increased subsidy from 400 rupees to 1,000 rupees per bag of DAP, the net impact for farmers
is still 150 per cent higher than last year.
'DAP is still going to be beyond the reach of many farmers,' Soomro said.
RPS Aff 69
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The specific EIA analysis, which was conservative in the technology assumptions and a number of other features,
nevertheless showed overall energy bill declining as a result of the renewable development. With a 10% RPS, renewable
energy will displace natural; gas and lower the cost of natural gas for all users. Although the EIA analysis does not go into
detail, REPP believes that a renewable led decline in natural gas usage will lead to a reduction in the use of high cost
imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). A program to accelerate the penetration of renewable energy will be lower in cost,
provide obvious environmental benefits, and increase security.
RPS Aff 70
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Federal RPS would significantly reduce gas prices due to lower power demand.
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
Monica Trauzzi: What does a renewable portfolio standard do for energy costs for the consumer? That's a concern.
William Durbin: It is. It's a big concern, and that's where we were a bit surprised to be able to see such an impact on gas use.
And the reason I keep coming back to the gas issue is that in many of the power markets in the United States we've gone to
competitive markets. And so their gas sets the price of power in many of these markets. So if gas prices go up, power prices
will go up with it. If gas prices go down, the same happens, power prices will go down. So when we saw that the renewables
standard would reduce gas demand and ease pressures out of the gas market, because we have a relatively tight gas supply
and demand balance, it was interesting to be able to see that we saw a softening in the gas price that then translated into a
lower power price as well. So consumers should be happy.
RPS Aff 71
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Cooper, 7 – Senior Policy Director, Network for New Energy Choices (Chris, NNEC, “New Study Reveals Flaws in Congressional
Energy Debate,” 6-13-07, http://www.newenergychoices.org/index.php?blog_entry_id=168&page=fullstory&rd=pages&sd=df, AG)
A 20% RPS will drive down natural gas demand and price
UPU 7 (Utah Public Utilities, “Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard Will Reduce Power and Natural Gas Costs, But Not Have a
Significant Impact on GHG Emission Levels” (May 2007),
http://publicutilities.utah.gov/archive/federalrenewableenergyportfoliostandard.pdf.) AMK
A 15-percent Federal Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) will drive down natural gas demand and price, lower the overall price of
power, but only lead to a slowing in the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), not an absolute reduction from current levels according to the new Wood Mackenzie
report, "The Impact of a Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard."
The United States needs to build 420 GW of capacity over the next 20 years to replace aging facilities and meet its ever-growing need for electricity. Mounting concerns over US
dependence on fossil fuels and the need to address global warming are helping to drive efforts in the US Congress to pass legislation establishing a federal standard to mandate the
use of renewable energy. Recent RPS proposals call for an average of 15 percent of power generation to come from renewable sources within the next two decades, up from 6
percent today. While the US Congress contemplates a federal standard, 24 states have already adopted legislation mandating targets for renewables. Renewable energy in this case
is defined as wind, solar, landfill gas, biomass, and small hydro power.
"Renewable energy alone will not be enough to result in the large GHG reduction targets being proposed," said Joe Sannicandro, VP - North American Power and Michael Pickens,
Senior Analyst - North American Power for Wood Mackenzie. "Currently, the US power sector produces 39 percent of the country's total CO2 emissions. Our study shows that a
Federal RPS would only be one small piece in a large and complicated puzzle to halt the growth of or reduce the absolute level of CO2 emissions. The study shows that
implementing the Federal RPS would reduce total domestic CO2 levels in 2025 by only 10% from the Wood Mackenzie base case. Equally important is that the growth rate in CO2
production is still a positive 0.8% per year under a Federal RPS compared with a growth rate of 1.2% per year in Wood Mackenzie's base case outlook. Clearly, a reduction in total
CO2 levels will require other options to be implemented including nuclear power, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) with carbon sequestration and demand-side
approaches to reduce the growth rate of electricity consumption."
According to the report, the adoption of a 15% Federal RPS will require a flood of new wind and other renewable projects well beyond current proposed projects, leading to a 500-
percent increase in renewable capacity from current levels by 2026. This increase translates into an incremental construction cost of $134 billion (2006 dollars) between 2006 and
2026. Thereport also shows the switch to renewable energy will drive down demand and price of natural gas. "The lower fuel costs and
fossil fuel consumption will lead to lower electricity costs," continued Sannicandro. "Over
the next 20 years, the Federal RPS case leads to a savings of
$240 billion (2006 dollars) in wholesale power costs, outweighing the higher capital investment to build the additional
capacity."
The lower natural gas prices also reduce the total value of other generation technologies, particularly coal and nuclear
capacity, potentially impacting the value of transactions involving existing generating assets. Despite the benefits of renewable energy,
there are still several significant challenges confronting the renewables industry that need to be resolved before such a large-scale national renewable program can be achieved,
including uncertainty surrounding tax incentives, the ever-present NIMBY concerns, and land requirements for the additional build out of renewable facilities.
An RPS would reduce the price of electricity and decrease natural gas use
Natural Gas Ext – RPS Solves Price Spikes / AE Helps Chemical Industry
RPS is key to lock in the production cost of electricity – insulating industry from price spikes
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
A greater reliance on renewable energy technologies would also help insulate the electric utility industry from fuel
interruptions and shortages. Unlike coal, natural gas, uranium, and oil, renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass
are available in every state.43 One-thousand-times more solar energy reaches the surface of the earth each hour than the
energy generated by all fossil fuels combined. The Midwest has been called the "Saudi Arabia" of wind, since it contains
enough usable wind resources to produce all of the electricity used by the nation.44 Many industrial and agricultural
processes produce significant amounts of combustible byproducts, including tobacco residue, chicken carcasses, coffee-
grounds, peach pits, sawdust, scrap wood, and rice-hulls that can be used in dedicated bioelectricity facilities.
And, in contrast to fossil-fueled generators, renewables lock in the production cost of electricity since they need not rely on
volatile supplies of fuel. In the current era of restructuring, natural disasters, and price spikes, many manufacturers and
utilities regard certainty as the most important factor in determining whether to invest in certain energy technologies. The
more uncertainty there is about future fuel costs, the higher the risk premiums placed on investment returns. The capital
intensity and long-term nature of such investments-generators are typically considered capital investments with decades-long
lifetimes-only compounds the risk. Renewables enable power providers to offer more stable electricity rates since their
levelized costs of electricity remain consistent to a greater degree.
UCS, 1 (Union of Concerned Scientists, San Diego Earth Times, “Federal renewable energy standard would help prevent
energy price shocks,” December 2001, http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et1201/et1201s6.html) // JMP
Adoption of a federal renewable energy standard would help insulate the United States from energy price shocks by diversifying
energy supply, according to a report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report, Clean Energy Blueprint, found that America could achieve at least 20 percent
of its electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy sources by 2020 and save consumers money, when combined with policies to save energy.
“This report shows that there are alternative solutions to the erratic prices and supply of commodities like natural gas,” said report
author Alan Nogee, Director of Clean Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Adopting
a renewable energy standard would diversify
electricity generation, as well as reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. It's time for Congress to follow twelve states and adopt this standard.”
The report outlines a series of policies to increase US energy efficiency and renewable energy use, including a renewable portfolio standard that would require electric utilities to
increase non-hydropower renewable energy from about two percent today to 20 percent of overall electricity generation by 2020.
More than 100 organizations praised the policies outlined in the report and called on the US Senate to include them in national energy legislation.
“The UCS report provides the sort of well-reasoned and documented analysis of all energy options, not simply those favored by the existing fossil-fuel industry, that are needed
to promote energy security and favorable economics through supply diversity,” said Daniel M. Kammen, Professor of Energy and Society and Director of the Renewable and
Appropriate Energy Laboratory (REAL) at the University of California, Berkeley. “A renewable energy portfolio standard provides the sort of sound, economically driven basis for
a diverse and clean energy economy that should be embraced by free-market economists and environmentalists alike.”
Renewable energy standards have already been adopted in twelve states: Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
“Renewable portfolio standards have been a tremendous success in several states, including in President Bush's home state of Texas,” said Nogee. “If there truly is
commitment to creating energy security in the US, enacting federal renewable standards will reduce the vulnerability of our
energy system to disruption. It is the smart, affordable and effective option.”
The study found that consumers would save more than $440 billion over the period 2002 to 2020, if a series of energy-efficiency and renewable energy policies recommended in
the report were to become law. Energy-efficiency policies are a major component of the Clean Energy Blueprint, including new minimum efficiency standards on appliances and
other equipment, tax incentives for advanced energy-saving products and matching funds for state-based energy-efficiency programs.
“Energy-efficiency is a key foundation for achieving energy and economic savings for consumers and for increasing the energy independence of the US,” said Steven Nadel,
Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and a collaborator on the report. “When fully in place, the policies advocated in the report will save
a typical American family $350 a year in energy costs.”
In addition to stabilizing energy prices and supply, the policies of Clean Energy Blueprint would:
Reduce US use of natural gas by 31 percent and coal by nearly 60 percent and save more oil by 2020 than can be economically recovered from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
in 60 years.
Avoid the need for 975 new power plants, retire 180 old coal plants, retire 14 existing nuclear plants and reduce the need for hundreds of thousands of miles of new gas pipelines
and electricity transmission lines.
Affordably reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by two-thirds, while also reducing harmful emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by 55 percent.
Enact federal energy-efficiency standards to cut energy waste and save oil and other fuels.
“This study makes it clear that on both economic and environmental grounds, the renewable portfolio standard makes sense,” Nogee said. “And now, in our post-
September 11th world, we recognize that diversifying electricity supply, as a renewable energy standard would also help
reduce the security risk to our electricity generation infrastructure.”
RPS Aff 73
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
PBT 7 [Pittsburg Business Times, Kim Lyons, “Chemical summit to address rail, natural gas price concerns,” 11-2-7,
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/11/05/story13.html] // LDK
Energy supply is a another big concern. Greg Wilkinson, vice president of public and government affairs for NOVA
Chemicals, said the rising price of natural gas, a feedstock for chemical companies, has hit the industry hard.
The government has encouraged natural gas use without increasing supply, he said.
"It's caused problems for us because we turn it into products like plastics," Wilkinson said. "We add value to natural gas for
end-use products."
Schmidt said exploring alternative energy supplies like wind, solar and nuclear power is one goal.
"Every dollar increase in natural gas prices costs PPG Industries $60 million," she said.
But even as they wrestle with these issues, several of the chemical companies that will be involved in the summit have seen
big earnings increases in recent months.
RPS Aff 74
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Reutter , 6 – Business and law editor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Mark, University of Illinois Press,
“Transmission congestion threatens to clog nation's power grid,” 7-27-06,
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/06/0727power.html) // SM
Inadequate investment in the power grid transmission network remains the Achilles heel of the nation’s electric system, an
engineer who specializes in utility policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says.
The electric industry and government regulators have addressed the immediate problems that led to the nation’s worst power
failure three years ago on Aug. 14, 2003, said George Gross, a U. of I. professor of electrical and computer engineering. This
includes mandatory reliability standards for the industry, which were passed by Congress as part of the 2005 Energy Policy
Act.
But the broader problems of transmission congestion and bottlenecks continue to threaten the reliability of the grid,
particularly during periods of peak demand.
“The August 2003 blackout was a wake-up call for the country to upgrade its transmission grid system,” Gross said. “But the
truth is that very few major transmission projects have been constructed and, as a result, transmission capacity has failed to
keep pace with the expansion of power demand.”
In the period between 1988 and 1998, for example, growth in electric demand grew by 30 percent, but growth in transmission
capacity was just 15 percent, Gross said.
The 2003 blackout prompted calls for spending of up to $100 billion to reduce bottlenecks and increase capacity of the
transmission lines that carry electricity from power plants to homes and businesses.
Instead, investment has lagged behind both power-plant generation and growth in demand for electricity. “Demand growth is
forecasted to be 20 percent between 1998-2008, but the increase in transmission capacity is still below 5 percent,” Gross said.
“The need to strengthen the existing transmission infrastructure, to expand it and to effectively harness advances in
technology constitutes the single most pressing challenge for the country’s electricity system.”
An immediate investment in transmission capacity is needed to prevent a breakdown in the power grid
Ried, 8 – Senior Senator from Nevada and Senate Majority Leader (Harry, Congressional Testimony, “Reid Statement on Bill
to Build Renewable Energy Transmission Lines in Nevada,” 6-17-08, http://www.politickernv.com/jkcooper/1875/reid-
statement-bill-build-renewable-energy-transmission-lines-nevada) // SM
"Despite 25 States with an RPS, the Federal government has been very slow to embrace renewable energy, instead preferring
the older, dirtier or more expensive sources. Neither the Federal government, nor the utility industry have invested enough to
integrate the growing renewable generation assets into the grid.
"And, overall, the sluggish pace of transmission investment by utilities has left us with a brittle and insecure power grid.
Even the Department of Defense is concerned about grid security now.
"Unfortunately, nationwide investment in transmission declined for over two decades - by 1998, companies spent less than
half of what they did in 1975. At the same time, electricity sales have nearly doubled, prices have risen, and consumer
demand continues to grow. Recently, utilities have begun to increase their transmission investment, but they're far behind the
curve.
"A new and significant amount of investment must occur. This will not be easy, given the incredible backlog. It will not be
cheap either, because instead of making gradual improvements over the years, the industry has waited until now. The Brattle
Group estimates the nation will need $900 billion for distribution and transmission by 2030.
"But, that investment must be smart. And by smart, I don't mean simply linking existing and highly inefficient coal plants by
Federal energy corridors.
RPS Aff 75
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Kaplan, 7 – Associated Editor at the Council of Foreign Relations (Eben, “America’s Vulnerable Energy Grid,” 4-27-2007,
http://www.cfr.org/publication/13153/americas_vulnerable_energy_grid.html) // SM
More blackouts are on the way – investment in new transmission is critical to prevent this
Washington Post, 4 (Justin Blum, “Bandaged Grid Still Vulnerable - 2003 Blackout Shed Light on Weaknesses, But Power
System Fixes Fall Short of Need ,” 8-10-2004, p. E01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52858-
2004Aug9?language=printer) // SM
Most fundamentally, they said, power companies have not solved complications associated with deregulation of the industry
over the past decade. Before deregulation, electricity was typically generated closer to where it was used. With deregulation,
electricity is increasingly being shipped on high-voltage transmission lines from power plants in one part of the country to
consumers who live hundreds of miles away.
In addition, there still has not been significant investment in new transmission lines that specialists say are needed to allow
electricity to flow freely from one part of the country to another and provide a route for backup electricity that could limit the
scope of a blackout.
"The sorts of things that you need to do to make sure that we're not going to have a blackout are not coming into place," said
Michael W. Golay, a professor of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The blackout reports and
actions that have been taken have really been, in my view, exercises in damage control to try to deflect criticism. We'll see if
I'm right when we see if we have more blackouts, which I'm expecting we will."
Industry executives and outside specialists are divided about why there has not been another major outage in the past year.
Utility officials credit the improvements they have made and the increased adherence to the voluntary rules. But academics
who study the nation's aging power grid, a 200,000-mile network of high-voltage transmission lines, said the reason may
actually be a combination of moderate temperatures and good luck.
The grid is weak – it’s susceptible to anything from broken trees to terrorists
Kaplan, 7 – Associated Editor at the Council of Foreign Relations (Eben, “America’s Vulnerable Energy Grid,” 4-27-2007,
http://www.cfr.org/publication/13153/americas_vulnerable_energy_grid.html) // SM
Introduction
On August 14, 2003, fifty million people in the Northeastern United States and Canada suddenly found themselves without
electricity, some for more than twenty-four hours. In addition to eight lives, the largest blackout in U.S. history cost an
estimated $6 billion to $10 billion. Contrary to initial fears, the outage was not the result of a terrorist attack or some other
form of sabotage. Rather, untrimmed trees in Ohio set off a chain reaction that cast 9,300 square miles into darkness.
Sadly, this was no isolated incident. In July 2006, a nine-day power outage in Queens, New York affected one hundred
thousand people. The apparent cause of that disruption was deterioration of the thirty- to sixty-year-old cables servicing the
area. The same month, a violent thunderstorm in St. Louis, Missouri knocked out power leaving some seven hundred
thousand people to brave a weeklong heat wave without electricity.
Current stresses on the U.S. energy grid presents cause for concern. With an aging infrastructure and growing energy
consumption, major outages may become an increasing phenomenon. The specter of terrorism also looms large: Experts say
jihadis in Iraq have proven adept at disrupting the electrical grid in that country and could easily apply that same skill set in
the United States.
RPS Aff 77
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Trivella, 8 - Executive Vice President, The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (Anthony J.,
IndustryWeek, “Mitigating Equipment Breakdown Risks,” 6-4-2008,
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=16446&SectionID=2) // SM
We are vulnerable at every moment – a tree falling could lead to massive blackouts
WSJ, 7 (William Tucker, “Electrical Storm - With demand skyrocketing, wires fraying and political resolve flickering, how
long will the lights stay on?,” 7-21-2007, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118497036898073460.html)
*The books reviewed are “The Grid” by Phillip F. Schewe, who has a doctorate in particle physics and is the chief science
writer at the American Institute of Physics , and “Lights Out” by Jason Makansi, previous editor-in-chief of Power and
Electric Power International magazines and as a contributing editor of Electrical World magazine.
With summer heat blazing over much of the U.S. and millions of air conditioners set on high, the country is having its annual
flirtation with a massive brownout or blackout. A major power failure, of course, would inspire much public hand-wringing
over the electricity supply. But then most folks would go back to ignoring the subject until the next time the lights go out.
Even without a dramatic accident, however, electricity is at the center of every discussion about a carbon tax, renewable
energy or the energy producers' interest in building nuclear reactors. There is much at stake.
As Phillip Schewe writes in "The Grid," the nation's electric infrastructure is "the most complex machine ever made." Tying
together hydroelectric dams and 1,000-megawatt coal plants, wending its way across thousands of miles of transmission
lines, carrying electricity at hundreds of thousands of volts through substations that step it up and down until it is finally
brought across the last mile into your home at a tame 120 volts -- the electrical grid is an astonishing balancing act that must
match supply and demand minute by minute, hour by hour, year by year. As Jason Makansi, the author of "Lights Out," puts
it: "Very few people on this planet truly appreciate how difficult it is to control the flow of electricity."
Of course, it doesn't always work. When a couple of trees brush against a transmission wire in Ohio, for instance, most of the
East Coast may go dark -- as it did in the summer of 2003. Experts agree that the long-distance transmission system has been
stretched to the breaking point. Mr. Makansi asks: "How did a First World country end up with a Third World grid?" There is
no one answer, however, nor is there a consensus on how to go about solving the problem.
RPS Aff 78
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Washington Post, 4 (Justin Blum, “Bandaged Grid Still Vulnerable - 2003 Blackout Shed Light on Weaknesses, But Power
System Fixes Fall Short of Need ,” 8-10-2004, p. E01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52858-
2004Aug9?language=printer) // SM
In addition, there still has not been significant investment in new transmission lines that specialists say are needed to allow
electricity to flow freely from one part of the country to another and provide a route for backup electricity that could limit the
scope of a blackout.
"The sorts of things that you need to do to make sure that we're not going to have a blackout are not coming into place," said
Michael W. Golay, a professor of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The blackout reports and
actions that have been taken have really been, in my view, exercises in damage control to try to deflect criticism. We'll see if
I'm right when we see if we have more blackouts, which I'm expecting we will."
Industry executives and outside specialists are divided about why there has not been another major outage in the past year.
Utility officials credit the improvements they have made and the increased adherence to the voluntary rules. But academics
who study the nation's aging power grid, a 200,000-mile network of high-voltage transmission lines, said the reason may
actually be a combination of moderate temperatures and good luck.
Rifkin, 2 - the founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Fellow at the Wharton School’s Executive
Education Program
(Jeremy, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth,
p.165-6 ) // SM
America's electrical power grid has experienced serious power failures on a number of occasions over the past thirty-seven
years, each one creating panic and a taste of what might happen if blackouts were to become more frequent and lengthy in
duration. The first major blackout occurred on November 9, 1965. A single malfunctioning relay in Canada resulted in a cascading power failure that
quickly enveloped most of the northeastern United States, plunging the region into darkness. More than thirty million
Americans lost all electric power for more than twelve hours. The states of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine were all affected. In New York
City, people were stuck in elevators and traffic was snarled to near-gridlock as traffic lights went out throughout the
metropolitan area. Power, light, and telephone services were knocked out everywhere. An eerie silence hung over New York City and the rest of the
Northeast. In a moment of time, millions of people, so accustomed to a world mediated by electricity, suddenly found themselves vulnerable and without recourse. The many conveniences
they had come to rely on to sustain their lives went dead. A kind of village life returned to the hardened streets of New York
for several hours as residents descended onto the sidewalks seeking information and comfort from strangers-turned-
neighbors. This first time, the police reported an actual drop in crime in the city of New York. Nine months later, New York health authorities announced, in a somewhat humorous vein, a surge in IICW
births. Apparently, the loss of television reception turned more than a few New Yorkers to more traditional forms of entertainment.
Still,the public was enraged by the outage. Investigations were launched, recommendations were made, and changes were
implemented to guarantee that a blackout would never happen again. But it did happen again, despite all the public
assurances. On the evening of July 13, 1977, lightning struck a tower in Westchester County north of New York City, and short-circuited two high-voltage power lines, triggering a cascade of events that
shut down the electrical grid in and around New York City. The blackout affected nine million people. Electricity remained out of service for more
than fifteen hours. Unlike the 1965 blackout, which occurred on a cool November evening, this second occurrence struck at
9:34 P.M, on a hot, humid night, shutting off air conditioning and sending human emotions to the boiling point. In poorer
neighborhoods of the city, mobs of people went on a rampage, burning buildings and looting stores. More than 4,000 people were arrested in the blackout, and seventy-eight policemen were injured in the
melee. The chairman of the board of Consolidated Edison, the electric utility company that managed the power grid for New York City and its suburbs, called the blackout “act of God." Surveying the damage
done by looters in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, a Roman Catholic priest gave the event a different spin, proclaiming, "We are without God now."
The western coast of the United States has experienced similar power failures and massive blackouts. The first major outage occurred at 3:45
P.M. on August 10, 1996, and extended from Oregon to the Mexican border. Nine states in all were affected by the blackout, which occurred on one of the
hottest days of the year with temperatures reaching 113°F. Five million California residents lost all power. The blackout was traced to
power lines in Oregon that were sagging due to the excessive summer heat. The power lines touched some overgrown trees, triggering the outage. The event created a chain reaction
that rippled across the West Coast, shutting off power in region after region.
RPS Aff 79
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Washington Post, 4 (Justin Blum, “Bandaged Grid Still Vulnerable - 2003 Blackout Shed Light on Weaknesses, But Power
System Fixes Fall Short of Need ,” 8-10-2004, p. E01, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52858-
2004Aug9?language=printer) // SM
In the year since the largest blackout in American history, utilities have fixed many of the problems that contributed to the
breakdown but still have not resolved larger issues that could lead to future outages, according to industry officials, regulators
and specialists.
Utilities and operators of the nation's electrical grid said they have done what a post-blackout report suggested to diminish the
possibility of a recurrence: cut more trees to prevent them from interfering with lines, upgraded computer systems to give a
better view of how electricity is flowing in other regions and provided more training to control-room employees.
The cascading power failure that spread across eight states and into Canada, affecting 50 million people, highlighted that
some of the operators running the nation's power grid were not following voluntary rules designed to promote electrical
reliability. Jolted by the failures of Aug. 14 -- which disrupted traffic lights, travel and phone service in the Northeast,
Midwest and Canada -- utilities and electrical grid operators have been following the rules much more closely, according to
the industry and its overseers.
"At least for the short term, we're at a much better state than we were last summer," said Patrick H. Wood III, chairman of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees wholesale power.
But Wood and some utility executives remain concerned that operators of the grid could again stray from the rules as
memories of the blackout fade -- unless Congress makes the rules mandatory and approves fines for violators. Even though
mandatory rules are supported by the industry and its harshest critics, Congress has not enacted the legislation, which is part
of a larger, controversial energy bill.
Some industry specialists said that even if everyone were to follow the rules, problems would remain that could lead to more
blackouts.
RPS Aff 80
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
IEEE, 7 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, “Reliability and Blackouts,” 4-25-2007+,
http://www.electripedia.info/reliability.asp) // SM
Blackouts
The US electrical power grid has experienced serious power failures on a number of occasions over the past forty years, each
one creating panic and a warning of what may happen if blackouts become more frequent [1]. Interruptions in the supply of
electricity to customers have been caused by disturbances to or malfunctions of the generation, transmission, and/or
distribution of electricity [2]. Most power outages are cause by weather-related events, minor disturbances to the local
distribution system (such as a car striking a distribution pole), or may be planned controlled or rotating outages to
compensate for insufficient generation resources [2, 8]. On other occasions, massive power outages – or blackouts – can be
caused by reliability issues.
Even minor occurrences in the electric power grid can sometimes lead to catastrophic “cascading” blackouts. The loss of a
single generator can result in an imbalance between load and generation, altering many flows in the electricity network. If
there is a loss of generation within an area and there is not enough internal generation then the area transmission lines need to
have enough capacity to transfer energy to supply the load and maintain acceptable system parameters. If the transmission
ties do not have enough capacity, then the system reliability and security are at risk [9].
A "cascade" can occur on a power system if the balance between load, generation and transmission system flows is disrupted
when one or more elements of the electrical grid (generator or transmission line) fails or trips out of service. When an
element trips, existing power flows are instantaneously redistributed onto other elements of the grid according to the laws of
physics, irrespective of state boundaries or ownership of the transmission facilities [9].
Many experts argue that technical issues are not the only player; that part of the reliability problem is energy deregulation
itself, coupled with the end of guaranteed return on investment (ROI) [6]. In short, simple desire to make a profit may be
fueling the occurrences of electric blackouts.
Cascading blackouts are particularly damaging in today’s networked world; they seriously disrupt the nation’s information
superhighway [1]. To compound the dilemma, in recent years, the increased deployment of personal computers has had the
effect of putting additional stresses on the power grid in the US and other countries, making electricity shortages more likely
in the future. The overall demand for digital power is increasing even faster than the greater efficiencies that are coming on
line [1].
Major blackouts are more common than the US electricity industry would like to admit. Major North American blackouts
occurred in 1965 and 1977; the interconnected electric grid covering nine western states collapsed twice in the summer of
1996; in 1999, the northeast experiences outages stemming from a heat wave and equipment failures; California experienced
rolling blackouts in 2000 and 2001; and in 2003, the nation experienced the largest blackout in its history [6].
RPS Aff 81
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Much work is needed to address transmission bottlenecks and modernize our nation’s transmission systems. As a percentage
of total energy use, electricity use is growing. This reflects the transformation of our economy to an increasingly
sophisticated, information-based economy, one that relies on electricity. Electricity, though, is not a commodity that can be
stored easily. Our transmission infrastructure is at the heart of our economic well-being. Imagine an interstate highway
system without storage depots or warehouses, where traffic congestion would mean not just a loss of time in delivering a
commodity, but a loss of the commodity itself. This is the nature of the transmission infrastructure. That is why bottlenecks
are so important to remove and why an efficient transmission infrastructure is so important to maintain and develop.
Growing demands on transmission capacity will lead to greater energy costs and economic decline – federal leadership
is needed
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
The collapse of the electricity grid will send us back to the stone age – the economy would be destroyed
Rifkin, 2 - the founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Fellow at the Wharton School’s Executive
Education Program
(Jeremy, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth,
p.163-164 ) // SM
It is understandable that we would be unmindful of the critical role that oil plays in feeding our families, because the process
of growing food is so removed in time and place from our urban lives. The same holds true for the electricity that we have
come to rely on to maintain our daily routines. The electrical grid is the central nervous system that coordinates a densely
populated urban existence. Without electrical power, urban life would cease to exist, the information age would become a
faded memory, and industrial production would grind to a halt. The fastest way to ensure the collapse of the modern era
would be to pull the plug and turn off the flow of electricity. Light, heat, and power would all stop. Civilization as we know
it would come to an end.
It is hard to imagine what life would be like without electricity, although it has only been utilized as a source of energy for
less than a century. Most of our great-grandparents were born into a world with electricity. Today, we take electricity for
granted. That is because, food, it is abundantly available. We rarely think about where it comes from or how it gets to us. It is
a kind of stealth force, tucked away inside wires overhead, buried in the ground, or hidden inside our walls. Colorless and
odorless, it is an invisible but indispensable' presence in our lives.
Terrorist attacks on our grid are both likely to happen and will destroy the economy
Rifkin, 2 - the founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Fellow at the Wharton School’s Executive
Education Program
(Jeremy, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth,
p.164 ) // SM
How likely is it that the electricity might go off, not just for a brief moment but for extended periods of time? Unfortunately,
the nation's electrical power grid is increasingly vulnerable to disruption, both by terrorists and energy shortages. Even before
the September attacks, government officials worried that American power plants, transmission lines, and the
telecommunications infrastructure could be targets for terrorists. In 1997, the President's Commission on Critical
Infrastructure Protection issued a warning that cyber-terrorist’ next target might be the computer programs at the power-
switching centers that move electricity around the country. Disrupting the electrical grid could wreak havoc on the nation's
economic and social infrastructures. Richard A. Clarke, who heads the cyber-terrorism efforts of the Bush administration,
warns of an "Electronic Pearl Harbor." A report issued by the Institute for Security Technology Studies shortly after the
September 11th attacks cautioned that the American military reprisal against the al Qaeda network and the Taliban in
Afghanistan could be met by a counter-retaliatory strike by terrorists against the American electronic infrastructure. Jeffrey
A. Hunker, dean of the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and formerly senior
director for Protection of Critical Infrastructure at the National Security Council, believes that the nation is "sitting on a cyber
time bomb.”
RPS Aff 83
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Rifkin, 2 - the founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Fellow at the Wharton School’s Executive
Education Program
(Jeremy, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth,
p.166-7 ) // SM
Rolling blackouts hit California again in March 2001, affecting 800,000 people from Oregon to Orange County in Southern
California. This time, the reason was that not enough electricity was being generated by power plants to handle a spike in
energy demands caused by unusually warm spring weather. Unlike the earlier blackouts that hit the Northeast, the ones on the
West Coast shut down computer systems in businesses throughout the region, and this had a serious effect on commerce. In
the interim quarter century, the nation had become increasingly dependent on computers and the Internet and intranets for
information exchange, data storage, commercial transactions, banking and credit flows, and a host of other basic and vital
services. The ripple effect of a blackout of even a few minutes in duration is now far more serious than it was in the past,
when computers and software connections played a smaller role in day-to-day life.
It's worth noting that, while blackouts seriously disrupt the nation's information superhighway, the surge in computer use has
also had the effect of putting additional strains on the power grid in the U.S. and other countries, making electricity shortages
more likely in the future. Although it is true that microprocessors are becoming more efficient and able to process greater
stores of information in shorter time periods using less electrical load, the overall demand for digital power is increasing even
faster than the greater efficiencies that are coming on line. One pound of coal is needed to "create, package, store, and move
two megabytes of data," notes cyberspace analyst Peter W. Huber. The result is that the demand for horse-power to power
personal computers is doubling every few years. Huber says that not enough attention is being paid to the fact that chips are
running hotter, fans are whirring faster, and the power consumption of our disk drives and screens is rising.
The centralized grid is vulnerable to attack from anyone who has a PC, making attacks inevitable
Rifkin, 2 - the founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Fellow at the Wharton School’s Executive
Education Program
(Jeremy, The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth, p.
164-5) // SM
The U.S. government has recently established a national Infrastructure Protection Center, a collaborative effort between law-
enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal levels to protect against computer crime aimed at disrupting America's
electronic infrastructure, but, privately, many experts in the field of electronic security are not confident about the possibility
of defending the nation’s electricity grid. The President's Commission's own report noted that, by the year 2001, more than 19
million people around the world would have the requisite computer skills to create minor disruptions to the nation's electric
power structure, and 1.3 million people would have the kind of sophisticated knowledge of how the nation's electrical power
grid and telecommunications network operate to create significant damage.
RPS Aff 84
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
The U.S. electric power system is a tempting target because electric energy is a large part of the U. S. economy and an
important ingredient for our culture and way of life. Although our electric energy production, storage, and transportation facilities are dispersed across the
United States, the interconnectedness, openness, and centralized locations make our system vulnerable to various forms of
terrorist attack. During electrical power outages of any length of time, homes and businesses currently stand to lose not only idle time, but money as well. Today people
and businesses have built their worlds around, and are in need of, reliable and uninterruptible sources of electrical energy. In
1978 explosives left by an unknown source left a hole in the Trans Alaskan pipeline which caused a spill of approximately 670,000 gallons of oil. In 2001 Al Qaeda operatives
destroyed the World Trade Center and have designs for more attacks against the U. S. economy.
As the World Trade Center was a central, large, local target, our nation’s electrical power generation network presents many
of the same vulnerabilities. In 2001 a man with a high powered rifle shot a hole in the Trans Alaskan pipeline, causing a spill of over 285,600 gallons and $8 million
dollars in lost royalty revenue and taxes and $20 million dollars in clean up costs.8 In 2003 a single downed power line caused 21 electric power plants to shut down leaving
approximately 50 million people in the Northeastern United States without electricity for over 30 hours.9 In 2006 Hewlett-Packard estimated that a 15-minute electricity outage at
only one of their chip manufacturing plants would cost the company $30 million in lost production and recovery services, all while costing the electrical power company little at
all.10 These kinds of losses can devastate a region, not just the company.
The 2003 U. S. blackout lucidly demonstrates the vulnerability to our electrical power grid and the rapidly ensuing negative effects of electrical power loss. It demonstrates that a
tightly interconnected electric grid, as in our current system, can be not only its greatest strength but also its biggest weakness. When
there is a problem with even a
seemingly minor subsystem, in this case a broken power line, the interconnected grid itself becomes a very large
vulnerability.11
“The Great Blackout of 2003 will go down in history as one more wake-up call for a nation grown weary of them, a vivid demonstration that the most critical technology of
modern life – the electricity that powers virtually every aspect of it – is vulnerable to severe disruption, and growing more so by the day.”12 The loss of any major electrical power
plant could leave large regions of the country without electricity.13 Even an imbalance of electrical power on the grid can cause the “fail safe” system to fail, resulting in the loss of
electricity to tens of millions of people at once or, even more disrupting, an electrical power plant could burn out.
Terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda have expressed an interest exploiting vulnerabilities and sensitivities at nuclear sites, and
Al Qaeda still has operatives at large in the UnitedStates.14 In 2002 Representative Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, was quoted as saying “the nation’s 103 nuclear power reactors are vulnerable to a potentially catastrophic terrorist attack but have taken few safety countermeasures
since September 11, 2001 even though they have been targeted by Al Qaeda…” Rep. Markey also said “the nation’s commercially operated reactors are at risk from a wide variety
of assaults, including sabotage from foreign workers who were not adequately screened…and are also vulnerable to the same kind of suicide hijackings that leveled the World
Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon…”15 There are currently twenty-one nuclear facilities located within a five-mile radius of an airport. Additionally, most nuclear facilities
store significant amounts of spent nuclear fuel in non-hardened structures. Rep. Markey also contends that the guards at these facilities are under trained and in some cases
incapable of combating an attack on the site from terrorists who want to gain entry.16 The impact of an attack to a nuclear facility could be devastating to the area.
Since the mid 1990s, security experts have shown concern about attacks on the electrical power gird. In a war game called “Eligible Receiver” in
1997, government hackers showed they could gain access to internal networks at electrical power plants in many of America’s cities.17 Guerrilla movements all over
the world have made a specialty of blowing up electrical power pylons. A single isolated bomb on a vital transmission corridor is an easily
recoverable event, but coordinated bombs could have a much larger effect.18 “Security experts have also been saying the electrical grid is vulnerable
to deliberate attack, most likely with bombs but also possible through a cyber-assault by hackers, terrorists or enemy
nations.”19 Additionally, the Department of Energy states on their website that “Today, we can anticipate facing an adversary with more resources and enhanced capabilities,
and who routinely plans to use suicidal tactics as a portion of their overall tactical plan.”
More than just the electric generation plants, there are other vulnerabilities, such as major transmission lines, large gas
pipelines, the increasing number of larger scale electric plants, and the nation’s gradually declining number of oil refineries
that need to be considered and discussed.21 Much attention since September 11, 2001 has been turned toward nuclear power plant security, but virtually little has
been done to protect the remaining plants and infrastructure that keeps them running.22 In 1999 there was a natural gas pipeline explosion in Washington State which spilled
230,000 gallons of natural gas and killed three people and more than 100,000 fish and aquatic life. The explosion destroyed one home, twenty-six acres of trees, and 2.5 miles of
vegetation.23 Strategic pipelines represent one of our largest vulnerabilities, as more than 90 percent of the United States’ new electrical power plants burn natural gas as their
fuel.24 A disruption in the natural gas supply, such as one that could occur through a pipeline problem such as a rupture, could result in millions of homes without heat or
electricity and thousands of factories and businesses not operating. This would cause major economic problems for the affected region in addition to the environmental problems of
rupture
RPS Aff 89
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Electrical energy is a staple of the American way of life. Nearly every activity we perform every day requires some application of electrical
energy, even the task of generating electrical energy. Americans rightly expect that electric power will be there when they need it, and have adapted their
lives to the plethora of cheap, available, and dependable electric power. Our way of life is sustained by electric power plants and the infrastructure
needed to move the electricity from the point of origin to the point of use. This system of tightly coupled, integrated and interdependent systems, however, also is a key
vulnerability to our way of life. Our
nation’s centralized electrical power generation system and its distribution network includes
fragilities and vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hostile or even natural acts. A more modern decentralized and distributed
electrical power generation model based upon distributed generation of electrical energy is our best defense.
Our country relies heavily upon centralized electrical power generation plants connected to a networked grid to supply our
needs. Those needs are high and growing; the typical home uses approximately 24 Kilowatts (kW) and the average McDonald’s uses about 500 kW of electricity
daily.1 Our need for electricity is constantly increasing, requiring the United States to import more electricity or build more plants to generate for its generation. In 2005 total
electric power consumption in the United States was 29,404,894 megawatts (MW) while total domestic electric production was only 20,365,258 MW, of which 18,532,836 MW
was generated using conventional methods and fuels such as coal, oil, gas, and nuclear and another 1,832,422 MW by using renewable energy such as wind, solar, hydro electric,
and geo thermal.2 The remaining 9,039,636 MW, or roughly 31 percent, was imported.
In our current electrical generation and distribution system, electric power moves from large central generating stations to the end consumers via a transmission grid. There
are
many opportunities for disruption within each of these subsystems, the first being the points of generation where raw materials, such as coal, oil,
natural gas, etc., are converted into electric power. Secondly, there are the receiving stations and substations, which are the mechanisms that
distribute the electricity to the consumers, such as hospitals, factories, homes, military bases, and schools, to name a few. Lastly, and
usually the least obvious but equally critical infrastructures in the process, are the high-tension electrical power lines that transmit the electricity
between the generation point and the receiving stations and the pipelines, rail lines, and roadways that brought the fuel to the
generation points3.
The major source of raw material for electricity generation is coal, which provides 49.7 percent of the total fuel used. The remaining raw material total is made up of Nuclear at
19.3 2 percent, natural gas at 18.7 percent, petroleum at 3 percent, hydroelectric at 6.5 percent, renewable (solar, wind, etc.) at 2.3 percent, other gases and fuels at 0.5 percent.4
Most of this material is brought to the generation point using railways, pipelines, or ships – creating a transportation extension to the electrical power grid itself. The nation’s
electrical power system includes 158,000 miles of primary electric transmission lines, 5,000 electrical power plants (totaling 800,000 MW) including 103 nuclear power reactors, 2
million miles of oil pipelines, 1.3 million miles of gas pipelines, 2,000 petroleum terminals, one million gas and oil wells, and 150 oil refineries.5 The electrical energy industry is a
large tightly interconnected web that reaches every corner of the country.6
CNN, 7 (Jeanne Meserve, “Mouse click could plunge city into darkness, experts say,” 9-27-2007,
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/power.at.risk/index.html#cnnSTCText)
But five years later, there is no such program. Federal spending on electronic security is projected to increase slightly in the
coming fiscal year, but spending in the Department of Homeland Security is projected to decrease to less than $100 million,
with only $12 million spent to secure power control systems. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has
adopted cyber security standards for the electric utility industry, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has
regulations in the offing. Some outside experts say neither go far enough to protect the industry from cyber attack. Groups
representing the electric utility industry declined to comment for this report. Despite all the warnings and worry, there has not
been any publicly known successful cyber-attack against a power plant's control system. And electric utilities have paid more
attention to electronic risks than many other industries, adopting voluntary cyber-standards. "Of all our industries, there are
only a couple -- perhaps banking and finance and telecommunications -- that have better cyber-security or better security in
general then electric power," Borg said. And DHS notes that it uncovered the vulnerability discovered in March, and is taking
steps with industry to address it. While acknowledging some vulnerability, DHS's Jamison said "several conditions have to be
in place. ... You first have to gain access to that individual control system. [It] has to be a control system that is vulnerable to
this type of attack." "You have to have overcome or have not enacted basic security protocols that are inherent on many of
those systems. And you have to have some basic understanding of what you're doing. How the control system works and
what, how the equipment works in order to do damage. But it is, it is a concern we take seriously." "It is a serious concern.
But I want to point out that there is no threat, there is no indication that anybody is trying to take advantage of this individual
vulnerability," Jamison said. Borg notes that industry will have to remain forever vigilant at protecting control systems. "It
will always be an ongoing problem. It's something we will have to be dealing with [for] lots of years to come," he said.
RPS Aff 90
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A coordinated attack on a power grid could lead to even more significant economic damages, both as a direct consequence of
the attack, as well as through the ripple effects resulting from the strong inter-linkages between industry sectors.
The recent power blackout in the northeast has revived the discussion on the need to upgrade the transmission infrastructure. While that debate has its own merit, a related and a potentially more threatening
issue to be addressed is the vulnerability of our electrical grid to terrorist attacks.
ICF Consulting recently raised similar concerns in a hypothetical scenario of a terrorist attack on the transmission grid in California. In the simulation, we found a coordinated attack in California could lead to
significant economic damages, both as a direct consequence of the attack, as well as through the ripple effects due to the strong inter-linkages between industry sectors. In this issue paper, we use some of the
insights gained from the California simulation to measure the economic costs of the recent blackout and reiterate some of the lessons learned from the exercise.
What was the cost of the
Northeast Blackout of 2003? One way to estimate the economic costs of a power outage is to calculate consumer’s willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid such outages. This gives a measure of the “cost of
reliability” of electrical services measured in terms of the valuation of the service placed by its customers. Several studies provide survey-based estimates of this WTP for different groups of electric customers.
To estimate the total economic cost of this blackout, we multiply the average value of electricity for the affected customers (including residential, commercial, industrial, and others), by the preliminary data on
the magnitude and duration of this blackout.
Based on previous analyses by ICF Consulting, we can assume that the value of electricity to consumers (measured as their WTP to avoid outages) is approximately 100 times the retail price of electricity. For
example, an analysis done on the 1977 outage in New York City that resulted in a loss of more than 5,000 MW and lasted for 25 hours estimated that the direct cost was about $0.66/kWh (for example, losses
due to spoilage, and lost production and wages), and an indirect cost of $3.45/kWh (due to the secondary effects of the direct costs).1 Thus the total unit cost of that blackout was $4.11/kWh or over
$4,000/MWh in 1977. The national average retail price of electricity in 1977 for all customers was about $34/MWh.2 Similar ratios were identified during the simulation scenario on the California grid.
Though the data for the August 2003 outage is preliminary and further refinements will be necessary, we calculate initial estimates of the economic costs of this outage based on these ratios above. Instead of
providing only a point estimate for the total cost, we define a range that is 80 times and 120 times the appropriate retail electricity price for the lower and upper bounds, respectively. Also, since there is
considerable seasonal and regional variation in electricity prices, we use the August 2002 average electricity price of $93/MWh for the affected region (provided by the Energy Information Administration) to
calculate the value of electricity to the customers affected by this outage.
Details on the exact extent and duration for different blackout stages are sketchy. According to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) the initial blackout that started around 4:00 p.m. (EST)
on August 14, 2003, resulted in a loss of 61,800 MW and affected more than 50 million people. NERC also reports that by 11:00 a.m. (EST) on August 15, about 48,600 MW of lost power was restored, leaving
a residual loss of about 13,200 MW. Finally, at 11:00 a.m. (EST) on August 16, NERC announced that “virtually all customers have been returned to electricity service”.3 The precision of the cost estimate is
directly correlated to the accuracy of the unconfirmed reports on the extent and duration of the outage. Since much of the data is still being collected, ICF Consulting made reasonable assumptions regarding the
“recovery path” from this outage to give an overall picture consistent with the information reported by NERC.
Specifically, for this analysis, we assume that the initial outage of 61,800 MW lasted for 4 hours and then half of that was restored, with the other half (30,900 MW) being the shortfall for another 10 hours.
Given that the next announcement from NERC was issued approximately 18 hours after the start of the outage, we assume that another one-half of the unserved 30,900 MW was restored after 14 hours and the
remaining loss of 15,450 MW lasted for the subsequent 4 hours. This gives a total of 18 hours for the first phase of the blackout. Using similar arguments for the remaining period of the blackout, we assume
more than 13,000 MW of customer load was lost for another 14 hours after which 6,600 MW was the shortfall for another 10 hours. Finally, on the third day of this blackout, 2,000 MW was the loss for 20
hours and another 1,000 MW was the shortfall for the final 10 hours of this blackout. This gives a total outage period of 72 hours.
the economic cost of this outage is estimated to be between $7 and
Using this scenario and the average electricity price for the affected region from August 2002,
$10 billion for the national economy. Further refinements to these estimates are likely as new details about the outage pattern are released.
How could terrorism complicate matters?
a terror-induced blackout could
Although the cost of the August 2003 blackout is not expected to prove devastating for our $10 trillion economy, it is important to keep in mind that
prove significantly more costly and have potentially debilitating impacts on the affected region as well as the entire country.
As the economy tries to recover from recession, a sabotage-related shock that could affect such a huge area of the country
could significantly increase the cost burden and prove fatal for the recovery.4 Some of the added costs from a terrorism-related transmission grid attack would
be: Damage to equipment – a terrorist attack could not only lead to a transmission grid malfunction, but also could lead to significant damage to the equipment, resulting in higher costs and
more time required for repair and replacement. Hangover effect –In the simulation referenced above, the most significant economic burden was borne by the tourism industry as people became
nervous and avoided travel even after electricity was fully restored. A similar blackout caused by a terrorist attack would lead to substantially higher costs to the hotel, airline, and other service industries that
are directly impacted by tourism.
It is important to remember that the economic costs of the blackout would have been significantly higher had it been caused by a terrorist attack.
The need is even greater now to think about the critical infrastructure asset—electric transmission grid—and ways to improve its security and reliability. Here are some of the areas of critical infrastructure
protection (supported by a White House report) that need further study: Understand the level of dependencies between different parts of the transmission grid so that we can establish protection priorities
and strategies. Study the need for increased redundancy in our transmission infrastructure and build it making greater investment in reserve equipment. Increased generation will improve the reliability of
the whole network and reduce its vulnerabilities. Identify critical equipment stockpiles so there is minimum delay in recovery and restoration and analyze ways to standardize equipment and increase
component interchangeability. Increase distributed generation such as through promoting combined heat and power technologies (commonly called cogeneration technologies) to relieve transmission
bottlenecks. Analyze the risks faced by these critical facilities, as well as the steps we can take for the actual physical protection of our nation’s assets, so that we are better prepared to guard against such
events.
Another important component of a successful critical infrastructure protection strategy is to have adequate economic policies in place that harden the economy against such disruptions. This component assumes
A terrorist attack on vital infrastructures will also do serious harm to the
increased significance as the economy recovers from an economic recession.
tourism industry, resulting in significant unemployment as well as substantial costs for the insurance industry. According to reports in
The New York Times, preliminary estimates of the insurance industry burden of this recent blackout put the figure at $3 billion.
The impact is economic shutdown – unless the grid is decentralized, “a few bombs” can shut down the entire country
WSJ, 7 (William Tucker, “Electrical Storm - With demand skyrocketing, wires fraying and political resolve flickering, how long will the lights stay on?,”
7-21-2007, http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118497036898073460.html)
*The books reviewed are “The Grid” by Phillip F. Schewe, who has a doctorate in particle physics and is the chief science writer at the American Institute of
Physics , and “Lights Out” by Jason Makansi, previous editor-in-chief of Power and Electric Power International magazines and as a contributing editor of
Electrical World magazine.
The sites most vulnerable to attack on the grid are not nuclear reactors -- their 4-foot-thick concrete containment structures can withstand the impact of a
Try this.
The real vulnerability, says Mr. Makansi, is the handful of substations around the country where the
jetliner while sustaining little more than a dent.
Northeast, Western, Canadian and Texas grids interlink. These isolated facilities, whose locations remain undisclosed for obvious reasons, are
protected by little more than barbed wire. Taking them out -- which might be done with a few well-placed bombs -- could
shut down the entire country.
Mr. Makansi identifies the aging and neglected long- distance transmission lines as the grid's Achilles' heel. Much of the jury-
rigged system has not been upgraded since the black-and-white television era, even as it struggles to accommodate the
growing demands of air conditioning and the information economy. Yet Mr. Makansi doesn't quite diagnose the problem correctly. Like many engineers, he is
nostalgic for the days of regulated monopoly, when the utilities built what the state approved at a guaranteed profit. The 1990s deregulation, he charges, is at fault. But it is precisely because transmission lines
are still not privatized -- serving instead as "common carriers" -- that this tragedy of the commons is occurring..
RPS Aff 91
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Wood, 5 – Acting Chairman Commission to Assess the Threat to the US From Electromagnetic Pulse Attack
(Dr. Lowell, Opening Statement, Commission to Assess the Threat to the US From Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Before the
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, 3-8-2005,
http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/030805_wood.pdf)
What is particularly significant about EMP is that a single high-altitude nuclear detonation can produce EMP effects that can
potentially disrupt or damage electronic and electrical systems over much of the United States, virtually simultaneously, at a
time determined by an adversary. Thus, EMP is one of a small number of threat-types that has the potential to hold American
society seriously at risk and that might result in the defeat of our military forces. The electromagnetic field pulses produced
by weapons designed and deployed with the intent to produce EMP have a high likelihood of damaging electrical power
systems, electronics, and information systems upon which any reasonably advanced society – including our own – depends
vitally. Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to
qualify as catastrophic to the Nation. Depending on the specific characteristics of the EMP attack, unprecedented cascading
failures of our major infrastructures could result, in which failure of one infrastructure could ‘pull down’ others dependent on
its functioning, and the failure of these, in turn, could seriously impede recovery of the first infrastructure-to-fail. In such
events, a regional or national recovery would be long and difficult, and would seriously degrade the overall viability of our
Nation and the safety, even the lives, of very large numbers of U.S. citizens.
The primary avenues for EMP imposition of catastrophic damage to the Nation are through our electric power infrastructure
and thence into our telecommunications, energy, and other key infrastructures. These, in turn, can seriously impact other vital
aspects of our Nation’s life, including the financial system; means of getting food, water, and health care to the citizenry;
trade; and production of goods and services. The recovery of any one of these key National infrastructures is dependent on
others working. The longer the basic outage, the more problematic and uncertain the recovery of any of them will be. It is
possible – indeed, seemingly likely -- for sufficiently-severe functional outages to become mutually reinforcing, until a point
at which the degradation of the set of infrastructures could have irreversible effects on the country’s ability to support any
large fraction of its present human population.
The electricity grid is critical – making it more resilient will help the US recover from other attacks and natural
disasters
Wood, 5 – Acting Chairman Commission to Assess the Threat to the US From Electromagnetic Pulse Attack
(Dr. Lowell, Opening Statement, Commission to Assess the Threat to the US From Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Before the
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, 3-8-2005,
http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/030805_wood.pdf)
Specific recommendations are provided in the EMP Commission’s report with respect to both the particulars for securing
each of the most critical National infrastructures against EMP threats and the governing principles for addressing these issues
of national survival and recovery in the aftermath of an EMP attack. Much of the problem can be addressed very
economically, without major capital investments, but by developing effective plans to meet the challenges posed by EMP
threats. For example, one major Commission finding is that the electric power grid is the “keystone” infrastructure, upon
which all other infrastructures depend. Yet today, there is no plan for “black-starting” the power grid in the event of a
Nation-wide collapse of the system. If the electric power grid can be quickly recovered, the other infrastructures can also be
recovered adequately in the aftermath of an EMP attack. Making the key aspects of the Nation’s infrastructures more robust
against EMP attack will also pay dividends in protecting against other types of large-scale problems with them, such as
natural disasters.
RPS Aff 92
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
a larger use of renewable energy systems could provide the nation with enhanced energy security. When distributed,
In addition,
such generators are far more resilient against terrorist attacks and severe weather events. Deploying small-scale renewable
energy systems in targeted areas can create a more secure transmission and distribution grid by strengthening transformers,
local taps, feeders, and switchgears, especially in congested areas or regions where the permitting of new transmission networks is difficult. A 1992 Pacific Gas and Electric Analysis comparing 50 1-MW
distributed photovoltaic plants versus one 50-MW central PV plant in Carissa Plains, Calif., found that the grid advantages (in forms of load savings and congestion) more than offset their generation
A similar study conducted in New York concluded that modern wind plants with
disadvantages (in terms of high capital cost and interconnection).49
reactive power compensation can actually improve system stability following a major power system disturbance.50
RPS is key to promoting distributed renewable energy technology that reduces grid vulnerability
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Sustainable Development Law & Policy, "State Efforts to Promote Renewable
Energy: Tripping the Horse with the Cart?" Fall 2007, 8 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 5, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Federal promotion of renewable energy on a national scale can improve the security of the grid by decentralizing electricity
generation. Even when renewable resources like wind and solar are concentrated, the tendency for them to produce power in
incremental and modular amounts makes it much more difficult to disrupt large segments of generation. The International Energy Agency
has noted that centralized energy facilities create significant targets for terrorism because attacking a few facilities can cause large power outages.[28]In contrast to the security risks of large centralized
decentralizing energy facilities and providing power through more modular and distributed energy systems minimizes
generators,
the risk of accidents and grid failures, and does not require transporting or storing hazardous or radioactive materials. Analysts have tended to refer to renewable energy
systems (and other forms of distributed generation such as fuel cells and small-scale cogeneration units) as "supple" power technologies because they are modular suited to dispersed
siting.[29] A national RPS or SBC promoting renewables could greatly contribute to the overall security of the nation's electric
infrastructure by forcing more technologies into the portfolio of all American utilities.
The plan solves – renewable energy technology will be adopted and replace outdated grid technology
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // DNB
Limits on Distributed Generation (DG) The current state-by-state approach to RPS is also inhibiting the expansion of
distributed generation technologies by forcing unusually prohibitive operational procedures. Inconsistent tariff structures and
interconnection requirements, for example, add complexity (and therefore cost) to distributed generation projects. In fact, the
Clean Energy Group, a coalition of electric generating and electric distribution companies committed to responsible
environmental stewardship, forecasts that fuel cells and community-scale wind energy projects are unlikely to play a
meaningful role in state RPS markets until policymakers adopt a more comprehensive and uniform approach.31
Not all renewable energy projects have to be as large scale as these. I mention them to demonstrate that the technologies are maturing and are
gaining investment for large-scale adaptation and conventional use by power companies. There are new technologies that are
allowing solar and wind sources to be optimized for small scale, single building use. A company called XsunX has created a transparent solar cell film
technology for use in commercial buildings. Buyers can apply this film to the typical glass of commercial buildings and generate electricity. This makes all of the exterior windows of the building solar panels
A very promising technology and application that does not only provide power for the
capable of producing electrical energy for the entire building.
building, but, adds electric power to the grid. Biomass, or farm waste, is a fuel that made from the conversion of waste through anaerobic digesters that break down waste
into methane, which, when burned, create electricity. This application has very specific uses in the farming industry, however most farmers view
this technology as a solution to their waste management problem and not as a solution to an energy problem, but it can be both.56 Currently, the trends point that in the next few years thousands of dairies,
feedlots, hog farms, and poultry operations will install this technology.
Renewables are key to creating distributed generation – this prevents an attack on the electricity grid that brings us
back to the Stone Age
UPI, 6 (Meredith Mackenzie, United Press International, “Minimizing Risk of Attack on Electric Grid,” 3-09-2006,
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Minimizing_Risk_Of_Attack_On_Electric_Grid.html)
But Joel Gordes, a former Air Force navigator and head of Environmental Energy Solutions, warned Tuesday at the Northeast Sustainable Energy annual conference that this fancy of director Stephen
Soderberg's imagination could become a very real terrorist attack on America's centralized power system. "You can get a relatively low-cost
($400) weapons system called a flux-compression generator that can make an electromagnetic pulse," Gordes said. "We used to talk about
how every time you blow up a nuclear devise you get an electromagnetic pulse that will wipe out your semiconductors. Basically, it would take us pretty much back to the stone
age ... anything with a computer chip in it would not work." Gordes said that the centralized power grid has long been seen as vulnerable and recently a terrorist target.
Richard Clark, a former White House counter-terrorism adviser, has warned as much. "The owners and operators of electric power grids, banks and railroads; they're the ones who have to defend our
Gordes offered a solution in his Tuesday workshop -- distributed
infrastructure. The government doesn't own it, the government doesn't operate it, the government can't defend it."
generation. The Department of Energy defines distributed generation as "a variety of small, modular power-generating technologies that used to improve the operation of the local electricity delivery
system. These systems can be combined with energy storage and power management and are usually, but not always, connected to an electricity distribution grid." This means smaller power
generation plants, including nuclear, solar, and biodiesel, that are located closer to the homes and businesses where the power is
meant to be used. This reduces energy lost in transmission and creates what Gordes calls "microgrids." Not only is distributed
generation an excellent opportunity to integrate renewable technologies, said Gordes, but a redundant, separately administered,
power system would lesson the effect of a terrorist attack on the system by decentralizing power. The concept is as old as the
stock market: diversify in order to reduce risk. Distributed generation, Gordes writes in NESEA's publication "Northeast Sun," offers multiple benefits. "(Placement of diverse
fuel generators) avoids costly vulnerable, ugly, and inefficient transmission systems and increases energy security in two ways. First, it reduces our dependence upon foreign oil and the increasing need for
foreign liquefied natural gas. Second, it provides resiliency when used with the existing power grid, providing high reliability and power quality demands in a digital society." Dave Sjoding manages the
Northwest Combined Heat and Power Application Center in Olympia, Washington, where six states collaborate on distributed generation projects that serve to provide both heat and power. He said that despite
transitional costs, utility companies benefit because a great degree of stability is added to the existing grid through the integration of alternative energy sources. "Distributed generation reduces transmission and
distribution issues," he said. "Now the power is produced locally and used locally and you're not having to move it a huge distance." And as far as national security goes, Sjoding said that the benefit is obvious,
" As you bring distributed power into the system, you ensure that all the eggs are not in one basket."
RPS Aff 94
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2003 (“Taking A Load Off The National Power Grid: New Solar-powered Window
System Heats, Cools, Lights, And Shades Commercial Buildings,” 8-27-2003, ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2003/08/030826065552.htm)
Distributed generation uses renewable technology – best suited for the job
Renewable electric power generation includes hydropower, biomass, geothermal, wind, solar and ocean energy. These also
find applications in a wide range of sizes, including the full spectrum of distributed resource applications. But some forms of
renewable energy are better suited to distributed generation than others. Biomass, wind and solar energy are particularly well-
suited to distributed generation. The performance of distributed wind power, and particularly of solar electricity, can be
enhanced by combination with other generation and/or energy storage devices. Many distributed renewable systems are
hybrids.
Status quo provides multiple barriers to development of DE technology – a federal RPS would solve all of them
CAEM, 2 ("The Role of the Federal Government in Distributed Energy: A Report of the Distributed Energy Task Force,"
Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets, January, http://www.caem.org/website/pdf/DE_Federal_Role_Final.pdf)
Environmental Regulations. Environmental regulations are driven by federal and state laws, but administered at the state
level and through regional boards. The states have some discretion regarding environmental regulation, which results in
significant variations in policies and procedures from state to state. This variation adds significant complication to the
manufacturing of DE equipment and systems on a mass scale, and to the adoption of DE by national companies, which must
deal with widely varying regulations in each state in which they operate. It also adds complications for DE developers, which
must be positioned to assist customers in dealing with a wide range of environmental regulations. There are also issues of
fairness which are not unique to DE. Environmental requirements are onerous for new sources, while old power plants are
grandfathered. Past decisions award pollution "rights" to incumbents, and this represents a large hurdle for new technologies
to overcome.
RPS Aff 95
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Trainer, 7 (Ted, “Aha! Offshore Wind’s Fatal Flaw,” Transition Culture, 12-13-2007,
http://transitionculture.org/2007/12/13/aha-offshore-winds-fatal-flaw/)
I picked up a copy of the free paper Metro yesterday. In the light of the recent announcement that the Government plans to
expand the amount of offshore wind as part of its half-hearted attempt to assure everyone that business as usual is still
possible, the usual tired old rubbish wheeled out against wind power has been aired once again on the radio and in the papers.
A letter in Metro however, raised an argument against wind power that I have never come across before. A letter from David
Hill of the World Innovation Foundation, ran thus;
Government business secretary John Hutton’s announcement that Britain could have one wind turbine every half mile along
the nation’s coastline by 2020 is a terrorist’s dream come true. For, if we are to become so reliant upon this isolated energy
generation, there is no way to protect them.
I have since been wracking my brain as to how a terrorist cell might actually set about making any meaningful impact of
thousands of wind turbines situated out at sea. They might hijack an airplane and crash it into, at most, 4 turbines, a
somewhat pointless exercise. They might attempt to haul a large amount of welding equipment out to sea, with a generator, in
order to try and fell a turbine, a pretty momentous task, and one that would presumably be spotted remotely pretty quickly.
They could sail out with a boat full of semtex and then sail from turbine to turbine setting explosive charges. Beyond that I
am pretty non-plussed as to how even the most dedicated and maniacal terrorist could have any significant impact on
thousands of wind turbines located off shore.
I have heard some daft arguments against wind turbines in my time, but I think this is by far the silliest. It is if a terrorist cell
decides to target a nuclear power station, or even a coal-fired power station that we need to be extremely worried, as the
results could be catastrophic. Surely the terrorist threat is a reason to support wind, not reject it. Or have I missed something
here?!
I wonder if the same logic, that decentralised energy systems are somehow an inherent magnet for terrorists, extends to other
technologies? Does putting solar panels on the roof make you more or a target for terrorists? Would a wood pellet boiler
mean that you could be targetted? If Mr Hill has any specific information, I think we should be told.
RPS Aff 96
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nilsson in 8 (Hans, FX Strategist at CMS Forex, “Dollar Drops on Surging Unemployment Rate”, 6-6-08,
http://www.fxstreet.com/technical/forex-strategy/daily-forex-strategy-briefing/2008-06-08.v02.html)
The dollar dropped against its rivals except the Canadian dollar Friday after the May US jobless rate posted its sharpest one-month
increase in 22 years and employment fell for the fifth consecutive month. The surge in the unemployment rate is worrisome.
The yen and Swiss franc rose on increased risk aversion as US stocks declined the most in 15 months and crude oil and gold
rallied.
The EUR/USD had its largest weekly rally since the end of March on further signs of a deepening US economic contraction. The worsening US labor market
situation is increasing both the euro’s interest and growth advantage as the higher US recession risk is diminishing the
chances of any Federal Reserve interestrate hikes. The EUR/USD’s failure to break the 1.54 support and the possibility for a European Central Bank rate hike
in July also contributed to this week’s gain. The EUR/USD is in a well-defined uptrend; however, having been in a sideways pattern since March on optimism the US economy
would stabilize and the Fed would reverse its super-easy monetary policy stance. Resistances exist in the 1.58-area and at the 1.6018 alltime high. A penetration of these resistances
would be bullish for the EUR/USD, while a break of support would be bearish.
Financial and Economic News and Comments
US & Canada
US nonfarm payrolls fell a less-than-expected 49,000 in May, a fifth-straight drop, after April’s revised larger drop 28,000 and March’s revised larger drop 88,000, data from the
Labor Department showed. Private (nongovernment) payrolls fell 66,000. The weakest sectors were temporary employment (down 30,000), retail (down 27,000), manufacturing
(down 26,000), and home construction (down 25,000). The strongest sector was health care (up 42,000). The unemployment rate jumped more than forecast to 5.5% in May, its
highest level since October 2004, from 5.0% in April. The half-point rise was the biggest since February 1986. The average workweek was unchanged at 33.7 hours. Average
hourly earnings increased a slightly more-thanexpected 0.3% m/m, to $17.94, and rose 3.5% y/y. The
overall figures show US consumers already facing a
housing slump and rising oil and food prices confront more pressure from a weakening labor market; thus, reducing
expectations of Federal Reserve interest-rates hikes.
Unemployment kills confidence, weakens dollar, prevents rate cuts that curb inflation, and heightens oil prices.
NEW YORK (AFP) — The dollar weakened against other major currencies Tuesday in the face of downbeat economic news on US
consumer confidence and the housing market, and as the US central bank was expected to keep interest rates unchanged.
The subdued economic readings weighed on the dollar as analysts said they lessened the likelihood that the Federal Reserve
would hike interest rates anytime soon despite mounting inflation concerns tied to soaring crude oil prices.
The European single currency rose to 1.5565 dollars around 2100 GMT, up from 1.5513 dollars in New York late Monday.
Against the Japanese currency, the dollar was changing hands at 107.83 yen, down from 107.87 yen a day earlier.
The dollar endured fresh declines as an index tracking US consumer confidence plunged in June amid growing concerns
about jobs and the economy. The index is watched closely by the markets because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds
of all US economic growth.
The Conference Board, a business research firm, said its monthly index of consumer confidence, which has slid all year, tumbled to 50.4 points in June from 58.1 points in May.
The June consumer confidence reading was the fifth weakest since the launch of the index in 1967. The decline in confidence
was steeper than the expected 57.0 point reading forecast by most analysts.
Unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector, kills confidence and prevents rate hike.
Forex Street in 8 (“Dollar Weakens As Consumer Confidence Falls to a 16-Year Low”, 6-25-08,
http://www.commodityonline.com/futures-trading/forex/Dollar-weakens-as-consumer-confidence-falls-to-16-year-low-
573.html)
According to the data released by US Labor Department last week, the initial jobless claims filed in the week ending June 14
fell by 5,000 to 381,000; but the four-week moving average for initial claims increased by 3,250 to 375,250.
An unexpectedly large contraction in New York State manufacturing in May also added pressure on the green back. The
Federal Reserve Bank of New York's "Empire State" index showed manufacturing in the state shrunk in June for the fourth
time in five months, increasing doubts on the health of the US economy. The data diminished expectations of a Fed rate hike.
But as per data from Labor Department, US consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in six months, strengthening the growing
expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike. As per the data, US consumer price index climbed 0.6% in May.
The combination of rising inflation and struggling economies is making it difficult for markets to gauge the interest rate
outlook and is confusing the traders.
RPS Aff 97
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf)
A 20% RPS by 2020 jumpstarts the economy by massively increasing jobs and boosting investment.
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf)
Renewables generate 80% more jobs than equal investment in fossil fuels.
A 20% RPS by 2020 would create as many as 240,000 new jobs – in manufacturing, construction, operations, maintenance,
shipping, sales and finance – versus 75,000 jobs if the energy were provided by fossil fuels.
A national RPS creates new jobs in states with the greatest manufacturing losses.
The 20 states that would gain the most manufacturing jobs from a national investment in wind energy, for example, represent
more than 2/3 of the manufacturing jobs lost in the U.S. between 2001 and 2004.
Quicker lead times minimize expensive construction cost overruns.
Renewable technologies have quicker lead times (2 to 5 years) than conventional or nuclear plants (10 to 15 years),
decreasing the financial risk associated with borrowing millions of dollars to finance generators that take10 to 15 years before
they start producing a single kilowatt of electricity.
RPS Aff 98
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Lacey, 7 (Stephen, Renewable Energy World, “The Economic Impact of Renewable Energy,” 4-20-2007,
www.renewableenergyworld.net/rea/news/story?id=48201) // JMP
LaidLaw Energy Group, a New York-based developer of independent renewable power plants, has proposed turning the Fraser Paper Mill into a 50
megawatt (MW) capacity biomass electrical generation facility that will utilize woodchips. Because the mill's infrastructure is well suited for developing a
power plant, it will be easier and cheaper for the company to construct the facility.
If completed in 2008 as planned, the biomass facility will create approximately 500 indirect and 40 direct jobs in timber-rich Coos County where Berlin is
located. While a power plant will require much less labor than the old paper mill, 540 jobs are a welcome addition to the area.
"Clearly this project would help the local economy and many of the folks who have relied on the paper industry over the years," said Berlin City Manager
Patrick MacQueen. "This project will be great for job creation and actually maintaining the jobs that get built."
A University of New Hampshire study released this February titled, "Economic Impact of a New Hampshire Renewable Portfolio Standard,"
concluded that an adoption of 20 percent renewable energy will create thousands of jobs with wages much higher than the
current state average, generate over $1 million in state revenue, and provide a "newfound opportunity for NH residents to
start businesses."
Former New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass, who recently joined Laidlaw Energy Group as Special Advisor to company President and CEO Michael
Bartoszek, said that renewable energy projects like the Berlin biomass plant are important for economic growth and stability in the state.
"I've always been active in supporting alternative energy sources, so I'm excited to be involved with [the Berlin] project. Developments like this will truly
benefit the state of New Hampshire and the rest of our country," Bass said.
Additional studies released over the last decade have indicated that a large-scale transition by the U.S. into a clean energy
economy would significantly benefit the country by creating hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs, generate tens of billions
of dollars in federal and state tax revenues, and help revitalize struggling communities.
According to a 2004 meta-analysis from of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University of California, Berkeley, which
examined 13 studies on the economic benefits of renewable energy, approximately 240,000 jobs could be created and maintained if the country passed a 20
percent by 2020 RPS. If the U.S. relied solely on fossil fuels, the country would only maintain around 75,000 jobs.
"We found that you get three to five times the amount of jobs in the renewables area than you do in fossil fuels," said Dan
Kammen, director of RAEL and co-author of the meta-analysis. "The finding was not that there's some incredibly intrinsic, wonderful feature about
renewables, even though I might think there is. It was that these benefits go to the first victors."
That means local communities and states must act now in order to be part of the expected job growth.
The employment opportunities created by the renewable energy sector will be diverse -- ranging from indirect manufacturing and
construction jobs to direct facility design, operation and maintenance jobs. States like California, Texas, and others in the Midwest that have been most
aggressive in supporting the solar, wind and biofuel industries are going to see the largest growth in those employment areas noted Kammen.
For example, communities in the Midwestern Corn Belt are seeing a considerable economic boom because of the rapid growth of the biofuel industries. A
report released this February found that the ethanol industry created over 163,000 direct and indirect jobs, generated $4.9 billion in federal, state and local
taxes and reduced the federal trade deficit by $11.2 billion in 2006.
"The renewable fuels industry is creating economic activity, it's creating jobs, it's generating income, it's generating tax revenue and it's paying for itself,"
said John Urbanchuk, Director of LECG LLC and author of the ethanol report. "And since most of these plants are located in rural areas, they are a
significant impetus to rural economic development and economic growth."
Renewables generate more jobs than the fossil fuel industry – jobs will just shift to the new industry and help solve
unemployment
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Overall, the renewable energy industry generates more jobs per MWa than the fossil fuelbased industries (mining, refining and utilities)
Our analysis in the previous section demonstrates that for a variety of feasible scenarios, the renewables industry consistently
generates more jobs per MWa in construction, manufacturing and installation, and in O&M and fuel processing, than the
fossil fuel industries.
Investment in renewables also generates more jobs per dollar invested than the fossil fuel energy sector. The REPP study6 calculates
that the solar PV industry generates 5.65 person-yrs of employment per million dollars in investment (over 10 years) and the wind energy industry generates 5.7 person-yrs of
employment per million dollars in investment (over 10 years). In contrast, every million dollars invested in the coal industry generates only 3.96 person-yrs of employment, over
the same time period.
Supporting the renewable energy industry will benefit sectors of the economy and states that currently suffer from high unemployment
The renewable energy industry creates comparatively more jobs in manufacturing than in services and O&M, which will provide a boost to US manufacturing. The results of our
model indicate that as
we build a clean energy future, jobs in the energy sector are likely to shift from mining and related services
to manufacturing, construction and agriculture (if biomass energy forms a large part of the renewables mix). This shift would benefit sectors of
the economy suffering from very high unemployment. As Table 4 demonstrates, while unemployment rates in manufacturing and mining are somewhat on
par, unemployment rates in construction and agriculture are currently extremely high.
RPS Aff 99
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf)
A national RPS will create over 100,000 net new high-paying jobs in America – manufacturing states will benefit
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
It is not just states suffering from high unemployment in manufacturing that stand to benefit. The Midwest, for instance, is
particularly well suited for wind energy development, with the best wind power resources in the United States. According to
Greenpeace-USA, North Dakota alone has enough wind power to produce 1.2 million gigawatt-hours of electricity each
year9, which amounts to 32 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2002. The Environmental Law and Policy Center
estimates that a renewable energy portfolio standard of 22 percent can generate 36,800 jobs by 2020 in the ten mid-western
states, of which over 52 percent will be in the wind energy industry.
Renewables will expand jobs and growth in inner-cities and rural communities
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
Expanding the use of renewable energy is not only good for our energy self-sufficiency and the environment; it also has a significant positive impact
on employment. My students and I have examined the observed job growth in a number of technology sectors (Kammen, Kapadia and Fripp, 2004).
We reviewed 13 independent reports and studies that analyzed the economic and employment impacts of the clean energy industry in the United States and Europe. These studies
employ a wide range of methods, which adds credence to the findings. In addition to reviewing and comparing these studies, we have examined the assumptions used in each case,
and developed a job creation model which shows their implications for employment under several future energy scenarios.
A key result emerges from our work, and can be seen in Table 1. Across a broad range of scenarios, the renewable energy sector generates more jobs than the fossil fuel-based
energy sector per unit of energy delivered (i.e., per average megawatt). In addition, we find that supporting renewables within a comprehensive and coordinated energy policy that
also supports energy efficiency and sustainable transportation will yield far greater employment benefits than supporting one or two of these sectors separately. Further,
generating local employment – including that in inner-cities, rural communities, and in areas in need of economic stimulus
-- through the deployment of local and sustainable energy technologies is an important and underutilized way to enhance
national security and international stability. Conversely, we find that the employment rate in fossil fuel-related industries has been declining steadily for
reasons that have little to do with environmental regulation.
The U. S. Government Accounting Office conducted its own study of the job creation potential of a clean energy economy (GAO, 2004). In an important assessment of rural
employment and income opportunities, they found that:
… a farmer who leases land for a wind project can expect to receive $2,000 to $5,000 per turbine per year in lease payments. In addition, large wind power projects in some of the
nation’s poorest rural counties have added much needed tax revenues and employment opportunities.
Clean technologies will spur a new wave of job growth that is inclusive of diverse socioeconomic groups
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
In this testimony I highlight the key finding that while a continuation of business as usual energy choices will result in
socially, politically, and environmentally costly and destructive climate change, the motivation to invest in solutions to
climate change can be simply that a green economy can also be exceedingly vibrant. In fact, an economy built around a suite
of lowcarbon technologies can be resistant to price shocks as well as secure against supply disruptions as well as inclusive of
diverse socioeconomic groups. A new wave of job growth – both ‘high technology’ and ones that transform ‘blue collar labor’
into ‘green collar’ opportunities. The combination of economic competitiveness and environmental protection is a clear result
from a systematic approach to investing in climate solutions.
Clean energy systems and energy efficiency investments also contribute directly to energy security and to domestic job
growth versus off-shore migration. Renewable energy systems are more often local than imported due to the weight of
biomass resources and the need for operations and maintenance.
RPS Aff 101
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Conclusion
Now is the Time for Federal RPS
It is time that federal policymakers engage in an informed, comprehensive and rational debate about the few remaining objections to a federal RPS mandate. America faces
serious and mounting energy problems:
- continued dependence on dwindling foreign sources of fossil fuels and uranium
- an undiversified electricity fuel mixture that leaves the nation vulnerable to serious national security threats
- reliance on an ancient and overwhelmed transmission grid that risks more common, more pronounced, and more expensive catastrophic system failures
- an impending climate crisis that will require massive and expensive emissions controls costing billions of dollars and substantially reducing U.S. GDP
- loss of American economic competitiveness as Europe and Japan become the major manufacturing center for new clean
energy technologies
It is time to decide. By establishing a consistent, national mandate and uniform trading rules, a national RPS can create a more just
and more predictable regulatory environment for utilities while jump-starting a robust national renewable energy technology
sector. By offsetting electricity that utilities would otherwise generate with conventional and nuclear power, a national RPS would decrease electricity prices for American
consumers while protecting human health and the environment.
There is a time for accepting the quirks and foibles of state experimentation in national energy policy; and there is a time to look to the states as laboratories for policy innovation.
Now is the time to model the best state RPS programs and craft a coherent national policy that protects the interests of regulated utilities and American consumers.
Now is the time for federal leadership. // pg. 13
Federal RPS would push the renewable industry in a world leadership position.
Haynes, 4 - Policy Analyst, N.C. Solar Center, N.C. State University (Rusty, “Systematic Support for Renewable Energy in
the United States and Beyond: A Selection of Policy Options and Recommendations,” 2004,
http://www.dsireusa.org/documents/PolicyPublications/Haynes_KIER_Keynote.pdf, AG)
Government programs implemented by Germany and Japan during the 1990s have proven that committed, long-term (but
adaptable) federal policies can catapult a country’s industry into a world leadership position within a decade. Given the
tremendous success of these policies, federal governments in a position to support renewable energy should also seriously
consider adopting programs modeled on Germany’s and Japan’s. When designing a financial incentive or regulatory policy to
promote renewable energy, it is usually advisable for governments, when possible, to involve all stakeholders who will be
affected.
Sierra Club no date cited (Myths vs. Reality About a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard,
http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/cleanenergy/renewables.asp)
Reality: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently completed a study, Renewing Where We Live, which shows that
the U.S. has more than sufficient potential to produce 20% of our electricity from renewable sources. Adopting a 20%
standard will put the U.S. on track to be competitive with other countries-many of which have poorer resources and less land
area-that have adopted similar or more aggressive standards. The United Kingdom plans to increase renewable energy from
2.8% of electricity use today to 10% by 2010, and a recent government report proposed increasing to 20% renewable energy
by 2020.2 Denmark and Finland are planning for 30% renewable energy by 2010. The European Union goal is 22% by 2010.
Regions in Denmark, Spain, and Germany already get nearly 20% of their electricity just from wind turbines.(3)
RPS Aff 102
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society Director at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and
Resources Group
(Daniel, FDCH Congressional Testimony, “Energy Tax Incentives,” 7-11-2001, Lexis-Nexis Universe) // JMP
4) A federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to help build renewable energy markets
The RPS is a renewable energy content standard, akin to efficiency standards for vehicles and appliances that have proven successful in the past. A
gradually increasing RPS provides the most economically efficient way of ensuring that a growing proportion of electricity
sales are provided by renewable energy, and is designed to integrate renewables into the marketplace in the most cost-effective fashion. In this
manner, the market picks the winning and losing technologies and projects, not administrators. With all the discussion and hype about
market forces, a RPS provides the one true means to use market forces most effectively. I recommend a renewable energy component of 2 percent in 2002,
growing to 10 percent in 2010 and 20 percent by 2020 that would include wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, and landfill gas. A number of studies indicate
that this 20% in 2020 level of an RPS is broadly good for business and can readily be achieved 24,25 . This standard is similar to the one proposed by
Senators Jeffords and Lieberman in the 106th congress (S. 1369). This bill has not been reintroduced nor has any other RPS legislation been introduced in
this Congress yet. States that decide to pursue more aggressive goals - many of which make economic and environmental sense - could be rewarded through
an additional federal incentive program. To achieve compliance a federal RPS should use market dynamics to stimulate innovation
through an active trading program of renewable energy credits.
Renewable credit trading is analogous to the sulfur allowance trading system established in the Clean Air Act. Like emissions trading, it is designed to be
administratively simple and to increase flexibility and decrease the cost of compliance with the standard. Electricity suppliers can generate renewable
electricity themselves, purchase renewable electricity and credits from generators, or buy credits in a secondary trading market.
The coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power industries are mature; yet continue to receive considerable government subsidies. Moreover, the market price of
fossil and nuclear energy does not include the cost of the damage they cause to the environment and human health. Conversely, the market does not give a
value to the environmental and social benefits of renewables. Without the RPS or a similar mechanism, many renewables will not be able
to compete in an increasingly competitive electricity market focused on producing power at the lowest direct cost. The RPS is
designed to deliver renewables that are most ready for the market. Additional policies are still needed to support emerging renewable technologies, like
photovoltaics, that have enormous potential to eventually become commercially competitive through targeted investment incentives. Smart investors
typically acquire a portfolio of stocks and bonds to reduce risk. Including renewables in America's power supply portfolio would do the same by protecting
consumers from fossil fuel price shocks and supply shortages. A properly designed RPS will also establish a viable market for the long-
term development of America's renewable energy industries, creating jobs at home and export opportunities abroad.
The RPS is the surest market based approach for securing the public benefits of renewables while supplying the greatest amount of
clean power for the lowest price. It creates an ongoing incentive to drive down costs by providing a dependable and predictable
market, which has been lacking in this country. The RPS will reduce renewable energy costs by:
- Providing a revenue stream that will enable manufacturers and developers to obtain reasonable cost financing and make investments in expanding capacity
to meet an expanding renewable energy market.
- Allowing economies of scale in manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy facilities.
- Promoting vigorous competition among renewable energy developers and technologies to meet the standard at the lowest cost.
- Inducing development of renewables in the regions of the country where they are the most cost-effective, while avoiding expensive long-distance
transmission, by allowing national renewable energy credit trading.
- Reducing transaction costs, by enabling suppliers to buy credits and avoid having to negotiate many small contracts with individual renewable energy
projects.
Analysis by several groups of the effects of ramping up to the 20 percent RPS target in 2020 would result in renewable
energy development in every region of the country with most coming from wind, biomass, and geothermal sources. In
particular, the Plains, Western, and Mid-Atlantic States would generate more than 20 percent of their electricity as shown in Figure 6. Electricity prices are
projected to fall 13 percent between 1997 and 2020 under this RPS (see Figure 7) .
This increase in renewable energy usage would also reduce some of the projected rise in natural gas prices for all gas consumers, providing an added savings
for households who heat with gas. Texas has been a leader in developing and implementing a successful RPS that then Governor Bush signed into law in
1999. The Texas law requires electricity companies to supply 2,000 MW of new renewable resources by 2009. The state may meet this goal by the end of
2002, seven years early. The RPS has also been signed into law in Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Minnesota and Iowa also have minimum renewables requirements similar to an RPS. Bills with the RPS are also
pending in several states. Variations in the details of these programs have kept them from being overly successful. A clear and
properly constructed federal standard would correct these problems, and set a clear target for industry research, development,
and market growth 27 .
RPS Aff 103
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Fitzgerald, 6 – directs of the Law Policy and Society program at Northeastern University
(Joan, The American Prospect, “Help Wanted – Green; Green development could be a big generator of good jobs -- if
America will seize the opportunity,” 12-17-2006, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=help_wanted_green) // JMP
Renewable Europe
Compare this to the European Union, which requires 12 percent renewable electricity production by 2010, in addition to standards in
place in all 25 countries. Germany's standard sets a goal of 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The German Electricity Feed Law requires that most utilities pay 90
percent of the retail residential price for electricity produced from renewable sources. And the government provides subsidies for wind production based on
electricity output or capital costs.
German national banks offer loans at 1 percent to 2 percent below market for the first 70 percent of project costs for renewable production initiatives. These programs were fine-tuned in the early 1990s because
Germany has been the world's largest producer of wind
concentration of wind energy in the northern part of the country (with higher winds) overburdened utilities there.
energy in the world since 1997, producing three times the wind energy as the United States with less wind capacity than North
Dakota alone.
It's the same story in solar. Germany and Japan's solar “feed-in” initiatives require utility grids to buy excess solar power from
individual producers. The two countries now have a 70 percent share of global production and are industry leaders in solar
electricity equipment. Japan produces about 45 percent of global solar PV production, the EU 24 percent, and the United States only 21 percent (2003 figures). The Joint Global Change Research
Institute reports that from a base of a few thousand jobs in the early 1990s, German employment in renewable energy jumped to 50,000 in 1998 and then more than doubled to its current level of about 120,000.
Germany will have to move into export markets to maintain, let alone expand, employment. It's not that the United States has no production incentive policies in place. The problem is that no single program is
. the United States is way behind in renewable energy
funded at a level to have the kind of impact needed to dramatically increase production, and thus employment So,
production. If we want to create export markets for production equipment, we will need to develop capacity quickly. Kammen notes
that only one of the world's top ten solar PV module producers is a U.S. company.
Creating a strong domestic demand for renewable allows the industry to develop an export market
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Our model also does not include jobs that may be generated if the US develops a renewable energy industry for export. The study by the Research and Policy Center of
Environment California8 shows that for
California alone, a renewable energy industry servicing the export market can generate up to 16
times more employment than an industry that only manufactures for domestic consumption (see Table 5). Of course, manufacturing
for export means producing at an internationally competitive cost, which can be achieved all the easier if the domestic
market creates sufficient demand to bring renewables rapidly down the cost curve.
Shugar and Suarez 5 – *President of the PowerLights Corporation ** Senior NewsHour correspondant – [Dan Shugar and
Ray Suarez, NewsHour, “Widening the Trade Gap,” 4-12-05, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/jan-june05/trade_4-
12.html]
DAN SHUGAR (President of PowerLights Corporation): Yeah, Ray, I agree that there
are a lot of things that we could do to really help drive both
exports as well as drive a manufacturing base here in North America. For example, on the clean energy side of things, in Europe and in Asia,
especially Japan, there are incentives for manufacturers to be able to increase their manufacturing capacity, create more local jobs to serve
those local markets. One of the reasons we looked abroad to export our technologies is that we had, you know, continued to grow
to a point where we were, together with our local company, saturating the North American market. What we've seen in Japan and Europe
is that they've made incentives available to help alternative energy companies like solar power technology companies, build
capacity there to serve the local market. So it would be very productive, I believe, to put smart incentives in place as well as
energy policies that promote renewable power so we can manufacture our own power solutions right here with American jobs
and put them en route, both to solidify the domestic market and help us with export opportunities.
RAY SUAREZ: Terrence Straub mentioned that that deficit is being run, not just with China, which is a quarter of the entire number, but with every industrialized country in the
world. Is it making those countries richer and better customers for you?
DAN SHUGAR(President of PowerLights Corporation): Well, I feel that these
countries are doing what they need to do to meet their energy needs
and both by improving the efficiency as well as importing a lot of renewable energy and solar power technologies. I feel that
we're missing a great opportunity here to use American ingenuity, know-how to harvest our technology and know-how to
create our energy solutions right here at home.
RPS Aff 104
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
"What's so exciting about solar energy is that it creates an elegant solution to three of the largest challenges that ... face our
country today," says Giffords. The first, she says, is US dependence on foreign energy. The second is global warming, and the
third is advances in technology.
Those advances in technology, she argues, could help America lead the world in this field.
"I'm very concerned that America is falling behind. Pursuing solar energy, cleaner-burning energy, renewable energy can
absolutely lead to economic prosperity," says Gifford.
[Note – Gabrielle Giffords (D) is a US Rep. from Arizona]
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
It is also worth noting that there are energy companies based today largely on fossil-fuels which are well prepared to make a
substantial shift in their energy business. Both British Petroleum (BP) and Shell, for instance, own two of the world’s three
largest solar energy companies. In 2002, BP Solar supplied 14 percent of global PV shipments, and Shell Solar 10 percent.
The United States has a lot of catching up to do. For instance, in 2003, total US production of solar PV modules amounted to
121 MWp (21 percent of global solar PV production). This was less than half of Japan’s 251 MWp (45 percent of global
production) and also less than Europe’s 135 MWp (24 percent of global production) that same year16. Of the top ten solar PV
module producers in 2002, only one was an American company (Astropower), although some of the others manufacture (and
thus generate jobs) in the United States (for example, BP Solar and Shell Solar both have manufacturing plants in the US).
While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s
premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540
high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.
In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last
year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”
RPS Aff 105
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Fitzgerald, 6 – directs of the Law Policy and Society program at Northeastern University
(Joan, The American Prospect, “Help Wanted – Green; Green development could be a big generator of good jobs -- if
America will seize the opportunity,” 12-17-2006, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=help_wanted_green) // JMP
The U.S. must create a guarantee a demand for renewable to spur their domestic development and enhance U.S.
competitiveness
Fitzgerald, 6 – directs of the Law Policy and Society program at Northeastern University
(Joan, The American Prospect, “Help Wanted – Green; Green development could be a big generator of good jobs -- if
America will seize the opportunity,” 12-17-2006, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=help_wanted_green) // JMP
States of green
Twenty-three states now have energy portfolio standards. Seventeen states and 61 municipalities have legislation requiring
that buildings funded at a given level from capital budgets and/or over a certain square footage meet LEED or other green
building standards. These policies drive demand and bring down the unit cost of production.
Manufacturing the inputs to green buildings could help revive the economies of many states that have lost manufacturing
employment, particularly if companies establish an export market. But producers have to know that demand is shifting to
green products before they'll commit investments. If building products manufacturers are making such advanced products as
fiber-optic day-lighting, pollution-removing systems, and goods made from pre- and post-consumer recycled content, the
United States could actually lose jobs as contractors look to European and Asian suppliers, which are way ahead of America.
RPS Aff 106
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Ultimately, the renewable market is key to U.S. economic and technological leadership
Kammen, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society Director at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and
Resources Group
(Daniel, FDCH Congressional Testimony, “Energy Tax Incentives,” 7-11-2001, Lexis-Nexis Universe) // JMP
As a nation we are ignoring the importance of maintaining leadership in key technological and industrial areas, many of
which are related to the energy sector.3 This includes keeping pace with Japan and Germany in the production of solar
photovoltaic systems, catching up with Denmark in wind and cogeneration system deployment, and with Japan, Germany,
and Canada in the development of fuel cell systems. The development of these industries within the U.S. is vital to both our
international competitiveness and commercial strength, and to our national security in providing for our own energy needs.
Renewable and distributed energy systems and energy efficiency are areas experiencing tremendous market growth
internationally. These systems combine the latest advances in energy conversion and storage, with improvements in computer
and other advanced technologies, and are therefore natural areas for U. S. business interests and for U.S. strategic leadership.
The U. S. must improve the financial and political climate for clean energy systems in order to reassert our leadership in this
vital area.
The plan will make the U.S. the international technological leader
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Transitioning from a fossil fuel–based economy to a renewably powered one will spur economic growth and provide
considerable employment. A review of 13 studies and our own analysis concur with this conclusion. The national and
international security implications of spurring employment through local, sustainable energy generation are compelling. The
United States needs to regain its international position as a technology leader, and the technologies of the future are in clean
energy. The time is ripe to move beyond studies to action.
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Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
RENEWABLE energy systems--notably solar, wind, and biomass--are poised to play a major role in the energy economy and in improving the
environmental quality of the United States. California's energy crisis focused attention on and raised fundamental questions about regional and national energy strategies. Prior to
the crisis in California, there had been too little attention given to appropriate power plant siting issues and to bottlenecks in transmission and distribution. A strong national energy
policy is now needed. Renewable technologies have become both economically viable and environmentally preferable alternatives to fossil fuels. Last year the United States spent
more than $600 billion on energy, with U.S. oil imports climbing to $120 billion, or nearly $440 of imported oil for every American. In the long term, even a natural gas-based
strategy will not be adequate to prevent a buildup of unacceptably high levels of carbon dioxide ([CO.sub.2]) in the atmosphere. Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli mate
Change's (IPCC) recent Third Assessment Report and the National Academy of Sciences' recent analysis of climate change science concluded that climate change is real and must
be addressed immediately--and that U.S. policy needs to be directed toward implementing clean energy solutions. (1)
Renewable energy technologies have made important and dramatic technical, economic, and operational advances during the
past decade. A national energy policy and climate change strategy should be formulated around these advances. Despite dramatic technical and economic advances in clean
energy systems, the United States has seen far too little research and development (R&D) and too few incentives and sustained programs to build markets for renewable energy
technologies and energy efficiency programs. (2) Not since the late 1970s has there been a more compelling and conducive environment for an integrated, large-scale approach to
renewable energy innovation and market expansion. (3) Clean, low-carbon energy choices now make both economic and environmental sense, and they provide the domestic basis
for our energy supply that will provide security, not dependence on unpredictable overseas fossil fuels.
Energy issues in the United States have created "quick fix" solutions that, while politically expedient, will ultimately do the country more harm than good. It is critical to examine
all energy options, and never before have so many technological solutions been available to address energy needs. In the near term, some expansion of the nation's fossil fuel
(particularly natural gas) supply is warranted to keep pace with rising demand, but that expansion should be balanced with measures to develop cleaner energy solutions for the
future. The best short-term options for the United States are energy efficiency, conservation, and expanded markets for renewable energy.
For many years, renewables were seen as energy options that--while environmentally and socially attractive--occupied niche markets at best, due to barriers of cost and available
infrastructure. In the last decade, however, the case for renewable energy has become economically compelling as well. There has been a true revolution in technological
innovation, cost improvements, and our understanding and analysis of appropriate applications of renewable energy resources and technologies--notably solar, wind, small-scale
hydro, and biomass-based energy, as well as advanced energy conversion devices such as fuel cells. (4) There are now a number of energy sources, conversion technologies, and
applications that make renewable energy options either equal or better in price and services provided than the prevailing fossil fuel technologies. For example, in
a growing
number of settings in industrialized nations, wind energy is now the least expensive option among all energy technologies--
with the added benefit of being modular and quick to install and bring on-line. In fact, some farmers, notably in the U.S. Midwest, have found that they can generate more income
per hectare from the electricity generated by a wind turbine than from their crop or ranching proceeds. (5) Also, photovoltaic (solar) panels and solar hot water heaters placed on
buildings across the United States can help reduce energy costs, dramatically shave peak-power demands, produce a healthier living environment, and increase the overall energy
supply.
The United States has lagged in its commitment to maintain leadership in key technological and industrial areas, many of which
are related to the energy sector. (6) The United States has fallen behind Japan and Germany in the production of photovoltaic systems, behind Denmark in wind and
cogeneration system deployment, and behind Japan, Germany, and Canada in the development of fuel-cell systems. Developing these industries within the United
States is vital to the country's international competitiveness, commercial strength, and ability to provide for its own energy
needs.
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The United States is unlikely to preserve its military and technological dominance if the U.S. economy declines seriously. In
such an environment, the domestic economic and political base for global leadership would diminish and the United States
would probably incrementally withdraw from the world, become inward-looking, and abandon more and more of its external
interests. As the United States weakened, others would try to fill the Vacuum. To sustain and improve its economic strength,
the United States must maintain its technological lead in the economic realm. Its success will depend on the choices it makes.
In the past, developments such as the agricultural and industrial revolutions produced fundamental changes positively
affecting the relative position of those who were able to take advantage of them and negatively affecting those who did not.
Some argue that the world may be at the beginning of another such transformation, which will shift the sources of wealth and
the relative position of classes and nations. If the United States fails to recognize the change and adapt its institutions, its
relative position will necessarily worsen. To remain the preponderant world power, U.S. economic strength must be enhanced
by further improvements in productivity, thus increasing real per capita income; by strengthening education and training; and
by generating and using superior science and technology. In the long run the economic future of the United States will also be
affected by two other factors. One is the imbalance between government revenues and government expenditure. As a society
the United States has to decide what part of the GNP it wishes the government to control and adjust expenditures and taxation
accordingly. The second, which is even more important to U.S. economic wall-being over the long run, may be the overall
rate of investment. Although their government cannot endow Americans with a Japanese-style propensity to save, it can use
tax policy to raise the savings rate.
The reversal of globalization--which a new Dark Age would produce--would certainly lead to economic stagnation and even
depression. As the United States sought to protect itself after a second September 11 devastates, say, Houston or Chicago, it
would inevitably become a less open society, less hospitable for foreigners seeking to work, visit, or do business. Meanwhile,
as Europe's Muslim enclaves grew, Islamist extremists' infiltration of the EU would become irreversible, increasing trans-
Atlantic tensions over the Middle East to the breaking point. An economic meltdown in China would plunge the Communist
system into crisis, unleashing the centrifugal forces that undermined previous Chinese empires. Western investors would lose
out and conclude that lower returns at home are preferable to the risks of default abroad. The worst effects of the new Dark
Age would be felt on the edges of the waning great powers. The wealthiest ports of the global economy--from New York to
Rotterdam to Shanghai--would become the targets of plunderers and pirates. With ease, terrorists could disrupt the freedom
of the seas, targeting oil tankers, aircraft carriers, and cruise liners, while Western nations frantically concentrated on making
their airports secure. Meanwhile, limited nuclear wars could devastate numerous regions, beginning in the Korean peninsula
and Kashmir, perhaps ending catastrophically in the Middle East. In Latin America, wretchedly poor citizens would seek
solace in Evangelical Christianity imported by U.S. religious orders. In Africa, the great plagues of AIDS and malaria would
continue their deadly work. The few remaining solvent airlines would simply suspend services to many cities in these
continents; who would wish to leave their privately guarded safe havens to go there? For all these reasons, the prospect of an
apolar world should frighten us today a great deal more than it frightened the heirs of Charlemagne. If the United States
retreats from global hegemony--its fragile self-image dented by minor setbacks on the imperial frontier--its critics at home
and abroad must not pretend that they are ushering in a new era of multipolar harmony, or even a return to the good old
balance of power. Be careful what you wish for. The alternative to unipolarity would not be multipolarity at all. It would be
apolarity--a global vacuum of power.
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Hodge, 7 (Nick, “Renewable Portfolio Standard How's 225% Sound to You?” 12-11-2007,
www.greenchipstocks.com/articles/renewable-portfolio-standard/187) // JMP
According to David Abel, Chairman of VerdiXchange and host of the conference, "We need to shift how we connect the
green dots. The solutions are in the marketplace, we just need to scale them up."
That's exactly what Yaniv Tepper of the Angeleno Group, a California-based private equity firm with over $200 million tied
up in clean-tech companies, thinks is going to happen. His firm, which used to never even look at renewable energy
companies, now believes there is windfall profit potential due to:
High oil and gas prices
Aging electric infrastructure
Increased environmental restrictions and corporate mandates, and
A push toward energy independence
A litany of others in the venture capital and private equity world feel the same way. One after another they paraded to the
podium using phrases like "high growth rates", "increased initial public offerings (IPOs) and mergers and acquisitions" and,
my favorite, "We finally figured out how to make money off this stuff."
If there were any remaining doubt about the financial viability or profit potential of the kind of companies Green Chip
recommends, it should all now be abated. These are, after all, the same men who made fortunes in oil and gas companies and
the dot-com boom of the 1990s.
And I couldn't get any greater pleasure than when I saw lists of some of the companies these fund managers are investing in
pop up on their PowerPoint slides. Many were companies we've already recommended to our Green Chip Stocks subscribers.
Companies like Ormat Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ORA), which has climbed well over 225% since late 2004, and which
we've been in since early 2005. Take a look at a chart for Ormat Technologies:
And there others that are still too nascent to mention here, but that I imagine will have similar charts in a similar timespan. So
unless you have millions of dollars in disposable income that you are willing to invest in endowment funds, hedge funds,
public-private partnerships or venture capital start-ups, I suggest you consider joining Green Chip Stocks.
Because, let's face it, national renewable portfolio standard or not, there is money being made hand over fist. And not just
here in the States, but around the globe as well. In fact, British Energy Secretary John Hutton said this week that England
could be entirely powered by offshore wind turbines by 2020.
If you don't want to miss another minute of this action, click here.
Renewable energy has big time market potential – it could become a world leading industry with active U.S. support
Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
The push to develop renewable and other clean energy technologies is no longer being driven solely by environmental
concerns; these technologies are becoming economically competitive. According to Merrill Lynch's Robin Batchelor, the
traditional energy sector has lacked appeal to investors in recent years because of heavy regulation, low growth, and a
tendency to be cyclical. (10) The United States' lack of support for innovative new companies sends a signal that U.S. energy
markets are biased against new entrants. The clean energy industry could, however, become a world-leading industry akin to
that of U.S. semi-conductors and computer systems.
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Obama in 8— Senator of Illinois and Presidential Candidate (Barack, “Obama: McCain Has Failed Us On Energy ‘For
Decades’”, 6-24-08, Talking Points Memo Election Central,
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_mccain_has_failed_us_on.php)
It isn't because the resources and technology aren't there. We know this because countries like Spain, Germany, and Japan
have already leapt ahead of us when it comes to renewable energy technology. Germany, a country as cloudy as the Pacific
Northwest, is now a world leader in the solar power industry and the quarter million new jobs it has created. In less than eight
years, before we'd ever see a drop of oil from offshore drilling, they have doubled their renewable energy output. And they
did it by using technology that, in some cases, was paid for by the American people through our own Research and
Development tax credits. The difference is, their government harnessed that technology by providing the necessary
investments and incentives to jumpstart a renewable energy industry. Washington hasn't done that.
What Washington has done is what Washington always does - it's peddled false promises, irresponsible policy, and cheap
gimmicks that might get politicians through the next election, but won't lead America toward the next generation of
renewable energy. And now we're paying the price. Now we've fallen behind the rest of the world. Now we're forced to beg
Saudi Arabia for more oil. Now we're facing gas prices over $4 a gallon - gas prices that are decimating the savings of
families who are already struggling in this economy. Like the man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job and couldn't even
afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one. That's how badly folks are hurting. That's how badly Washington has
failed.
Other countries are developing clean technologies and expanding their export opportunities
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
A growing number of state, regional, and national economies are assuming leadership positions for a clean, low carbon,
energy economy. These ‘early actors’ are reaping the economic benefits of their actions. Among the global leaders are Brazil,
Denmark, Iceland Germany, Japan, Spain, all of which have made significant commitments to a green economy, and all are
seeing job growth and rapidly expanding export opportunities. In the United States several states have embarked on
significant climate protection efforts, and half of U. S. states have taken the vital step of adopting minimum levels of
renewable energy requirements.
Johnson, 8 – has spent the past decade reporting from Europe, increasingly on energy issues
(Keith, “Any Given Wednesday: Green Jobs on the Hill,” 2-5-2008, http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/05/) // JMP
“Competitiveness is a game of inches,” Daniel Seligman says, echoing Al Pacino. The Washington director for the Apollo
Alliance, a clean-energy lobby, says the U.S. can’t risk losing ground to foreign countries with vibrant alternative-energy
sectors.
Renewing renewable tax credits—even just for a year—is one small step on that transformation, argue some proponents. And
they say it fits perfectly well into the stimulus package.
“Opposition [to the credits] is symbolic of old thinking, that this isn’t a core issue to the economy,” says Bracken Hendricks,
a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank. “But greening the economy is core
economic strategy,” he says.
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n41. Absent special circumstances, the Worldwatch Institute has little reason to be alarmed over a drop in the U.S. share of
world solar collector production from 44% in 1996 to below 9% in 2005. The U.S. can only import renewables if it pays for
them with the proceeds from exports or foreign investments. Worldwatch Inst. and Ctr. for Am. Progress, supra note 4, at 11.
A national RPS will boost the domestic steel and manufacturing sectors
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
China and India are increasingly keen to be seen to be tackling climate change; though it is dirtier, China is making a more convincing show of action
SINCE 2006 the railway line across the Tibetan plateau (above) has been carrying passengers and freight across a landscape of snow-covered peaks and tundra, antelopes and
wolves. China celebrates it as one of the nation's greatest technological feats. But some experts worry that global warming may render it useless.
The impact of warming can be seen on a road that runs parallel to the line for much of its length. Trucks bump along its cracked and undulating surface, which is being ravaged by
the freezing and thawing of the tundra beneath. Since the highway was built in the 1950s, the permafrost area has been shrinking and the layer above it, which is subject to seasonal
thaw, has been getting deeper. The railway is vulnerable to the same process.
The vast and sparsely populated Tibetan plateau is the origin of the great river systems of China, South-East and South Asia: the Yangzi and Yellow Rivers, the Brahmaputra, the
Indus, the Mekong and the Salween. The Ganges rises on the Indian side of the plateau's Himalayan rim. These rivers, fed by thousands of Himalayan glaciers, are an ecological
miracle. They support some 1.3 billion people.
But the
glaciers are retreating. Chinese experts predict that by 2050 the icy area on their side of the Himalayas will have
shrunk by more than a quarter since 1950. Predictions for the Indian side are gloomier still. In April a leading Indian glaciologist, Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain,
measured the East Rathong glacier in lofty Sikkim state. It appeared to have shrunk by 2.5km, or half its length, in a decade.
The average global temperature increase of 0.6°C in a century seems an insufficient explanation; but that may combine with a 3km-thick fug of pollution, known as Asian Brown
Cloud, that hangs over northern India. Scientists think this haze, which is created by power stations and cooking-fires, may be radiating heat into the lower troposphere, at altitudes
in which glaciers are found. Mr Hasnain estimates that Himalayan glaciers will be gone in 20-30 years. That would leave many great rivers depending on seasonal rainfall.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this may be the fate of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra by 2035. Making matters worse, changes to the
weather may meanwhile make the rains less reliable.
North India has two main weather systems. In the summer, south-westerly monsoonal winds reach northern India, in an explosion of heat-busting rain, in late June. During the
winter, westerly winds blow rain-clouds across Pakistan and northern India, watering the plains and dumping snow onto the tops of the Hindu Kush, Karakorams and western
Himalayas.
These systems are liable to change with the climate; some scientists think the Westerlies have been disrupted already. This might explain why India's winter rains were poor this
year; but May delivered a drenching. With 168mm of rainfall, Delhi had its wettest May on record. In Uttar Pradesh state, two storms killed 120 people. With
seasonal
rivers and sporadic rains, India's ecological miracle would become an ecological calamity.
Now that the American presidential race is down to two candidates who are both committed to cutting emissions, China and India, the world's most populous nations, are
seen by many as the world's biggest climate-change problems. Russia's economy is more profligate with energy, but China is widely believed to be the world's biggest emitter of
carbon dioxide, and India is rapidly moving up. Their exploding emissions are America's main excuse for failing to take action itself; and their intransigence exasperates those
trying to negotiate a global agreement on climate-change mitigation to replace the Kyoto protocol. Meanwhile, both countries are
awakening to the problems that
climate change will cause them.
In the past couple of years, Chinese officials have begun sounding like converts to the climate-change cause. In late 2006 12 ministries helped
produce a 415-page report on the impact of global warming. It foresees a 5-10% reduction in agricultural output by 2030 (a shift from previous
thinking on this among Chinese academics which held that global warming might benefit agriculture overall); more droughts, floods, typhoons and
sandstorms; a 40% increase in the population threatened by plague. The report also admits the possibility of damage to the Tibetan railway. Last year
China published its first policy document on climate change, admitting that coping with global warming presented “severe challenges”.
China also now admits its own contribution to the problem. Officials reacted frostily last year when the International Energy Agency, a rich-country think-tank, said China would
overtake America as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007 or 2008. But the Chinese commerce ministry's website now carries, without negative comment, an
article from April this year quoting University of California researchers saying China is already number one.
The impact of climate change on India, a hotter and poorer country, is likely to be worse. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics,
India's agriculture will suffer more than any other country's. Assuming a global temperature increase of 4.4°C over cultivated areas by 2080, India's
agricultural output is projected to fall by 30-40%.
Yet India's response to this doomful scenario has been, at best, haphazard. For example, it has made only occasional studies of 11 Himalayan glaciers. It has also
shown little concern for the regional political crisis that climate change threatens. As sea-levels rise, for example, the IPCC warns that 35m refugees could flee Bangladesh's
flooded delta by 2050. Yet even in India, attitudes are changing.
Manmohan Singh, its sagacious prime minister, has formed a powerful council of ministers, bureaucrats, scientists and businessmen to co-operate on the issue. It has rarely met;
yet it is part of a broader push that has sparked a flurry of climate-related initiatives: to boost energy efficiency, improve seed types, encourage forestation and so on. Given India's
historic problems with flooding and drought, many of these are built upon existing policies. Indeed, the government claims that 2% of GDP is being spent on coping with climate-
induced problems. To display these efforts, and manage them better, India is due this month to unveil a vaunted policy, the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
It will be welcome; because many consider that India is expending even greater effort on justifying its refusal to control its emissions. In particular it argues that its total emissions
are relatively low (see chart above) and that it is relatively energy-efficient (see chart below). China uses far more energy than it does per unit of GDP; Russia, vastly more.
The reasons for India's frugality are not all that creditable. Almost half the population has no access to electricity. Also, India cross-subsidises power and petroleum products:
farmers get cheap electricity, for instance, while industry pays more for it. This is one of many government-imposed hardships that have forced Indian firms to use power and other
resources efficiently. As a result, India is one of the world's lowest-cost producers of aluminium and steel.
During the past four years both China's GDP and its energy consumption have grown at an average of 11% a year. India's GDP, meanwhile, has grown at an annual average of 9%
while its energy consumption has risen by 4%. And yet, to
achieve its target of long-term 8% growth, India will have to boost its power-
generation capacity at least sixfold by 2030. Over the period, its emissions are expected to increase over fourfold.
India defends this on moral grounds: its people have the same right to wealth as anyone. Indeed, given their special vulnerability to climate problems, they have a particularly
urgent need for economic development. After all, a factory worker with an air-conditioner will feel global warming less than a subsistence farmer will.
This position is also consistent with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which launched the Kyoto process, and recognised that economic development and
poverty eradication were the “overriding priorities” for developing countries. The Bush administration's bid to override this principle by refusing to undertake targeted emissions
cuts unless India and China accept comparable cuts has therefore caused fury in India. A senior official in the foreign ministry characterises America's line as: “Guys with gross
obesity telling guys just emerging from emaciation to go on a major diet.”
Earth Trends 8 [“December 2008 Monthly Update: China's Future in an Energy-Constrained World,” World Resources
Institute, 1-12-1008, http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/274] // LDK
In the last quarter century, China's breakneck economic growth has lifted over 50 million people out of poverty and tripled
energy demand. Experts predict that China will surpass the United States to become the world's largest consumer of energy
and fossil fuels soon after 2010. And because of its heavy reliance on coal, China already emits more carbon dioxide than any
country on earth.
The rate and path of this energy growth is of enormous consequence for both China and the world. At stake are issues of
global importance, including climate change and competition over dwindling oil resources. Perhaps more important for
China, however, are domestic concerns such as severe urban air pollution, energy security, and sustained economic growth.
China is the largest contributor of CO2 emissions—alternative energy is necessary to prevent devastating climate
change
Earth Trends 8 [“December 2008 Monthly Update: China's Future in an Energy-Constrained World,” World Resources
Institute, 1-12-1008, http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/274] // LDK
At the global level, China's rapid growth in coal and oil consumption is widely recognized for its contribution to climate
change. The International Energy Agency estimates that in late 2007, China bypassed the U.S. to become the world's largest
emitter of carbon dioxide and predicts that if the current policy scenario remains unchanged, China will account for 40
percent of the total growth in CO2 emissions worldwide between 2005 and 2030. Within the Kyoto Protocol Framework,
China is not an Annex 1 Country and thus has not had any international commitments to control CO2 emissions. However, in
June 2007 the Chinese government issued its first climate change strategy, and domestic Chinese policy emphasizes energy
efficiency, increased use of renewable energy and robust reforestation.
China is becoming the world’s largest polluter. It’s energy policy will determine the environment of the planet
Bader 6 – Director, John L. Thornton China Center – [Jeffrey A., Brookings Institute, The Energy Future: China and the U.S.
- What the United States ought to Do,” 2-6-08, http://www.brookings.edu/speeches/2006/0208china_bader.aspx]
Pollution: China will be the world's largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. It already is a major contributor to
pollution in Hong Kong and Japan. As its economy grows, its energy choices will affect not only the health of its own
citizens, but the environment of the planet.
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Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] // LDK
China’s leaders recognize that they must change course. They are vowing to overhaul the growth-first philosophy of the Deng
Xiaoping era and embrace a new model that allows for steady growth while protecting the environment. In his equivalent of a
State of the Union address this year, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao made 48 references to “environment,” “pollution” or
“environmental protection.”
The government has numerical targets for reducing emissions and conserving energy. Export subsidies for polluting
industries have been phased out. Different campaigns have been started to close illegal coal mines and shutter some heavily
polluting factories. Major initiatives are under way to develop clean energy sources like solar and wind power. And
environmental regulation in Beijing, Shanghai and other leading cities has been tightened ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
Yet most of the government’s targets for energy efficiency, as well as improving air and water quality, have gone unmet. And
there are ample signs that the leadership is either unwilling or unable to make fundamental changes.
Land, water, electricity, oil and bank loans remain relatively inexpensive, even for heavy polluters. Beijing has declined to
use the kind of tax policies and market-oriented incentives for conservation that have worked well in Japan and many
European countries.
China’s current approach to expand renewable energy will fail – it relies too much on environmentally destructive
hydroelectric power
Earth Trends 8 [“December 2008 Monthly Update: China's Future in an Energy-Constrained World,” World Resources
Institute, 1-12-1008, http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/274] // LDK
Even with improved energy efficiency, demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow unless alternative energy sources are
pursued. China has set a preliminary goal to increase the share of renewable energy in total energy use to 16 percent by 2020.
Much of this growth will be achieved via hydroelectric power, although wind power is also becoming cost competitive in
some areas and contains enormous potential. The controversial Three Gorges Dam, which displaced nearly two million
people, will become the largest hydroelectric facility in the world upon completion in 2009. However, building new dams is
also environmentally problematic, especially considering escalating water scarcity throughout the country. For the
foreseeable future, China will remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Technologies exist, however, to mitigate some of the
worst effects of fossil fuels, and introducing taxes or incentives will facilitate the adoption of such technologies. For example,
in 2006, Beijing raised the sulfur pollution tax on power plants and introduced a market incentive to help offset the cost of
installing flue gas desulfurization (FGD) equipment, which removes SO2 from a plant's emissions stream. Virtually all of coal
power plants built since then have installed FGD systems. This instance reveals the potential of market-based incentives in
regulating other pollutants, including NOx and CO2.
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Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] //LDK
The toll this pollution has taken on human health remains a delicate topic in China. The leadership has banned publication of
data on the subject for fear of inciting social unrest, said scholars involved in the research. But the results of some research
provide alarming evidence that the environment has become one of the biggest causes of death.
An internal, unpublicized report by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning in 2003 estimated that 300,000 people
die each year from ambient air pollution, mostly of heart disease and lung cancer. An additional 110,000 deaths could be
attributed to indoor air pollution caused by poorly ventilated coal and wood stoves or toxic fumes from shoddy construction
materials, said a person involved in that study.
Another report, prepared in 2005 by Chinese environmental experts, estimated that annual premature deaths attributable to
outdoor air pollution were likely to reach 380,000 in 2010 and 550,000 in 2020.
RPS Aff 117
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McKibbin 5 – Non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and economics expert at Australian National University
and the Lowry Institute for International Policy – [Warwick J. McKibbin, Brookings Institute, “Environmental Consequences
of Rising Energy Use in China,” 8-22-05, Revised 12-10-05,
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2005/12globaleconomics_mckibbin/200512.pdf] // LDK
A more recent and potentially more important problem identified by Streets (2000, 2004) and others is the emission of black
carbon. Black carbon is the fine particulates that are released from imperfect combustion of carbonaceous materials. Any
visitors to Chinese cities are familiar with the thick haze that frequently envelopes many areas. Current work suggests that
direct action to reduce the emissions of black carbon from household energy use and burning of forests and agricultural waste
is an important issue that needs urgent attention in China. Understanding of black carbon emissions is only fairly recent due
to the work of Hamilton and Mansfield (1991), Hansen et al (1998) and Streets (2004). Black carbon is classified as an
aerosol and is therefore not included in the Kyoto Protocol. However, studies by Streets and others suggest it is a critical
issue for China. The consequences of black carbon are wide ranging: reduced visibility; serious health problems; damage to
buildings. Estimates suggest that agriculture crop productivity might be reduced significantly (by up to 30% for rise and
wheat)16. Streets (2004 p.3) argues that black carbon is the second most important warming agent behind carbon dioxide.
Using circulation models, Menon (2002) et al estimate that black carbon is responsible for local climaste problems in China
such as increased drought in northern China and summer floods in southern China. The time lag between reducing black
carbon emissions and significant local climate effects is estimated to be around five years – a far quicker effect on climate
than the implications of tackling carbon dioxide emissions which are measured in many decades. The estimated sources of
black carbon are contained in Figure 6. Surprisingly a vast majority of emissions are from residential energy use rather than
electricity generation or transportation. Residential burning of coal accounted for 83% of emissions in 1995. This is due to
the fact that 80% of Chinese households use solid/biomass fuels for cooking and heating (WHO (2004)). Thus black carbon
is likely to be an important issue that authorities are yet to tackle. Part of the reason is that is a relatively recently understood
problem and partly because the solution doesn’t lie in the energy generation sectors but in the use of energy by households.
There are a number of significant environmental problems associated with energy use in China. These have had large
economic costs in the past. With the enormous expected rise in energy use in China over coming decades outlined in Section
2, the environmental problems associated with rising Chinese energy use is going to accentuate these problems. Policies
aimed at these problems will need to broaden in scale and scope. While existing problems are beginning to be tackled, new
problems such as global climate change are emerging and China due to its size and speed of economic growth is a major
player at the global level.
Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] // LDK
But pollution poses its own threat. Officials blame fetid air and water for thousands of episodes of social unrest. Health care
costs have climbed sharply. Severe water shortages could turn more farmland into desert. And the unconstrained expansion of
energy-intensive industries creates greater dependence on imported oil and dirty coal, meaning that environmental problems
get harder and more expensive to address the longer they are unresolved.
RPS Aff 118
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McKibbin 5 – Non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and economics expert at Australian National University
and the Lowry Institute for International Policy – [Warwick J. McKibbin, Brookings Institute, “Environmental Consequences
of Rising Energy Use in China,” 8-22-05, Revised 12-10-05,
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2005/12globaleconomics_mckibbin/200512.pdf] // LDK
The environmental and health impacts of energy use cover a range of issues from local particulate emissions which have
important impacts within China; to acid rain which has both local and regional impacts; and as well to carbon dioxide
emissions which have global implications. At the local level, a number of studies have explored air pollution caused by
energy use in China. The term “air pollution” covers a wide range of problems including emissions of particulates, sulphur
dioxide, nitrous oxides and carbon dioxide. The estimated costs of air pollution, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels vary
in size. A study by the World Bank (1997) valued health damages from air pollution at 5% of GDP in 1995 although other
studies such as Yang and Schreifels (2003) suggest this is closer to 2% of GDP.. A study by Garbaccio, Ho and Jorgenson
(1999) found that for a reduction in carbon emissions of 5% every year would reduce local health costs by 0.2% of GDP
annually. A recent report by the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)10 on the environment notes that air quality
in cities across China has generally improved but this is from a base of significant problems in most major Chinese cities.
The World Health Organization (WHO (2004)) notes that only 31% of Chinese cities met the WHO standards for air quality
in 2004. A large part of these air quality problems are directly related to energy use. Whether the projection of rising energy
use over the coming decade directly lead to projections of increased environmental problems is a critical issue facing
policymakers in China. This is well understood in China. Premier Wen Jiabao in his March 5th 2005 report to the National
Peoples Congress argued that improved energy conservation was necessary to reconcile rapid economic growth with limited
energy resources – he also called for stronger pollution controls. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)
11 originally established in 1988 as the National Environmental Protection Agency has also been implementing more
stringent monitoring and enforcement of environmental legislation. Particulate emissions cause serious health problems with
identifiable economic costs as well as human costs. A recent study by Ho and Jorgenson (2003) finds the largest sources of
Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) are the largest users of coal – electricity, nonmetal mineral products and metals smelting
as well as transportation. One of the worst pollutants from burning fossil fuels is sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions. This has
local (health and acid rain) as well as regional (acid rain) implications. The WHO estimates that more than 600 million
people are exposed to SO2 levels above the WHO standards12. SO2 mixing with nitrogen oxides (NOX) causes acid rain.
The WHO (2004)13 estimates that acid rain seriously affects 30% of China. However this is not just a problem for China.
Streets (1997) estimates that China accounted for 81% of SO2 emissions in North East Asia in 1990. China is the major
source of acid rain across north East Asia. Without any control policies, Streets estimated in 1997 that this share would
change little by 2010 except that the quantity of emissions is expected to grow by 213% from 1990 to 2010 by 273% by
2020. Assuming installation of state of the art flue-gas desulphurization systems Streets estimated that this scenario could be
transformed so that SO2 emissions fall to 31% of 1990 emissions by 2020. China has begun to address this problem with
pilot Sulphur Dioxide emission trading systems in a number of control zones and closing of high sulphur coal mines as well
as other direct controls. In fact sulphur dioxide emissions have fallen gradually since from1995 to 2002 but rose again in
2003. The decline was a result of direct controls and other policies, although acid rain problems have not fallen because of a
substitution of emission towards high stack sources which spread SO2 over greater areas14. Direct policy to deal with
sulphur dioxide emissions would seem to have a significant benefit for China and across the region and the Chinese
authorities are acting on this15. Experimentation with price based charging and emissions trading systems have yielded
encouraging results and should be used more extensively to reduce the emission of sulphur from the projected increasing use
of coal for generating energy in the coming decade.
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Lewis 7 – Director of the Economic Research Council – [Dan, “The Nightmare of a Chinese Economic Collapse,” World
Finance, 4-19-07, http://www.worldfinance.com/news/137/ARTICLE/1144/2007-04-19.html] // LDK
According to Professor David B. Smith, one of the City’s most accurate and respected economists in recent years, potentially
far more serious though is the impact that Chinese monetary policy could have on many Western nations such as the UK.
Quite simply, China’s undervalued currency has enabled Western governments to maintain artificially strong currencies,
reduce inflation and keep interest rates lower than they might otherwise be. We should therefore be very worried about how
vulnerable Western economic growth is to an upward revaluation of the Chinese yen. Should that revaluation happen to
appease China’s rural poor, at a stroke, the dollar, sterling and the euro would quickly depreciate, rates in those currencies
would have to rise substantially and the yield on government bonds would follow suit. This would add greatly to the debt
servicing cost of budget deficits in the USA, the UK and much of Euro land. A reduction in demand for imported Chinese
goods would quickly entail a decline in China’s economic growth rate. That is alarming. It has been calculated that to keep
China’s society stable – ie to manage the transition from a rural to an urban society without devastating unemployment - the
minimum growth rate is 7.2 percent. Anything less than that and unemployment will rise and the massive shift in population
from the country to the cities becomes unsustainable. This is when real discontent with communist party rule becomes vocal
and hard to ignore. It doesn’t end there. That will at best bring a global recession. The crucial point is that communist
authoritarian states have at least had some success in keeping a lid on ethnic tensions – so far. But when multi-ethnic
communist countries fall apart from economic stress and the implosion of central power, history suggests that they don’t
become successful democracies overnight. Far from it. There’s a very real chance that China might go the way of
Yugoloslavia or the Soviet Union – chaos, civil unrest and internecine war. In the very worst case scenario, a Chinese
government might seek to maintain national cohesion by going to war with Taiwan – whom America is pledged to defend.
Today, people are looking at Chang’s book again. Contrary to popular belief, foreign investment has actually deferred
political reform in the world’s oldest nation. China today is now far further from democracy than at any time since the
Tianneman Square massacres in 1989. Chang’s pessimistic forecast for China was probably wrong. But my fear is there is at
least a chance he was just early.
Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] // LDK
For the Communist Party, the political calculus is daunting. Reining in economic growth to alleviate pollution may seem
logical, but the country’s authoritarian system is addicted to fast growth. Delivering prosperity placates the public, provides
spoils for well-connected officials and forestalls demands for political change. A major slowdown could incite social unrest,
alienate business interests and threaten the party’s rule.
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7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Earth Trends 8 [“December 2008 Monthly Update: China's Future in an Energy-Constrained World,” World Resources
Institute, 1-12-1008, http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/274] // LDK
China's current energy mix is strongly influenced by resource availability. With 13 percent of global coal reserves--compared
to only one percent for oil and natural gas--China meets over two-thirds of its domestic energy needs with coal (BP p.I.c
2007). As the dirtiest of fossil fuels, coal combustion accounts for the vast majority of domestic emissions of carbon dioxide
(CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). As a result, China has many of the world's most polluted cities: urban
air pollution accounted for 3.4 percent of all deaths in 2001 (DCP2 2006). When burned in homes, coal and other solid fuels
create indoor air pollution responsible for even more deaths (five percent in 2001).
In addition, acid rain caused by SO2 pollution has affected one-third of China's land, rendering some soils uncultivable (BBC
News 2006). In 2005 alone, there were $60 billion in direct economic damages from SO2 (Rosen & Houser 2007). Some of
this pollution is also carried by the wind into neighboring countries and as far as the west coasts of the United States and
Canada.
Kahn & Yardley 7 – *Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times and ** Senior Correspondent in the Beijing bureau of
The New York Times – [Joseph Kahn and Jim Yarley, New York Times, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly
Extremes,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=1] // LDK
For air quality, a major culprit is coal, on which China relies for about two-thirds of its energy needs. It has abundant supplies
of coal and already burns more of it than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. But even many of its newest coal-
fired power plants and industrial furnaces operate inefficiently and use pollution controls considered inadequate in the West.
Expanding car ownership, heavy traffic and low-grade gasoline have made autos the leading source of air pollution in major
Chinese cities. Only 1 percent of China’s urban population of 560 million now breathes air considered safe by the European
Union, according to a World Bank study of Chinese pollution published this year. One major pollutant contributing to China’s
bad air is particulate matter, which includes concentrations of fine dust, soot and aerosol particles less than 10 microns in
diameter (known as PM 10).
The level of such particulates is measured in micrograms per cubic meter of air. The European Union stipulates that any
reading above 40 micrograms is unsafe. The United States allows 50. In 2006, Beijing’s average PM 10 level was 141,
according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. Only Cairo, among world capitals, had worse air quality as measured
by particulates, according to the World Bank.
Emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal and fuel oil, which can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as acid
rain, are increasing even faster than China’s economic growth. In 2005, China became the leading source of sulfur dioxide
pollution globally, the State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, reported last year.
Other major air pollutants, including ozone, an important component of smog, and smaller particulate matter, called PM 2.5,
emitted when gasoline is burned, are not widely monitored in China. Medical experts in China and in the West have argued
that PM 2.5 causes more chronic diseases of the lung and heart than the more widely watched PM 10.
RPS Aff 121
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CSM 8 (Christian Science Monitor, Jacques Leslie, “China’s Pollution Nightmare Is now Everyone’s pollution nightmare,”
March 19, 2008, http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p09s01-coop.html?page=2] // LDK
The emergence of China as a dominant economic power is an epochal event, occasioning the most massive and rapid
redistribution of the earth's resources in human history. The country has also become a ravenous consumer. Its appetite for
raw materials drives up international commodity prices and shipping rates while its middle class, projected to jump to 700
million by 2020, is learning the gratifications of consumerism. The catch is that China has become not just the world's
manufacturer but its despoiler, on a scale as monumental as its economic expansion. A fourth of the country is now desert.
More than three-fourths of its forests have disappeared. Each year, uncontrollable underground fires, sometimes triggered by
lightning or mining accidents, consume 200 million tons of coal, contributing massively to global warming. A miasma of
lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other elements of coal-burning and car exhaust hovers over most Chinese cities.
Meanwhile, roughly 70 percent of the world's discarded computers and electronic equipment ends up in China, where it is
scavenged for usable parts and then abandoned, polluting soil and groundwater with toxic metals. If unchecked, such
devastation will not just put an abrupt end to China's economic growth, but, in concert with other environmentally heedless
nations (in particular, the US, India, and Brazil), will cause mortal havoc in societies and ecosystems throughout the world.
CSM 8 (Christian Science Monitor, Jacques Leslie, “China’s Pollution Nightmare Is now Everyone’s pollution nightmare,”
March 19, 2008, http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p09s01-coop.html?page=2] // LDK
The process is already under way. Acid rain caused by China's sulfur-dioxide emissions severely damages forests and
watersheds in Korea and Japan and impairs air quality in the US. Every major river system flowing out of China is threatened
with one sort of cataclysm or another. The surge in untreated waste and agricultural runoff pouring into the Yellow and China
Seas has caused frequent fish die-offs, and overfishing is endangering many ocean species. The growing Chinese taste for
furs and exotic foods and pets is devastating neighboring countries' populations of everything from gazelles to wolves, and
turtles to parrots, while its appetite for shark fin soup is causing drastic declines in shark populations throughout the oceans.
According to a study published in Science in March 2007, the absence of the oceans' top predators is causing a resurgence of
skates and rays, which are in turn destroying scallop fisheries along America's Eastern Seaboard. Enthusiasm for traditional
Chinese medicine is causing huge declines in populations of hundreds of animals – including tigers, pangolins, and sea
horses. Seeking oil, timber, and other natural resources, China is building massive roads, bridges, and dams throughout
Africa, often disregarding international environmental and social standards. China has also depended on imports of illegally
cut wood in becoming the world's wood workshop, supplying oblivious consumers in the US and Europe with furniture,
flooring, and plywood. Chinese wood manufacturers have already consumed the natural forests of Thailand, Cambodia, and
the Philippines, and at current rates will swallow the forests of Indonesia, Burma, Papua New Guinea, and the vast Russian
Far East within two decades. Most of these forests are formally protected by law or regulation, but corruption and ineffectual
enforcement have fostered a flourishing illegal trade. China has probably already overtaken the US as the world's leading
emitter of CO2, and the country's ecosystems are displaying climate change's consequences: Arid northern China is drying
out, the wet south is seeing more and more flooding, and, according to a June 2007 Greenpeace report, 80 percent of the
Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers could disappear by 2035. Such a development would jeopardize hundreds
of millions of people who depend on the rivers for their livelihood.
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McDonough & Ogden 7 -- *Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. ** Program coordinator for National
Security and International Policy. [Denis Mcdonough and Peter Ogden, Center for American Progress, “Cleaning up China:
Opportunities Beckon for U.S. Businesses,” January 30, 2007,
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/green_china.html] // LDK
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson goes before the Senate Banking Committee on January 31 to detail the state of his
recently launched U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue between key government officials in Washington and Beijing.
The committee members should be sure to ask Paulson about his plans for promoting business opportunities for U.S. green
technology companies in China.
Back in December, when Paulson made his first trip to China for the Strategic Economic Dialogue, we noted in a column in
the Washington Post that U.S. businesses could profit handsomely from a country that increasingly realizes it must go green
—if only the Bush administration would see the wisdom of promoting the products and services of U.S. green technology
companies to China. Well, very little has changed since then except this: Paulson’s boss has since then embraced the fact that
global warming is a serious threat to humanity. That, in turn, means that President Bush, Paulson, Congress and America’s
green technology companies can now all row in the same direction when it comes to helping China help itself and the planet
combat climate change. If the Bush administration is serious about finding innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions and
promote clean energy—and if it is serious about its intentions to help reverse the mammoth U.S. trade deficit with China—
then the Strategic Economic Dialogue is a promising place to begin. The U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue counts
energy and the environment among its planks, which is a good launching pad for a new export promotion initiative. Paulson
could pave the way for green technology to become as successful a U.S. export to China as airplanes and software by striking
an agreement with his Chinese counterpart to facilitate such transactions.
The US must seize the opportunity to export alternative energy to China—it solves global warming and economic
contraction
McDonough & Ogden 7 -- *Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. ** Program coordinator for National
Security and International Policy. [Denis Mcdonough and Peter Ogden, Center for American Progress, “Cleaning up China:
Opportunities Beckon for U.S. Businesses,” January 30, 2007,
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/green_china.html] // LDK
China, like the United States, is not bound by any international commitment to reduce its carbon emissions, but there are
signs that Beijing has begun to recognize the dangers of fossil fuel dependence and the resulting environmental damage.
China’s latest Five Year Plan on national priorities and goals places unprecedented emphasis on environmental sustainability.
Moreover, there is growing awareness that its energy security will be enhanced by diversifying away from fossil fuels.
China’s interest in clean energy presents an enormous business opportunity as well as an environmental one. Unfortunately, it
is an opportunity that the United States has not yet fully seized. A study released in October by former World Bank Chief
Economist Nicholas Stern on the economic impact of climate change calculated that the markets for low-carbon energy
projects will be worth at least $500 billion by 2050. In other words, combating global warming is not only an environmental
necessity, but a vast economic opportunity.
Some U.S. investment companies are beginning to take notice. Morgan Stanley recently announced that it plans to invest
some $3 billion in the carbon trading market and other clean energy related projects. But if the United States does not do
more to promote the development of our domestic clean energy sector industry, it will find that its international competitors
will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this new market.
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Brown 5 – Program manager of Citizens for Global Solutions – [Rebecca, The Lugar Energy Initiative, “The Case for a
Comprehensive, Globally-Focused Energy Policy,” 2005, http://lugar.senate.gov/energy/links/commentary/05Brown.cfm] //
LDK
The United States needs a comprehensive, globally focused energy policy to deal with the challenges to security, development and the
environment posed by the world’s fossil fuel dependence. Recognizing that the United States is embedded in a complex web of energy interdependence, such a plan would seek:
To reduce domestic consumption of fossil fuels, whether produced abroad or domestically
To achieve a global transition away from fossil fuel technology and towards diverse, sustainable energy sources, including:
Support for the creation and dissemination of alternative energy technologies at an affordable price
An adoption of these alternatives and a corresponding reduction in fossil fuel consumption by major consumers – in particular
the United States, India and China
Working with developing countries to ensure access to the clean and safe energy tools they need to meet their growing energy
needs and lift themselves out of poverty without contributing to global warming
Providing alternatives to nuclear power for countries that wish to diversify their energy sources
To ensure that the world’s energy resources are not used as political bargaining tools.
Focus on Developing Countries
An effective energy plan must recognize developing countries’ significant role in today’s energy market, and place special emphasis on
working with these countries to meet their energy needs without contributing to global warming or undermining international security. Over the next twenty
years, 70% of energy demand growth will occur in developing countries, with China alone accounting for 30% of that growth. China is
expected to surpass the United States as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases by 2010; developing countries are predicted to account for more than three-quarters of increases in
CO2 emissions between 2004 and 2030. Helping developing countries gain access to the alternative energy technologies they need to meet
their growing energy needs without significantly increasing their greenhouse gas emissions is essential in order to halt global
warming. It will also prevent conflict and instability by reducing competition over fossil fuel resources. Developing and disseminating alternative energy
technologies on a global scale is key to accomplishing a successful transition away from fossil fuel consumption. Although it has its
limitations, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is one example of an international financing device designed to stimulate private sector investment in new energy technologies
building more effective mechanisms to support the development and
while enhancing developing countries’ access to those technologies. However,
dissemination of new energy technologies will require the US to re-engage internationally on energy and climate issues.
Xinhau News 8 [“Chinese vice-premier: China-U.S. energy cooperation would produce win-win results” 6-17-8
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/17/content_8381904.htm] // LDK
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan has called for stronger cooperation between China and the United States in energy, the
environment and other related areas, saying that bilateral cooperation in these areas would lead to win-win results.
"The Chinese government gives high priority to energy and resources conservation and the protection of the environment. It
is committed to building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society," Vice Premier Wang wrote in an article
published by The Financial Times on Monday in its North American edition.
"However, China is a big and populous developing country at a stage of accelerated industrialization and urbanization. This
has led to heavy consumption of energy and resources and made the task of protecting the environment a daunting one," he
said.
Xinhau News 8 [“Chinese vice-premier: China-U.S. energy cooperation would produce win-win results” 6-17-8
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/17/content_8381904.htm] // LDK
To meet the challenges brought about by the pressures of growing demand, Wang said China has endeavored to achieve the following goals: intensifying energy and resource conservation, developing
renewable energy, and actively adapting to global climate change.
"There is a broad scope for cooperation between China and the U.S. in energy and environment," he wrote. "Stronger cooperation
between the two countries in energy and the environment will enable China to respond better to energy and environmental
issues and also bring about tremendous business opportunities and handsome returns for American business."
According to the intent of the 10-year cooperation between China and the U.S. in energy and environmental protection, Wang said the two countries should, on the basis of the
principles of mutual complementarity and win-win progress, focus their cooperation in energy, pollution reduction and
protection of natural resources.
[Note – Wang Qishan is the Chinese Vice Premier]
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Zhao 7 – President China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations – [Hongtu Zhao, Anna Lindh Programme on
Conflict Prevention, 2007 Edition, “Energy and Conflict Prevention,”
http://www.ewi.info/pdf/AnnaLindhProgrammeonConflictPrevention.pdf] // LDK
Because China and the U.S. are two big oil consumers and importers, it is undeniable that there are collisions of interest and competition between them in their attempts to
diversify energy supplies, explore and tap the overseas energy resources, but their competition and conflicts do not cancel out the need for cooperation. If there is more competition
in tapping and exploiting the external resources, there is a bright outlook for cooperation in many fields such as stabilizing the world market, developing new energy, saving
energy, enhancing efficiency and protecting the environment. From
a perspective of “mega-energy” or “megasecurity,” which encompasses oil,
gas, coal, electricity and renewable resources, China and the United States find more cooperation than competition. In essence, China’s
energy strategy is not incompatible with that of the U.S. Just as Dr Fiona Hill, a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution and an expert on international energy issues, points out,
China’s oil strategy will not conflict with that of the U.S. whether at present or in the long term.9 The
two countries are interdependent on energy issues,
sharing many common interests. The main target of U.S. energy security policy is to ensure that there is enough oil in the world market, so that the U.S. and other big
western oil consumers can always have access to sufficient oil supply. Because the world oil market is highly integrated, a cut-off of oil supply anywhere will impact the whole
market, menace global oil security and affect world economic growth. Against a backdrop of globalization, the U.S. can hardly go it alone on energy issues. As fast growing
economies and big oil consumers and importers, both China and the U.S. need a stable and reliable energy supply, and they desire a steady oil price. As the trend of economic
globalization further develops and their interdependence in trade, investment and other fields increasingly deepens, China and America become a fate community. China’s energy
demand will fuel global economic growth, thus consolidating the prosperity of U.S. economy. Meanwhile, China spends most of its trade surplus on U.S. government bonds. If the
money is quickly withdrawn, American interest rate may be pushed up and its economic growth hampered. Some Americans have already recognized the fact that China’s
economic growth now serves as an engine for the economic prosperity of the whole world, in which the U.S. is a member. For some Americans, dread of China’s economic rise has
been replaced by worries about deceleration of China’s economic growth. They fear that any shortage of energy supply will hinder China’s economic growth, thus darkening
American and even the whole world’s economic out- look. Therefore, both conflicts in the oil field and China’s economic recession resulting from energy shortage will in the end
harm the interests of both sides. Furthermore, China
and the U.S. need to grapple with many identical problems and challenges in the fields
of energy and environment. As the world’s two largest energy consumers, they are also the two biggest coal users and carbon
dioxide emitters, facing ever-increasing pressure from the international society to reduce greenhouse gas emission. In recent
years, the risk of international energy transportation has markedly increased because of large expansion of the volume of international trade, extension of the supply chain and
increase of regional conflicts, terrorist attacks and organized crimes. Being two big marine transporters of oil, both countries have stakes in safe sea-lanes and have an urgent need
China and the U.S. complement each other in the energy field and there
to strengthen their cooperation in fighting terrorism and piracy on the sea.
is ample space for cooperation. The U.S. possesses advanced management experience in the fields of developing new and
renewable energy, saving energy, raising energy efficiency and protecting the environment, and enjoys advantages in
technology, capital and manpower. Meanwhile, China’s energy and environmental industries ranging from electricity
production, oil and natural gas tapping, coal belt methane exploitation, energy saving, new energy developing, to atmosphere
purification, are facing an unprecedented opportunity, thus creating a huge market demand for technologies and managing
experience in many fields such as developing new and renewable energy, raising energy efficiency and protecting the environment.
Hu 8 – Visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies – [Richard Weixing Hu, “Advancing Sino-US
Cooperation Amid Oil Price Hikes,” Brookings Institute, March 18, 2008,
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2008/03_energy_hu.aspx]
The United States and China are the largest and second largest energy consumers in the world, respectively. Last year China
was a net-importer of 159.28 million tons of crude oil, about 46% of its total consumption. The size of U.S. petroleum
imports was 3.2 times larger than those of China, and Americans depend on foreign sources for over 60% of the energy they
consume. With that in mind, Beijing and Washington have similar concerns in their energy policies and face the same set of
challenges: high dependency on foreign sources of energy, rising energy-related environmental impacts, and energy
conservation and efficiency, in addition to the effect on their economies of energy price spikes. Although China and the
United States do not rely on each other for energy supplies, as the two largest oil consuming countries they are natural
“energy bedfellows” in coping with similar challenges. They must cooperate, through joint or parallel action, to keep global
energy supplies open, secure, and at an affordable price level. Neither country can hope to achieve much without the support
of the other. Both would win if they choose to cooperate rather than confront each other in their pursuit of energy security.
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Sino-US collaboration on clean energy technology will set a good example for other countries, US Commerce Assistant
Secretary David Bohigian said yesterday.
The two countries have much to gain by working together on knocking down trade barriers and working jointly in such fields
as alternative energy, he said.
"If China and the United States are not working together, the problems will only get worse when it comes to air pollution,
water pollution and climate change," Bohigian, whose job mainly concerns international economic policy, said.
The assistant secretary this week led the Second Clean-Energy Trade Mission to China. It consists of 17 US companies with
advanced technology ranging from solar power to clean coal.
The continuing rapid growth of the Chinese economy presents unparalleled opportunities and challenges, he said. "US clean-
energy companies can help China meet its enormous energy demands while deploying technology that benefits the
environment."
Sustainable energy in China is crucial to global economic growth and Sino-US relations
Hu 8 – Visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies – [Richard Weixing Hu, “Advancing Sino-US
Cooperation Amid Oil Price Hikes,” Brookings Institute, March 18, 2008,
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2008/03_energy_hu.aspx] // LDK
Chinese economic growth and the U.S. economy have become highly interdependent with each other, with a bilateral trade
volume of $386.7 billion in 2007. The U.S. economy has enjoyed an average 3.5% growth since 1992 with relatively low
inflation. On the whole the United States has benefited greatly from a steady inflow of low-priced “Made in China” products,
which has helped to keep the overall price of consumer goods low and consumer confidence high. On the other side of the
linkage, Chinese economic growth has also benefited from its strong exports to the American market over the years. In
assessing this interdependent economic relationship, it should not be forgotten that a sufficient and affordable energy supply
and an abundant supply of cheap labor in China have been the key ingredients to this successful story. China’s economic
miracle is based on labor-intensive, low-wage manufacturing and robust exports. Without a sufficient and affordable energy
supply, this path of export-driven growth would encounter serious problems, and so would the Sino-U.S economic
relationship, in its current form.
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Terrorists will use Europe as a platform for attacks – cooperation is critical to solving
One of the biggest threats to US security may now come from within Europe, US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff
has told the BBC. He said militant attacks and plots in Europe over recent years had made the US aware of the "real risk that
Europe will become a platform for terrorists". Mr Chertoff said it was likely security checks on travellers from Europe would
be increased. But he said steps would be taken to ensure travel and trade were not hit. In the interview on the BBC's World
News America, Mr Chertoff said he had seen "home-grown terrorism begin to rise in Europe". I have to say the biggest threat
comes from overseas, and one of the places we are increasingly worried about is Europe.” He cited deadly bomb attacks on
Madrid and London, and a terror alert affecting UK-US flights in August 2006, as well as "people travelling from South Asia
and the Middle East into Europe and carrying out attacks there". He said it was important to increase security checks on
passengers from Europe - most of whom are currently able to enter the United States without being screened first because of
a visa waiver programme. But Mr Chertoff added that immigration checks should not affect travel and trade - an important
part of the US economy.
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EASTERBROOK: Well, what held through the Cold War, when the United States and Russia had thousands of nuclear
weapons pointed at each other, what held each side back was the fact that fundamentally they were rational. They knew that
if they struck, they would be struck in turn.
Terrorists may not be held by this, especially suicidal terrorists, of the kind that al Qaeda is attempting to cultivate. But I
think, if I could leave you with one message, it would be this: that the search for terrorist atomic weapons would be of great
benefit to the Muslim peoples of the world in addition to members, to people of the United States and Western Europe,
because if an atomic warhead goes off in Washington, say, in the current environment or anything like it, in the 24 hours that
followed, a hundred million Muslims would die as U.S. nuclear bombs rained down on every conceivable military target in a
dozen Muslim countries.
And that -- it is very much in the interest the Muslim peoples of the world that atomic weapons be kept out of the hands of
Islamic terrorists, in addition to being in our interests.
Sid-Ahmed, 4 (Mohamed, Managing Editor for Al-Ahali, “Extinction!” August 26-September 1, Issue no. 705,
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/705/op5.htm)
A nuclear attack by terrorists will be much more critical than Hiroshima and Nagazaki, even if -- and this is far from certain
-- the weapons used are less harmful than those used then, Japan, at the time, with no knowledge of nuclear technology, had
no choice but to capitulate. Today, the technology is a secret for nobody.
So far, except for the two bombs dropped on Japan, nuclear weapons have been used only to threaten. Now we are at a stage
where they can be detonated. This completely changes the rules of the game. We have reached a point where anticipatory
measures can determine the course of events. Allegations of a terrorist connection can be used to justify anticipatory
measures, including the invasion of a sovereign state like Iraq. As it turned out, these allegations, as well as the allegation that
Saddam was harbouring WMD, proved to be unfounded.
What would be the consequences of a nuclear attack by terrorists? Even if it fails, it would further exacerbate the negative
features of the new and frightening world in which we are now living. Societies would close in on themselves, police
measures would be stepped up at the expense of human rights, tensions between civilisations and religions would rise and
ethnic conflicts would proliferate. It would also speed up the arms race and develop the awareness that a different type of
world order is imperative if humankind is to survive.
But the still more critical scenario is if the attack succeeds. This could lead to a third world war, from which no one will
emerge victorious. Unlike a conventional war which ends when one side triumphs over another, this war will be without
winners and losers. When nuclear pollution infects the whole planet, we will all be losers.
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Further, other nations remember the Bush administration walking away from the Kyoto Protocol. Message: before the richest
country, the country that most pollutes the climate, will take on the financial burden of lowering its emissions, the rest of the
world, especially the poor, must do it first.
The Law of the Sea treaty, still not accepted by the United States, is another example. More than half the world’s population
lives near coastlines, and billions of people can tell that our oceans are suffering, that they reflect the pollution and over-
fishing at the hands of larger populations and more sophisticated technology over the decades. Yet the United States has
refused to participate in this needed international effort to protect the oceans. It is a further indication, in the minds of those
who doubt us, that we are in it for our own good at the expense of others, and that we live by double standards.
In these cases, in just a few short years, the United States went off on its own. There were problems with some of these
international agreements. But instead of withdrawing, it is our responsibility – and the world’s expectation of us as the
world’s leading proponent of markets and freedom – to work toward acceptable international arrangements. While most of
the world has reacted in anger and dismay to our new isolation and self-certainty, the right wing and neoconservatives praised
the president, saying we were leading the world into a new future. Even a lot of Republicans thought it was crazy. Like most
people, they realize that you’re not a leader if no one follows you.
I was born in the United States and spent much of my youth growing up in Mexico. I have traveled the world for decades. I
studied foreign policy in college and graduate school. I speak three languages (my French surprised my staff and a group of
visiting French scientists a couple of years ago), and I have worked and met face-to-face with many world leaders. Because
of my experience in Washington and at the United Nations, people from every imaginable country keep in touch with me,
even though I am the governor of a small, somewhat isolated state. In fact, as I write these lines, I am returning from North
Korea after my sixth trip to negotiate with that nation’s leaders on issues that separate the United States and North Korea.
Given my background, my interests, and my experience, I don’t make the following statement lightly.
I have never seen the United States as isolated, as alone, as it finds itself today.
World leaders are no longer our daily courtiers and contacts. The polls from most nations, including some of our closest
allies, show that approval and trust of the United States is at an all-time low – often in the single digits. It’s not just that the
United States has abdicated its leadership role as the leader of the free world. It’s also unsettlingly true that our leaders have
alienated people around the world. Polls show that even our longest-standing and closest allies look on us with suspicion.
Still, with the right leadership, this is a situation that shouldn’t take long to correct. The American people are full of optimism
and ingenuity. The people of the world want to believe that we are responsible and compassionate, that we are committed to
freedom and basic rights, and that we want to participate constructively in world affairs. Visionary leadership, and visionary
action to implement a new role for the United States, will turn the situation around quickly, and America will find itself
surrounded by friends and allies once again.
The key to regaining our leadership role will not be the war on terror, although it is very important, and we must guard
vigilantly against enemies who would perpetrate terror against us while we also work with other nations to root out terrorists
wherever they are. Nor will the key to new international leadership be trade agreements and economic prosperity, although
these are crucial. In this new, uncertain international age, the primary threat and opportunity is the creation of a new energy
future that provides hope and prosperity for the United States and other nations while protecting our global atmosphere.
In other words, the way back to world leadership – the necessary and unavoidable way back to world leadership – is for
America to combine the issues of energy security and climate protection, to set ambitious goals, and to make their
accomplishment the shared priority of leaders in Congress, in industry, and throughout the states. This will, in turn, help
spread participation, opportunity, and prosperity across the globe while preventing climate catastrophe.
Some say we’re a nation that use more than its share of resources and gives nothing back. But in fact we are a nation poised
to take the lead in conserving resources and in bringing needed technology to the world. Further, some say we’re a nation
with an agenda that doesn’t take the interests of other nations into account. That contradicts our proud history of building
peaceful institutions. We know that it’s the “big idea” – freedom, or civil government, or fair trade and commerce – that
matters, not just at home but around the world.
New leadership will show the world what America is about. We can work our way back to an international polity that
considers challenges and needs, and finds hopeful, promising, affordable solutions. We aren’t the nation that critics suspect
we are, and there may be no better forum than the international energy and climate dialogue to prove it.
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I have been excited to see how some of that fundamentally conservative philosophy has come back to the surface in the West
in recent years in the face of the Bush administration’s no-holds-barred assault on Western public lands and resources. And I
think the fact that Westerners have called for more balance, including alternative energy policies that bring renewable energy
into the marketplace in a significant way, is more support for my belief that America has the right stuff to reclaim its place in
the world by adopting balanced energy and climate policies both at home and abroad.
In other words, with policy and leadership like what we have had across the West in recent years, the United States does not
need to be, and will not be, alone in the world for very long.
Let me give you an example of the new Western leadership.
In 2004, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and I successfully proposed some new energy goals for the eighteen
states that were then members of the Western Governors’ Association. “Arnold,” as everyone on Earth knows him, had just
been elected governor and agreed with me during a phone conversation that we should work together to change the direction
of energy policy in the Western states, where so much of America’s energy is produced. Mostly, it’s from traditional fossil
energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas. But the region has enormous renewable energy potential in the form of
wind, geothermal, and solar energy. And because energy has been relatively cheap in the West, it also has great potential for
energy efficiency.
The power of markets is immense. That is one of the great lessons – besides democracy and human rights – that the United
States has taught the world over the past two centuries. The market has the power not only to create individual prosperity
and growth, as conceived by that great first-ever modern economist, Adam Smith, but also to achieve big things for society as
a whole. If we manage the carbon markets sensibly, with strict limits, smart incentives, and practical oversight – as we
manage the monetary supply via the Federal Reserve – we can foresee a market-based economy that actually works toward
reducing pollution rather than increasing it. We can use the market to provide consumers with new choices, while we also
reduce threats to the global climate.
We should embrace these market opportunities enthusiastically and optimistically. We don’t need to create large federal slush
funds by raising carbon taxes and allowing federal agencies to choose new research and technology options for study and
deployment. We can set an overall standard, auction pollution rights, and let the markets move toward protecting the climate.
We can give Detroit and other automakers some support for new technologies, and they will reverse their decades-long
decline.
It’s a positive, market-based way of addressing the twin threats to our national security: global warming and oil dependence.
It’s a new, integrated, comprehensive way of solving the biggest threats to our prosperity and our world leadership since
World War II.
It’s the first step toward leading by example.
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PARIS — There is good news and bad news for President Bush as he pursues his valedictory tour of Europe this week, according to a new worldwide study by the Pew Global
Attitudes Project. The image of the United States has improved slightly in many countries over the past year, the poll results show. But the new optimism appears to be driven
largely by the fact that Mr. Bush will soon be leaving office.
Meanwhile, the survey showed that many
across the globe blamed the United States at least in part for slumping economies and global warming.
“There has been no sea change in worldviews of the United States,” Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said of the results, which were
released Thursday. “Europeans are still much more negative than they were at the beginning of the decade, and highly negative views prevail in the Muslim world. But there are
some indications that the world sees the possibility of change with the prospect of a new president.”
The 24-nation survey, conducted in March and April, shows that many people who have been following the presidential race have greater confidence in Senator Barack Obama, the
presumptive Democratic nominee, than in his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, “to do the right thing regarding world affairs.” This feeling is strongest in Europe, Australia,
Japan and Tanzania, which borders Kenya, the homeland of Mr. Obama’s father.
Meanwhile, the survey found perceptions that China was ascendant in world affairs. Many people — including 3 out of 10 Americans — think that China will eventually replace
the United States as the world’s leading superpower.
But people are also critical of China, according to the poll, which was conducted shortly after civil unrest broke out in Tibet this spring. China’s overall favorability ratings have
slipped over the past year, and China is seen by many as ignoring the interests of other countries and is faulted on matters related to the environment and human rights.
Anxiety about the economy was reported as widespread.
“In three-quarters of the countries Pew surveyed (18), a majority now say that their national economic conditions are bad — far more than just one year ago,” the report said.
Notable exceptions are India, Australia and China, where 82 percent see the current economic situation as good.
Over all, majorities in 18 of the 24 survey countries are generally dissatisfied with the way things are going at home. The big exception is again China, where 86 percent express
satisfaction, up from 83 percent last year.
In the United States, where 70 percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going, pessimism extends beyond the economy to the country’s chief foreign policy challenge: only a
minority of Americans (40 percent) now think efforts to establish a democratic government in Iraq will definitely or probably succeed. In 2006, a majority (54 percent) still
believed that success was likely.
Concern about global warming has increased since last year in 11 of the 20 countries for which trends are available, Pew found.
“When asked which country is ‘hurting the environment the most,’ majorities or pluralities in most countries surveyed cite
the United States,” the Pew report said. “But people are increasingly pointing fingers at China.”
The United States and China are among the 10 countries where majorities do not define global warming as a very serious problem.
The survey of 24,717 people is the seventh major study conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project since 2002.
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No Renewables Now
Oil, coal and natural gas will continue to dominate
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
In an early release of its 2007 Annual Energy Outlook, EIA's updated analysis reflects the same general trend for renewables:
Despite the rapid growth projected for biofuels and other non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources ... oil, coal, and natural
gas still are projected to provide roughly the same 86-percent share of the total U.S. primary energy supply in 2030 that they
did in 2005.13
Significantly, EIA expects base-load fossil fuel generation to continue to have low operating costs compared to current
renewable technologies, making it harder for renewables to compete in state-based electricity markets without some form of
regulatory intervention.14
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
The larger issue, however, is that as a nation we invest less in energy research, development, and deployment than do a few
large biotechnology firms in their own, private R&D budgets. This is unacceptable on many fronts. The least of which is that
we know that investments in energy research pay off at both the national and private sector levels.
In a series of papers (Margolis and Kammen, 1999; Kammen and Nemet, 2005; Nemet and Kammen, 2007) my students and
I have documented a disturbing trend away from investment in energy technology—both by the federal government and the
private sector, which largely follows the federal lead. The U.S. invests about $1 billion less in energy R&D today than it did
a decade ago. This trend is remarkable, first because the levels in the mid-1990s had already been identified as dangerously
low, and second because, as our analysis indicates, the decline is pervasive—across almost every energy technology category,
in both the public and private sectors, and at multiple stages in the innovation process. In each of these areas investment
has been either been stagnant or declining. Moreover, the decline in investment in energy has occurred while overall U.S.
R&D has grown by 6% per year, and federal R&D investments in health and defense have grown by 10 to 15% per year,
respectively.
One of the clearest findings from tracking actual investment histories, is that there is a direct and strong correlation between
investment in innovation and demonstrated changes in performance and cost of technologies available in the market.
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
Raise Clean Energy Research, Development, and Deployment Spending to Reasonable Levels
The U. S. has under-invested in energy research, development, and deployment for decades (Kammen and Nemet, 2005), and sadly the
FY2008 budget request is no exception. Federal energy research and development investment is today back at pre-OPEC levels – despite a panoply of reasons why energy
dependence and in-security, and climatic impact from our energy economy are dominating local economics, geopolitics, and environmental degradation
At $2.7 billion, the overall energy RD&D FY08 request is $685 million higher than the FY06 appropriated budget. Half of that increased request is accounted for by increases in
fission, and the rest is in moderate increases in funding for biofuels, solar, FutureGen, and $147 million increase for fusion research. However, the
National Renewable
Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) budget is to be cut precisely at a time when concerns over energy security and climate change
are at their highest level, and level of need. The fact that a plan exists to cut assistance to lowincome families by 41% from FY06 levels for weatherization to
improve the energy efficiency of their homes is startling.
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No Renewables Now
Renewables make up a very small percentage of U.S. generation
B. Sources of Electricity
Figure 1 shows the remarkably small share of renewables in U.S. generation. n8 Between 1991 and 2005, total power
production grew by 1.95% annually. Figures 2a and 2b show that renewables grew more slowly, falling from 2.21 to 2.15%
of the total. Coal-fired generation increased by 26.6% and despite regulatory concerns over emissions and GHGs, its share of
production fell by only 2% points. No new nuclear plants were opened during the period, but improved operating procedures
kept their share of production nearly constant. Hydropower's share fell as sites available for larger plants grew scarce and
environmental intervenors succeeded in blocking projects. Gas-fired power grew, much of it produced in small and efficient
generators built by competitive producers rather than utilities. Generation fueled by oil was a minor presence at the start and
became less important over the period.
As a group, renewables have made little headway despite more stringent environmental regulations and increased public
concern over fossil-fuel generation. n9 Figure 3 shows generation by type of renewable from 1991 through 2005. Production
from wood and waste biomass remained roughly unchanged, as did output from geothermal plants. Figures 4a and 4b show
that the total of these three sources fell from 95.3% to 78.9%, while solar power maintained its 0.6% share. Had wind
generation not risen rapidly, renewable power would be below 2 percent of today's total. The fact that wind is the only
renewable on a growth trend will have important consequences for a national RPS.
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Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Taken together, state action on RPS is insufficient in significantly promoting national renewable energy capacity. Despite the
progress made by state RPS, the deployment of renewable resources has stayed relatively the same. Almost 10 years ago, renewable
energy technologies constituted approximately 2 percent of the country's electricity supply (when excluding large hydroelectric facilities). (26) In 2006, the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) estimated that non-hydroelectric renewables still provided about 2 percent of America's electricity supply. Even
when all state RPS
are included in projections, EIA estimates that the contribution of renewable resources is unlikely to exceed 3 percent of total
electricity supply by 2017 or 4 percent by 2030. (27)
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Meanwhile, in the United States, the federal government has set no national target for renewable energy, established no national cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and refused to
create a nationwide trading system for carbon credits. As a result of the administration's unwillingness to take forceful actions commensurate with the nation's leadership and
responsibilities, the country remains unprepared to face the unprecedented energy and environmental challenges that loom in the future.
Prior to the 1970s, the country faced a similar situation. U.S. regulation consisted of a medley of state laws, local ordinances, and
common law nuisance protections that left significant gaps in the scope and duration of environmental protection. However, it was generally believed
that significant inconsistencies were present in state regulation based on their relative differences in wealth, knowledge, and
interest group pressure. A significant disparity also occurred concerning the rate at which states adopted environmental regulation--a disparity influenced by trends in
population growth, the extent that environmental services were perceived to have a value in a state's economy, and the revenue that individual states received from recreational
activities such as hunting and fishing. (3)
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Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
In addition, as mentioned above, state-by-state action on climate change is prone to what is known as the "free rider"
phenomenon. For example, utilities operating in a region that includes those states with mandatory emissions regulations and
those without has an extra incentive to build new power plants only in those without. PacifiCorp, a utility serving customers
in the Pacific Northwest, has repeatedly attempted to build coal-fired power plants in Wyoming and Utah--states without
mandatory greenhouse gas reduction targets--but not in Oregon (which has mandated a stabilization of greenhouse gas
emissions by 2010) or Washington (which has mandated 1990 levels by 2020). (32) The state-by-state patchwork of climate
change policies, in other words, allows stakeholders to manipulate the existing market to their advantage.
Current State RPSs lower the price of carbon – fueling its use in other States
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Localized climate action also sends distorted price signals. By lowering demand for carbon-intense products, state standards
reduce the regional (and even global) price for carbon-intense fuels. But in doing so, they provide further incentives for
nearby states without climate regulation to do nothing because of lowered prices. (33) Put another way, states acting on
climate change depress the cost of fossil fuels and other carbon-intense commodities by lowering demand for them and thus
their price. Yet reduced prices encourage overconsumption in areas without carbon caps, decrease the incentive to enact
energy efficiency and conservation measures, and discourage the adoption of alternative fuels for vehicles and renewable
energy technologies.
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Finally, even the most aggressive climate statutes (aimed at cutting emissions by 2010) will make only a negligible
contribution to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. With the exception of New York and New Jersey (which rank ninth and
seventeenth among states in greenhouse gas emissions), the rest of all of the states with mandatory 2010 greenhouse gas
reduction targets all rank relatively low in terms of their emissions. According to EIA, by 2030, total energy-related carbon
dioxide emissions will equal approximately 8.1 billion metric tons (equating to a 62 percent increase from 1990 levels with
an average increase of 1.2 percent per year). Yet those states that have committed to achieving time-bounded, quantitative
reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions accounted for only around 20 percent of nationwide emissions in 2001. (34)
Even if all states with mandatory 2010 climate plans attained their targets, their policies would result in a reduction of
approximately just 460 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2020--a 6.38 percent reduction compared to EIA's reference
case. The other 36 states do not just offset these gains; the overall growth rate still increases at 1.06 percent every year. As a
result, according to EIA, state-by-state reductions "are nowhere near the magnitude of reductions needed to bring the U.S.
into compliance with the Kyoto Protocol's call for reductions of 5 percent below 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012--much less
the reductions needed to avert dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." (35)
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Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
A Federal RPS would spur job growth and cause the most effective transition to renewables
Shoock 7 – J. D., expected, Fordham University School of Law, 2008 – [Corey Stephen Shoock, Fordham Journal of
Corporate & Financial Law, “BLOWING IN THE WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL RENEWABLE
PORTFOLIO STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN
ENERGY INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES,” Vol. 12, Iss. 6; pg. 1011-1078, lexis
academic., lexis academic.]
New power facilities also mean new jobs. The Tennessee Valley Authority ("TVA"), in an assessment of how it would meet a
10% federal RPS by 2020, indicates it would need to generate a total of 19.7 billion kilowatt-hours from renewables.343 Of
that total, approximately 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours would come from wind power and 10.9 billion from biomass. With the inclusion
of solar, hydro-power, landfill gas, and wastewater gas, the total becomes 15.25 billion kilowatt-hours generated within the TVA's boundaries.344 To make up the difference, 4.45
billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits would have to be purchased.345 The
generation of that much renewable energy by the TVA is
projected to create almost 45,000 new jobs, mostly in rural areas of the American Southeast.346 Per 1,000 megawatt-hours of renewable
energy produced, 1.09 jobs are created on the "operating" side, whereas 1.86 new jobs are created on the investment side, with more than 3,000 jobs attributed to solar technologies
and more than 23,000 jobs for wind technologies throughout North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi.347>>
Though the RPS shifts the demand curve vis-à-vis electricity retailers by artificially setting a market floor for what they have to sell,348 it naturally boosts supply for end-use
consumers.349 This effect is so significant that the policy could easily be deemed primarily supply-side.350 The unusual nature of the potential impact of the RPS is that
depending on how it is structured, both the demand curve (electricity delivered to users) and the supply curve (renewable power project construction and electricity production) can
be shifted.351 The policy question going forward asks how the RPS can be structured to maximize both the necessary commercial benefits to the renewable energy industry and
still ensure mitigation of the enormous costs to society attributable to fossil fuels.352 The
best organ to ensure the equitable distribution of renewable
power while most effectively meeting the needs of the emerging renewable power industry is Congress.353 Despite several
attempts to do so, the federal government has yet to implement such a standard.354
RPS Aff 140
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Shoock 7 – J. D., expected, Fordham University School of Law, 2008 – [Corey Stephen Shoock, Fordham Journal of
Corporate & Financial Law, “BLOWING IN THE WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL RENEWABLE
PORTFOLIO STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN
ENERGY INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES,” Vol. 12, Iss. 6; pg. 1011-1078, lexis
academic., lexis academic.]
The RPS is a tool that can act directly on any or all of the following market entities: the power producer, retailer, or
consumer.455 The aim is to promote renewable energy and thereby in a once-removed fashion enable the growth of the
business of renewable power production while allowing for reductions in fossil fuel use and all that entails.456 If renewables
become more prevalent, costs might go down, the renewables industry could take off, the environment might improve, or
health concerns could dissipate, et cetera.457 In short, the RPS is a catch-all remedy that is increasingly seen as an energy
policy panacea.
Given that nearly half the states have adopted some form of a portfolio standard, it is not surprising that speculation exists
regarding the eventuality and design of a national RPS.459 The AWEA is one such organization seeking the enactment of a
national RPS.460 Their proposal, not surprisingly, is perfectly suited for the long-term commercial health and growth of
renewable power producers.461 Using the Clean Air Act's sulfur dioxide regulation as a model,462 the AWEA sets forth a
plan that, while light on specific figures, completely encapsulates the industry perspective in its underlying enforcement
mechanism.463
If a national RPS is indeed on the horizon, a two-tiered approach that satisfactorily accounts for both the industry and social
perspectives is warranted.464 The AWEA proposal falls short from an industry standpoint in that it fails to appropriately set
the means by which the standard comes to fruition. It falls short from the social standpoint in that it fails to account for the
likely concentration of the burdens of fossil fuels in specific geographic areas.465 An RPS-especially a national one-in
addition to the fundamental structure of any quota466 must set bars that are realistically attainable but ambitious enough to
change the energy industry in the desired way.467 To comprehensively meet the concerns of both perspectives, the national
RPS approach will have to account for market forces,468 federalism,469 and hidden energy costs.470 If done correctly, a
balance can be wrought between each of these.
The Industry RPS must be managed as a federal regulatory scheme.471 Congress, after setting a production standard, would
have to pass an enabling statute that allows an agency (likely the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to certify and
administer "renewable energy credits."472 These credits represent one kilowatt hour of electricity each, and for each power
generator and distributor, the RPS determines how many credits they must hold at the end of each fiscal year.473 If the RPS
for a given year is 10%, each power retailer must have renewable source energy account for 10% of their total kilowatt hour
sales for the year. 474 The credits are proof of these sales.475 The credits would be tradable between industry actors as a
parallel "commodity" to the electricity itself.476 The credits, while not per se indicative of sales, instead signify that
renewable energy has been supported in the amount of one kilowatt hour per credit.477 Thus, a non-utility-owned wind farm
(a power generator as opposed to a power retailer)478 in North Dakota that produces and sells only renewable energy would
have 90% ofthat year's credits to sell on the open market to power producers and distributors in any other part of the country
that do not sell enough on their own.479
Credits would not be allowed to be carried over from year to year, and the market price would depend on how ambitious the
annual increase in the RPS would be.480 In this way, every power retailer (like a utility) would have to determine whether it
would be more expensive to produce their own renewable energy or directly subsidize the production of it elsewhere.481
Industry actors that fail to meet the standard would be subjected to steep fines that substantially outpace the fair market value
of the energy credit, making the RPS effectively self-enforcing.482 Another advantage is that unlike direct government
subsidies, no public funding is necessary.483 Furthermore, it is effective in both regulated and competitive wholesale energy
markets.484 The overseeing agency would merely be required to certify the annual ownership of the credits themselves,
administer penalties for noncompliance, and adjudicate disputes over credit transactions.485 The formula for setting fine
rates would be set statutorily along with the RPS to avoid costly and time-consuming bureaucratic rule-making procedures.
The AWEA also notes that in an energy credit-based RPS scheme, the market value of credits will ultimately determine when
the standard "self-sunsets."486 Once a credit becomes worthless, the RPS will have accomplished its goal for at least the
year.487 To ensure long-term growth of the renewable energy industry, the RPS will have to start high enough, accelerate fast
enough, over a long enough period of time to set off the diminishing rate of return for the credits.
RPS Aff 141
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Goldemberg, 4 – President of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo (CESP), Minister for Science and Technology
and Minister of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil, Secretary for the Environment of the State of São Paulo
(Jose, “The Case for Renewable Energy,” February 04, http://www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP01-rationale.pdf, AG)
The rapidly growing renewable energy industries and service sectors in many countries show clear evidence that the
systematic promotion of such new technologies offers great opportunities for innovation, for the development of energy
markets with locally or regionally oriented value chains and thereby, for the creation of new jobs with very different
qualification requirements. While the development and deployment of new state-of-the art renewable energy technologies,
such as wind or photovoltaic energy, require highly skilled, knowledge intensive work-forces in industrialized countries,
developing countries can, for instance, benefit economically from an increased use of improved biomass-based energy
generation, both in terms of better availability of energy for productive use and through the provision of energy services as
such. Examples are the widespread use of improved wood and charcoal cooking stoves in Kenya and other African countries
as well as the production of ethanol – an excellent substitute of gasoline in Otto-cycle engines – from sugarcane in Brazil.
Generally speaking, renewable energies are important for local employment and income generation which results from
manufacturing, project development, servicing and in the case of biomass, rural jobs for the biomass production.
Usually renewable energy devices are decentralized, modular in size and have low operating costs in addition of involving
short construction times which give much greater flexibility in energy planning and investment. The Table 3 provides an idea
of the number of jobs per unit of energy generated from different sources.
These numbers were obtained from a variety of sources and include jobs involved in operating the generating stations as well
as the jobs involved in producing and maintaining the equipment. Photovoltaic energy is usually generated (and used) in
small modules of 100 watts and the generation of 1 TWh would require typically 10 million modules to be installed and
maintained. This is the reason for the creation of a large number of jobs. Ethanol production involves large plantations of
sugarcane, which explains the number of generated jobs.
The main beneficiaries of the adoption of renewable sources of energy will be the developing countries, where biomass, and
particularly fuelwood, are used widely with very inefficient and wasteful technologies for cooking and heating. In such
countries the modernization of the use of biomass could bring – among others – great benefits, including a reduction in
deforestation.
Goldemberg, 4 – President of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo (CESP), Minister for Science and Technology
and Minister of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil, Secretary for the Environment of the State of São Paulo
(Jose, “The Case for Renewable Energy,” February 04, http://www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP01-rationale.pdf, AG)
The cost of maintaining energy security in today’s industrialized countries comes at high, but usually hidden, costs that find
expression in military and security spending. The volatile world market prices for conventional energy sources, in particular
oil, pose great risks for large parts of the world’s economic and political stability, with sometimes dramatic effects on energy-
importing developing countries. In this context, renewable energies can help to diversify energy supply and to increase
energy security. It should increase the economic benefits that result from transformations in energy trading patterns.
Additionally, in the mid-and long-term perspective renewable energies prolong the availability of most fossil fuels for the
satisfaction of both energy needs and numerous other non-energy needs.
RPS Aff 142
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Goldemberg, 4 – President of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo (CESP), Minister for Science and Technology
and Minister of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil, Secretary for the Environment of the State of São Paulo
(Jose, “The Case for Renewable Energy,” February 04, http://www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP01-rationale.pdf, AG)
The enhanced use of renewables is closely linked to poverty reduction and elimination, since energy services can: (a)
improve access to pumped drinking water – clean water and cooked food to reduce hunger (95% of food needs cooking); (b)
reduce the time spent by women and children on basic survival activities (gathering firewood, fetching water, cooking, etc.)
and; (c) provide lighting that permits home study, increases security and enables the use of educational media and
communication in school and reduce deforestation.
More than two billion people cannot access affordable energy services, based on the efficient use of gaseous and liquid fuels,
and electricity and are dependent on gathering fuelwood, fetching water, cooking, etc. This constrains their opportunities for
economic development and improved living standards. Women, the elderly and children suffer disproportionately because of
their relative dependence on traditional fuels and exposure to emissions from cooking which is the main cause of respiratory
diseases. Access to electricity through transmission distribution lines is unlikely to be possible in many parts of the world for
a long time, so access to modern decentralised small-scale energy technologies particularly renewables are an important
element to successful poverty alleviation. The revenues from exported biofuels are another important element to alleviate
poverty in developing countries.
Increasing renewables solves hundreds of thousands of systemic deaths per year, ecosystems, and the ozone levels
because there is no pollution
Goldemberg, 4 – President of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo (CESP), Minister for Science and Technology
and Minister of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil, Secretary for the Environment of the State of São Paulo
(Jose, “The Case for Renewable Energy,” February 04, http://www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP01-rationale.pdf, AG)
The main pollutants emitted in the combustion of fossil fuels are sulphur and nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and
suspended particulate matter. Ozone is formed in the troposphere from interaction among hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxides and
sunlight. The environmental impacts of a host of energy-linked emissions — including suspended fine particles and
precursors of ozone and acid deposition — contribute to local and regional air pollution and ecosystem degradation. Human
health is threatened by high levels of pollution from fossil fuel combustion. At the local level energy-related emissions from
fossil fuel combustion, including in the transport sector, are major contributors to urban air pollution, which is thought to be
responsible for about hundreds of thousands deaths annually around the world. At the regional level precursors of acid
deposition from fuel combustion can be precipitated thousands of kilometres from their point of origin – often crossing
national boundaries. The resulting acidification is causing significant damage to natural systems, crops, and human-made
structures, and can, over time, alter the composition and function of entire ecosystems. Table 4 shows some of the
consequences of the use of fossil fuels. Needless to say renewables contribute far less to these emissions.
RPS Aff 143
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
A national RPS would create a national market for renewable energy credits (RECs), n8 which are earned by generating
electricity from qualified renewable generators, such as those using wind, solar, and biomass as their energy source. n9
Covered electricity retailers would be required to hold RECs in the specified proportion to the amount of retail energy they
sold. n10 These RECs could be self-generated or purchased from other qualifying renewable generators. n11
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Furthermore, we propose that FERC be given the authority to issue national renewable energy certificates (RECs) and
develop a national REC tracking system. Unbundling the renewable nature of generation from the actual electricity generated
provides critical flexibility for regulated utilities and ensures that market forces dictate renewable investment. For mixed-fuel
facilities, we believe that allowing only the electricity generated from qualified renewable sources to count toward the value
of a REC promotes efficient fuel combinations while protecting against fraud. A tracking system would also help certify that
RECs represent actual renewable generation, facilitate the transfer of RECs between holders, and ensure that certificates are
not double-counted.
State RPS mandates (and some voluntary initiatives) have encouraged the development of robust interstate and regional REC
tracking systems.26 For example, the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL), an operational REC tracking program,
comprises six states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Regional tracking
systems are also under development in the mid-Atlantic and western U.S. By early 2006, the non-profit Center for Resource
Solutions formed the North American Association of Issuing Bodies (NAAIB) to issue recommended "best practices" for
certificate tracking and promote harmonization among the various tracking systems in North America.27
The emergence of the NAAIB suggests that a national REC tracking system may be inevitable. Moreover, just as the federal
government ultimately intervened to regulate interstate electricity transmission,28 such a REC tracking system will likely be
subject to eventual federal oversight. It makes far more sense that such a system be the result of federal design earlier rather
than circumstance later. Transparent and predictable rules established by a democratic body would likely avoid the fits and
starts sure to plague a system that pieces together inconsistent and overlapping regional REC tracking systems.
Early adoption of a uniform REC tracking system would allow both regulators and the regulated community to focus on the
important work of exploring new ways to harness greater amounts of renewable energy, instead of wading through a mire of
constantly evolving trading schemes. For example, some state RPS mandates have created uncertainty over who owns the
RECs that result from power purchases mandated under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).29 Under
section 210 of PURPA, Congress required local utilities to purchase power from co-generators and small, renewable power
producers (known as "qualifying facilities") at a price set by state public utility commissioners. The price was not to exceed
the utility's avoided costs, which the statute defined clumsily as "the cost to the electric utility of the electric energy which,
but for the purchase from such co-generator or small power producer, such utility would generate or purchase from another
source."30
Some PURPA-regulated utilities have argued that the renewable or environmental aspects of renewable generation are
inseparable from the power purchase because they are the reason utilities are mandated to contract for the output in the first
place. Therefore, ownership of the RECs that derive from PURPA-mandated power purchases should transfer to the regulated
facility purchasing the power. Many co-generators and renewable energy producers argue, on the other hand, that state RPS
programs create certificates as commodities unbundled from the electricity produced, so it cannot be argued that ownership
of RECs is automatically transferred with the sale of electricity, mandated or otherwise.
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Other options exist for those unable to meet the RPS requirement in a given year. That is, retail electric suppliers that are not
able to obtain a sufficient number of RECs are not automatically going to be assessed civil penalties. As a means of
compliance, the Proposed RPS also provides for a "Renewable Energy Credit Borrowing." n179 Under this provision, a retail
electric supplier can submit a compliance plan to the Secretary of Energy demonstrating that sufficient federal RECs would
be earned "within the next 3 calendar years which, when taken into account, will enable the retail electric supplier to meet the
[RPS] requirements ... for calendar year 2012 and the subsequent calendar years involved." n180 Once the plan is approved,
the federal RECs that will be earned under the plan can be applied to meet the RPS requirements each calendar year involved.
n181 Failure to repay any borrowed RECs would subject the retail electric supplier to civil penalties. n182 Oversight and
enforcement of the RECs borrowing program, and any resulting proceedings to assess civil penalties, would also add
administrative burdens.
Most of these burdens appear minimal at the federal and state levels. On the federal level, the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) concluded "that transactions associated with the proposed federal permits would have no impact [*73] on the federal
budget." n183 On the state level, the CBO observed that state "regulatory entities would not be allowed to prohibit utilities
from recovering prudent costs associated with meeting the portfolio standard." n184 However, the CBO estimated that the
administrative costs related to that restriction, "if any, would be minimal." n185
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
• Federal REC trading rules create a uniform price for renewable energy credits (RECs)
A national REC trading market would allow generators to sell their RECs at a uniform price to retail suppliers anywhere in
the nation. An expanded REC market generates more investment capital for renewable technologies by guaranteeing a more
stable and predictable rate of return. // pg. 11
RPS Aff 146
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Shoock 7 – J. D., expected, Fordham University School of Law, 2008 – [Corey Stephen Shoock, Fordham Journal of
Corporate & Financial Law, “BLOWING IN THE WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL RENEWABLE
PORTFOLIO STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN
ENERGY INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES,” Vol. 12, Iss. 6; pg. 1011-1078, lexis
academic., lexis academic.]
D. The Social Perspective RPS: Because the World Does Need Saving
Renewable energy is more than simply a business. For that reason, this Note proposes an end-user-oriented, demand-side
Social RPS to go along with the industry version. Fossil fuels are responsible for millions of dollars in health care costs,503 a
host of environmental and economic catastrophes,504 and even national security vulnerabilities.505 The push for a renewable
portfolio standard given this set of concerns necessarily requires a different mode of implementation from the business-
centered standard. The Industry RPS, its tailored execution structure notwithstanding, simply uses energy credits as a means
to act on those who sell power.506 The Social RPS makes use of renewable energy credits as well, but the relevant actors
here are not utilities or independent power producers, but American states. Through the commodification of energy credits,
even in a scheme that backloads implementation, power retailers that lack renewable assets will more often than those
holding such assets choose to purchase credits on the market.507 The risk that the social costs of fossil fuel production will
be increasingly concentrated in certain regions is significant.508 Given that renewable energy sources have geographic
restraints, their production and distribution hubs will initially, in all likelihood, be sited at a greater distance from end-users
than their larger-market-share fossil fuel competitors.509
The Industry RPS only acts on businesses, not individuals and not geographic entities.510 While the aggregate nation-wide
market share of renewables would certainly increase under this standard, its positive social benefits like lower emissions are
not evenly spread out either geographically or throughout the population.511 Therefore, the Social RPS will seek to
accomplish the overall reduction of fossil fuel emissions across the board, not for the sake of the renewable energy industry,
but for the sake of health of its people and environment. To do so, it will have to act on the states by mandating end-use
consumption or purchase rates, rather than production or sales rates. While matters relating to the consumption of energy
could constitutionally be justified as within the realm of the Commerce Clause,512 this Note finds that the most effective
way to avoid legal challenge513 and ensure the successful reduction of fossil fuel externalities is to condition certain federal
funding to the states on the timely compliance with the standard. Just as Congress conditioned a percentage of federal
highway aid for each state on the raising of its drinking age to 21 during the 1980s,514 Congress would declare that it will
release funding packages for highway, education, homeland security, and all other necessary state aid only upon the
certification of the required number of renewable energy credits for that fiscal year.
As with the Industry RPS, the Social version will be implemented using a rate-compounding formula to ensure that state
legislatures have the opportunity to weigh their own options and adjust over time. Certainly, states could seek to carry the
brunt of the purchasing and consumption requirement on themselves through mandating renewable energy use on
government property.515 A state could choose instead to regulate municipal utilities,516 enact their own RPS if they haven't
done so already, or draft incentives for renewable energy producers to move to their state.517 In light of the disparate nature
of states, their relative geographic advantages, and populations, the Social RPS would necessarily have to be a lower
standard, enacted more slowly than its commercially-oriented counterpart. States which already have their own version of an
RPS are not restricted in any way from enforcing it, as long as the state does not drop below the mandates
consumption/purchase floor set by the federal Social RPS.518
Like the Industry RPS, renewable energy credits would be tradable commodities under the Social tier, but in order to
marginalize the trading so as not to defeat the purpose of ameliorating externalities, a substantial percentage surcharge akin to
a sales tax will be added to the purchase price of each credit. A smaller surcharge will be added to the Industry RPS, and the
proceeds of both surcharges will go into the national system benefits fund. The percentage of the fund's non-investment
revenue attributable to these surcharges should be earmarked to fund infrastructural projects like the "wind pipeline" that
improve overall transmission access and energy efficiency so as to broaden the interConnectivity of the national power
grid.519 In so doing, it will help control for output variations while directly encouraging the proliferation of renewable
power.
RPS Aff 147
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Although this Article has attempted to raise a number of questions that should be resolved, or at least considered, before
imposing a national RPS, an element of uncertainty is bound to remain. There are those who believe that a national RPS is
only a valid option once all scenarios are considered, and, in essence, all potential problems solved. This would, certainly, be
ideal, but it is not feasible. Legislation designed to tackle difficult issues requires making, hopefully, educated decisions, but
is inherently uncertain. In fact, the vast majority of current studies indicate that results from a national RPS would range
between either: (1) a fundamental change in how electricity markets operate; or (2) a moderate price increase for consumers,
with moderate changes to the current system.
Any major policy decision imposes risks; but, despite the histrionics, a national RPS actually appears to present limited
downside, along with significant upside. That is, a national RPS, along the lines of those recently proposed, that fails (or is
moderately successful) would likely lead to minor increases in consumer rates. A major success could reduce natural gas
consumption and lower rates by a significant margin.
The reality is that, without major advances in technologies, a national RPS is likely only to have moderate success. However,
the implementation of an RPS could be the catalyst needed to trigger major advances in technologies. No major policy
change should be implemented without careful consideration. But, while more study and analysis will help the debate, the
potential upside to a national RPS appears to outweigh the downside, at least from a nationwide perspective.
[*77] Risk is a part of all major policy changes, and the downside in this situation is far lower than in many other cases. If
nothing else, a national RPS would further highlight the lack of necessary transmission in the United States. It is likely that
the local nature of renewable energy generation would provide an awareness of infrastructure issues at a more local level than
exists today, and that could help address the NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) problem that has long plagued transmission
projects. n209 Although it is unlikely anyone would welcome transmission lines in their backyard, local jobs created from
both renewable generation and transmission projects may make siting more palatable than it has been in the recent past.
Renewable energy has great potential for expanded economic development, improved national security, lower electricity
prices, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And, while a national RPS is one way to help realize this potential, it
should also be clear that for a national RPS to lead to more than moderate change, a comprehensive national energy policy is
necessary.
That is not to say that all questions must be answered before moving forward. In fact, without a national RPS in place, it may
be impossible to determine the potential of renewable energy because even a moderately increased market for renewable
energy could lead to significant technological advancements. All the planning in the world will not necessarily translate into
effectiveness in the marketplace. At some point, an idea must be tested to find out if it will actually work.
Public opinion polls, growing support from utilities, and continually increasing state RPS legislation indicate that support for
a renewable energy mandate is stronger than ever. However, opposition remains strong. Rightly or wrongly, the majority of
Americans appear ready to take a calculated risk to find out if renewable energy can fulfill its promise. The question remains:
Is Congress?
RPS Aff 148
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
VI Conclusion
To be fair, a national RPS may not be a panacea to the country's renewable energy problems. Texas-which features the largest
installed capacity of small-scale renewable energy (1,186 MW) in the country-had to implement a wide range of aggressive
policies to achieve their market penetration of renewables. These included measures forcing electric companies to unbundle
transmission, power generation, and retail sales; eliminating the ability for utilities to levy stranded costs and other
discriminatory practices against renewable technologies; forming interconnection rules that did not require extensive pre-
interconnection studies; and mandating the use of real time pricing and net metering.54 California-which has more installed
renewable capacity than any other state-had to remove excessive utility tariffs, increase tax credits for renewable energy
systems, and institute a large consumer awareness program before renewables were widely used.55 In Europe-where
production of wind capacity grew 40 percent between 1990 and 2000, and Austria, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all receive
more than 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources-aggressive tax incentives and rebates for consumers, rate-
based incentives for utilities such as feed-in tariffs, and environmental taxes on carbon and other pollutants were needed to
promote renewable energy technologies.56
Yet, for too long, the pursuit of a "silver bullet" national renewable energy strategy, embraced by all and burdensome to none,
has kept the capacity of renewable generation ludicrously below its potential. The debate over a national RPS remains
contentious even though many of the issues have been resolved by empirical data or can be avoided by structuring the
program in a smart way. While many states have pursued aggressive strategies to expand renewable energy generation, the
United States lacks a coherent and unified national renewable energy strategy. Current policies offer a ladder for those
wishing to promote renewable energy, but the ladder is without rungs.
The program that we have proposed overcomes many of the objections that have prevented the adoption of similar programs
in the past. It is not a perfect program. But it does not have to be. A national RPS program is not like finding a life partner; it's
okay to settle on less than perfection. Policymakers need not love every aspect of the program to acknowledge that its
adoption would benefit our nation's electricity markets and make substantial progress toward a more coherent and secure
national energy strategy.
RPS Aff 149
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Madrigal, 8 (Alexis, “DOE Report Says More Wind Than Coal Planned for US Grid,” 6-2-2008,
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/new-doe-report.html) // JMP
But it is important to remember that unlike coal, natural, gas, hydro, or nuclear, wind is intermittent. That means that as the
amount of wind on the nation's (passive, outdated) electric grid, it could create problems when demand is high and the wind
isn't blowing. One solution is the peak load shaving provided by companies like Consumer Powerline, which contracts with
large companies to shut down unnecessary facilities when the grid is running close to capacity.
Conventional sources suffer from variability and uncertainty – renewable are comparatively better
Dr. Sovacool, 8 – Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant
Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA
(Benjamin K., also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, “Renewable
Energy Technologies Just as Reliable as Fossil Fuel Plants,” 1-24-2008,
www.scitizen.com/stories/Future-Energies/2008/01/Renewable-Energy-Technologies-Just-as-Reliable-as-Fossil-Fuel-Plants/) // JMP
The "intermittency" of wind and solar is not a reason to reject renewables
All electricity systems, since they must respond (sometimes immediately) to complex interplay of constantly changing supply and demand, are highly variable. They are subject to
unexpected failures and outages, and influenced by a large number of planned and unplanned factors. Renewables are merely
variable in a different way than conventional sources, and in many cases their unique type of variability can help, rather than
hurt, the electric utility system.
While it is certainly true that the output from conventional power plants can be measured quite accurately, virtually every other aspect of planning for and implementing that resource is riddled with uncertainty.
Three types of uncertainty are most common: variance in construction costs, variance in short-term demand forecasts, and
variance in long-term demand forecasts.
First, a large variance exists between the projected costs and actual costs of conventional power plant construction. Experience has shown that there can be project delays and other unforeseen problems that can
lead to considerable cost overruns and even project cancellations. Generally, the larger the project (in terms of installed capacity and thus cost), the longer it takes to complete and the more it is at risk to
unforeseen changes (such as interest rates, labor costs, environmental regulations, etc.). The very fact that large power plants take many years to construct and complete dates are imprecise, adds uncertainty to
the electric system.
Second, once large projects get built, their output is often subject to rapidly changing patterns in consumer demand (and thus required load). Weather events such as sudden thunderstorms can persuade
customers to switch on lights, just as unexpected hours of sunshine can convince them to turn them off. Millions of people are constantly switching on and off equipment—televisions, lights, computers—that
demand instant power.
In the modern, restructured electricity market, system operators typically employ complicated forecasting techniques to minimize such uncertainty. New York, New England, and PJM independent system
operators determine load imbalance on five-minute intervals and use supply curves to dispatch the load-following units participating in the real-time market. System operators employ an automatic generation
control (AGC) system to manage minute-to-minute load imbalances (a service known as “regulation”). Units participating in the AGC are equipped with governors that sense a change in frequency and
automatically adjust output. Intra-hour dispatch every few minutes allows the units providing regulation to return to their nominal set points. To enhance system reliability, AGC units operate at lower power
output than would be dictated by optimal economic dispatch without the requirement to following changing loads. Thus the entire electric utility system is already built to address variability, just of a different
type.
Third, utility resource acquisition decisions are based on forecasts of future customer demand, which can be ridiculously uncertain. We have a hard enough time predicting the weather or political elections;
imagine the difficulty in projecting how an entire industry will be 10 to 20 years down the road. Changes in industry structure and long-term climatic conditions such as drought or unpredicted heat can
particularly impact large hydroelectric and nuclear facilities. Uncertainty in long-term forecasting was widely encountered in the utility industry in the 1970s and 1980s, when excessively high forecasts of
growth in demand for electricity led to overbuilding of electric generating plants and massive electric system cost over-runs in many states. A somewhat infamous example of this was in Washington State,
where the Washington Public Power System (WPPS) began a construction program for as many as seven new nuclear power plants in the early 1970s.
After large cost overruns and collapsing electricity demand growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the power system faced financial disaster and all but one of those plants was cancelled, leading to, at the
time, the country’s largest municipal bond default. The entire experience came to be called the “WHOOPS” fiasco (as a play off of the WPPS acronym) and experts have called it “an enduring illustration of the
risk associated with large electric system supply-side investments.”
Renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar minimize each of these sources of variability by deploying
technologies that are smaller, more modular, and less capital intense. Classic grid systems are typically “lumpy systems” in the sense that additions to capacity are
made in primarily large lumps (gargantuan power plants, new transmission lines). These plants have long lead times and uncertainties, making planning and construction difficult, especially when the balance of
supply and demand can change rapidly within a short period of time.
renewable energy technologies tend to have a quicker lead time than conventional coal and nuclear plants that can take 5 to 15
In contrast,
Quicker lead times enable a more accurate response to load growth, and minimize the financial risk
years to plan, permit, and construct.
associated with borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars while plants are built. Florida Power and Light says it can take as little as 3-6 months from groundbreaking to commercial operation of new
wind farms.
renewable energy technologies can be produced at smaller scale, they can be located (or situated) almost anywhere, enhancing their ability to
Because
match smaller increments of demand. In the case of unexpected changes, renewable energy technologies limit financial risk and capital exposure. Modular plants can be cancelled
easier, so that stopping a project is not a complete loss (and the portability of most renewable energy systems means value can still be recovered if the technologies would need to be resold as commodities in a
secondary market). Smaller units with shorter lead times reduce the risk of purchasing a technology that becomes obsolete before it is installed, and quick installations can better exploit rapid learning, as many
generations of product development can be compressed into the time it would take to build one giant plant.
Conventional power plants operating on coal, natural gas, and uranium are subject to an immense amount of variability. The
issue, therefore, is not one of variability or intermittency per se, but how such variability and intermittency can best be managed,
predicted, and mitigated. And the advantages of renewables—in addition to being theorized for the past three decades—have been empirically proven in large parts of the world in the past few
years.
RPS Aff 150
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sargent, 8 (Sara Sargent, “Duke Energy Corp.’s new plant will allow coal to remain king in Indiana but keep emissions low,”
6-3-2008, http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=92169) // JMP
“There are times when the wind doesn’t blow and there are times when the sun doesn’t shine and there are times when the
coal plants don’t work when they need maintenance,” Nilles said. “The U.S. Department of Energy said you can meet 20 percent of your energy needs with wind power and
Indiana is at 1 percent. What does Indiana know that the government does not?”
[Note – Bruce Nilles is director of the Sierra Club’s national coal campaign]
Wind power won’t cause unexpected outages and doesn’t require back-up power sources
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
No Need for Back-up Power
Researchers also continue to improve upon the technical performance of renewable energy generators every day. New wind
technologies operating at lower wind speeds and employing stronger materials and solar technologies utilizing plastics, nanostructured materials, and thinner modules have
greatly improved efficiency, lowered cost, and enhanced performance.152 In Germany, for instance, the Wind Power Management Systems are so
accurate that they predict hourly wind capacity within a 2 percent margin of error.153 According to the German Energy Agency (DENA), the improved quality of forecasting tools
has eliminated the need for construction of additional conventional power stations to balance increasing amounts of wind power on the nation’s transmission grid.154
Evidence from recent history also proves false the accusation that large wind systems risk power outages from the abrupt loss
of wind. In an analysis of the effects of integrating wind power in New York State, for example, researchers for General Electric analyzed the actual
output records of wind farms in use for over 5 years and found no evidence that wind power output changed so abruptly as to
require contingency plans and back-up generation:
Analysis of historical statewide wind data indicates that loss of wind generation due to abrupt loss of wind is not a credible
contingency. Short-term changes in wind are stochastic (as are short-term changes in load). A review of wind plant data revealed no sudden change in wind output in three
years that would be sufficiently rapid to qualify as a loss-of-generation contingency for the purpose of stability analysis. While the wind can vary rapidly at a given location,
turbines are spread out in a project, and the projects are spread throughout the state, making such an abrupt drop in total output an extremely unlikely event.155
Pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage systems can also be coupled to renewable energy technologies to smooth out intermittency. Bonneville Power Administration
(BPA), a large federal utility in the Pacific Northwest, for example, uses its existing 7,000 MW hydroelectric and pumped hydro storage network to store renewable energy.
Starting in 2005, BPA offered a new business service to “soak up” any amount of intermittent renewable output, and sell it as firm output from its hydropower network one week
later.156 Such storage technologies can have greater than 1,000 MW of capacity (depending on location), and operate according to fast response times and relatively low operating
costs. Storage systems like BPA’s are already commercially available and provide a combined 22.1 GW of installed capacity in the U.S.157 // pg. 68-69
RPS will expand intermittent generators and reduce reliance on one source of energy and improve reliability
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // SM
Technological Diversity
Under a national RPS, intermittent generators are not only likely to be geographically dispersed, but also technologically
dispersed. That is, a national RPS would expand the diversity of technologies used to access renewable resources.
Technological dispersion increases system reliability by decreasing dependence on any one intermittent source of energy.
Utilities can harness wind on windy days, sun on sunny days, hydropower on rainy days, etc.
In one study, assessing the impact of renewable technologies at large penetration rates (for example, above 20 percent) in the
United Kingdom, researchers found that “intermittent generation need not compromise electricity system reliability at any
level of penetration foreseeable in Britain over the next 20 years … overall [any negative costs] are much smaller than the
savings in fuel and emissions that renewables can deliver.158 Put simply, the benefits of renewable energy technologies, in
technological diversification, grid stability and system reliability more than outweigh their costs. G. A // pg. 69
RPS Aff 151
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Problems with intermittent renewable energy technologies long predicted by its detractors have failed to materialize in
Denmark, Spain, and Germany, where aggressive renewable energy programs have been adopted. In these locations, system
operators have overcome intermittence problems in four novel ways: diversifying locations, diversifying technologies,
integrating with existing hydropower and demand response, and predicting wind patterns just as utilities already predict
electricity demand and rainfall.46 Utilities-especially those in the West such as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas &
Electric-have become much better at integrating renewable resources into their sophisticated integrated resource planning
processes.47 And system operators are becoming much better at day-ahead forecasting for intermittent renewable
technologies like wind, where state-of-the-art forecasting capabilities are already in use throughout California and New
York.48
Lovins et. al, 8 – veteran energy expert and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute (Amory B. Lovins, Imran Sheikh, and
Alex Markevich, “Forget Nuclear,” Spring 08, http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid467.php, AG)
The sun doesn’t always shine on a given solar panel, nor does the wind always spin a given turbine. Yet if properly firmed,
both windpower, whose global potential is 35 times world electricity use, and solar energy, as much of which falls on the
earth’s surface every ~70 minutes as humankind uses each year, can deliver reliable power without significant cost for
backup or storage. These variable renewable resources become collectively reliable when diversified in type and location and
when integrated with three types of resources: steady renewables (geothermal, small hydro, biomass, etc.), existing fuelled
plants, and customer demand response. Such integration uses weather forecasting to predict the output of variable renewable
resources, just as utilities now forecast demand patterns and hydropower output. In general, keeping power supplies reliable
despite large wind and solar fractions will require less backup or storage capacity than utilities have already bought to
manage big thermal stations’ intermittence. The myth of renewable energy’s unreliability has been debunked both by theory
and by practical experience. For example, three north German states in 2007 got upwards of 30% of their electricity from
windpower-39% in Schleswig-Holstein, whose goal is 100% by 2020.
Goldemberg, 4 – President of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo (CESP), Minister for Science and Technology
and Minister of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil, Secretary for the Environment of the State of São Paulo
(Jose, “The Case for Renewable Energy,” February 04, http://www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP01-rationale.pdf, AG)
One of the problems with renewables is the fact that some of them are intermittent. This is indeed the case for PV, which
requires sunshine, which tends to be erratic in some locations. However geothermal, small hydro and specially biomass do
not suffer from such shortcomings. In the case of PV which is eminently suited for decentralized use in rural remote areas
that cannot be reached by the electricity grid, the use of automobile batteries for storage has proved to be a sensible and
practical solution supplying electricity for lighting in the evenings when it is most needed, and the same applies to other uses
such as radio, TV communications and refrigeration. In the case of wind, the problem of intermittency can be solved by
feeding the electricity generated in large grids, as it is done in Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. Another solution
is to use electricity to compress air which can be stored and generate electricity when needed.
RPS Aff 152
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Regarding the technical complexity of renewable energy systems, engineers and operators have made noteworthy progress
overcoming barriers previously thought "insurmountable." The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners,
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are all in the process of
finalizing or have finalized interconnection standards for renewable generators.
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic)
Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
Recent analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists focused on the costs and environmental impacts of a package of clean
energy polices and how fossil fuel prices and consumer energy bills would be affected. They found that using energy more
efficiently and switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources will save consumers money by decreasing energy use.
(41) A whole-economy analysis carried out by the International Project for Sustainable Energy Paths has also shown that
Kyoto-type targets can easily be met, with a net increase of 1 percent in the nation's 2020 GDP, by implementing the right
policies. (42)
One of the greatest advantages that energy efficiency and renewable energy sources offer over new power plants,
transmission lines, and pipelines is the ability to deploy these technologies very quickly. They can be installed--and benefits
can be reaped--immediately. (43) In addition, reductions in [CO.sub.2] emissions will have a "clean cascade" effect on the
economy because many other pollutants are emitted during fossil fuel combustion.
RPS Aff 155
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sierra Club no date cited (Myths vs. Reality About a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard,
http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/cleanenergy/renewables.asp)
Electric utilities are opposing a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) amendment to the Senate Energy Bill, S. 517. The
energy bill currently includes a provision that would require utilities to sell 10% of their electricity from renewable energy
sources by 2020. Senator Jeffords plans to introduce an amendment that will raise that requirement to 20% by 2020. Utilities
say they can't do it, but here is the truth about their false claims.
Sierra Club no date cited (Myths vs. Reality About a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard,
http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/cleanenergy/renewables.asp)
Claim: It is unrealistic to expect utilities to sell 20% of their power from renewable sources in 20 years when we are currently
at only 2%.
Reality: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently completed a study, Renewing Where We Live, which shows that
the U.S. has more than sufficient potential to produce 20% of our electricity from renewable sources. Adopting a 20%
standard will put the U.S. on track to be competitive with other countries-many of which have poorer resources and less land
area-that have adopted similar or more aggressive standards. The United Kingdom plans to increase renewable energy from
2.8% of electricity use today to 10% by 2010, and a recent government report proposed increasing to 20% renewable energy
by 2020.2 Denmark and Finland are planning for 30% renewable energy by 2010. The European Union goal is 22% by 2010.
Regions in Denmark, Spain, and Germany already get nearly 20% of their electricity just from wind turbines.(3)
State governments are also adopting renewable electricity standards. Nevada's standard requires that 15% of its electricity
will come from renewable energy by 2013. Connecticut and Massachusetts both have standards that ramp up to 1% annual
increases in renewable energy. The Western Regional Air Partnership-a coalition comprising the Governors of eight western
states as well as regional Tribal leaders-recommend both state and national level renewable energy standards of 20% by 2015
as a means to reduce regional air pollution.(4)
RPS Aff 156
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
The argument that a national RPS would be unfair to some states appears based on the assumption that a 20 percent RPS by
2020 would force each state to build a massive amount of renewable resources. Such thinking is rightfully ridiculous: it
would be akin to forcing Alaska to derive 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear plants, asking Nevada to derive 20 percent
of its resources from hydropower, or attempting to make mayonnaise without milk and eggs. Instead, a national RPS would
only require that the entire nation achieve 20 percent of its supply from renewable resources by 2020. Some states already
possess competitive advantages over others in terms of coal, uranium, and oil. It is unlikely that requirements to harness
renewable resources, which are far more diverse and plentiful, would unduly benefit some states over others.
A national RPS would not detract from some states while benefiting others—the elimination of PUCHA removed the
geographical limitations that would create those conditions
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
National RPS scenarios using either UCS or EIA assumptions also show that energy bills would be reduced in every region of
the country, including the Southeast, where some people have suggested there is limited low-cost renewable energy potential
(Table 1). This is primarily due to the lower natural gas prices for electricity generation and other direct gas consumers that
all regions would see. In addition, all regions do have some renewable energy resources, and would likely see an increase in
using local resources for generation that would often displace the need for importing fossil fuel. Furthermore, the national
credit trading market created by a national RPS would allow utilities in all regions to purchase RECs for the same price,
providing utilities with negotiating leverage over local renewable generators.
CongressNow, 7 (Kelly Shaw, CongressNow Staff, “Experts Cite Biomass' Potential for Southeast to Meet House Renewable
Energy Mandate,” 11-1-2007, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Energy and environment experts at a forum today suggested that one of the major obstacles to meeting a proposed 15 percent
national renewable portfolio standard - namely, the shortage of wind, solar and geothermal resources in the southeastern U.S.
- could be overcome by increasing the use of biomass-based fuels.
The House energy bill (H.R. 3221) now pending in Congress mandates that 15 percent of electricity be generated from
renewable energy by 2020. The Senate has passed a similar bill in three previous years while the House has never passed one.
This year the Senate was not able to pass it, but the House did.
The key argument against a national RPS is the regional inequality for renewable resources. Specifically, southeastern states
claim they don't have enough access to renewable energy.
Leon Lowery, majority staff on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told a forum sponsored by the
Environmental and Energy Study Institute, said that studies show New England actually has lowest renewable resource base
in the country, and many of those states already have an RPS in place.
Dr. Marie Walsh, an adjunct professor of agricultural economics at the University of Tennessee, supported Lowery's
statements. Her studies found that if the Southeast would begin using biomass resources such as switchgrass, they could rely
on more than 110 million tons in 2020.
"The potential in the next decade is extremely high for a dedicated energy crop," Walsh said.
Other studies presented at the hearing from the Energy Information Administration and the American Council for an Energy
Efficiency Economy also supported the argument that the Southeast could use biomass for renewable energy.
RPS Aff 159
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: No Enforcement
RPS is enforceable through civil penalties
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
[*71] For covered utilities that fail to meet the RPS requirements, the enforcement provisions of the Proposed RPS would
require additional review and possible adjudication. The Proposed RPS provides that a retail electric supplier that does not
comply with the RPS requirements "shall be liable for the payment of a civil penalty," n170 meaning that the Department of
Energy would need to review filings from, and assess penalties upon, those failing to report compliance with the national
RPS. n171 This enforcement, while adding an additional administrative burden, is necessary for an effective RPS. State RPS
programs with ineffective or under-enforced penalties have been less effective than those with strong enforcement policies.
n172 In Arizona, for instance, the "lack of enforcement and non-compliance penalties has resulted in significant under-
compliance with the [renewable energy] standards." n173
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
The implications of a national RPS may not be quite as burdensome as they initially appear, however, because, many states
have RPS programs already, and, as explained below, even those operating in non-RPS states are often served by
organizations, e.g., Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs), n112 with the
expertise necessary to facilitate compliance. Nonetheless, it is retail electricity suppliers that would bear the greatest burden
of a nationally imposed RPS, because they would need to participate in facilitating compliance, as well as facilitating the
renewable generation market.
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
An effective national RPS would require oversight and enforcement of the program. The additional burden created by
tracking federal RECs should be manageable because monitoring compliance largely requires only that the regulator review
the number of approved federal RECs submitted by the covered utility, much of which can be done electronically. n167 As
long as the technological solution is trusted, such monitoring should be achieved largely via electronic RECs tracking
mechanisms, n168 thus easing the administrative burden. n169
Complying with State RECs will make it easier to deal with additional federal requirements
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
For covered utilities operating only in non-RPS states, a federal mandate would mean initiating a new program for tracking
and reporting RECs. As such, it does appear that it would be more burdensome for such facilities because it would require
setting up a process to deal with RECs in the first place. For those utilities that already track RECs for state compliance, the
adaptability of many of the RECs tracking systems should make compliance with the additional federal requirement less
burdensome and more straightforward than it would be otherwise.
Existing framework can be built upon to track RECs and enforce the RPS
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Industry -
A National RPS will jump-start U.S. materials and manufacturing sectors
• American companies have enough materials for major expansions in wind energy.
American composite manufacturers say they can provide enough fiberglass at competitive prices in the next three years to
power 100,000 MW of new wind energy (nearly 6 percent of the country’s entire electricity supply).
• Increased demand for wind components creates new American industries.
Increased demand for wind turbine materials and components will allow more than 16,000 companies (with over 1 million
employees) to enter the turbine manufacturing market.
• A national RPS will improve manufacturing efficiency.
More domestic renewable energy manufacturing facilities will save utilities money by decreasing reliance on overseas
shipments of materials, which suffer from unfavorable exchange rates. // pg. 9
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
B. Solar Photovoltaics
A typical, solar photovoltaic (PV) panel consists of five “layers” of materials: a glass or plastic cover, a plastic anti-reflective
layer made of plastic, a front contact to allow electrons to enter a circuit, the semiconductor layers that directly convert
sunlight into electricity, and a back contact to allow electrons to complete the circuit.
Most solar cells are manufactured using crystalline silicon as the primary raw material (the same material used to produce
integrated circuits for computers). More than 90 percent of PV manufacturers use traditional mono- or polycrystalline silicon
wafers in their modules (which represent the bulk of the total cost of the solar cell).344
While the industry experienced a shortage of silicon for PV production a few years ago (the price for silicone doubled from
$30 per kilogram in 2003 to $60 per kilogram in 2005), the crisis helped spur rapid investment in PV manufacturing.
Most companies now have extensive stockpiles of silicon needed to guarantee PV production, and many have signed fixed-
price contracts guaranteeing a supply of silicon.345
The CFO of one large international PV manufacturer recently boasted that, “at this time we have 100 percent of our silicon
wafer supply contractually secured.”346 The sale of Shell Solar’s crystalline solar business to SolarWorld in 2006 is expected
to secure even more access to silicon and promote more efficient production processes with higher yields.347
Since the high demand for PV modules has enabled manufactures to pre-pay for supply, many silicon companies have
massively expanded their production processes: Tokuyama is building a 200-ton half commercial vapor to liquid distillation
pilot plant in Japan. Wacker already has a 100-ton fluidized bed reactor pilot plant in Germany. The company REC is looking
to build a 200-ton pilot plant in Moses Lake, WA. These expansions ensure that an additional silicon production capacity of
5,900 tons per year dedicated exclusively for PV arrays will come online in 2008.348
Annual revenues for the solar industry are expected to increase more than fourfold from $20 billion 2006 to $90 billion in
2010. At the same time, production costs are projected to fall dramatically.349 In April, 2007, the managing director of
Australia’s largest PV manufacturer, noted that the industry was seeing “incremental changes in innovation which are pushing
down costs and helping the sector's expansion.” He concluded that falling costs will make the solar power industry
increasingly competitive.350 // pg. 132-133
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Wind energy system operations do not generate air or water emissions and do not produce hazardous waste. Nor do they
deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and
transportation, or require significant amounts of water during operation. Wind's pollution-free electricity can help reduce the
environmental damage caused by power generation in the U.S. and worldwide. In 1997, U.S. power plants emitted 70% of
the sulfur dioxide, 34% of carbon dioxide, 33% of nitrogen oxides, 28% of particulate matter and 23% of toxic heavy metals
released into our nation's environment, mostly the air. These figures are currently increasing in spite of efforts to roll back air
pollution through the federal Clean Air Act. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause acid rain. Acid rain harms forests and
the wildlife they support. Many lakes in the U.S. Northeast have become biologically dead because of this form of pollution.
Acid rain also corrodes buildings and economic infrastructure such as bridges. Nitrogen oxides (which are released by
otherwise clean-burning natural gas) are also a primary component of smog. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a global warming
pollutant --its buildup in the atmosphere contributes to global warming by trapping the sun's rays on the earth as in a
greenhouse. The U.S., with 5% of the world's population, emits 23% of the world's CO2. The build-up of global warming
pollution is not only causing a gradual rise in average temperatures, but also seems to be increasing fluctuations in weather
patterns and causing more frequent and severe droughts and floods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned
in July, 2003, that extreme weather events appear to be increasing in number due to climate change. Particulate matter is of
growing concern because of its impacts on health. Its presence in the air along with other pollutants has contributed to make
asthma one of the fastest growing childhood ailments in industrial and developing countries alike, and it has also recently
been linked to lung cancer. Similarly, urban smog has been linked to low birth weight, premature births, stillbirths and infant
deaths. In the United States, the research has documented ill effects on infants even in cities with modern pollution controls.
Toxic heavy metals accumulate in the environment and up the biological food chain. A number of states have banned or
limited the eating of fish from fresh-water lakes because of concerns about mercury, a toxic heavy metal, accumulating in
their tissue. Development of just 10% of the wind potential in the 10 windiest U.S. states would provide more than enough
energy to displace emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants and eliminate the nation's major source of acid rain;
reduce total U.S. emissions of CO2 by almost a third; and help contain the spread of asthma and other respiratory diseases
aggravated or caused by air pollution in this country. If wind energy were to provide 20% of the nation's electricity -- a very
realistic and achievable goal with the current technology -- it could displace more than a third of the emissions from coal-
fired power plants. In 2006, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that wind plants in the U.S. will generate 24
billion kilowatt-hours. If instead the average utility fuel mix were used to generate that much electricity, 30 billion pounds
(15 million tons) of carbon dioxide, 76,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (208 tons per day), and 36,000 tons of nitrogen oxides (100
tons per day) would be released into the atmosphere. The comparative environmental impacts of various options for
producing electricity have been extensively studied by the European Union in a 10-year effort called the "ExternE"
("external" or non-economic costs of energy). The results of that study are available at http://www.externe.info/externpr.pdf
and http://www.externe.info. As with every other study of non-economic costs that has been conducted, the Externe study
found wind energy's costs to be among the lowest, far below those of fossil fuels. The highest non-economic cost for wind in
any European country, for example, was 0.25 Euro cents per kilowatt-hour, while the lowest cost for coal was 2-4 Euro
cents/kWh (eight to 16 times as much).
Wind power is the best way to solve CO2 emissions and stop rapid climate change
Yes! Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important of the global warming pollutants which are changing our climate.
According to experts, if we are to avoid dangerous levels of warming, we must cut our CO2 emissions by 80-90 per cent by
2050. That means switching to forms of energy generation that do not produce CO2. Wind power is a clean, renewable form
of energy, which during operation produces no carbon dioxide. While some emissions of these gases will take place during
the design, manufacture, transport and erection of wind turbines, enough electricity is generated from a wind farm within a
few months to totally compensate for these emissions. When wind farms are dismantled (usually after 20-25 years of
operation) they leave no legacy of pollution for future generation. Given the scale of the CO2 cuts needed, wind power--as the
least expensive, most developed renewable energy technology and the fastest to build--is the best placed renewable
technology to deliver carbon emissions reductions on a large scale, quickly.
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Stanford Report, 3 (Dawn Levy, “Harnessing the wind: One-quarter of United States is suited for wind power production,
researchers find,” 5-21-3 http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/may21/wind-521.html) // JMP
Can we light up the world and fuel our vehicles without polluting the environment? The answer may be blowing in the wind.
It's not enough to set up hundreds of turbines at a blustery site to create a "wind farm" and hope that consistent gusts will
generate electricity. It's necessary to know where fast winds blow and how best to harness them since the amount of power
generated increases with wind speed and turbine blade diameter.
In the first study to clock winds at the hub height of newer turbines (262 feet versus 164 feet for older turbines), Stanford
researchers found that 24 percent of U.S. wind monitoring sites experience gusts fast enough to generate power as cheaply as
coal or natural gas plants. Co-authors Cristina L. Archer and Mark Z. Jacobson report their findings in the May 13 online
issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres).
Since the wind isn't always blowing, its reliability has been a barrier to its exploitation as an energy source. But wind's
intermittence would no longer be a problem if wind farms were networked to reduce the effect of unproductive days at
individual sites, the researchers say. Linking at least eight wind farms virtually eliminates the chance of a windless hour
during the year.
"If we want to address global warming, urban air pollution, acid deposition, health and mortality problems, and the resulting
public health costs associated with fossil fuel sources, we need to reduce substantially the burning of fossil fuels," says
Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Global warming, which is already occurring
according to the short- and long-term climate record, cannot be reversed during our lifetimes unless large reductions in
carbon emissions occur immediately. The large expansion of wind energy is the most practical method at this time of
addressing this issue."
Finding that one-quarter of the nation is suitable for wind power production is extremely important, says Archer, who is
Jacobson's graduate student. "It's like finding that 24 percent of the nation has a free, safe and pollution-free oil that is just
waiting to be extracted for use. If wind power is used to generate hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, this country could reduce its
dependence on foreign oil."
RPS Aff 164
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Windustry 7 (Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy solutions and empowers communities to develop wind
energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset. Through member supported outreach, education and
advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community ownership of wind energy., “Why Wind Energy?”
http://www.windustry.com/wind-basics/learn-about-wind-energy/wind-basics-why-wind-energy/why-wind-energy, AM)
Environmental Advantages
Clean Water: Turbines produce no particulate emissions that contribute to mercury contamination in our lakes and streams.
Wind energy also conserves water resources. For example, producing the same amount of electricity can take about 600 times
more water with nuclear power than wind, and about 500 times more water with coal than wind.
Clean Air: Other sources of electricity produce harmful particulate emissions which contribute to global climate change and
acid rain. Wind energy is pollution free.
Mining & Transportation: Harvesting the wind preserves our resources because there no need for destructive resource mining
or fuel transportation to a processing facility.
Land Preservation: Wind farms are spaced over a large geographic area, but their actual "footprint" covers only a small
portion of the land resulting in a minimum impact on crop production or livestock grazing. Large buildings cannot be built
near the turbine, thus wind farms preserve open space.
Renewable energy is key to solve environmental degredation which is causing massive suffering
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
And-if one considers a broader sense of equity-renewable energy resources create a more just society by minimizing the
environmental consequences from fossil fuels. Such pollutants have long been noted as unjust because their impacts tend to
be unevenly distributed geographically among the states, and socially among the young, poor, and elderly. Many studies have
documented that almost every step in the process of converting fossil fuel into electricity-including mining, cooling, waste
stream management, and emissions-damages human health and the environment.45 As a result, Americans are experiencing a
rise in respiratory illnesses (especially childhood asthma which has reached record highs) and the country's ecosystems
continue to degrade. Particularly in the nation's "non-attainment" regions-locations so polluted that no pollution-emitting
technologies can be used to generate power-renewable energy systems that emit no nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, particulate
matter, mercury, ozone, or carbon dioxide can be instrumental in preventing undercapacity.
RPS Aff 165
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
AWEA, 4 (American Wind Energy Association, “Wind Energy and the Economy,” 10-26-2004,
www.awea.org/faq/tutorial/wwt_economy.html) // JMP
Export markets are growing rapidly. Overseas markets account for about half of the business of U.S. manufacturers of small
wind turbines and wind energy developers. Small wind turbine markets are diverse and include many applications, both on-
grid (connected to a utility system) and off-grid (stand-alone). The potential economic benefits from wind are enormous. At a
time when U.S. manufacturing employment is generally on the decline, the production of wind equipment is one of the few
potentially large sources of new manufacturing jobs on the horizon. AWEA estimates that wind installations worldwide will
total more than 100,000 megawatts over the next decade, or more than $100 billion worth of business. If the U.S. industry
could capture a 25% share of the global wind market through the year 2015, many thousands of new jobs would be created.
RPS Aff 166
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The U.S. wind industry currently directly employs more than 2,000 people. The wind industry contributes directly to the
economies of 46 states, with power plants and manufacturing facilities that produce wind turbines, blades, electronic
components, gearboxes, generators, and a wide range of other equipment. The Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP)
estimates that every megawatt of installed wind capacity creates about 4.8 job-years of employment, both direct
(manufacturing, construction, operations) and indirect (advertising, office support, etc.). This means that a 50-MW wind farm
creates 240 job-years of employment. According to a REPP study released in October 2004, boosting U.S. wind energy
installations to approximately eight times today's levels could create 150,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide, with most jobs
being added in the 20 states that have lost the most in recent years. According to REPP, some 90 companies in 25 states
currently manufacture wind turbine components, and over 16,000 companies in all 50 states have the technical potential to
enter the wind turbine market. The full report is available on the REPP Web site at:
http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/WindLocator.pdf Wind and solar energy are likely to be among the largest
sources of new manufacturing jobs worldwide during the 21st Century. What is the value of export markets for wind? Export
markets are growing rapidly. Overseas markets account for about half of the business of U.S. manufacturers of small wind
turbines and wind energy developers. Small wind turbine markets are diverse and include many applications, both on-grid
(connected to a utility system) and off-grid (stand-alone). The potential economic benefits from wind are enormous. At a time
when U.S. manufacturing employment is generally on the decline, the production of wind equipment is one of the few
potentially large sources of new manufacturing jobs on the horizon. AWEA estimates that wind installations worldwide will
total more than 100,000 megawatts over the next decade, or more than $100 billion worth of business. If the U.S. industry
could capture a 25% share of the global wind market through the year 2015, many thousands of new jobs would be created.
US Department of Energy 4 (“Wind Energy For Rural Economic Development”, August (No Date) 4,
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/33590.pdf, AM)
Wind energy projects create new jobs in rural communities in manufacturing, transportation, and project construction. New
projects in the Great Plains prompted Denmark’s LM Glasfiber to open a rotor blade manufacturing plant in North Dakota.
Wind turbine tower and component manufacturing plants have created new jobs in several states, including Washington,
North Dakota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Local labor is often used for project construction, like building roads and erecting
turbines. Once the projects are complete, jobs are created in the operation and maintenance of the projects. The wind power
plant in Lake Benton, Minnesota, is now the second largest employer in town. Construction on Iowa’s major wind farms
provided 200 six-month construction jobs and 40 permanent operations and maintenance jobs at an average wage of $16 per
hour. Wind energy projects generate more new jobs than conventional fossil fuel projects. According to a study by the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority, wind energy produces 27% more jobs per kilowatthour than coal
plants and 66% more jobs than natural gas plants.
RPS Aff 167
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Wind farms can revitalize the economy of rural communities, providing steady income through lease or royalty payments to
farmers and other landowners. Although leasing arrangements vary widely, a reasonable estimate for income to a landowner
from a single utility-scale turbine is about $3,000 a year. For a 250-acre farm, with income from wind at about $55 an acre,
the annual income from a wind lease could be $14,000, with no more than 2-3 acres removed from production. Such a sum
can significantly increase the net income from farming. Farmers can grow crops or raise cattle next to the towers. Wind farms
may extend over a large geographical area, but their actual "footprint" covers only a very small portion of the land, making
wind development an ideal way for farmers to earn additional income. In west Texas, for example, farmers are welcoming
wind, as lease payments from this new clean energy source replace declining payments from oil wells that have been
depleted. Farmers are not the only ones in rural communities to find that wind power can bring in income. In Spirit Lake,
Iowa, the local school is earning savings and income from the electricity generated by a turbine. In the district of Forest City,
Iowa, a turbine recently erected as a school project is expected to save $1.6 million in electricity costs over its lifetime.
Additional income is generated from one-time payments to construction contractors and suppliers during installation, and
from payments to turbine maintenance personnel on a long-term basis. Wind farms also expand the local tax base, and keep
energy dollars in the local community instead of spending them to pay for coal or gas produced elsewhere. Finally, wind also
benefits the economy by reducing "hidden costs" resulting from air pollution and health care. Several studies have estimated
that 50,000 Americans die prematurely each year because of air pollution.
Rural economies are on the decline, only a transition to wind power can solve.
DOE 4 (US Department of Energy, “Wind Energy For Rural Economic Development”, August (No Date) 4,
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/33590.pdf, AM)
It’s tough to make a living on the family farm. In recent years, net farm income decreased as dry conditions in much of the
country reduced the forecasted yields of corn, soybeans, and wheat. Lower commodity prices combined with higher fertilizer
and natural gas prices forced farmers and ranchers to pursue income from off-farm sources—as much as 94% of their total
income in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. High unemployment rates also affected rural families
forced to work off the farm. Bankers foreclosed on farm loans in record numbers—for example, Colorado’s foreclosure rate
on farm loans was 30% in 2002. As young people move to the city to pursue an alternative way to make a living, the
traditional rural American way of life is disappearing. But there is a bright spot on the rural economic development horizon:
wind energy. The wind industry contributes to the economies of 46 states, and the outlook for regional economic growth from
wind energy is positive. Wind energy projects provide new jobs, a new source of revenue for farmers and ranchers, and an
increased local tax base for rural communities. And wind energy is homegrown energy that helps secure our energy future
during uncertain times while reducing pollution and conserving our precious water resources. In fact, achieving the goals of
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America program during the next 20 years will create $60 billion in capital
investment in rural America, provide $1.2 billion in new income for farmers and rural landowners, and create 80,000 new
jobs. Wind energy is the fastestgrowing energy source in the world, and your rural community may be able to reap the
benefits.
Windustry 7 (Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy solutions and empowers communities to develop wind
energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset. Through member supported outreach, education and
advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community ownership of wind energy., “Why Wind Energy?”
http://www.windustry.com/wind-basics/learn-about-wind-energy/wind-basics-why-wind-energy/why-wind-energy, AM)
Economic Advantages
Revitalizes Rural Economies: Wind energy can diversify the economies of rural communities, adding to the tax base and
providing new types of income. Wind turbines can add a new source of property taxes in rural areas that otherwise have a
hard time attracting new industry. Each 100 MW of wind development in southwest Minnesota has generated about $1
million per year in property tax revenue and about $250,000 per year in direct lease payments to landowners.
RPS Aff 168
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
People who would rather not live near wind plants (sometimes referred to as "NIMBYs," short for "Not In My Back Yard")
often raise this concern with respect to new wind project proposals. There is no evidence that wind farms reduce tourism, and
considerable evidence to the contrary. For example, in late 2002, a survey of 300 tourists in the Argyll region of Scotland,
noted for its scenic beauty, found that 91% said the presence of new wind farms "would make no difference in whether they
would return." Similar surveys of tourists in Vermont and Australia have produced similar results. Many rural areas in the
U.S. have noted increases in tourism after wind farms have been installed, as have scenic areas in Denmark, the world's
leader in percentage of national electricity supplied by wind. Other telling indicators: local governments frequently decide to
install information stands and signs near wind farms for tourists; wind farms are regularly featured on post cards, magazine
covers, and Web pages.
RPS Aff 169
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Motavalli, 5 (Jim, Editor of E, E: the Environmental Magazine, “Catching the Wind,” January/February, vol. 16, no. 1, p.26) // JMP
An Unlimited Future
As the fastest-growing source of energy in the world, with the fewest long-term drawbacks, wind power would seem to have
an unlimited future. Lester Brown describes wind power as "the missing link in the Bush energy plan." Bush has called for the addition of
393,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity by 2020, and he's proposed financial aid to businesses that construct new nuclear power plants, as well as streamlined plant licensing. But no nuclear plant has
been ordered in 30 years, and mammoth financial incentives may not be enough to offset the huge waste and liability questions.
But Bush's generating goals could be reached with wind power alone. Just three Great Plains states-North Dakota, Kansas
and Texas-have enough wind potential to meet America's entire energy needs. Farmers and ranchers support wind projects because of the financial boon that
conies with leasing their land. Wind projects completed just in 2003 will generate $5 million annually in payments.
Wind energy designers are starting to think big. A project called Rolling Thunder, in South Dakota near the Iowa border, would generate 3,000 megawatts when it comes online in 2006, making it five times
larger than any previous wind farm and one of the largest energy developments in the world today. At the same time, the federal Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) says it will buy 830 megawatts of wind
power from seven plants-five to be built in Washington and two in Oregon. Already the nation's biggest supplier of hydroelectric power, BPA will be the largest wind energy supplier.
The pieces are in place for a massive expansion of wind resources worldwide at a time when concern about oil supply and
location is proving to be massively troubling. All the signs are positive, but will wind power achieve its true potential? The answer, of course, is blowing in the wind.
Recent study proves that wind power can meet all U.S. electricity and energy needs
The Electricity Forum, 3 (“Wind energy could fuel future power needs,” August 2003
www.electricityforum.com/news/aug03/windenergy.html) // JMP
In 1991, a national wind resource inventory taken by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) startled the world when it reported that the
three most wind-rich states of the United States--North Dakota, Kansas and Texas--had enough harnessable wind energy to
satisfy national electricity needs. Now a new study by a team of engineers at Stanford University reports that the wind energy
potential is actually substantially greater than that estimated in 1991.
Advances in wind turbine design since 1991 enable turbines to operate at lower wind speeds, to harness more of the wind's
energy, and to harvest it at greater heights--dramatically expanding the harnessable wind resource. Add to this the recent bullish assessments of
offshore wind potential, and the enormity of the wind resource becomes apparent. Wind power can meet not only all U.S. electricity needs, but all U.S. energy
needs.
In a joint assessment of global wind resources called Wind Force 12, the European Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace concluded that the world's wind-generating potential--assuming that only 10
percent of the earth's land area would be available for development--is double the projected world electricity demand in 2020.
A far larger share of the land area could be used for wind generation in sparsely populated, wind-rich regions, such as the Great Plains of North America, northwest China, eastern Siberia, and the Patagonian
region of Argentina. If the huge offshore potential is added to this, wind power could satisfy not only the world's electricity needs, but perhaps even total energy needs.
Over the past decade, wind has been the world's fastest-growing energy source. Rising from 4,800 megawatts of generating capacity in 1995 to 31,100
megawatts in 2002, it increased a staggering sixfold. Worldwide, wind turbines now supply enough electricity to satisfy the residential needs of 40 million Europeans.
Wind is popular because it is abundant, cheap, inexhaustible, widely distributed, climate-benign, and clean--attributes that no
other energy source can match. The cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped from 38 cents a kilowatt-hour in the early
1980s to about 4 cents a kilowatt-hour today on prime wind sites. Some recently signed British and U.S. long-term supply contracts are providing electricity at 3
cents a kilowatt-hour.
Wind Force 12 projected that the average cost per kilowatt-hour of wind-generated electricity would drop to 2.6 cents by 2010 and to 2.1 cents by 2020. U.S. energy consultant Harry Braun says that if wind
turbines are mass-produced on assembly lines like automobiles, the cost of wind-generated electricity could drop to 1 to 2 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Although wind-generated electricity already is cheap, its cost continues to fall. In contrast with oil, there is no Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to set prices for wind. And in contrast to natural
gas prices, which are highly volatile and can double in a matter of months, wind prices are declining.
Another great appeal of wind is its wide distribution. In the U.S., for example, about 28 states now have utility-scale wind
farms feeding electricity into the local grid. While a small handful of countries control the world's oil, nearly all countries can tap wind energy.
Denmark leads the world in the share of its electricity from wind--20 percent. Germany leads with 12,000 megawatts. By the end of 2003, it already will have surpassed its 2010 goal of 12,500 megawatts of
generating capacity. For Germany, this rapid growth in wind power is central to reaching its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020.
Rapid worldwide growth is projected to continue as more countries turn to wind. In addition to the early leaders--Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the U.S.--
many other countries have ambitious plans, including Britain, Brazil, China and France.
In dense Europe, the offshore potential for developing wind also is being exploited. Denmark is now building its second offshore wind farm, this one with 160 megawatts of generating capacity. Germany has
about 12,000 megawatts of offshore generating capacity under consideration.
RPS Aff 170
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Shoock 7 – J. D., expected, Fordham University School of Law, 2008 – [Corey Stephen Shoock, Fordham Journal of
Corporate & Financial Law, “BLOWING IN THE WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL RENEWABLE
PORTFOLIO STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN
ENERGY INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES,” Vol. 12, Iss. 6; pg. 1011-1078, lexis
academic., lexis academic.]
The electric power sector consumption numbers bear out the fact that wind power, though still a minor factor in terms of
overall market share, grew considerably faster than the electric power sector as a whole since its statistics were first
accurately recorded.183 Total electric power sector energy consumption (all consumption figures for this section in trillion
Btu) in 2006 was 29.4% higher than it was in 1990.184 That 29.4% increase is the standard by which this Note evaluates the
relative growth, decline, or stagnation of selected energy sources. Coal consumption in the electric power sector was 26.2%
higher in 2006 than it was in 1990,185 maintaining a slightly declining majority share of the market during that period.186
Natural gas consumption, which is nearly wholly reliant on the electric power sector,187 was 92.7% higher.188 Petroleum,
the weakest of the fossil fuels in electricity production,189 fell 49.9% in electric power sector consumption from its 1990
totals,190 while nuclear power, neither a fossil fuel nor renewable, was 33.2% higher.191 Electricity production represents
the major use of renewable energy generally,192 and the only use for wind,193 whose market share in the electric power
sector was slightly less than 0.1% in 1990, or 29 trillion Btu.194 In terms of vindicating government policy, however, 1990
was a proper departure point. Iowa passed the first renewable portfolio standard in 1991,195 and the first federal production
tax credit was passed in 1992.196 In 1997, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Nevada passed production standards as well.197
From 1999 to 2005, eighteen more states including Texas, California and New York, as well as the District of Columbia,
followed suit.198 Although wind power consumption only once actually decreased between any two years,199 hiccups in the
acceleration of wind power's growth are widely attributed to the lapses of the production tax credit.200 The credit was
renewed in 2005,201 and has not lapsed since.202 By 2006, though wind power's market share was still only 0.65%, it had
grown in consumption from 29 trillion Btu to 258 trillion Btu, an increase of about 790%.203 Between 1990 and 2006,
electric power sector consumption, if wind were not included, averaged an annual increase of slightly less than 1.7%.204
Wind power consumption on the other hand-with an average annual increase of about 46.5%-grew 26-times faster than the
rest of the field.205 While a 20% market share is not in the picture presently, it is clear that wind energy does enjoy a market.
If access to the power grid, which is maintained by utilities, is assured for renewable energy producers, their input of
electricity into the marketplace (both of them) would necessarily increase.206
RPS Aff 171
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Berry, 5 (David, Energy Project, Western Resource Advocates, Energy Policy, “Renewable Energy as a Natural Gas Price
Hedge: The Case of Wind,” April, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 799-807) // JMP
Wind power provides price stability – it is a hedge against natural gas price volatility
Berry, 5 (David, Energy Project, Western Resource Advocates, Energy Policy, “Renewable Energy as a Natural Gas Price
Hedge: The Case of Wind,” April, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 799-807) // JMP
Annual wind energy costs are constant while the avoided costs of conventional generation vary with natural gas prices. Given
the recent pattern of gas prices shown in Fig. 2, wind energy will be less costly than electricity produced with fossil fuels at
marginal generating units in about 70% of years when the environmental benefits of wind energy are considered and in about
32% of years if environmental benefits of wind energy are not considered. If gas prices continue their historical upward trend,
the probability that wind energy is cheaper than conventional energy would increase.
With a long-term commitment to a wind energy hedge, there may be years when wind energy is less costly than conventional
energy and years when wind energy is more expensive. But, under the base case assumptions, wind energy would be cheaper
(including environmental benefits) most of the time. The hedging ability of wind resource commitments provides price
stability, not the lowest possible price that could be obtained with perfect forecasting and complete flexibility in resource
choices.
RPS Aff 172
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Stanford Report 3 (Dawn Levy, “Harnessing the wind: One-quarter of United States is suited for wind power production,
researchers find,” 5-21-3 http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/may21/wind-521.html, Downloaded on 11-1-2004)
In addition to being clean and plentiful, wind also may bolster national security, since it's a distributed energy source. "It's not
like a nuclear or coal power plant where you can target a single location," Jacobson says. "Turbines are distributed. You'd
essentially have to destroy individual turbines separately."
[Note – Mark Z. Jacobsen is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford]
Wind power improves homeland security and reduces the risk of a terrorist attack against existing power plants
LaDuke, 3 – member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinabe and Green Party's candidate for vice president in 2000
(Winona, Cultural Survival Quarterly, “Wind Powering Native America,” Summer vol. 27, no. 2, p.73) // JMP
Tribal wind power needs some help in new federal energy bills. Tribes heed to have access to the same financing mechanisms
and incentives available to private developers and municipalities. Tribes need to have access to put wind power on the federal
grid system built to provide hydropower to most of the western United States. With the extended drought, our water resources
are diminishing. Tribal wind power could make up for the lost hydropower cheaply, quickly, and cleanly. Tribes also need to
have access to the federal green power market. By 2005, the U.S. federal government is scheduled to make two and a half
percent of its total energy consumption "green," and the Great Plains tribes could provide the renewable power to green the
federal government through sales of wind power to the Western Area Power Administration. Besides that, the Intertribal
COUP plan for homegrown energy generation has an important homeland security aspect to it. As Bob Gough aptly points
out, when compared to the many vulnerable nuclear power plants located in the more densely populated parts of America,
"no one's looking to run an airplane into a wind turbine."
RPS Aff 173
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The eagerly awaited Bush energy plan released on May 17, 2001, disappointed many people because it largely overlooked the potential contribution of raising energy efficiency. It also
overlooked the enormous potential of wind power, which is likely to add more to U.S. generating capacity over the next 20
years than coal.
In short, the authors of the plan appear to be out of touch with what is happening in the world energy economy, fashioning an
energy plan more appropriate for the early twentieth century rather than the early twenty-first century. They emphasized the role of coal, but
world coal use peaked in 1996 and has declined some 11 percent since then as countries have turned away from this climate-disrupting fuel. Even China, which rivals the United States as a coal burning country,
has reduced its coal use by 24 percent since 1996.
world wind power use has multiplied nearly fourfold over the last five years, a growth rate matched only by the
Meanwhile,
computer industry. In the United States, the American Wind Energy Association projects a staggering 60 percent growth in wind-generating capacity this year.
Wind power was once confined to California, but during the last three years, wind farms coming online in Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have boosted U.S. capacity
by half from 1,680 megawatts to 2,550 megawatts. The 1,500 or more megawatts to be added this year will be located in a dozen states. A 300-megawatt wind farm under construction on the
Oregon/Washington border is currently the world's largest.
But this is only the beginning. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) indicated in February that it wanted to buy 1,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity and requested proposals. Much to its
surprise, it received enough to build 2,600 megawatts of capacity in five states, with the potential of expanding these sites to over 4,000 megawatts. BPA, which may accept most of these proposals, expects to
have at least one site online by the end of this year.
A 3,000-megawatt wind farm in the early planning stages in South Dakota, near the Iowa border, is 10 times the size of the Oregon/Washington wind farm. Named Rolling Thunder, this project, initiated by
Dehlsen Associates and drawing on the leadership of Jim Dehlsen, a wind energy pioneer in California, is designed to feed power to the midwestern region around Chicago. This proposed project is not only
large by wind power standards, it is one of the largest energy projects of any kind in the world today.
Advances in wind turbine technology, drawing heavily from the aerospace industry, have lowered the cost of wind power from
38 cents per kilowatt hour in the early 1980s to 3 to 6 cents today depending on the wind site. Wind, now competitive with fossil fuels, is already cheaper in some
locations than oil or gas-fired power. With major corporations, such as ABB, Shell International, and Enron plowing resources into this field, further cost cuts are in prospect.
Wind is a vast, worldwide source of energy. The U.S. Great Plains are the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Three wind-rich U.S.
states — North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas — have enough harnessable wind to meet national electricity needs. China can double its existing generating capacity
from wind alone. Densely populated Western Europe can supply all of its electricity needs from offshore wind power.
Today Denmark, the world leader in wind turbine technology and manufacture, is getting 15 percent of its electricity from wind power. For Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, it is 19
percent and, for some parts of the state, 75 percent. Spain’s industrial state of Navarra, starting from scratch six years ago, now gets 24 percent of its electricity from wind.
As wind generating costs fall and as concern about climate change escalates, more and more countries are climbing onto the wind energy bandwagon. In December, France announced it will develop 5,000
megawatts of wind power by 2010. Also in December, Argentina announced a plan to develop 3,000 megawatts of wind power in Patagonia by 2010. In April, the United Kingdom accepted offshore bids for
1,500 megawatts of wind power. In May, a report from Beijing indicated that China plans to develop some 2,500 megawatts of wind power by 2005.
The growth in wind power is consistently outrunning earlier estimates. The European Wind Energy Association, which in 1996 had set a target of 40,000 megawatts for Europe in 2010, recently upped it to
60,000 megawatts.
The Bush plan to add 393,000 megawatts of electricity nationwide by 2020 could be satisfied from wind alone. Money spent on wind-generated electricity tends to remain in the community, providing income,
jobs, and tax revenue, bolstering local economies. One large advanced design wind turbine, occupying a quarter acre of land, can easily yield a farmer or rancher $2,000 in royalties per year while providing the
community with $100,000 of electricity. U.S. farmers and ranchers, who own most of the wind rights in the country, are now joining environmentalists to lobby for development of this abundant alternative to
fossil fuel.
Once we get cheap electricity from wind, we can use it to electrolyze water, producing hydrogen. Hydrogen is the fuel of
choice for the new, highly efficient, fuel cell engine that every major automobile manufacturer is now working on. DaimlerChrysler
plans to be on the market with fuel cell-powered cars in 2003. Ford, Toyota, and Honda will probably not be far behind. William Ford, Chairman of Ford Motor Company, says he expects to preside over the
demise of the internal combustion engine.
Surplus wind power can be stored as hydrogen and used in fuel cells or gas turbines to generate electricity, leveling supply
when winds are variable. Wind, once seen as a cornerstone of the new energy economy, may turn out to be its foundation. The
wind meteorologist who analyzes wind regimes and identifies the best sites for wind farms will play a role in the new energy economy comparable to that of the petroleum geologist in the old energy economy.
With the advancing technologies for harnessing wind and powering motor vehicles with hydrogen, we can now see a future
where farmers and ranchers can supply not only much of the country’s electricity, but much of the hydrogen to fuel its fleet of
automobiles as well. For the first time, the United States has the technology and resources to divorce itself from Middle Eastern
oil.
In addition to neglecting the potential of wind, the Bush energy strategy pays only lip service to climate stabilization. This is a high-risk strategy. With business as usual, the International Panel on Climate
Change recently projected a global temperature rise during this century of up to 6 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit). If this rise occurs, the rest of the world may hold the United States, the leading CO2
emitter, responsible.
What the United States needs now is an energy plan for this century, one that takes into account not only recent technological advances in wind power, fuel cells, and hydrogen generators, but also the need to
stabilize climate. Perhaps Congress will bring the energy plan into the twenty-first century and restore U.S. leadership in the fast-changing world energy economy.
RPS Aff 174
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
The Electricity Forum, 3 (“Wind energy could fuel future power needs,” August 2003
www.electricityforum.com/news/aug03/windenergy.html) // JMP
Wind power is now a viable, robust and fast-growing industry. Cheap electricity from wind makes it economical to
electrolyze water and produce hydrogen. Hydrogen is the fuel of choice for the highly efficient fuel cells that will be used
widely in the future to power motor vehicles and to supply electricity, heating and cooling for buildings. Hydrogen also offers
a way of storing wind energy and of transporting it efficiently by pipeline or in liquefied form by ship.
With the wind industry's engineering know-how and manufacturing experience, it would be relatively easy to scale up the
size of the industry, even doubling it annually for several years, if the need arose.
If, for example, crop-shrinking heat waves raise food prices and generate public pressure to quickly reduce carbon emissions
by replacing coal and oil with wind and hydrogen, it would be possible to do so. If the need arises to shift quickly to
hydrogen-fueled automobiles, this can be done by converting gasoline-burning internal combustion engines to hydrogen with
inexpensive conversion kits.
For energy investors, future growth lies with wind and the hydrogen produced with cheap wind-generated electricity. Solar
cell sales are growing at more than 30 percent a year and likely will supply much of the electricity for the 1.7 billion people
who are still without electricity, most of them living in developing country villages. But solar cells are still too costly to
supply the vast amounts of energy required to power a modern economy.
World coal burning peaked in 1996 and has fallen 2 percent since then. It is a fading industry. Nor is oil particularly
promising, since world production is not likely to expand far beyond current levels.
Production of natural gas, the cleanest and least climate-disruptive of the fossil fuels, likely will continue expanding for a few
more decades, fortuitously developing an infrastructure that can be adapted for hydrogen. Nuclear-power generation is
expected to peak soon, when the large number of aging plants that will be closing down will exceed the small number of
plants that are under construction.
The energy future belongs to wind. The world energy economy became progressively more global during the 20th century as
the world turned to oil. It promises to reverse direction and become more local during the 21st century as the world turns to
wind, wind-generated hydrogen and solar cells. Wind and wind-generated hydrogen will shape not only the energy sector of
the global economy, but the global economy itself.
Stanford Report, 3 (Dawn Levy, “Harnessing the wind: One-quarter of United States is suited for wind power production,
researchers find,” 5-21-3 http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/may21/wind-521.html) // JMP
Motavalli, 5 (Jim, Editor of E, E: the Environmental Magazine, “Catching the Wind,” January/February, vol. 16, no. 1, p.26)
// JMP
Wind-Generated Hydrogen?
Can zero-emission wind power be used to produce hydrogen for fuel cells as part of a completely clean energy loop? There's
some evidence that it can.
According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the Bush administration's plans to use nuclear power to generate
hydrogen are off base, and wind power presents a better option. "Electricity from wind is currently four cents per kilowatt-hour," the group says. "This is a verifiable,
experienced cost. Wind energy and photovoltaic systems coupled to electrolyzers used for hydrogen separation are perhaps the most
versatile of the approaches and are likely to be the major hydrogen producers of the future." Princeton researcher Joan Ogden, a booster of solar and
wind-based hydrogen, adds that nuclear hydrogen is dependent on "difficult technology that is much further from commercialization than many other hydrogen-production options."
There are, however, certainly realistic obstacles to overcome before wind-based hydrogen can become a reality. A report by Science for Democratic Action concluded that "there are no real cost advantages to
integrating fuel cells into the electricity system on a large scale." Bill Leighty, director of the Leighty Foundation in Juneau, Alaska, has some sobering second thoughts on the idea of transmitting large amounts
of wind-generated electricity via a hydrogen pipeline from North Dakota, for example, to Chicago, a possibility examined in a study underwritten by his foundation.
"Hydrogen transmission does not appear to offer an economically attractive alternative to gigawatt-scale transmission of Great Plains wind energy via high-voltage [electric lines] because of the extra costs of
conversion from electric to hydrogen energy at the Great Plains source," said a key sentence in Leighty's paper. "Capital, operations and maintenance, and energy conversion loss costs are significant, though
energy storage as compressed hydrogen gas in the pipeline is a valuable benefit."
Leighty says wind-generated hydrogen is dependent on , what the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter describes as "the emergence of a large market for pure hydrogen... for [fuel-cell-based] transportation and for
distributed generation."
Moller of the Danish Wind Energy Association says that the concept of hydrogen from wind is
But what if that market does develop? Claus
being actively pursued in Denmark, with small-scale demonstration projects and longterm feasibility studies underway in
research institutes. If economics of scale come into play to dramatically reduce the cost of wind-powered hydrogen
electrolyzers, reports a paper by Harry Braun of the Hydrogen Political Action Committee posted on EV World, then electricity could be generated at a cost of one
cent per kilowatt-hour, resulting in liquid hydrogen produced for the same cost as gasoline at $1.95 a gallon.
Braun calls for 12 million wind systems to be mass-produced and installed within 24 months and coupled to an interstate
hydrogen pipeline. "It is possible for the U.S. to be energy independent, with a pollution-free and inexhaustible energy
resource within five to 10 years," he says.
The Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown offers a plausible scenario for wind-based hydrogen. "Surplus wind power can be
stored as hydrogen and used in fuel cells or gas turbines to generate electricity, leveling supply when winds are variable," says
Brown. "Wind, once seen as a cornerstone of the new energy economy, may turn out to be its foundation. The wind meteorologist who analyzes
wind regimes and identifies the best sites for wind farms will play a role in the new energy economy comparable to that of the petroleum geologist in the old energy economy.
"With the advancing technologies for harnessing wind and powering motor vehicles with hydrogen, we can now see a future
where farmers and ranchers can supply not only much of the country's electricity, but much of the hydrogen to fuel its fleet of
automobiles as well. For the first time, the United States has the technology and resources to divorce itself from Middle Eastern oil."
Fuel cells are critical to a transition to a renewable energy economy – the provide a reliable source of energy
Learner, 1 – President and Executive Director, Environmental Law and Policy Center
(Howard A., Tulane Environmental Law Journal, “Cleaning, Greening and Modernizing the Electric Power Sector in the
Twenty-First Century,” Summer, 14 Tul. Envtl. L.J. 277) // JMP
Fuel cells combine hydrogen (from the fuel source) and oxygen (from the air) in the presence of a catalyst to generate
electricity, heat, and water. They have great promise as an efficient, modular, combustion-free power technology. Over the
next two decades, fuel cells can be used for central power plants or as on-site generators providing reliable distributed
generation. Fuel cells are an especially strong option for high-quality power users, such as hospitals, financial institutions,
data processing and other computer centers, museums, police and fire stations, and research labs that have little tolerance for
utility outages and interruptions. The superb reliability of fuel cells compensates for the added expense because outages can
cause severe economic costs for those consumers and, in some cases, catastrophes. For this reason, the First National Bank in
Omaha, Nebraska, recently installed four 200-kilowatt fuel cells to run its computer system, which processes $ 6 million each
hour in transactions. This high-reliability system is down less than four seconds per year. In the longer term, fuel cells are a
key component in a transition to a renewable energy economy.
RPS Aff 176
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Birds occasionally collide with wind turbines, as they do with other tall structures such as buildings. Avian deaths have
become a concern at Altamont Pass in California, which is an area of extensive wind development and also high year-round
raptor use. Detailed studies, and monitoring following construction, at other wind development areas indicate that this is a
site-specific issue that will not be a problem at most potential wind sites. Also, wind's overall impact on birds is low
compared with other human-related sources of avian mortality—see
"Avian Collisions With Wind Turbines," for more information. The following graph is based on data from the studies
described in that report: No matter how extensively wind is developed in the future, bird deaths from wind energy are
unlikely to ever reach as high as 1% of those from other human-related sources such as hunters, house cats, buildings, and
autos. (House cats, for example, are believed to kill 1 billion birds annually in the U.S. alone.) Wind is, quite literally, a drop
in the bucket. Still, areas that are commonly used by threatened or endangered bird species should be regarded as unsuitable
for wind development. The wind industry is working with environmental groups, federal regulators, and other interested
parties to develop methods of measuring and mitigating wind energy's effect on birds.
Wind energy can also negatively impact birds and other wildlife by fragmenting habitat, both through installation and
operation of wind turbines themselves and through the roads and power lines that may be needed. This has been raised as an
issue in areas with unbroken stretches of prairie grasslands or of forests. More research is needed to better understand these
impacts.
A turbine kills 1 bird a year and global warming makes species extinctions inevitable—plan key to solve
Yes 2 Wind 7 ( “Myth 2: Wind Turbines kills lots of birds,” 7/16/7, http://www.yes2wind.com/birds_debunk.html, AM)
Monitoring of existing wind farms suggests that with sensitive siting there is no adverse effect on bird populations.
Applications for consent for wind farms submitted to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
(BERR) and local councils must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that includes details of the
likely impact of the project in question on the environment and wildlife, among other things. In considering an application,
the Department consults with a range of stakeholders, including the statutory advisers on nature conservation, as well as
others with an interest in the project. This ensures that decisions on whether to grant consent for a wind farm are considered
in the light of the best available information about its likely impacts. According to the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds (RSPB), the available evidence suggests that appropriately positioned wind farms do not pose a significant hazard for
birds. The RSPB supports the sustainable development of renewable energy such as wind power because it helps mitigate
climate change, which they believe "poses the most significant long-term threat to the environment...The available evidence
suggests that appropriately positioned wind farms do not pose a significant hazard for birds." The RSPB's conclusion is
supported by a report last year for the Swedish State Energy Authority, which found that only 14 of the total 1.5 million
migrating seabirds that each year passes two wind farms at Kalmarsund in south east Sweden are at risk of being killed.
Developers should contact specialists such as the RSPB and conduct a thorough analysis of the risk to birdlife as part of the
environmental impact assessment of their wind farm proposal. With rigorous EIAs and thorough monitoring wind power can
be deployed without significant detriment to birds (and other wildlife). For example, the 9 harbour-wall turbines at Blyth are
in a busy bird area. Of the bird flights through the wind farm, only 1 in 10,000 have resulted in a collision. This translates to
1-2 collisions per year per turbine. To put the issue into perspective, every year more than 10 million birds are killed by cars
in the UK. Projects like the Black Law windfarm demonstrate that, if properly sited, such developments not only produce
zero emissions, but can also have a positive impact on the environment. The RSPB make clear that the Black Law windfarm,
on the site of an abandoned opencast coalmine, represents an exciting opportunity to deliver real biodiversity benefits through
habitat management. In any case, the likely impact on wildlife must be kept in context. A paper in Nature, by a large group of
scientists including one from the RSPB, indicated that in sample regions covering about 20 per cent of the Earth's land
surface - 15 per cent to 37 per cent of species (not just birds) will be committed to extinction as a result of mid-range climate
warming scenarios by 2050.
RPS Aff 177
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Last month's Small Turbine Column examined both the perceived and real problems that wind turbines pose to bird
populations. There is, however, another group of animals that, like birds, might be impacted by wind turbines: bats.
Creatures of the night, bats occupy the same ecological niche as birds do, only twelve hours later. While birds forage for
insects, fruits, and seeds during the day, North American bats are sound asleep. Bats come awake for the night shift, when the
birds are no longer out and about. Bat populations are endangered by human activities in general. Disturbing or awakening
hibernating bats disrupts their metabolism, often leading to starvation over winter. Pesticides in the insects that bats prey
upon can accumulate in the fats that bats depend upon for over-wintering or migration, resulting in massive bat die-offs.
Finally, loss of habitat threatens bats similarly to the way that bird species are endangered. But do wind turbines in particular
threaten bats? The interaction of bats with wind turbines is, like many other behaviors that bats exhibit, not well understood.
While there have been numerous studies centered around birds and wind turbines, relative few of these studies have included
bats. The ones that have been done, however, suggest that wind turbines do not pose a significant threat to bat populations.
One of these studies, "Synthesis and Comparison of Baseline Avian and Bat Use, Raptor Nesting, and Mortality Information
from Proposed and Existing Wind Developments," by WEST, Inc., released December, 2002, concludes that "bat collision
mortality during the breeding season is virtually non-existent, despite the fact that relatively large numbers of bat species
have been documented in close proximity to wind plants. These data suggest that wind plants do not currently impact resident
breeding populations where they have been studied in the U.S." The study goes on to say that "All available evidence
indicates that most of the bat mortality at U.S. wind plants involves migrant or dispersing bats in the late summer and fall." It
is theorized that migrant bats, since they are not searching for insects or feeding, turn off their echolocation in order to
conserve their energy resources. Results from studies done at Buffalo Ridge ("Interim Report: Bat Interactions with Wind
Turbines at the Buffalo Ridge, Minnesota, Wind Resource Area: 2001 Field Season") and at the Kewaunee County
(Wisconsin) Wind Farms (Effects of Wind Turbines on Birds and Bats in Northeast Wisconsin" by Dr. Robert Howe, et al,
November, 2002) agree with the "Synthesis and Comparison" findings. For example, the Minnesota Interim Report comes to
the following conclusions:
The wind plant probably does not impact bat breeding populations in the project area;
All available evidence indicates that most of the mortality involves migrant or dispersing bats in the fall; and
Preliminary data indicate that the population of bats susceptible to turbine collisions is large enough that the observed
mortality is not sufficient to cause population declines.
The Buffalo Ridge study concludes by putting a number on the bat mortality at from 2.45 to 3.21 bat fatalities per turbine,
depending on location of the wind farm. The Kewaunee County report came up with similar results. Over the two-year span
of that study, researchers documented 1.16 bat fatalities per turbine per year. Adjusting for possible sampling error could
bring this number as high as 4.26 bat fatalities per turbine per year. Like the other studies, the Kewaunee County study found
that the bulk of those killed by the wind turbines, over 90%, were migrating bats, not resident breeding populations. We do
know that many bats, like birds, die due to collisions with "lighthouses, communications towers, tall buildings, power lines,
and fences" (Buffalo Ridge report). But, as with birds, the number of fatalities due to wind turbines is extremely low
compared to collisions with other man-made structures. Finally, no reports have been registered about bat fatalities resulting
from their living and foraging for insects in the neighborhood of a home-sized wind turbine. One can only conclude that, as
with birds, home-sized turbines pose no significant threat to the night shift: bats.
Turbines don’t kill endangered bat species and wind industry is solving the problem
Bat collisions at wind plants generally tend to be low in number and to involve common species which are quite numerous.
Human disturbance of hibernating bats in caves is a far greater threat to species of concern. Still, a surprisingly high number
of bat kills at a new wind plant in West Virginia in the fall of 2003 has raised concerns, and research at that plant and another
in Pennsylvania in 2004 suggests that the problem may be a regional one. The wind industry has joined with the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Bat Conservation
International to form the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative (BWEC), which funded the 2004 research program and is
continuing to explore ways to avoid or reduce bat kills.
RPS Aff 178
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Windustry 7 (“Community Wind Toolbox Chapter 6: Permitting Basics”, Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy
solutions and empowers communities to develop wind energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset.
Through member supported outreach, education and advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community
ownership of wind energy. http://www.windustry.com/your-wind-project/community-wind/community-wind-toolbox/chapter-
6-permitting-basics/community-wind-t, AM)
If the project poses potential impacts on wildlife habitat or species protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Bald and
Golden Eagle Protection Act, or the Migratory Bird TreatyAct, wind project permitting will most likely involve coordination
and consultation with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
RPS Aff 179
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Erosion which can be prevented through proper installation and landscaping techniques. Erosion can be a concern in certain
habitats such as the desert, where a hard-packed soil surface must be disturbed to install wind turbines. Erosion has also been
raised as a concern in the eastern U.S., where wind farms typically must be installed on mountain ridgelines. However,
standard engineering practices used by ski areas on the same kind of terrain are adequate to deal with any erosion issues that
might be raised by construction of a wind farm and its service road.
US Department of Energy 4 (“Wind Energy For Rural Economic Development”, August (No Date) 4,
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/33590.pdf, AM)
Wind turbines have a minimal effect on farming and ranching operations. The turbines have a small footprint, so crops can be
grown and livestock can be grazed right up to the base of the turbine. As Leroy Ratzlaff, a third-generation landowner and
farmer in Hyde County, South Dakota, said, “It’s almost like renting out my farm and still having it. And the cows don’t seem
to mind a bit.”
UPI, 8 (Megan Harris, United Press International, “Analysis: U.S. wind market's mixed signals,” 5-6-2008,
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/05/06/analysis_us_wind_markets_mixed_signals/3295/) // JMP
A non-carbon-emitting energy source, wind uses no water in contrast to nuclear and coal power and has little impact on
habitat, according to the AWEA. It is also a source of economic revitalization in areas of industrial decline and in rural
communities and provides a stable source of revenue to farmers who lease land to host wind turbines.
The claim is sometimes made that manufacturing wind turbines and building wind plants creates large emissions of carbon
dioxide. This is false. Studies have found that even when these operations are included, wind energy's CO2 emissions are
quite small — on the order of 1% of coal or 2% of natural gas per unit of electricity generated. Or in other words, using wind
instead of coal reduces CO2 emissions by 99%, using wind instead of gas by 98%.
RPS Aff 180
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Windustry 7 (Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy solutions and empowers communities to develop wind
energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset. Through member supported outreach, education and
advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community ownership of wind energy., “Why Wind Energy?”
http://www.windustry.com/wind-basics/learn-about-wind-energy/wind-basics-why-wind-energy/why-wind-energy, AM)
Radar: Radar interference by wind turbines is rare and easily avoided through technological improvements and proper siting
of turbines that are close to sensitive areas. A number of U.S. government installations have both wind turbines and
functional radar, and the British military has a track record of successfully addressing these challenges.
Windustry 7 (“Community Wind Toolbox Chapter 6: Permitting Basics”, Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy
solutions and empowers communities to develop wind energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset.
Through member supported outreach, education and advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community
ownership of wind energy. http://www.windustry.com/your-wind-project/community-wind/community-wind-toolbox/chapter-
6-permitting-basics/community-wind-t, AM)
Wind projects have the potential to create problems with microwave beam communications that are used by emergency response agencies, the
Department of Transportation and AM radio signals. The fiberglass blades can partially or completely block these signals, interfering with communication abilities. Before
acquiring local and state building permits, it will be necessary to perform a radar beam path study. You can contact the Federal
Communication Commission (FCC) to perform a communications tower search, which can identify potential interference from
your wind turbines. Negative results from this study generally will not stop a project from moving forward. However, the
study may dictate that you move some of the turbines in your project so that they are not within a beam’s path. There are also
professionals who specialize in performing these studies. Hiring a consultant to perform the study will ensure that it is performed up to the standards
required by state and local permitting agencies.
Yes. Radar is basically designed to filter out stationary objects and display moving ones, and moving
wind turbine blades create radar echoes. It is
possible to modify a radar installation to eliminate this problem, according to a consulting firm that has studied it for the British government-see
http://www.bwea.com/aviation/ams_report.html. According to the study: "This study concludes that radars can be modified to ensure that air
safety is maintained in the presence of wind turbine farms. Individual circumstances will dictate the degree and cost of
modification required, some installations may require no change at all whilst others may require significant modification." If a wind project is
proposed near an airport or military airfield, this issue will likely require further technical investigation. The interference is generally limited to objects (airplanes) that are
physically shadowed by the turbines (that is, very low-flying aircraft), so the further the turbines are from an airfield and the lower their altitude,
the less interference should occur.
Space Daily 8 (May 2, “Mass Megawatts Wind Power Reports US Army Sale”
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mass_Megawatts_Wind_Power_Reports_US_Army_Sale_999.html, AM)
Mass Megawatts Wind Power has announced the sale of a wind power plant to be used by the United States Army. The 50
kilowatt wind power project will be constructed at U.S. Army Intelligence Headquarters located in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Construction will begin this spring as part of the Army's ongoing efforts to expand into renewable energy. Future energy
needs at the army base could be met with the installation of additional wind power plants that are capable of generating over ten
megawatt/hours of electricity per year. There are over 50 army base installations in the United States alone. The wind power plant also known as the Multiaxis Turbosystem
(MAT) at Fort Huachuca will be constructed with the newly developed, adjustable augmenter that was recently announced by the company. The new augmenter technology reduces
in a major way the cost for heavy and expensive components needed by an augmenter to increase the harnessed wind velocity by up to 70%, translating into an increase of over
five times the power output. The recently announced new augmenter reduces the electric generation cost below traditional wind turbine technologies, and is directly competitive
with fossil fuel power plants such as coal and natural gas. The MAT structure provides several key advantages over traditional turbine designs. This includes a reduction in capital,
operational, and maintenance costs, along with, the ability to operate profitably in lower wind speed locations. In the United States alone, suitable wind power locations currently
The U.S. Army and Fort Huachuca is highly aggressive in their efforts to pursue the
exist to potentially supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity.
use of renewable energy and American energy independence.
RPS Aff 181
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AWEA 6 (American Wind Energy Association, “Wind Turbines and Radar: An Information Source,” 6/2/6,
www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/060602_Wind_Turbines_and%20_Radar_Fact_Sheet.pdf -, AM)
The wind industry is in a confusing and uncertain position because it is unclear how many projects will be affected. The
broad-brush approach being taken by
some in the U.S. government that stops all development over a multi-state region pending outcome of a study ignores industry and military
operational experience. A number of U.S. government installations have both wind turbines and functional radar, and the
British military has a track record of successfully addressing this challenge.
Any study and accompanying policy on wind turbine impacts to radar must therefore also explore the solutions used elsewhere in the world and look at ways of mitigating the
problem, rather than just prohibiting wind development in large areas. Wind
turbines are installed at U.S. Air Force bases and near airports in the
U.S. and elsewhere, and experience at those sites demonstrates this is a solvable challenge.
These military and civilian installations have wind turbines and functional radar:
• F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming – two 660-kW turbines
http://www.afcee.brooks.af.mil/ms/msp/center/Vol11No3/10.asp
• U.S. Navy at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – four 950-kW turbines
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2005/20050329_342.html
• U.S. Air Force Space Command on Ascension Island – four 225-kW and two 900-kW turbines
http://www.inl.gov/powersystems/ascension_island.shtml
• U.S. Navy at San Clemente Island Base – three 225-kW
http://www.nelp.navy.mil/pdf_cases/Conservation_Wind_Power_SCI.pdf
Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts – near Hull, MA turbines
http://www.ceere.org/rerl/publications/whitepapers/AWEA_Hull_2003.pdf
Wind projects are relatively close to Long Range Radar facilities in:
• Mt. Laguna, California (twenty-five 2 MW turbines)
• McCamey, Texas (322 turbines totaling 356 MW)
British solutions to wind turbines and radar
Studies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere show that while wind turbines can cause “clutter” on radars, there are
engineering solutions that can be implemented or should be explored further. In the UK, the Ministry of Defense registered concerns on many wind projects,
but in November 2005, Wing Commander Nicky Loveday said, “We have been learning about things that we thought were a major
problem for us. We have had to step away and say: actually it really isn’t a problem for the air defence community”
(Windpower Monthly, November 2005).
A June 2003 study from the British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) concluded that there
are hardware and software mitigation efforts that can
be implemented to reduce or eliminate the effects of wind turbines on radars. These solutions include adding radars, adding
filters to the radar software, or altering the layout of a wind project. These solutions vary in cost based on the site-specific situation.
Conclusion
The industry is strongly supportive of responsible, effective actions designed to identify and address any problems with radar caused by wind turbines. Overly broad restrictions
We
that shut down the industry, threatening jobs, local economic revenue and the growth of clean, renewable, domestic wind energy are neither productive nor appropriate.
look forward to working with the U.S. government to address this issue so that the wind industry can get back to work for the
benefit of America’s economy, environment and energy security.
Edwards 7 (John, Las Vegas Review Journal “No Military Objection Will Blow in the Wind”, 11-7-7,
http://www.lvrj.com/business/11077331.html, AM)
Gates has informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the military will not object to wind farms in an area of eastern Nevada, moving a
Defense Secretary Robert
The Defense
$1 billion project closer to reality. Tim Carlson, a renewable energy developer, plans to build a 450-megawatt wind farm in the Wilson Creek Range area 40 miles north of Pioche.
Department's agreement is "another step forward" to developing what would be Nevada's first utility-size wind farm, Carlson said.
Carlson's company, Nevada Wind, is in talks with a partner for the project. He declined to identify the partner. Hill Air Force Base in Utah has been concerned about wind-power projects in the area because
wind turbines can interfere with radar. ButReid received assurances from Gates that the department will not object to wind farms in the Wilson Creek
area, spokesman Jon Summers said Tuesday. Reid has been arguing that Nevada should cancel plans for coal-fired power projects that emit massive quantities of carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
This announcement shows that Reid also is working to support renewable energy projects, Carlson said. Carlson, a former head of the Nevada Development Authority and long-time friend of Reid, previously
The developer said he enjoyed working with
tried to develop a $130 million wind farm on the Nevada Test Site, but Nellis Air Force Base objected and the project died in 2002.
Air Force representatives on concerns about the Wilson Creek project and noted that the Air Force uses more renewable
energy than any other part of the federal government. Carlson said the project could provide the Air Force with information
about flying in areas where wind turbines interfere with radar signals. While the Defense Department said it would not oppose wind turbines at Wilson Creek,
Gates is believed to oppose wind projects near Goldfield. "The Department of Defense plays a very important role in this state," Carlson said. "You've got to work with them. You can't fight them." Reid, D-
met with area base
Nev., has been talking with military officials in an effort to find ways that the state can tap wind power, a form of renewable energy. In February, for example, Reid
commanders and members of the Nevada Renewable Energy Task Force about finding ways to build wind farms that do not
cause problem for Navy and Air Force pilots.
RPS Aff 182
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
AWEA 6 (American Wind Energy Association, Statement of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) on the
September 27 Report by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on the Effect of Wind Farms on Military Radar, 9/28/6,
http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/AWEA_statement_on_DOD_study_092806.html, AM)
“The U.S. wind energy industry is disappointed that, in spite of the U.S. Department of Defense’s recognition of the
importance of wind energy development for the country and in spite of specific instructions by Congress, the report remains
incomplete and only cursorily mentions existing and emerging ways to mitigate wind turbine radar interactions,” said AWEA
executive director Randall Swisher.
Some wind turbines can affect radar systems, but thousands of wind turbines generating electricity nationwide demonstrate
that impacts can be, and have been, mitigated through measures such as relocating turbines or upgrading radar systems. The
American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) also advocates exploring additional technical options that can either be used
today or developed in the future to address this issue.
“Decades of experience tell us that wind and radar can coexist,” said Swisher. “The American wind energy industry will
continue to work collaboratively with government and others on efforts to constructively address challenges and refine
solutions. We need to further develop clean, renewable energy sources like wind to reduce dependence on imports and
increase our energy security.”
Projects Moving Ahead After FAA Review
In the meantime, some projects recently held up by radar concerns are moving ahead. AWEA welcomes Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) approvals for a number of projects in the Midwest. The FAA recently approved 614 applications for
individual wind turbines that total more than 1,000 megawatts of new wind power (enough to power approximately 250,000
homes) worth $1.5 billion in economic development across Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
“Approval of these projects means more jobs and economic development in the Midwest and additional clean, renewable
wind power added to the electric utility system in a part of the country that really needs it,” said Swisher. “The wind power
industry continues to support efforts to address issues of concern such as radar interactions with military and civilian radar
and land-use policies. We are strongly encouraged by the FAA’s actions to address these concerns and move forward with
approvals of these important projects.”
AWEA 5 (American Wind Energy Association, “AWEA Statement on “here we go again,” Anti-wind Amendments in Coast
Guard and Defense Legislation,” 11/28/5,
http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/AWEA_statement_here_we_go_again_antiwind_112805.html, AM)
As high demand for natural gas causes electricity prices to soar, wind farms in 30 states will supply clean, home-grown
electricity to 2.5 million households this winter, reducing the need for gas-fired generation and giving consumers modest but
badly needed price relief. Unfortunately, anti-wind energy provisions in two pending bills in Congress would create
unnecessary and costly hurdles for wind development at the very time our country urgently needs to diversify its energy mix.
Both provisions offer harmful bureaucratic “solutions” for nonexistent problems:
Military radar study of wind turbine impacts: An amendment inserted by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman
John Warner (R-Va.) into H.R. 1815, the Defense Authorization Bill, calls for a study of how wind energy projects might
affect military radar systems, even though previous studies have already shown that radar interference is not a problem. As
justification for his unilateral action, Sen. Warner cites concerns in the United Kingdom about possible impacts on military
radars, but, ironically, the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) recently announced that “actually it really isn’t a problem for
the air defense community.” And here in the U.S., as part of the Environmental Impact Statement for a wind farm proposed
off Nantucket Island, the U.S. Air Force has found that the proposed project would not negatively affect the force's Cape Cod
radar installation.
RPS Aff 183
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Stanford Report, 3 (Dawn Levy, “Harnessing the wind: One-quarter of United States is suited for wind power production,
researchers find,” 5-21-3 http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2003/may21/wind-521.html) // JMP
Although wind power might be initially expensive it pays for itself in 3 months
Yes 2 Wind 7 (“Wind Energy and Environmental Impact,” 7/16/7, http://www.yes2wind.com/5_faq.html, AM)
The comparison of energy used in manufacture with the energy produced by a power station is known as the 'energy balance'.
It can be expressed in terms of energy 'pay back' time, i.e. as the time needed to generate the equivalent amount of energy
used in manufacturing the wind turbine or power station. The average wind farm in the UK will pay back the energy used in
its manufacture within three to five months, and over its lifetime a wind turbine will produce over 30 times more energy than
was used in its manufacture. This is quicker than coal or nuclear power stations, which take about six months. When the
energy used to supply the fuel for nuclear and coal power plants is included, the energy balance for those conventional source
is even poorer still. This year the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) calculated that onshore wind farms recover
around 80 times the input energy required.
Wind is not expensive and is cheaper than the alternatives because of cost of repairing the environment
Isn't wind power really expensive? No. The cost of generating electricity from the wind has fallen dramatically over the past
few years. Wind power can now produce electricity at a cheaper price than nuclear power in the UK. Energy from the wind
will become even cheaper in the future as greater experience is gained in manufacturing and developing this relatively new
technology. When the full costs of the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels and nuclear power are taken into account,
wind power is an even better buy. For example, it has been estimated that if the cost of environmental damage were
included, the price of electricity from coal would be three times higher than electricity from the wind. The full costs of
nuclear power, including dealing with highly-radioactive waste and decommissioning of old plants, are still not included in
the price of electricity. The Government's own report on energy policy (the PIU report) predicted that by 2020, the cost of
generating electricity from nuclear power would be 3-4p per kWh, whereas the cost of production from offshore wind costs
would be 2-3p per kWh. Onshore wind is set to be the cheapest form of electricity generation of all by 2020, and is already
competitive with fossil fuels at an average price of 2.88p/kWh.
RPS Aff 184
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Yes 2 Wind 7 (“Wind energy and environmental impact,” 7/16/7, http://www.yes2wind.com/44_faq.html, AM)
This rather bizarre claim is increasingly common among anti-wind campaigners. Their argument runs like this:
Because wind power is intermittent (it varies with the weather) it needs dedicated back-up for when the wind doesn’t blow.
This back up will be coal powered stations that have to be kept ‘spinning’ (ie burning) at low level so they are ready to go
immediately that the wind drops. Burning like this is inefficient so the emissions they make are roughly the same as if they
were actually generating electricity. Therefore wind power saves no carbon because the back-up emits the same as if there
were no wind turbines in the first place.
This argument is quite simply wrong. The national grid has back-up on it regardless of wind power. Back-up is needed for all
forms of energy generation because of unexpected increases in demand (a cold snap for example, or when England play
soccer on television). In fact one of the biggest back-up requirements on the system today is due to Sizewell B nuclear power
station - because when it fails (as it does - and has done recently for safety concerns) it knocks out a huge amount of capacity
in an instant - unlike wind where any variation is both gentle and very predictable. Only when there is a very large capacity
of wind on the system (above 10%) does the variation of the wind even become noticeable over the ‘normal’ variation on the
system. Only then is any of the back-up specifically due to wind power. And only at this point could any carbon emissions
from back-up plant be counted against wind power. It is widely accepted that only very minor levels of back-up are needed
for wind up to about 20% wind on the system (much higher levels of wind power are possible, but require a little more back-
up). Under current government policies this level of wind power is not likely until after 2020. In terms of emissions - even if
the back-up was the dirtiest option - coal power - at 10% wind power on the system only 1% of the CO2 saved by the wind
would be emitted from the back-up - and 99% is saved. Coal is not the only option for back-up. Gas is about half as dirty and
both hydro power and biomass are renewable forms of energy that can play the same role. In the future a wide range of
renewable energy technologies would compliment one another and offer the chance for completely secure and completely
clean energy system - including both primary generation and back-up.
RPS Aff 185
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Wind energy is one of the most popular energy technologies. Opinion surveys regularly show that just over eight out of 10
people (80%) are in favor of wind energy, and less than one in ten (around 5%) are against it. The rest are undecided. Public
opinion in support of wind power tends to become even more strongly in favor once the wind turbines are installed and
operating, a finding from several surveys carried out in the UK and in Spain. Some people who live near proposed wind
projects may be apprehensive about them. But when accurate information and knowledge is made available, experience
shows that initial concerns are reduced and support for wind farms increases.
Windustry 7 (“Community Wind Toolbox Chapter 6: Permitting Basics”, Windustry promotes progressive renewable energy
solutions and empowers communities to develop wind energy as an environmentally sustainable, community-owned asset.
Through member supported outreach, education and advocacy we work to remove the barriers to broad community
ownership of wind energy. http://www.windustry.com/your-wind-project/community-wind/community-wind-toolbox/chapter-
6-permitting-basics/community-wind-t, AM)
AWEA 6 (American Wind Energy Association, “FIRST QUARTER MARKET REPORT: WIND ENERGY ON TRACK
FOR ANOTHER RECORD YEAR,” 4/3/6,
http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/First_Quarter_Market_Report_Energy_On_Track_050306.html, AM)
President Bush recently recognized the importance of wind energy for the nation's security, noting that wind energy could
contribute 20% of U.S. electricity supply (approximately the share that nuclear power provides today).
A state-by-state listing of existing and proposed wind energy projects is available on AWEA's Web site at
http://www.awea.org/projects/index.html . The full list of projects installed in 2005 is available on the AWEA newsroom site
at http://www.awea.org/newsroom/2005_projects.pdf .
RPS Aff 187
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Interest in elevating the RPS to a national policy has also been driven by several other factors. For example, the size of the
new renewable energy market created under existing state RPS policies would be far outweighed by a national RPS. UCS
estimates that state standards, if entirely successful, would support more than 46,000 MW of new renewable power—equal to
about 6 percent of total U.S. electric sales—by 2020.5 By contrast, a 20 percent by 2020 national RPS would support as
much as four times the development of renewable energy capacity (see Section V). Because all national RPS proposals to
date have established a national floor, with states allowed to continue to set higher standards, a combination of state and
federal standards would create the most development.
Kammen, 7 – Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Professor of Public Policy at Cal Berkeley
(Daniel M., also Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at Berkeley, “Green Jobs Created by Global
Warming Initiatives,” Congressional Testimony on 9-25-2007, http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/eeworkshop/CPUC-
new/summit/docs/Kammen_Senate_EPW-9-26.pdf) //JMP
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Finally, the Proposed RPS expressly preserved the validity of state programs, including those that exceeded the national RPS.
n40 In recommending reliance upon state and regional systems that track "non-Federal renewable energy credits" in the
development of a federal REC tracking system, House Bill 3221 contemplated the coexistence of such state programs. n41
Further, the proposal stated, all retail electricity supplier payments made, "directly or indirectly, to a State for compliance
with a State renewable portfolio standard program, or for an alternative compliance mechanism, shall be valued ... based on
the amount of electric energy generation from renewable resources and electricity savings that results from those payments."
n42 The Proposed RPS thus would have kept intact state RPS programs and allowed for the issuance of both federal RECs
and state RECs where the renewable energy source satisfied both the federal and state requirements. This does not mean that
there would not have been lawsuits claiming some sort of preemption, but the Proposed RPS made the intent quite clear. n43
RPS Aff 188
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper 6 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices (Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and
Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Green Means
'Go?'-A Colorful Approach to a U.S. National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” August-September 6, Vol. 19 No. 7, lexis)
Opponents of renewable energy often suggest that mandating a national RPS would be technically impossible, costly, unfair
to those states without renewable resources, and difficult to enforce. Contrary to these claims, the authors suggest that a
properly designed RPS would actually lower electricity prices, empower states and local actors, and provide a host of
important ancillary services to the electric utility industry and society at large.
A federal RPS will create a harmonized system that still allows States to experiment and be flexible
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
The RPS and greenhouse gas caps are excellent policy mechanisms: unlike other policy incentives such as tax credits and
subsidies, these tools minimize government intervention and rely on the efficiency of the market--instead of continual
monetary disbursements or political salience--to dictate how utilities, industries, and consumers promote renewable energy
and fight climate change. (43) They also have the tendency to be self-expiring (or "self-sunsetting"). When utilizing RECs
and tradable permits, for example, the value of such commodities will automatically reach zero once the RPS and greenhouse
gas target levels have been met.
The impressive growth in state-based RPS and climate change initiatives utilizing these policy mechanisms is testimony,
most of all, to woeful inaction at the federal level. Perhaps new Democratic control of Congress will overcome objectives at
the federal level, but that remains to be seen. (44)
A multi-jurisdictional approach to these issues would create a national system for the first time requiring all states to
participate in a harmonized system that would include the trading of RECs and nationally certified carbon offsets. A
consensus-based federal system would produce a meaningful and achievable regime eliminating the "free rider" phenomenon
that now exists. Under a multi-jurisdictional framework, however, states wanting to do more than what the federal program
entails would be permitted to do so. Federal preemption would not be permitted to snuff out these "laboratories of
democracy" that wish to go forward with bold, aggressive, and experimental programs. If these state programs are successful
over time, one would expect to see their results gradually incorporated into the federal program.
Ultimately, however, state experience will yield profuse results only if it inspires a national standard that motivates the
country to truly promote renewable energy and fight climate change.
RPS Aff 189
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Peterson, 7 – partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.
(David J., Sustainability Law Blog, “Why We Need a Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard,” 12-3-2007,
http://www.sustainabilitylawblog.com/2007/12/why_we_need_a_federal_renewabl.html) // JMP
States RPSs vary along several different lines – creating headaches and inefficiencies for stakeholders and investors
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
The piecemeal approach to renewables and climate change represented by state action, while laudable as an alternative to federal inaction and consistent
with the way many issues are brought to the federal agenda (such as was the case for energy appliance standards and the acid rain provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990), is ultimately
an inadequate response to the magnitude of the challenges the country faces in energy and climate change.
A Brief Taxonomy of State Actions
To be fair, state-based environmental regulation does bring with it some advantages. The states are generally believed to act as classic "laboratories of democracy," a concept Supreme Court Justice Louis
Brandeis promulgated in a dissenting opinion 75 years ago. (14) State policymakers have access to knowledge of local problems and conditions and are often more accountable to their constituents. Because
they are closer to environmental problems and the regulated community, the states can devise more manageable and appropriate policies capable of catering to individual needs and exploiting opportunities
peculiar to regions. State action can provide opportunities for experimentation in designing policy, as the existence of many states acting at once promotes diversification and innovation. (15)
There is no denying that the states have certainly taken the lead in terms of experimenting with RPS and climate change policies. In 1985, Iowa became the first state to mandate utilities to purchase renewable
energy (with a goal of 105 megawatts (MW) of installed renewable capacity by 1997). Minnesota followed in 1994. (16) Since then, no fewer than 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, have developed some
form of RPS. (17) These states have collectively launched hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy projects, the most aggressive being California (20 percent by 2010), New York (24 percent by
2013), and Nevada (20 percent by 2015) (18) (see Figure 1 on page 24).
Similarly, the states have taken the initiative in addressing climate change, implementing comprehensive and crosscutting programs to those narrowly focused on agriculture, transportation, education, and
energy. Forty-one states have developed comprehensive greenhouse gas inventories, 28 have completed climate change action plans, and 14 have mandated greenhouse gas emissions targets. The most
aggressive is New York, aiming for 5 percent below 1990 carbon dioxide emissions levels by 2010, followed by Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and
Vermont (aiming for 1990 levels by 2010). California has set a target of returning to 1990 emission levels by 2020 and reaching levels 80 percent below that benchmark by 2050. Motivated to encompass a
broader geographic area, eliminate duplication of work, and create more uniform regulatory environments, many states have also established regional initiatives to fight climate change such as the Western
Regional Climate Action Initiative (WGA) on the West Coast and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on the East Coast (see Figure 2 on page 25 and Table 1 on page 27).
Why State-Based Renewable Portfolio Standards Are Not Enough
While the considerable state-based RPS activity, just described, can be lauded as better than no action at all, it is not necessarily superior to national legislation.
Important issues such as geographic scope, eligible technologies or industries, inclusion of existing versus new technologies,
and the specifics of credit trading have been decided differently in every state. Consequently, the resulting state-based market
may create confusion, complexity, and inconsistency for policymakers, investors, and businesses.
Contrary to enabling a well-lubricated national renewable energy market, inconsistencies between states--over what counts as renewable energy, when it
has to come online, how large it has to be, where it must be delivered, and how it may be traded--clog the renewable energy
market like coffee grounds in a drain. Implementing agencies and stakeholders must grapple with inconsistent state RPS goals, and investors must interpret
competing and often arbitrary statutes. (19)
To pick just a few prominent examples, Massachusetts set its target at 4 percent by 2011, while Rhode Island chose 15 percent by 2020. In Maine, fuel cells and high efficiency cogeneration units count as
"renewables," while the standard in Pennsylvania includes coal gasification and small-scale fossil fuel power plants. Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas set their purchase requirements based on installed capacity,
whereas other states set them relative to electricity sales. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island trade renewable energy credits (RECs) under the New England Power Pool, whereas
Texas has its own REC trading system. Minnesota and Iowa have voluntary standards with no penalties, whereas Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania all levy different noncompliance
fees. (20) The result is a renewable energy market that deters investment, complicates compliance, discourages interstate cooperation, and encourages tedious and expensive litigation. (21)
The electricity utility industry is also transitioning away from a state-by-state energy market, making a state-by-state RPS
approach anachronistic. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 removed the geographic restrictions that limited public utility holding companies to single, integrated systems. (22) More utilities operate
across state lines, and many have begun to merge and consolidate to maximize profits and deal with the perceived challenges of restructuring. Using individual states as a crucible for innovations in electricity
generation and marketing may have made sense when limits were placed on the size and geographic scope of utility holding companies, but it makes little sense now.
A national RPS is key to ensure sustained investment necessary to expand renewable energy use
Sebelius, ‘8 – Governor of Kansas (Kathleen, Kansas City Star, “Sebelius outlines wind energy gains, needs, 6-10-2008,
http://www.kansascity.com/news/neighborhood/leawood/story/657283.html) // SM
Congress must renew the Production Tax Credits and make it clear to investors that this incentive will last for several years. The
market will work effectively and
competitively as long as investors know their long-term investments are prudent.
Transmission lines and wind farms take years to develop, and single-year credits send the wrong signal about our
commitment to diversifying America’s long-term energy portfolio.
A national RPS would help to give clear policy guidelines to the financial community, allowing investments to flourish.
Creating a patchwork of regulatory interventions on a state-by-state basis is not a good approach to the national challenge of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
To reduce pollution and increase wind energy, we need clear federal rules about the cost of CO2.
And, we need to make sure that any charge for CO2 emissions is invested in research and production of cleaner alternative energy sources, like wind.
While states have made great strides, we need clear leadership at the federal level.
This is a case where consumers are well ahead of Congress as the demand for cleaner energy alternatives is growing across the country.
Moving toward renewable energy provides great opportunities for more good-paying jobs, while helping to address global warming concerns.
RPS Aff 192
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Michaels, 8 – Adjunct Scholar at CATO and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute
(Robert J., Electricity Journal, “A National Renewable Portfolio Standard: Politically Correct, Economically Suspect,” April
2008, vol. 21, no. 3, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Michaels, 8 – Adjunct Scholar at CATO and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute
(Robert J., Electricity Journal, “A National Renewable Portfolio Standard: Politically Correct, Economically Suspect,” April
2008, vol. 21, no. 3, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
UPI, 7 (Rosalie, Westenskow, United Press International, “Analysis: Nation ripe for a federal RPS,” 6-8-2007,
http://www.upi.com/Energy/Analysis/2007/06/08/analysis_nation_ripe_for_a_federal_rps/4681/) // JMP
Large-scale production of renewable energy induced by a federal RPS could also decrease costs, according to the "Renewable America"
report, which points to wind power as an example.
When the Department of Energy installed its first commercial wind turbines in 1980, wind energy cost about 81 cents per kilowatt-hour. By 2004, when the wind turbine capacity
had increased from a few megawatts to 6,000, the cost fell to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Some utility companies are pushing for a federal RPS precisely because of this rationale, including Alliant Energy, a power company with its
headquarters in Wisconsin.
"We believe that a national RPS would help to create a floor for renewables and give us and the wind turbine industry a
greater level of certainty," said Scott Smith, spokesman for Alliant, which just received approval to build its first wind farm. "Instead of a boom-and-bust
cycle, it will help to solidify the demand which will create a robust market."
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Other policy initiatives and reforms need to be evaluated in light of changing electricity markets. For example, utilities--which can often integrate
intermittent capacity by changing how other generating units are dispatched or exploiting portfolio effects--have less incentive to do so when they are not
investing in the capacity themselves. Independent developers cannot take advantage of the systemwide opportunities for integrating intermittent renewables
that would be available to the purchasing utility. Regulatory changes may be needed to help independent developers offer firm capacity by bundling projects
in a range of locations to sell power to one or more utilities, or by using renewables with fossil fuel or other back-up capacity located elsewhere. Such
options would allow them to compete with nonrenewable power producers for utility solicitations limited to dispatchable power.(26) In addition to
prohibiting dispatchability requirements in power purchases, regulators should require utility planners to fully evaluate measures for integrating intermittent
renewables from independent developers. A critical task for a national strategy is to reduce the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity
from renewable technologies to enhance their competitiveness. To address the chicken-or-egg dilemma in marketing
renewables, one must alleviate the uncertainties facing renewable equipment producers regarding future demand. Costs for
several technologies would fall if the federal government coordinated regional and national programs to aggregate renewable
equipment needs of individual utilities into a predictable stream of orders (see Table 1 on this page). (Table 1 omitted)
Need for a National Strategy
Restructuring trends underscore the urgency of developing a national strategy for advancing renewable energy that
coordinates public and private efforts and targets the barriers facing certain technologies. The strategy must be national
because some of renewable energy's benefits--such as the creation of jobs--accrue to states, whereas others--such as slowing
climate change and reducing air pollution--affect much larger areas and groups of people. A national strategy could help
balance the costs and benefits of commercializing and deploying renewable energy technologies at different geographic
scales. Visible and consistent national leadership would guide the development of states' electricity industry policies. Without
federal leadership, state policies on electric utility competition, rate design environmental protection, and demand
management are less likely to benefit the nation as a whole.
In this era of fiscal austerity, the old axiom that there is no free lunch must be taken seriously. The chronic federal budget crisis makes new initiatives that
cost money a hard sell. Many policies recommended here entail only minor government spending, but others can be costly. The need for cost-effectiveness
should underpin all program decisions. Even if one utility engages in a successful collaborative demonstration project with the renewable energy industry,
for example, other utilities in the region may not be interested. The federal government should therefore sponsor such cost-shared projects only in states
where the market and policy environment is conducive to replication--for instance, where the PUC requires utilities to fully account for the attributes of
renewables in resource planning and acquisition.
Policy tools should be designed and implemented to push renewables toward commercial maturity. Accordingly, the implementation period should be ample
and predictable, and any necessary subsidies designed to buffer emerging technologies from extreme market swings without insulating them from all
competition. At the same time, the performance of various strategies must be tracked so that future policymakers and program managers are not in the dark.
With relatively low fossil fuel prices, market forces in the United States are less auspicious for renewable energy development now than they were during the
1970s, Only with a concerted push from high-ranking officials in state and federal government and under the aegis of a
national strategy can the nation ever fully harness the enormous potential of renewable energy.
A Federal RPS is needed to set a clear target for industry research, development and market growth
Kammen, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society Director at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and
Resources Group
(Daniel, FDCH Congressional Testimony, “Energy Tax Incentives,” 7-11-2001, Lexis-Nexis Universe) // JMP
Energy Policy and Financial Recommendations (continued) A Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to Help Build
Renewable Energy Markets
I support a 20 percent RPS by 2020. A number of studies indicate that this would result in renewable energy development in
every region of the country with most coming from wind, biomass, and geothermal sources. A clear and properly constructed
federal standard is needed to set a clear target for industry research, development, and market growth. I recommend a
renewable energy component of 2 percent in 2002, growing to 10 percent in 2010 and 20 percent by 2020 that would include
wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, and landfill gas. This standard is similar to the one proposed by Senators Jeffords and
Lieberman in the 106th congress (S. 1369).
RPS Aff 196
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Finally, a national RPS would establish uniform rules for the most efficient trading of renewable energy credits (RECs). This
uniformity could further reduce renewable energy technology costs by creating economies of scale and a national market for
the most cost-effective resources; inducing renewable energy development in the regions of the country where they are the
most cost-effective; and reducing transaction costs, by enabling suppliers to buy credits and avoid having to negotiate many
small contracts with individual renewable energy projects.
Federal action is critical to enhance the efficiency of State renewable energy credit trading programs
However, state RPS programs would still provide states with a significant means of providing local environmental benefits beyond the amelioration of global warming. States can
improve the chances of their RPS programs surviving preemption if they tailor them to highlight the provision of such benefits. Congress
should consider explicit
authorization of the existence of state RPS programs alongside any federal RPS program or GHG cap that it enacts. In addition, Congress
[*286] should consider establishing a national REC trading system, either as part of a federal RPS program or as an adjunct to a GHG cap-and-trade
system, that could accommodate trading of RECs for state programs' purposes and thus enhance those programs' efficiencies.
RPS Aff 197
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
UPI, 7 (Rosalie, Westenskow, United Press International, “Analysis: Nation ripe for a federal RPS,” 6-8-2007,
http://www.upi.com/Energy/Analysis/2007/06/08/analysis_nation_ripe_for_a_federal_rps/4681/) // JMP
Most importantly, some proponents of a federal standard say it will cut costs for consumers. One of the key ways an RPS
could save money is by decreasing the use of natural gas to generate electricity.
"The reason why that's important is because the natural gas market has been extremely volatile, and there are lots of
indications it's only going to go up," said Benjamin Sovacool, co-author of the "Renewable America" report.
Investments in renewable resources will reduce the use of natural gas, driving down demand and, therefore, price for natural
gas, Sovacool said. This yields net savings.
"So the utilities save money and they can pass on those savings to rate payers," he said.
RPS Aff 200
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Meanwhile, in the United States, the federal government has set no national target for renewable energy, established no national cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and refused to
create a nationwide trading system for carbon credits. As a result of the
administration's unwillingness to take forceful actions commensurate with
the nation's leadership and responsibilities, the country remains unprepared to face the unprecedented energy and
environmental challenges that loom in the future.
Prior to the 1970s, the country faced a similar situation. U.S. regulation consisted of a medley of state laws, local ordinances, and common law nuisance protections that left
significant gaps in the scope and duration of environmental protection. However, it was generally believed that significant inconsistencies were present in state regulation based on
their relative differences in wealth, knowledge, and interest group pressure. A significant disparity also occurred concerning the rate at which states adopted environmental
regulation--a disparity influenced by trends in population growth, the extent that environmental services were perceived to have a value in a state's economy, and the revenue that
individual states received from recreational activities such as hunting and fishing. (3)
Congress responded with an array of environmental statutes--most notably the Clean Air Act (PL 91-604) in 1970 and the Clean Water Act (PL 92-500) in 1972--to reorient the
federal-state relationship in environmental law. Its efforts were largely inspired by the unappealing prospect of having to live with 50 different state air and water statutes. It was
generally agreed that clean air and water necessitated federal preemption--that is, federal laws needed to trump state laws to provide regulatory clarity in addressing problems of
national magnitude.
Of course, the discussion of federal versus state governance dates back to the country's founding, and debates about federalism became especially pronounced during the era of the
New Deal in the 1930s. The Supreme Court has long fought to maintain a balancing act, towing the line to create "dual federalism," where the federal government regulates issues
of national import, and the states respond to issues of local import. This balance was believed to help achieve responsive governance, governmental competition, innovation,
participatory democracy, and resistance to tyranny. (4)
Fast-forward to today, and such roles have oddly been reversed. In what Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler termed a "jurisdictional mismatch," the
state and federal governments have seemingly subverted each other's traditional roles. (5) In a "poaching of state and local government territory," national policymakers have
preempted state action concerning drinking water contamination, solid waste disposal, land restoration, and educational standards for teacher qualification and student
performance. (6) Congruously, in what Adler termed "letting fifty flowers bloom," (7) state and local governments have effectively shut down the national market on bromated
flame retardants, adopted international treaties on human rights, promoted smoking bans in bars and restaurants, and attempted to protect public health by regulating obesity and
red meat. (8)
Free market advocates have occasionally derided the case for national action on renewable portfolio standards (RPS)--laws mandating that electricity suppliers use a certain
percentage of renewable energy by a particular date. But proponents point out that these regulations are needed to correct three major market failures in the electric utility industry.
First, they argue that electricity prices do not reflect the social costs of generating power; second, that energy subsidies have created an unfair market advantage for fossil fuel and
nuclear technologies; and third, that renewable energy generation is subject to a "free rider" phenomenon. (9) To
gain the transparent and multiple benefits
from renewable energy at a larger scale, bold federal action is essential. It is true that some states and regions of the nation are better positioned to
exploit renewable resources, but all regions can exploit some form of renewables, and RPS proposals have been crafted to allow for a large portfolio of choices at the electricity
retail level. Most compelling, under
the current state initiatives, renewables will still only account for 4 percent of national capacity by
2030.
Climate change has been described as a "textbook example of an environmental issue best addressed at the national and
international levels." (10) Greenhouse gas emissions are produced around the globe and accumulate in the atmosphere such that the impacts are not restricted to states,
regions, or even countries. When problems are national or international in scale, the "matching principle" in environmental law
suggests that the level of jurisdictional authority should best match the geographic scale of that very problem. In the case of
climate change, this principle calls for national and international action, not solely local or regional intervention. (11)
RPS Aff 201
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Federal agencies are believed to be insulated enough from resource-depleting communities to ensure preservationist values
are pursued. When agencies fail to protect resources or reduce pollution, the solution is to replace them with more ambitious
regulators and to strengthen the regulatory authority of federal officials. 2 A number of studies have compared states
according to their commitment to environmental protection and found significant variation in expenditures, legal authority,
methodologies to determine environmental quality, reporting [*3] requirements, enforcement actions, and in the
environmental standards they are authorized to set under federal law. 3
Only federal law is uniform ---- state policies are necessarily fragmented and ineffective
Morgan and Zietlow, 5 – *Professor of Law at NYU and ** Professor at the University of Toledo Law School
(Denise, University of Cincinnati Law Review, Summer, Lexis)
The limitations that the Supreme Court has placed on Congress's powers in the name of states' rights have severely weakened
the one institution that has a constitutional mandate to create a nationally uniform baseline of rights of belonging and the
ability to do so. Although state legislatures have played--and should continue to play--an important role in more fully
developing our national understanding of what rights are necessary to belong to America, state legislation is simply not an
adequate substitute for federal legislation because it must necessarily be piecemeal and varied. In contrast, Congress has
greater institutional competence to determine when there is a need for rights of belonging than individual state legislatures
have, only Congress can create a nationally uniform baseline of rights, and a shared understanding of rights of belonging
reinforces those rights and strengthens our political community. Accordingly, the Supreme Court should not attempt to
delegate Congress's role in protecting rights of belonging to state governments based on the assumption that there is parity
between the institutions.
Even is they win this, uniform fiat takes out their competition and experimentation arguments
If all of the states pursued identical regulatory strategies, or were prevented from instituting meaningful agendas altogether,
these values, as a logical matter, could not be promoted. Obviously there would be no regulatory diversity, because all of the
states would structure the lives of their citizens in the same way. Moreover, this uniformity would prevent state competition
and experimentation: people would have no incentive to "vote with their feet" if each state provided the same package of
public goods, and experimentation by definition requires that different states attempt different solutions to the same social
problems.
RPS Aff 202
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
In the last 10 years--from 1997 to 2006--federal bills promoting RPS were introduced in Congress 17 times. (12) In addition,
102 legislative proposals dealing with climate change have been introduced from 1997 to 2004. (13) All have been beaten
back by Republican-dominated Congresses.
It is safe to say, therefore, that considerable state action in both cases has arisen not because of some judgment that state-
based action is optimal or preferable but rather because of the perceived policy vacuum at the federal level. A federal-scale
political philosophy of allowing market forces to determine energy and environmental policy dates back at least as far as the
presidency of Ronald Reagan, and it has been reinforced by the political power of Washington, DC-based interest groups and
trade associations who have a stake in maintaining the status quo. However, this philosophy and political structure is not
mirrored throughout much of the country, and hence many states have become very active in the RPS and climate change
arena. And, similarly, many other states that mirror the philosophy and approach of the federal level remain inactive.
Federal RPS has failed in congress every time it has been considered
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
In Congress, lawmakers from both chambers and both parties have introduced numerous national RPS proposals since 1997.
Championed in large part by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.), the Senate has passed a national RPS as part of comprehensive
energy legislation three times since 2002, most recently in 2005. However, each time it has failed to become law.
RPS Aff 203
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
A federal RPS is necessary to protect States from costly lawsuits that will collapse our energy policy
UPI, 7 (Rosalie, Westenskow, United Press International, “Analysis: Nation ripe for a federal RPS,” 6-8-2007,
http://www.upi.com/Energy/Analysis/2007/06/08/analysis_nation_ripe_for_a_federal_rps/4681/) // JMP
And it looks like more states will join their ranks this year, namely Michigan, North Carolina and Illinois, where legislators
are considering making the current voluntary standard mandatory.
Passing a federal RPS soon may be necessary to avoid costly lawsuits brought by frustrated utility companies against the
states they operate in, said Chris Cooper, co-author of "Renewing America," a report scheduled for release next week that
advocates a national standard.
Utility companies that initiate litigation have a good chance of winning because many RPSs erect barriers to the trade of
goods with other states -- a power denied the states in the Constitution.
"Some states won't recognize renewable energy from other states," said Cooper, executive director of Network for New
Energy Choices.
For instance, Pennsylvania's legislature recognizes energy generated from clean coal as renewable, but New Jersey's does not,
creating confusion for utilities in both states over whether imported electricity from the other can be used to meet their state
requirements.
"Because that question is open, it could be taken to court by the regulated utilities who could say, 'Look this is a violation of
interstate commerce,'" Cooper told UPI. "Now, should one of those court cases be successful, the practical effect is that it
would nullify the state's RPS mandate ... (then) you'd have all of this copycat legislation that would collapse what is our
national energy strategy at the moment."
RPS Aff 204
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
5. Litigation: A National RPS Avoids Costly Legal Battles
“You have well intended public utility commissioners. Unfortunately, they generally tend to be under-funded and so there is no way they can compete with the resources of a large,
vertically integrated utility, and so they get overwhelmed. They may be trying to do the right thing but at the end of the day, they can’t do it because the political will is not there
and the economic rules are not there to support them. So you literally have a patchwork across the country whose markets are operating openly and fluently.”
- Respondent #28, Platt Survey of Utility Executives, 2006
In many states, ambiguities within RPS statutes and unclear expiration targets have created confusion among regulated utilities, resulting in protracted and expensive lawsuits.
In Massachusetts, a vague definition of “renewable resources” precipitated legal battles over whether hydroelectric facilities were included in the standard or not.214 In New
Mexico, ambiguity over whether the state’s RPS applied to existing or new renewable energy technologies prompted a law suit from El Paso Electric that went all the way to the
New Mexico Supreme Court.215
A particularly ugly legal battle arose from one utility’s claim that Iowa’s RPS mandate was inconsistent with existing federal statute. In 1984, MidAmerican Energy
Company, the largest investor-owned utility in the state, challenged the legality of Iowa’s RPS mandate on the grounds that it
obligated the utility to purchase power from renewable energy facilities at rates in excess of the avoided cost set by the federal
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).216 MidAmerican and the state of Iowa spent 15 years and countless dollars locked in a heated legal battle before the issue was
settled in 1999 (in the utility’s favor).217
The legal morass generated by state-based RPS strategies also can discourage renewable energy investments by creating risky
and unpredictable markets. While MidAmerican was busy fighting Iowa’s RPS statute in court, it was not installing new renewable capacity. Upon settlement of the
dispute, however, the company invested roughly 10 percent of its entire portfolio in 568 MW of new wind energy. Similarly, PacifiCorp held back on investments in nearly 1,400
MW of renewable capacity throughout the nation until the situation in Iowa was resolved.218
Similar delays in renewable energy investments will occur with the continued emphasis on a state-by-state approach to RPS.
Indeed, MidAmerican has signaled that it is prepared to litigate against new RPS statutes in Oregon and Washington, risking
uncertainties in renewable energy investments in the Pacific Northwest for years, possibly decades.219 // pg. 91
Costly lawsuits and Supreme Court intervention that will destroy the renewable energy market
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
A National RPS Avoids Costly Court Battles
• Ambiguous state mandates invite law suits.
Utilities have gone to court over vague state RPS laws in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and New Mexico. New legal
battles could be waged in Oregon and Washington.
• State RPS laws are vulnerable to Constitutional challenge.
California, Washington, DC, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas have all adopted restrictions on out-of-state renewable energy that many scholars agree
violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
• A Constitutional challenge is inevitable.
Growing tension between state and federal utility regulators has engendered a kind of “Commerce Clause brinksmanship,”
that invites interstate utilities to challenge the constitutionality of state RPS mandates.
• The Supreme Court has already given FERC the authority to intervene.
The practical affect of the Supreme Court’s 2002 decision in New York v. FERC is that “the federal government could assert jurisdiction all the way to the consumer’s toaster if it
so chose.”
• A successful federal lawsuit could destroy state RPS programs.
One successful Commerce Clause challenge risks a cascade of copy-cat litigation, collapsing the entire state-based RPS
structure and destroying the emerging interstate renewable energy market. // pg. 11
RPS Aff 205
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
States have considered and pursued a number of regulatory strategies to keep the economic benefits of RPS programs within
their borders. n28 Most of these strategies involve limitations on which renewable energy sources are eligible to satisfy the
states' RPS obligations. In-state and in-region location requirements limit the eligibility of qualifying renewable energy to
that which is generated within the state n29 or within the surrounding region, n30 respectively. In-state consumption,
metering, and sales requirements limit the eligibility of renewable energy to that which, respectively, is either physically
consumed, n31 or quantitatively verified n32 (metered) within the state, or sold into the state. n33 Regional delivery
requirements require that qualifying renewable energy be delivered into the regional power pool or independent system
operator ("ISO") control area serving the state. n34 In-state benefits requirements require that qualifying renewable energy
provide sufficient [*265] specific (named) n35 or generic (unnamed) benefits to the state. n36 Finally, an alternative strategy
to energy eligibility restrictions is to lower the costs of in-state renewable power generation through subsidies, which can be
financed by system benefits charges on the energy sector at large or by general tax revenues. n37 All of these strategies can
be used to retain the economic benefits of state RPS programs within state borders. However, implementation of any of these
strategies can place burdens on interstate commerce and therefore raise dormant Commerce Clause problems.
State RPSs that try to retain the economic benefits will be struck down
III. Analysis of State RPS Programs Under the Dormant Commerce Clause
A. The Validity of General RPS Energy Eligibility Restrictions
Under the Supreme Court's current dormant Commerce Clause doctrine, a requirement that the renewable energy used to
meet a state's RPS obligation be generated within the state itself, which is the most direct means for a state to retain the
economic benefits of its RPS program for itself, n76 would almost certainly be struck down. n77 Such an in-state location
requirement would be even more facially discriminatory against interstate commerce than Illinois's 1991 Coal Act, which was
invalidated in Alliance for Clean Coal even though it did not facially compel the use of Illinois coal or forbid the use of out-
of-state coal. n78 Because of this patent discrimination, an in-state location requirement would likely be struck down under
the dormant Commerce Clause unless the state could "demonstrate, under rigorous scrutiny, that it [had] no other means to
advance a legitimate local interest." n79 An in-state location requirement would be unlikely to fit into that "narrow class of
cases," of which Maine v. Taylor, wherein a Maine statute banning the import of out-of-state baitfish was upheld because the
state had no other way to prevent the spread of parasites and the adulteration of its native fish [*271] species, is a rare
example. n80 Thus, because they are easily severable, as opposed to being integrated components essential for realizing the
environmental benefits of RPS programs, in-state location requirements would almost certainly be struck down as provisions
serving no purpose other than economic protectionism. n81 Finally, in-region location requirements, while not discriminatory
towards certain neighboring states, would still be facially discriminatory against the remainder of states and would therefore
also be invalidated. n82
RPS Aff 207
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Texas
In Texas, which recently surpassed California to become the nation’s leading producer of wind energy, state lawmakers are
proposing legislation that could spark a constitutional challenge from the state’s wind generators, many of whom are profiting
from selling excess wind generation to neighboring RPS states. The new law would require that RECs generated in-
state apply toward Texas’ RPS goals:
Commission shall ensure that all renewable capacity installed in this state and all renewable energy credits awarded,
produced, procured, or sold from renewable capacity in this state are counted toward the goal232.
Texas’ proposed legislation effectively would ban the out-of-state sale of RECs generated from in-state renewable capacity
since any certified REC tracking system would mark the RECs as having been already counted. Texas wind generators, who
can sell wind credits for much higher prices in other markets, could argue that the law is a clear violation of the constitutional
right to interstate commerce. // pg. 94
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Pennsylvania
Under Pennsylvania’s relatively new “Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard” (Act 213):
Energy derived only from alternative energy sources inside the geographical boundaries of this Commonwealth or within the
service territory of any regional transmission organization that manages the transmission system in any part of this
Commonwealth shall be eligible to meet the compliance requirements under this act.
Virtually all of Pennsylvania is serviced by the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) regional transmission
organization. However, a tiny sliver along the state’s Western border is serviced under the Midwest ISO (MISO, a regional
transmission organization that controls electricity as far West as Minnesota, including one Canadian province). And another
small area in Pike County does not fall into the service area of any regional transmission organization at all.
Even though the wording of the statute is unambiguous, in a 3-2 decision, Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission decided
that energy from MISO could only be used to meet the demand in the tiny area of the state that is on the MISO grid. This
tortured interpretation invites a Commerce Clause challenge from generators anywhere within the MISO territory who may
want to sell their energy to regulated utilities in Pennsylvania.
The Pike County electric distribution company may also be in a unique position to bring a Commerce Clause case since it
appears to be the only area of the state barred from using out-of state power sources to meet Act 213 mandates.231 // pg. 93-
94
RPS Aff 208
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Finally, state-based renewable portfolio standards risk challenges on legal grounds. Article 1, section 8 of the U.S.
Constitution grants Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with
Indian tribes." (23) In the many years since ratification of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently used the
converse of this part of the commerce clause (hence its description as the "dormant commerce clause") to strike down state
legislation that it has determined might hinder or prohibit interstate trade. In 1986, the Court defined this to mean that a state
cannot "needlessly obstruct interstate trade or attempt to 'place itself in a position of economic isolation.'" (24) The smooth
functioning of the national market requires the federal government to prevent states from adopting protectionist or autarkic
policies that would attribute a product's market share to its geographic origins rather than to market mechanisms.
Two potential conflicts exist between state RPS policies and the dormant commerce clause: geographic restrictions on
eligible renewable resources and the different ways states assign value to RECs. Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, and Texas have
all adopted restrictions that only count in-state renewable resources toward their respective RPS mandates. Some states that
have implemented their own RPS mandates have adopted policies that devalue RECs from other states. California's RPS, for
example, requires RECs to be bundled (thus disallowing unbundled RECs from other states). While no one has yet
challenged the legality of these restrictions, several legal precedents suggest that a legal case against these restrictions could
prevail. (25)
RPS Aff 210
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Dr. Sovacool, & Coooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Electricity Journal, “Big Is Beautiful: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National
Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, vol. 48, no. 4, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
While the Court's current dormant Commerce Clause doctrine, described above, presents serious questions about the
measures that states use to try to retain the economic benefits of their RPS programs, n68 at least one commentator has
questioned the wisdom of this doctrine. Kirsten Engel has suggested that the Court's current dormant Commerce Clause
doctrine adheres too rigidly to formalistic tests that often defeat the very goals that the Commerce Clause is meant to
promote: "economic efficiency, interstate harmony, and a stronger union." n69 Engel has suggested judicial reformation of
the doctrine by, among other things, expanding the "market participant" exception. n70 The market participant exception,
which is closely tied to the [*269] Court's tolerance of state subsidies, n71 allows a state to discriminate in favor of its own
citizens when it "has entered into the market itself," as opposed to when it acts in an exclusively regulatory role. n72
However, while the distinction between routing funds to a favored in-state industry via the public treasury and achieving the
very same thing through the regulation of private transactions may seem artificial in some instances, coming up with an
alternative limiting principle to the market participant exception that will distinguish between universally accepted general
subsidies and universally condemned discriminatory tariffs is problematic. n73 Additionally, while some on the Court,
namely Justice Scalia joined by Justice Thomas, have recently expressed misgivings about overly expansive application of
the dormant Commerce Clause, they have at the same time indicated a desire to adhere to stare decisis with respect to
previous Court decisions interpreting the clause. n74
[*270] Realistically then, there are only two plausible escapes from the Court's current dormant Commerce Clause doctrine
for state RPS programs with economically protectionist measures. The first is a lack of enforcement, which seems to be the
fortunate circumstance enjoyed by several states thus far. The second is congressional authorization that expressly allows
states to implement such protectionist measures, which Congress could give under its express Commerce Clause power. n75
Barring such circumstances, state RPS programs will be scrutinized under the Court's current dormant Commerce Clause
doctrine.
RPS Aff 212
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
On the other hand, RPS programs with in-state consumption, metering, or sales requirements would likely survive scrutiny
under the dormant Commerce Clause. n83 First, courts will probably not subject such restrictions to the "strict scrutiny" test
because they do not facially discriminate against out-of-state sources: n84 renewable power from both in-state and out-of-
state sources would have to pass identical even-handed tests under all three types of restrictions to be eligible to satisfy the
RPS obligations. n85 As such, courts would analyze these restrictions under the Pike test. n86 The putative local benefits,
including a cleaner local environment and greater decentralization of local power generation, would likely be considered
substantial, just as the environmental benefits of prohibiting the sale of milk in plastic, nonreturnable, nonrefillable containers
were in Clover Leaf Creamery. n87 By contrast, the incidental burdens on interstate commerce would likely be considered
small or nonexistent, since it is unlikely that the proportion of new, renewable [*272] power from outside states under the
restrictions would be significantly different from the proportion of old, nonrenewable power from outside states displaced by
the program, due to the already existing physical constraints on power transmission. n88 Accordingly, it is unlikely that the
burdens on interstate commerce would be considered "clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits." n89
However, in addition to the likely lesser effectiveness in retaining economic benefits as compared with an in-state or in-
region location requirement, in-state consumption, sales, and metering requirements would also likely add administrative
complexity to an RPS program and, to some extent, reduce the flexibility and economic efficiency provided by a tradable
renewable energy credit system. n90
RPS Aff 213
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
VI. Conclusion
States face many obstacles in implementing renewable portfolio standards, including the leakage of economic benefits to
other states, n160 the possible dormant Commerce Clause problems that measures adopted to prevent such leakages pose,
n161 and the possibility of preemption by or significant overlap with future federal RPSs or GHG cap-and-trade programs.
n162 Nevertheless, states continue to adopt new RPSs and to raise existing ones. n163 These states, along with Congress,
should consider the validity of existing and proposed state RPS programs under the dormant Commerce Clause and how such
programs are likely to be affected, both legally and practically, by enactment of a federal RPS program or GHG emissions
cap.
Despite the lack of legal challenges, to date, to state RPS statutes that discriminate against interstate commerce, the threat of
invalidation under the dormant Commerce Clause to such statutes, and to state agencies' discriminatory implementation of
even neutral RPS statutes, is clear under established Supreme Court doctrine. To avoid such challenges, states enacting or
amending RPS programs and seeking to retain the resultant economic benefits for themselves should avoid in-state or in-
region restrictions on energy eligibility, as well as language that requires or encourages state agencies to implement RPS
programs in a discriminatory manner. Instead, states should employ in-state consumption or sales restrictions, or regional
power pool or control area delivery requirements. For its part, Congress should consider explicit authorization of protectionist
restrictions in state RPS programs, since the overall utility of such restrictions in providing incentives for states to overcome
public choice problems and enact aggressive standards may outweigh the resulting burdens on interstate commerce.
Similarly, Congress and state legislatures should consider the potential effects, both constitutional and practical, that a federal
RPS program or GHG emissions cap would have on state RPS programs. Although preemption by such federal programs
seems unlikely, state RPS obligations would nevertheless become at least somewhat less relevant in addressing global
warming and national energy security concerns if such a federal RPS program or GHG emissions cap were enacted.
However, state RPS programs would still provide states with a significant means of providing local environmental benefits
beyond the amelioration of global warming. States can improve the chances of their RPS programs surviving preemption if
they tailor them to highlight the provision of such benefits. Congress should consider explicit authorization of the existence
of state RPS programs alongside any federal RPS program or GHG cap that it enacts. In addition, Congress [*286] should
consider establishing a national REC trading system, either as part of a federal RPS program or as an adjunct to a GHG cap-
and-trade system, that could accommodate trading of RECs for state programs' purposes and thus enhance those programs'
efficiencies.
The "energy" exhibited in the current debate over our nation's energy supply and how the composition of that supply affects
interests as important and diverse as the natural environment and our national security is evidence of that composition's
importance. The proliferation of state RPS programs highlights the important role states can play in affecting the composition
of our energy supply and in protecting and promoting environmental and security interests in ways that reflect individual
state values. In light of the important role that state RPS programs can play, state legislatures and Congress should maintain a
"renewable" awareness of the legal landscape surrounding state RPS programs and act accordingly to ensure their continued
validity and effectiveness.
RPS Aff 214
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
Lesson 4: A national RPS should apply equally to all retail power providers
Some state-based RPS statutes initially excluded some power providers in an attempt to protect certain types of utilities. In
practice, the attempt to carve out exemptions through imprecise statutory language created confusion and uncertainty for
regulated entities. In Connecticut, for example, the state’s RPS exempted default service providers, creating speculation
among all of the state’s regulated utilities that the law would not be enforced at all.362 And in Washington, utilities with no
load growth are exempted from the state’s RPS mandate, if parts of the stateexperience decreased population growth or
diminished electricity demand, load serving entities would be absolved from their regulatory burden entirely.363
Applying the standard to all retail power providers—including investor owned utilities, publicly owned utilities,
municipalities, and rural electric cooperatives—creates an equal playing field and avoids creating inconsistencies in
regulation. Requiring all retail providers to meet the mandate reduces opportunities for “free riders” within the electricity
sector. Regulated utilities, which pay to clean the air and conserve the water, would not be required to subsidize the
generation of dirty, low-cost non-renewable electricity from exempt generators.
A standard applying to all providers also creates better economies of scale and ultimately helps drive down the cost of
renewable generation for all suppliers. By applying the mandate uniformly and without exemption, a national RPS avoids the
kind of regulatory unpredictability that initially plagued Connecticut’s program.
RPS Aff 215
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
Lesson 8: A national RPS should be simple, and set no further regulatory interventions
Many advocates of both state and national RPS proposals have argued (sometimes fiercely) in favor of adding even more
complexity into such statutes. Some have argued for price ceilings on electricity rates to give utilities a possible safety valve;
others have argued for mid-course reviews of RPS statutes to make sure that they are working; still others have argued for
credit multipliers (also called tiers or carve outs) for particular resources (such as solar), geographic restrictions, and limits on
the capacity and size of eligible resources.
While some of these ideas have merit, the burden is on those in favor further market interventions to justify them. Further
regulations may unnecessarily complicate RPS statutes and inhibit the efficiency of a national RPS program. As researchers
from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently concluded:
A well-designed RPS should generally encourage competition among renewable developers and provide incentives to
electricity suppliers to meet their renewable purchase obligations in a least-cost fashion.375
Two of the fundamental elements of an RPS—competition and least cost—are violated by creating carve outs, multipliers,
geographic restrictions, or limits on capacity and size. In principle, competition and cost effectiveness is best served by
letting the marketplace dictate when and where renewable technologies are deployed. In practice, such interventions have
weakened the effectiveness of some state RPS proposals.
RPS Aff 216
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
5. Utilities, most of which own base-load and peaking assets, would be required to comply with a national RPS mandate, not
individual power plants. Kydes comparison of the marginal cost of electricity from each individual facility owned by a
regulated utility artificially inflated the cost estimates of a national mandate by ignoring how renewable generation would
offset energy production across a utility’s entire portfolio.
RPS Aff 217
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
1.Since a properly-designed national RPS would require all retail utilities (including publicly owned utilities, municipal
utilities, and electric cooperatives) - not individual states - to meet RPS mandates, the burdens and benefits of a national
program are likely to reflect the emerging interstate nature of the U.S. electricity market. Regulated utilities are not limited to
developing the renewable resources within the state where they are headquartered. They may invest in renewable resources
wherever their development is most cost competitive.
By eliminating PUCHA, Congress opened the door to “area hopping.” As utilities begin to consider long-term consolidation
strategies that include the acquisition of relatively far-flung companies, PUCHA’s repeal creates merger options not
previously available.
One investment fund analyst noted that PUCHA’s repeal “changes the planning dynamic … a utility’s possible map is no
longer just three states; it’s the whole country.”205
RPS Aff 218
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
In Colorado, regulators unintentionally created a “catch-22” situation for renewable energy developers by inserting a “safety
valve” into the state’s RPS that limited electricity rates should renewable energy end up costing more than expectations, In
designing the “safety valve”, regulators pegged the rate cap to the avoided cost of natural gas generation by stipulating that:
For each qualifying utility, the commission shall establish a maximum retail rate impact for this section of one percent of the
total electric bill annually for each customer. The retail rate impact shall be determined net of new nonrenewable alternative
sources of electricity supply reasonably available at the time of the determination.376
In other words, the regulations limited the difference in the cost of renewable electricity relative to the cost of the same
amount of electricity if it had been generated using natural gas. The problem is (as we fully explain in Section 2), the more
renewable energy is deployed, the more it depresses the cost of natural gas. As renewable resources reach certain levels in
the market, they offset natural gas consumption and decrease gas prices.
By pegging the rate cap of renewable technologies to the cost of natural gas, Colorado’s regulators have created a vicious
cycle where renewable energy technologies can never reach sufficient levels: the more they effectively lower natural gas
prices, the more they are penalized by the rate cap.377 In essence, Colorado regulators may have inadvertently undermined
the state’s RPS by intervening in the normal operation of the electricity supply market in order to “correct” a previous
intervention.
RPS Aff 219
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sovacool and Cooper, 07- *Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research and professor of
Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech AND ** founded the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC), a
national non- profit organization committed to reforming U.S. energy policy (Benjamin and Chris, Renewing America: The
Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), June,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/Renewing%20America_NNEC_Final.pdf)
As a second example, consider Arizona, which created a “carve out” for solar photovoltaic technologies by mandating that at
least 50 percent of the state’s RPS must be met by solar technologies. To meet the non-solar part of the RPS, utilities bought
approximately 10 MW landfill gas and several additional MW of biomass energy. However, utilities have been unable to
fully comply with the solar mandate because of the sizeable financial commitment needed to purchase more expensive solar
technology.378
Arizona has created even more incentives for the solar market by offering $4 per watt of utility-scale installed photovoltaics.
However, utilities pass the higher cost of solar onto ratepayers.
Tucson Electric Power is scheduled to complete a 64 MW thermal solar plant in Boulder City, Arizona, by the end of 2007,
costing ratepayers an estimated $106 million,379 even though solar photovoltaic is still by far the most expensive renewable
energy technology in the state (See Table 1).380
Allowing the market to dictate deployment does not mean utilities will not invest in solar and other more expensive
renewable energy technologies. It does, however, mean that utilities will not invest in them first. Instead, power providers
will maximize all of their least-cost options before moving to more expensive technologies. The Renewable Energy Policy
Project put it this way:
The RPS will tend to support those renewables that are cheapest at the margin. In California’s case, wind power would likely
benefit the most, with geothermal and biomass also benefiting as the size of the requirement increases. Distributed renewable
generation technologies such as PV and small wind turbines are unlikely to benefit as much from the RPS in the near term,
due to their higher cost and greater barriers to installation.381
The long term stability of an RPS ensures that investors and manufacturers will have time to develop more cost effective
methods of utilizing renewable resources. In the long run, manufacturers may benefit from waiting until renewable energy
technologies are ready for the market instead of forcing deployment of inferior technology to meet unrealistic state targets.
In the end, the point of an RPS is not to set restrictions on when and where renewables can be deployed. Like “natural
selection”, it is the market—not the regulators or politicians—that should decide which technologies investors should
develop to meet a national RPS mandate. 382
RPS Aff 220
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
A national 20% RPS is key to reduce natural gas demand and prices, protect consumers and boost all sectors of the
economy
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
V. Results Below we review results from the four RPS scenarios. We begin with the impacts where we can compare UCS and EIA results, including electricity and natural gas
prices, consumer energy bills, electricity generation, renewable energy development, and carbon emissions. Next, we present results from UCS assumptions-only scenarios on jobs,
income, and economic development. Finally, we discuss additional benefits from increased renewable energy use, and the implications that design details have on national RPS
benefits. A. Natural gas and electricity prices, and consumer energy bills Both the UCS and EIA analyses show that a national RPS can save
consumers money in several ways. First, by reducing the demand for fossil fuels, and creating new competitors for the dominant fuel sources, renewable
energy helps reduce the price of fossil fuels and restrain the ability of fossil fuel prices to increase in the future. Natural gas
therefore costs less for electricity generation, as well as for other purposes, benefiting both electricity consumers and other
natural gas consumers. Second, some renewable resources, especially wind energy at good sites, are now less expensive than
building new natural gas- or coal-fired power plants over the expected lifetimes of the plants, and reduce projected generation
costs. And third, a national RPS reduces the cost of renewable energy technologies, by creating competition among renewable sources and
projects to meet the requirements, and by creating economies of scale in manufacturing, installation, operations, and maintenance. Most importantly, projected savings are
robust enough to be found in all of the recent RPS scenarios, at both the 10 percent and 20 percent levels, and despite large differences
in projected renewable energy costs and performance in the EIA and UCS assumptions.
Using UCS assumptions for renewable energy technologies, average consumer natural gas prices would be lower than
business as usual in nearly every year of the forecast under the 20 percent RPS, with an average annual reduction of 1.5 percent. In addition,
average consumer electricity prices would be lower than business as usual in every year of the forecast, with an average annual reduction of 1.8 percent. As a result, the 20
percent RPS would save consumers $49.1 billion on their electricity and natural gas bills by 2020 (Figure 1).19 All sectors of the
economy would benefit, with commercial, industrial, and residential customers’ total savings reaching $19.1 billion, $17.4 billion, and $12.6 billion, respectively.
With UCS running NEMS using EIA's assumptions unmodified, the results showed that a 20 percent RPS would still reduce gas and electricity prices.
Cumulative savings to electricity customers under a 20 percent RPS totaled $15.4 billion by 2020, with cumulative savings to gas consumers of an additional $11.6 billion, for a
total savings of more than $27 billion.
A 10 percent renewable standard would save less money than the 20 percent scenario. In the UCS scenario, consumers would save almost
$28.2 billion on their electricity and natural gas bills by 2020, with the savings continuing to grow to $37.7 billion by 2025. EIA's own analysis found that the 10 percent RPS
would save consumers $22.6 billion by 2025.20
National RPS scenarios using either UCS or EIA assumptions also show that energy bills would be reduced in every region of the country, including
the Southeast, where some people have suggested there is limited low-cost renewable energy potential (Table 1). This is primarily due
to the lower natural gas prices for electricity generation and other direct gas consumers that all regions would see. In addition, all regions do have some renewable
energy resources, and would likely see an increase in using local resources for generation that would often displace the need
for importing fossil fuel. Furthermore, the national credit trading market created by a national RPS would allow utilities in all regions to purchase RECs for the same
price, providing utilities with negotiating leverage over local renewable generators.
The strong relationship between renewable energy generation, and natural gas demand and prices is further supported by a
2005 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) study, which reviewed 13 analyses using different computer models and assumptions. The analyses all
confirmed that renewable energy (and energy efficiency) could reduce gas demand and put downward pressure on natural gas prices and bills by displacing gas-fired electricity
generation. The report also found that the
higher the level of renewable energy penetration, the more gas is saved, and the more gas
prices are reduced. Furthermore, LBL's study shows how these results are broadly consistent with economic theory, with results from other energy models, and with limited
empirical evidence.21 Because of this relationship, long-term natural gas prices have a significant effect on the impact of a national RPS. As gas price forecasts have increased,
analyses have shown that a national RPS is more cost-effective. For example, a 2001 EIA analysis—using wellhead natural gas prices that averaged $3.28 per Mcf (2002$) over
the forecast period—projected that a 20 percent national RPS would result in cumulative consumer energy bill costs of $14 billion by 2020.22 By comparison, the 20 percent RPS
scenario (EIA assumptions) from 2004, which showed consumer savings of $27 billion, used a natural gas price forecast that averaged $3.97 per Mcf (2002$). While EIA changed
a number of the assumptions used in NEMS between 2001 and 2004, most of the difference in energy bill impacts is due to the increase in natural gas prices. EIA has consistently
increased its long-term natural gas price projection each year since 1997 to conform to new data. In the recently released AEO 2007, wellhead gas prices average $5.06 per Mcf
(2002$) over the forecast period.2
RPS Aff 222
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
D. Carbon emissions
Increased renewable energy use would reduce CO2 emissions from power plants. Using UCS assumptions, the 20 percent
national RPS is projected to reduce CO2 emissions by 434 million metric tons (MMT) per year by 2020—15 percent below
business as usual levels or a 59 percent reduction in the projected growth in emissions. This reduction is equivalent to taking
nearly 71 million cars off the road. Using EIA assumptions, a 20 percent RPS would produce slightly greater CO2 reductions
of 468 MMT by 2020, as the increased use of biomass sources displaces higher amounts of coal generation.
Under a 10 percent RPS, UCS and EIA analyses show that CO2 emissions would be reduced 166 MMT to 215 MMT
nationally by 2020—a reduction of up to 7.2 percent below business as usual levels. As with the 20 percent scenarios, the use
of EIA's assumptions results in greater emission reductions due to higher levels of biomass energy production.
A 20% standard is critical to maximize benefits – reduces prices, improves system reliability and reduces emissions
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
VIII. Conclusions
The RPS has emerged as a popular and effective tool used by a growing number of states to reduce market barriers and
stimulate new renewable energy development. Driven in part by early successes in the states, and recognition of the many
benefits that significantly increasing renewable energy use can provide the entire nation, advocates have been calling for a
national RPS for nearly a decade. A national RPS has passed three times in the U.S. Senate from 2002 to 2005, but has failed
to become law. Leadership in the 110th Congress has indicated interest in continuing the national RPS debate as part of an
effort to increase America's energy independence and reduce global warming emissions.
For several years EIA and UCS have been conducting analyses to project the costs and benefits of various RPS proposals.
The analyses demonstrate that under a wide range of assumptions, a 20 percent national RPS is achievable, and would save
consumers money by reducing natural gas and electricity prices. The analyses also show that a national RPS would diversify
the electricity system, promote local economic development, improve the nation's energy security and reliability, and achieve
important reductions in global warming emissions. Even under a 10 percent RPS, both UCS and EIA analyses show
Americans would see all of these benefits, but at lower levels than what would occur under a 20 percent RPS.
RPS Aff 223
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Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // DNB
And, finally, a fuel-based definition of eligible resources would ensure that truly renewable resources attain a greater
proportion of the nation’s electricity fuel portfolio. While alternative technologies such as non-renewable distributed
generation, clean coal with carbon capture and storage, and energy efficiency should be encouraged, there are strong market-
based reasons that they should not be directly included in an RPS. Such sources would neither diversify energy resources nor
achieve the economic benefits of a vibrant renewable energy sector. Renewables should compete with other renewables, just
as clean coal should compete with dirty coal and light water reactors with advanced nuclear generators. Healthy market-based
competition ensures that the best mechanisms for utilizing each fuel source are supported.
Cooper, 7 – Senior Policy Director, Network for New Energy Choices (Chris, NNEC, “New Study Reveals Flaws in
Congressional Energy Debate,” 6-13-07,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/index.php?blog_entry_id=168&page=fullstory&rd=pages&sd=df, AG)
Including energy efficiency in an RPS standard has the unintended effect of “double-counting”ン the efficiency efforts and
discounting the renewable energy investments. This is because most RPS mandates already implicitly include efficiency by
setting the RPS goal as a percentage of electricity demand. Allowing efficiency efforts to be used to meet the goal as well
gives them twice as much value as investments in renewable energy: Efficiency efforts get counted once on the “front-end”ン
by decreasing total electricity demand (and thus the effective level of the RPS goal). Then, they get counted a second time on
the “back-end” by being applied to the (now lower) RPS mandate. The result is a sneaky way of reducing the RPS level while
decreasing the value of renewable energy in meeting the federal mandate.
RPS Aff 224
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Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Finally, the inclusion of non-renewable energy technologies—such as nuclear or advanced coal technologies—can undermine
another primary goal of the RPS: fuel source diversity. Coal, natural gas, and nuclear power currently constitute about 90
percent of our fuel sources for electricity. The RPS is designed to create new competition with these conventional fuel
sources. The more that new competitors are available to be rapidly deployed, the less vulnerable the U.S. economy is to
potential energy supply shortages or interruptions, price volatility, or price manipulation as a result of the United States’
current dependence on a limited supply of a limited number of fuels. Renewable resources are especially valuable in this
respect because they are domestic, non-interruptible, non-depletable, and have potential for significant expansion as
competitors to existing fuels. Because both objectives—developing new fuel sources, and developing advanced technologies
using dominant fuels—are important, a national RPS should not be used to create a zero-sum game where achieving one
objective competes with achieving the other.
Similarly, improving energy efficiency is an essential national objective, and enacting energy efficiency resource standards
could provide benefits similar to an RPS. The objective of increasing efficiency should not compete with or displace the
objective of developing diverse, clean energy supply options, however.
Cooper, 7 – Senior Policy Director, Network for New Energy Choices (Chris, NNEC, “New Study Reveals Flaws in
Congressional Energy Debate,” 6-13-07,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/index.php?blog_entry_id=168&page=fullstory&rd=pages&sd=df, AG)
Including Clean Coal and Nuclear Raises the Price of a National RPS
A federal standard that includes coal and nuclear will prevent uniform, national rules for trading renewable energy credits
since most state-level RPS mandates do not recognize these fuels as eligible renewable resources. Instead of consistent
trading standards, a national RPS that includes coal and nuclear will cost utilities and increase consumer electricity prices by
creating more inconsistency and discouraging a national market for renewable energy.
RPS Aff 225
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Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Rapidly but efficiently expanding the renewable energy sector is the most important single step to achieve energy
independence, job growth, and meaningful environmental protection. To achieve this goal, markets must be opened for new,
clean renewable energy and energy efficiency innovations. In our view, the Renewable Portfolio Standard provides the best
nearterm mechanism and framework for growth of the solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal generating sectors. A variety of
other mechanisms are needed to spur innovation and implementation of clean energy options, but the RPS provides the most
natural framework.
We find that a 20% RPS – either as a federal standard or as a federally-supported patchwork of state measures – by 2020 is
not only achievable, but would provide a major economic boom to the U.S. economy through job creation and through the
export markets we could then address.
By 2050 our energy economy could be driven by over 40 percent renewable energy sources, with higher levels quite
plausibly – technologically, economically, and environmentally possible.
The critical move is the first step. A suite of recommended policies would include the following measures, most of which
were first proposed by Professor Kammen at the July 10, 2001 Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation
chaired by Senator Kerry.19
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Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Placing support for renewables in a broader context of support for clean energy measures, including energy efficiency and
sustainable transportation will greatly augment economic and employment benefits
Renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation are complementary sectors that support and enhance each
other. For example, using a solar PV system in the most economic way possible requires that all the appliances being used are
energy efficient. Measures that make it easy for an electricity customer to install a solar PV system and retrofit his or her
building to be energy efficient will enhance the likelihood of that customer doing both. Consider the market for biomass
energy fuels: bio-fuels like ethanol or bio-diesel require that bio-fuel powered cars are easily available, supported by an
infrastructure of fuelling stations. In other words, the growth of a particular segment of the clean energy family – be it
renewable energy, energy efficiency or sustainable transportation – is often partly dependent on growth in other parts of
the energy industry.
This is not to say that a certain sector cannot grow by itself (for instance, a renewable portfolio standard is a good idea
irrespective of the presence of other complementary policies). However, it is likely that the renewables sector, and jobs in it,
will grow much more quickly if complementary policy measures are in place. This is partly why some of the studies
reviewed model an array of policies in all clean energy sectors together. For example, the Apollo Jobs study18 models a
comprehensive scenario of policy and program support in which federal investment of $300 billion is made over 10 years in
four categories: increasing energy diversity, investing in industries of the future, promoting high performance buildings, and
rebuilding public infrastructure. In this scenario, supporting renewables alone is projected to create 459,189 jobs, while the
total investment is projected to yield over 3.3 million jobs.
Komanoff, 8- director of the consulting firm Komanoff Energy Associates (Charles, “Whither Wind?” February/March 2007,
http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/2007-02-01/whither-wind.aspx) –CMM
What about the argument that the potential energy produced by wind turbines could be saved instead through energy-
efficiency measures? Examples include swapping out incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents, replacing
inefficient kitchen appliances and extinguishing “vampire” loads by plugging watt-sucking electronic devices into on-off
power strips. If this notion sounds familiar, it’s because it has been raised in virtually every power plant dispute since the
1970s. But the ground has shifted, now that we have such overwhelming proof that we’re standing on the threshold of
catastrophic climate change. Those power plant debates of yore weren’t about fuels and certainly not about global warming,
but about whether to top off the grid with new supply or energy saved through conservation. The energy arena of old was
local and incremental. The new one is global and all-out. With Earth’s climate, and the world as we know and love it, now
imperiled, topping off the regional grid pales in comparison to the task at hand. In the new, ineluctable struggle to rescue the
climate from fossil fuels, efficiency and “renewables” (solar, biomass and wind) must all be pushed to the max.
RPS Aff 227
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A2: Cap-and-Trade CP
Permutation – do both. The combination will effectively expand renewables
Pierobon, 8 – communications consultant based in the Washington, DC area focusing on energy and climate issues
(Jim, “U.S. Renewable Energy Leaders: Don't Count on Carbon Price Alone,” 5-8-2008,
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52417) // JMP
Proclaiming "give us a chance, we'll deliver" and "2009 will be a new beginning," leaders of several renewable
energy groups this week asserted electricity from wind,
solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro can help the U.S. make substantial progress toward mitigating the buildup of carbon dioxide in the
earth's atmosphere.
But some, such as Karl Gawell, Executive Director of the Geothermal Energy Association, acknowledged that, "raising the cost of carbon won't do the job
alone...we're going to need to be using everything we can."
The briefing, hosted on Capitol Hill by the non-profit Energy and Environmental Institute, was the most recent political rally of sorts by renewable energy interests in the face of
tidal waves of advertising from fossil-fuel-fired trade groups and coalitions defending their industries' tax incentives in the name of low-cost electricity and oil and gas company
stock ownership.
The impact that this latest effort will have on the bid to extend the investment and production tax credits remains to be seen. If there was a reason to be more hopeful, it was not
evident throughout the 100-plus attendees packing the briefing room in the Russell Senate Office Building. If anything, some industry backers seem to be resigning themselves to a
one-year extension of the tax credits, leaving the chance to rebuild them with the next President and the 111th Congress.
Randy Swisher, Executive Director of the American Wind Energy Association, who opened the briefing with the "give-us-a-chance" mantra asserted that one-fifth of America's
electricity can come from wind by 2030, "if we execute a savvy strategy." He said achieving 20% would essentially end the ever-increasing CO2 emissions from electric generation
in the U.S. (See accompanying chart.)
Swisher said wind will continue to shoulder the largest role in mitigating CO2 emissions after a 45% increase in new generating capacity added throughout the U.S. last year
compared to 2006. (Updated data is due out later this month on wind's 2007 growth in the U.S.). It was the third year in a row that wind energy ranked second only to natural gas in
new capacity additions among all sources.
Each of the leaders called for "set-asides," tax-credit equity," "offsets," and/or proceeds from any auctions of carbon emission credits as integral, if not critical, to make renewables
a major part of any climate change strategy. Feed-in tariffs entered the discussion briefly as efforts by U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-WA, appear to be gaining traction as a vehicle for
enabling a cleaner energy future with his proposal for "performance-based incentives" draft legislation.
Ana Cohen, Deputy Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, on which Inslee serves, credited feed-in tariffs in Germany and
other countries for positioning companies throughout the European Union to amass significant competitive advantages in U.S. market over the American companies.
"If we don't take real strong action, projects will be managed by European companies," Cohen said. She asserted that few policies will work as well as putting a price on a ton of
carbon emitted by electric generators and other industrial sources. But she echoed Karl Gawell in asserting a
carbon cap or tax won't be enough. To overcome
various market barriers, other measures are needed, including mandates to connect renewables to the grid and stronger state
and local building codes.
Chris Miller, Senior Energy Advisory to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said the roughly $300 billion in estimated revenue from auctioning carbon emission credits
under a "cap and trade" regime would go a long way if much of that money can be funneled to renewables. Once a cap is in place, "we may not need government mandates," he
said.
John Coequyt, Senior Washington Representative in the Global Warming and Energy Program at the Sierra Club, said, "We have to set national goals for these
technologies. I don't want you to think that this is going to be easy. But no one should think that renewables are going to be only a small percentage of the future if we decide
that is the future we want."
One renewable energy advocate who aired his skepticism of the current approach challenged them to "think better." Andrew Paterson, Director of North American Economics &
Finance at Econergy International Corp., said this approach by the renewable industry leaders is "the same thing year after year. We're tired of the treadmill."
To which AWEA's Swisher responded, perhaps with a classic Rolling Stones hit in mind, "You can't always get what you want...We're doing what we can in the current political
environment."
A national RPS is key an economically effective cap-and-trade system – insulates consumers from huge price
increases that would result from a new climate policy
Nogee et. al., 7 – energy analyst and advocate for UCS (Alan Nogee, Jeff Deyette, Steve Clemmer, The Electricity Journal,
“The Projected Impacts of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard,” May 2007, lexis-nexis) // AMK
Why not rely just on emission caps and trading programs to meet environmental goals?
Emission caps and trading programs are critical for reducing harmful pollution from power plants. But they do not
necessarily help new technologies that provide long-term benefits overcome market barriers. An EIA study found that a 20
percent RES would reduce the cost to consumers of meeting four-pollutant reductions from power plants by $4.5 billion in
2010 and $31 billion in 2020 compared to meeting the emission reductions without an RES.14 By providing additional
alternatives to switching from coal to natural gas, renewable energy sources restrain price increases in natural gas to power
plants and other users.
The purpose of the carbon tax to take effect on Tuesday is to change consumption patterns. It imposes penalties on consumers
who choose to heat their homes, drive their cars or turn on their lights. Few consumers have the disposable income to convert
to solar heating, buy hybrid vehicles or adopt other expensive technologies touted by the eco-lobby.
Heat, transportation and electricity are essential, so consumers will cut back elsewhere. They will spend less on food, toys,
clothes, TVs, grooming aids and home renovation as a greater proportion of their income is diverted to energy-related goods
subject to the carbon tax. As the tax takes an ever-bigger bite of personal incomes, consumer spending will decline, dragging
the economy down with it.
Meanwhile, companies will weigh the impact of the carbon tax on their production costs. The spike in commodity prices is a
two-edged sword. Those involved in resource extraction can anticipate higher selling prices for their metals and minerals, but
these operations are energy-intensive. A punitive tax added to already astronomical diesel fuel prices may be enough to wipe
out any return on investment.
Building new plants in B.C., where production will be actively discouraged by pointless taxes, makes no business sense when
other jurisdictions are more welcoming to industrial development.
Layer all this economic foolishness with the prospect of higher interest rates to fight inflation and we have a recipe for
economic stagnation.
As it happens, economic stagnation is the goal of the environmental movement.
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Gipe, 3 - has written extensively about renewable energy for both the popular and trade press and also lectured widely on
wind energy and how to minimize its impact on the environment and the communities of which it is a part
(Paul, “Why I Oppose the Production Tax Credit,” 2-12-2003, http://www.wind-
works.org/articles/lg_ProductionTaxCreditNo.html) // JMP
Since the first National Energy Act, tax credits have been the mechanism used in the United States to subsidize or stimulate wind energy. Through 1985 the tax credits were based
on installed capital costs. Beginning in the 1990s, the tax credits were based on the sales of wind-generated electricity. This eliminated some of the more egregious abuses of the
earlier program. Up to the present, Production Tax Credits have been the favored policy of both the U.S. wind industry and renewable energy advocates. This mechanism is only
used in the United States.
Rationale of Opposition
1. Most simply, there are better ways to promote responsible wind energy development. Electricity Feed Laws are a far superior mechanism for spurring renewable energy
development. The success of Feed Laws can be seen in Germany, Spain, and now France.
2. Production Tax Credits can only be used by those who sell bulk electricity. They cannot be used by renewables in
distributed applications on the customer side of meter. For example, a pig farmer who wishes to off load consumption on the farm cannot use the tax
credits because there are no sales of wind-generated electricity.
3. u Those most likely to benefit are non-regulated utility subsidiaries.
4. ProductionTax Credits lead to an unfortunate American phenomenon of a boom and bust or "gold rush" form of
development. This results in part because Congress reauthorizes the tax credits for only a few years at a time. Thus development is concentrated at the end of the last year.
Boom and bust development is no way to run a business and is certainly no way to create a dynamic and healthy renewable
energy industry. Companies expand then contract, hiring and then firing in an oft-repeated cycle. When developers have been bitten by the gold fever, impacts on the
environment and on nearby communities take a back seat to getting projects "in the ground".
5. Production Tax Credits lead to concentration of the technology in the hands of a few. One-half of all wind capacity in the USA is owned or
operated by Florida Power & Light's unregulated subsidiary. The trend in the U.S. industry is toward monopolistic power and control of the political process. This concentration of
power is not seen in markets where Electricity Feed Laws are used.
6. Production Tax Credits, by their boom and bust nature in the United States, cannot sustain a healthy manufacturing sector. There
is only one U.S. manufacturer of commercial wind turbines, GE Wind's Tehachapi plant. However, much of GE Wind's revenue comes from their German operations with sales to
Germany's Feed Law market. (GE Wind has demanded that the bankruptcy court refund much of its payment for Enron Wind's assets because GE Wind concluded they overpaid.)
7. Production Tax Credits encourage obscure and non-transparent forms of ownership structures. Part of the ongoing criminal investigation
of Enron partnerships involves wind deals designed to maximize use of the Production Tax Credits. It's nearly impossible to follow the money in these transactions. Of course, that
was the intent. For the environmental community, this complexity leads to an absence of accountability. Who is responsible to clean up environmental damage from improperly
developed wind projects? The operator? The owner? If so, who is the owner?
It's time to jump off the Production Tax Credit treadmill and work toward a more open, transparent support mechanism such as the Electricity Feed Law.
USC, 7 (Union of Concerned Scientists, “Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extended Again, but Risk of Boom-Bust Cycle in
Wind Industry Continues,” 2-14-2007, http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/production-tax-credit-for-
renewable-energy.html) // JMP
Combined with a growing number of states that have adopted renewable electricity standards, the PTC has been a major
driver of wind power development over the past six years. Unfortunately, the "on-again/off-again" status that has historically been associated with the PTC
contributes to a boom-bust cycle of development that plagues the wind industry (see Figure below). The cycle begins with the wind industry experiencing strong growth in
development around the country during the years leading up to the PTC’s expiration. Lapses in the PTC then cause a dramatic slow down in the implementation of planned wind
projects. When the PTC is restored, the wind power industry takes time to regain its footing, and then experiences strong growth until the tax credits expire. And so on.
RPS Aff 230
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San Francisco Chronicle, 8 (Zachary Coile, “Congressional stalemate over renewable energy,” 6-18-2008,
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNVE11ALRM.DTL) // JMP
Even as lawmakers of both parties talk about the need to shift the country toward clean, renewable energy, Congress is in
danger of letting key tax credits that have fueled the growth of wind and solar power expire at the end of the year.
The Senate failed for the second time in a week Tuesday to pass a bill to help businesses and homeowners switch to
renewable energy. The tax incentives have strong bipartisan support, but they have been caught up in a fight between
Democrats and Republicans over how to pay for them.
The stalemate is causing jitters among utilities and investors, including Bay Area venture capitalists and companies that are
making billion-dollar bets on new technology, solar power plants and manufacturing sites to build solar panels and wind
turbines. Many projects are being put on hold until Congress acts.
Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy in San Francisco, which helps finance and operate large-scale solar power projects,
said his company is rushing to finish projects before Dec. 31, when the credits expire. Because large solar projects can take
six months to build, the company is delaying new U.S. projects until the credits are renewed.
"It creates a hiccup that is very unfortunate," Harris said.
The stalemate is a classic example of how even popular programs can fall victim to gridlock in Washington.
House Democrats, seeking to abide by "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, insist that the tax credits must be paid for by raising
revenue elsewhere. But Senate Republicans have balked at every proposal so far to find that money.
The House first passed a measure early last year to extend the renewable energy credits by cutting subsidies to big oil
companies. The oil industry lobbied fiercely, President Bush vowed to veto it and the Senate blocked it.
Last month, the House approved a bill to extend the credits by delaying an obscure tax break for companies with foreign
operations and closing a tax loophole for hedge fund managers. But Republicans objected to what they called a stealth tax
increase, and the Senate's 52-44 vote Tuesday fell short of the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster and move the legislation
forward.
Funding issues for the tax credit empirically causes contentious battles in Congress
The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President
Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused
to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar
incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.
RPS Aff 231
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Arizona Republic, 8 (Ginger D. Richardson and Ryan Randazzo, “Solar projects hang on future of tax credit: Utilities, businesses
reluctant to act until subsidy is extended,” 5-27-2008, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/27/20080527solartax0527.html) // JMP
Arizona has started to embrace the idea of solar energy with some ambitious projects, but the looming expiration of a key financing tool could bring those efforts to a halt.
Congressional leaders, a majority of whom appear to support solar investment, cannot agree on how to pay for a subsidy that
would give anyone who installed or built a solar-energy system a 30 percent rebate of the cost in the form of a tax credit.
"It has definitely been a challenge," said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, based in Washington, D.C. "Our view is that there is
bipartisan support (for extending it), but it does seem like we are really stuck on the structure of how to do it."
In Arizona, where the sun shines more than 300 days a year, utilities are under a state mandate to generate 15 percent of their electricity needs from renewable sources by 2025.
They say solar is key to meeting their goals.
Arizona Public Service Co., for instance, has proposed what would be one of the largest solar-power plants in the world, capable of serving 70,000 homes or more. But utility
executives have made it clear that they will kill the plans for the Solana Generating Station if the tax credit isn't extended past its Dec. 31 expiration date.
Competing legislation
Language to extend the solar-investment tax credit for six years was most recently included in a larger bill, the Energy & Tax Extenders Act, which the House passed last week on
a mostly party-line vote.
The measure includes rebates for homeowners and businesses that install solar and wind systems and credits for individuals who purchase electric cars.
But the bill, with all its provisions, is estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. It faces an uncertain future in
the Senate, whose members have been loath to tie it to any proposal that would repeal tax breaks on other individuals or
business interests.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., a champion of solar efforts, said previous legislation would have paid for the
renewable-energy tax credits by repealing credits given to the oil and gas industry. She said she hopes this latest bill, which would close tax
loopholes for hedge-fund managers, overseas corporations and others, will be more "palatable."
Fellow Arizona Congressman John Shadegg, a Republican, isn't so sure it will be.
Shadegg said he supports solar energy and the tax-credit extension, but he voted against the latest House bill.
"Each time the issue of solar has come up before Congress, it has included tax increases, and none of them has moved in the
Senate," Shadegg said. "If we (Republicans) get to vote for these issues, and they're not burdened by tax increases, we will approve it."
Shadegg instead said he supports and is a co-sponsor of the House version of the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act, a Senate-introduced countermeasure that also would extend the
solar-tax credit.
But Giffords and other House Democrats counter that that bill isn't a good solution because it doesn't specify how to pay for the renewable-energy initiatives.
As a result, the solar-tax credit remains in limbo.
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Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Free market advocates have occasionally derided the case for national action on renewable portfolio standards (RPS)--laws
mandating that electricity suppliers use a certain percentage of renewable energy by a particular date. But proponents point
out that these regulations are needed to correct three major market failures in the electric utility industry. First, they argue that
electricity prices do not reflect the social costs of generating power; second, that energy subsidies have created an unfair
market advantage for fossil fuel and nuclear technologies; and third, that renewable energy generation is subject to a "free
rider" phenomenon. (9) To gain the transparent and multiple benefits from renewable energy at a larger scale, bold federal
action is essential. It is true that some states and regions of the nation are better positioned to exploit renewable resources, but
all regions can exploit some form of renewables, and RPS proposals have been crafted to allow for a large portfolio of
choices at the electricity retail level. Most compelling, under the current state initiatives, renewables will still only account
for 4 percent of national capacity by 2030.
Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
Renewable energy technologies are characterized by low environmental costs, but many of these environmental costs are
termed "externalities" and are not reflected in market prices. Only in certain areas and for certain pollutants do these environmental costs enter the
picture. The international effort to limit the growth of GHG emissions through the Kyoto Protocol may lead to some form of carbon-based tax, which continues to face stiff
political opposition in the United States. It is perhaps more likely that concern about emissions of particulate matter and formation of ozone from fossil-fuel power plants will lead
to expensive mitigation efforts by the plant operators, and this would help to tip the balance toward cleaner renewable systems.
There are two principal rationales for government support of R&D to develop clean energy technologies. First, conventional
energy prices generally do not reflect the social and environmental cost of pollution. Second, private firms are generally
unable to appropriate all the benefits of their R&D investments. The social rate of return for R&D exceeds the returns captured by individual firms, so
they do not invest enough in R&D to maximize social benefits. (12) Public investment, however, would help spread innovation among clean energy
companies, which would benefit the public.
Publicly funded market transformation programs (MTPs) for desirable clean energy technologies would provide an initial
subsidy and incentive for market growth, thus stimulating long-term demand. A principal reason for considering MTPs is inherent in the
production process. When a new technology is first introduced, it is more expensive than established substitutes. The unit cost of manufactured goods then tends to fall as a
function of cumulative production experience. Cost reductions are typically very rapid at first and then taper off as the industry matures--resulting in an "experience curve." Gas
turbines, photovoltaic cells, and wind turbines have all exhibited the expected price-production relationship, with costs falling roughly 20 percent for each doubling of the number
of units produced. (13)
If producers of clean energy consider the experience-curve effect when deciding how much to produce, they will "forward-price," producing at a loss initially to bring down their
costs and thereby maximize profit over the entire production period. In practice, however, the benefits of production experience often spill over to competitor producers, and this
potential problem discourages private firms from investing in bringing new products down the experience curve. Publicly funded MTPs can help correct the output shortfall
associated with these experience effects. (14)
This suggests an important role for MTPs in national and international technology policies. MTPs are most effective with emerging technologies that have steep industry
experience curves and a high probability of major long-term market penetration once subsidies are removed. The condition that technologies be clean mitigates the risk of poor
MTP performance, because the investments will alleviate environmental problems whose costs were not taken into account for the older, dirtier energy technologies. Renewable
energy products are ideal candidates for support through MTPs, via federal policies that reward the early production of clean energy technologies.
RPS Aff 233
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Kammen, et al, 1 – Professor of Energy and Society with the Energy and Resources Group and Professor Public Policy at
Cal Berkeley
(Dan Kammen – Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, Antonia Herzog and Timothy E. Lipman –
postdoctoral researchers at RAEL, and Jennifer L. Edwards – research assistant at RAEL, Environment, “Renewable Energy:
A Viable Choice,” December 2001, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-80932983.html) // JMP
The push to develop renewable and other clean energy technologies is no longer being driven solely by environmental
concerns; these technologies are becoming economically competitive. According to Merrill Lynch's Robin Batchelor, the
traditional energy sector has lacked appeal to investors in recent years because of heavy regulation, low growth, and a
tendency to be cyclical. (10) The United States' lack of support for innovative new companies sends a signal that U.S. energy
markets are biased against new entrants. The clean energy industry could, however, become a world-leading industry akin to
that of U.S. semi-conductors and computer systems.
Free market empirically fails – the current energy crisis proves that private actors don’t motivate solutions
Brown, 7 - Chair of Energy Policy in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology
(Marilyn A., “Chapter 2: Energy Myth One – Today’s Energy Crisis is “Hype” Energy and American Society: Thirteen
Myths, ed. By M. Brown and B. Sovacool, p. 23-25)
There is a common belief in the United States that the marketplace, when left to its own devices, can meet society’s needs.
Often the technical solutions to societal problems already exist; all that blocks their usage are market imperfections that can be eliminated by simply updating public policies. When new technologies are
How, then, can an energy crisis possibly be upon us? The fact is,
needed, scientists and entrepreneurs have shown an impressive capacity to deliver them quite rapidly.
the U.S. government and industry have invested a fraction of what has been needed to develop solutions to the nation’s energy problems,
and local, state, and federal policies and initiatives have been inadequate. As a result, options do not exist today to ensure a sustainable energy future, and the country faces
the risk of a very real energy crisis. Many commentators and policymakers deny the possibility of an energy crisis, instead contending that the energy
challenges facing the country are fabricated, exaggerated, or simply wrong. For example, marketplace manipulation has been a common accusation by those
who claim that today’s energy crisis is a hoax. According to CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales, California’s energy crisis – the blackouts and sky-high power prices that cost California billions of
dollars in 2001 – was manufactured by key power companies hoarding energy supplies to make more money.
Overall, the companies kept more than 30 % to 50 % of their power off the market. During some of the worst moments of the crisis, they held back even more – anywhere from 55 to 76 % of production – all in
an effort, whistleblowers told CBS News more than a year ago, to cut the power supply and drive up prices.
More recent allegations of market manipulation have been made against oil companies that have experienced record-breaking profits while Americans face record-breaking gasoline prices. In proposing
legislation for an excess profits tax on “oil company profiteering,” Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio speaking from the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on April 26, 2006, stated that “By
taxing excessive profits, it puts the breaks on price gouging and will lower the price of gasoline.”2 Similarly, the U.S. Justice Department has accused global energy giant BP of secretly cornering the propane
market in 2004 by buying nearly all of the propane stored along a key Texas–New York pipeline. The case alleges that the market manipulation caused a 50% spike in propane prices at the height of the home
heating season (Wilke and Cummins, 2006). The clarity of a long-term energy crisis is blurred by such supply and price distortions.
The notion of a contrived energy crisis has also been portrayed as a cover-up for pro-industry and anti-environmental
policies. Consider a news story written shortly after the Administration released its National Energy Plan in 2001, when Anthony York (among others) suggested that the industry-friendly plan was written
in response to a contrived energy crisis. York states that the Administration’s “first domestic crisis is largely self-created. Despite Bush’s rhetoric, it’s not an energy crisis – experts disagree on whether, outside
of California, we’re really facing one – but a crisis of public confidence.”3 Similarly, Dan Ackman, an Editor for Forbes, describes “A phantom energy crisis: The Bush administration has convinced the nation
that we’re in the middle of a power emergency, but the facts indicate otherwise.” He continues: “Cheney used to work in the energy business, as did the president, so they should know better. The crisis hype is
Others have suggested that the energy crisis is simply a ruse for
phony. Is the administration talking up a crisis to help pay back its buddies in the oil business?”4
relieving pressure on environmental issues. “Is Bush Using a Phony ‘Energy Crisis’ for Cover on the Environment?” asks Frank Pellegrini in a story run by Time Magazine on May
22, 2001. Arguing that technical solutions can outpace society’s energy challenges, science and technology champions have questioned the reality of an energy crisis. Such champions argue that any energy
crisis facing society can inevitably be solved by human ingenuity and technological progress. Advocates of solar photovoltaics, natural gas pipelines, steam power, nuclear power and fusion technologies have
each argued such systems could solve all of society’s energy needs. For example, technology futurists argue that the energy in the jet stream winds located miles above earth is sufficient to supply all the world’s
energy needs. This energy, it is claimed, can be captured by tethered flying turbines using combinations of existing technology at economics calculated to be better than fossil fuel or nuclear power if all costs
are considered. “Utilizing this energy can not only resolve our energy independence problems, but start putting a halt to our global warming problem.”6 Similarly, Marty Hoffert (2006) – professor emeritus of
physics at New York University – describes a range of visions for a renewable-energy future.7 One of these involves photovoltaic panels positioned in geostationary orbit to receive constant sunlight and
thereby furnish the earth with a reliable stream of electricity. This ring of sun-reflecting solar-powered satellites would use wireless transmission to beam electricity down to earth on a continuous basis,
potentially meeting all of the earth’s needs for power.
Energy resource analysts are often similarly optimistic. “There is no energy shortage,” says R. Martin Chavez, chief executive of Kiodex, which supplies software to
companies for managing their exposure to energy costs. “There is so much oil and natural gas in the ground. There are more known reserves now
than there ever has been.”8 The argument of abundant energy resources has been applied often in characterizing the availability of unconventional petroleum sources such as tar sands and oil
shale and with respect to unconventional natural gas resources such as methane hydrates. These methane-rich ice formations are found in seafloor sediments around the world and in the arctic permafrost.
According to Lorie Langley, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, “Estimates on how much energy is stored in methane hydrates range from 350 years’ supply to 3,500 years’ supply based on current
today’s energy situation is
energy consumption.” In sum, the nation’s energy problems have been characterized as fabricated, exaggerated, and untrue. In contrast, this chapter argues that
indeed of a “crisis” magnitude similar to the situation faced by the country in 1973–1974. Despite myths to the contrary, the
health of the U.S. energy system heading into the 21st century is every bit as dire as it was 30 years ago. After a general overview of
comparative statistics, five interconnected energy challenges are probed, comparing their conditions in 1970 with those of today. We begin by looking at the nation’s oil vulnerability. Attention then turns to the
electric system, first considering the nation’s power plants and then turning to issues of the grid and other critical energy infrastructures. Next we consider the evolution of the demand sector, focusing especially
on buildings, communities and aspects of the built environment that impact energy requirements. We end with a discussion of the link between energy and environmental quality. Thus, we generally track the
this assessment leads to the conclusion that the nation has failed to meet its
dimensions of the Energy Sustainability Index (see Chapter 1). In general,
energy challenges in ways that auger well for the future.
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A2: Education CP
Educating the public won’t change their behavior – convenience overshadows personal responsibility
A2: Education CP
Informing the public does nothing – value changes don’t lead to action
A2: Education CP
Government policies are key to give consumers the ability to choose renewable energy
3.4.4 Myth: Consumers Often make Poor Energy Decisions because they are not Informed that Energy-Efficient Alternatives
Exist
Brower and Leon (1999) in The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists look at reducing energy use and
environmental impacts through consumer choices. They offer sage advice about how to reduce environmental impact though selection and use of major purchases, such as
automobiles and homes. The book was a counterpoint to popular books such as 50 Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth and others that offered hundreds of tips for daily living to
reduce environmental impacts. Brower and Leon recommend focusing on major actions that can reduce consumption and related environmental impacts rather than minding a
myriad of behaviors each with tiny environmental impacts. Through analysis of environmental studies or risk assessments they concluded the four major areas of impact of
consumer decisions are: air pollution, global warming, habitat alteration, and water pollution. They state that the most harmful consumer activities are: • cars and light trucks •
meat and poultry • fruits, vegetables, and grains • home heating, hot water, and air conditioning • household appliances and lighting • home construction • household water and
sewage (p. 50). They go on to list “Priority Actions for American Consumers” to reduce environmental impacts:
Transportation 1. Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive. 2. Think twice before purchasing another car. 3. Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting car. 4. Set concrete
goals for reducing your travel. 5. Whenever practical, walk, bicycle, or take public transportation. Food 6. Eat less meat. 7. Buy certified organic produce. Household operations 8.
Choose your home carefully. 9. Reduce the environmental costs of heating and hot water. 10. Install efficient lighting and appliances. 11. Choose an electricity supplier offering
renewable energy (p. 85).
Additionally, they list high-impact activities that are best avoided: “powerboats, pesticides and fertilizers, gasoline-powered-yard equipment, fireplaces and wood stoves,
recreational off-road driving, hazardous cleaners and paints, and products made from endangered or threatened species” (p. 109). They also recommend not worrying or feeling
guilty about the environmental impact of smaller decisions, such as buying a set of Legos for your children. They admit that the plastic they are made from does pollute, but that
such toys will be used repeatedly and probably passed on, not thrown away.
Brower and Leon explain that the
environmental impact of many consumer decisions cannot be blamed on the consumer, because few
environmentally sound alternatives exist. They state, “[C]onsumers do not have complete control over what they consume
and how much damage it causes” (p. 13). They cite examples of recent history. Prior to deregulation of electrical utilities, consumers had no choice where their
power came from – dirty or green sources. Although people were concerned about lead in their environment, they had to wait for oil companies to produce unleaded gasoline.
Brower and Leon insightfully state, [W]hat
needs to change is the choices available to consumers. The key decisions then need to be
made at the corporate, institutional, or governmental level rather than among individuals. Americans seeking to reduce the environmental
impact of products would often be best served by pressuring their local, state, or national government to adopt policies that make it easy, or even required, for manufacturers and
users of products to choose the environmentally sound option. (p. 13)
Brower and Leon use the example of household appliances, especially refrigerators. In 1983, the federal government set refrigerator efficiency standards for 1993. At that time, no
refrigerator on the market met the pending standards. Consumers benefited tremendously from these new regulations, saving about $22 billion in electrical costs in about a decade.
Energy efficiency labeling for refrigerators was also required by the federal government. It addressed the problem that consumers would not be able to make informed decisions
about how much a new refrigerator would save in terms of energy simply by looking at it. Such labeling was popular with consumers. Through regulation, government was able to
accomplish what individual consumers could not do alone.
The U.S. government currently sponsors the ENERGY STAR® program that has made information available about the energy efficiency of 40 product categories from appliances
to homes through the ENERGY STAR program.2 Brower and Leon summarize their approach, “We therefore should not assume that the decisions of individual consumers cause
most environmental damage. Instead we should focus some of our attention on changing organizations rather than individuals” (1999, p. 14).
Other societal barriers to environmentally responsible behavior related to energy consumption currently exist. For example,
environmentally sound residential housing options are not available in many communities. Two friends are looking for a “starter home” to buy. They
would like an energy-efficient house in a neighborhood in which they could walk to the grocery store, library, and playground. Unfortunately, the new subdivisions near their
places of employment have neither sidewalks nor whole-house energy efficiency design. The young couple is frustrated. They concur with Brower and Leon’s statement, “Our
choices, are frequently shaped and constrained by circumstances.” Often,
energy-wise behaviors are thwarted by lack of consumer options,
building codes, and city planning, not lack of knowledge. As a result, Brower and Leon conclude, “Good government policies are needed
for action on the personal lifestyle level to succeed” (1999, p. 146).
Despite the fact that Americans are becoming better educated and that energy issues are gaining in prominence, the idea that
the public is therefore well informed about the complexities of our energy system and policies in all likelihood remains a
myth. More free-choice learning opportunities are needed for the public. Such programs should do more than raise awareness
or change values; they need to involve all five goals of environmental education (i.e., raising awareness, building knowledge,
developing skills, identifying values, and having the opportunity to participate to utilize new awareness, knowledge, skills,
and values). However, we cannot expect a well-informed public to solve energy and environmentally related problems,
especially through their consumer and lifestyle choices. Educational efforts need to be balanced with action from
government. Even the most well informed people cannot make good consumer choices if no good alternatives exist.
Education must be combined with other practices such as enlightened governmental policy to create a more sustainable
future.
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Lovins et. al, 8 – veteran energy expert and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute (Amory B. Lovins, Imran Sheikh, and
Alex Markevich, “Forget Nuclear,” Spring 08, http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid467.php, AG)
Wind, cogeneration, and end-use efficiency already provide electrical services more cheaply than central thermal power
plants, whether nuclear- or fossil-fuelled. This cost gap will only widen, since central thermal power plants are largely mature
while their competitors continue to improve rapidly. The high costs of conventional fossil-fuelled plants would go even
higher if their large carbon emissions had to be captured.
Nuclear plant operations emit almost no carbon—just a little to produce the fuel under current conditions. Nuclear power is
therefore touted as the key replacement for coal-fired power plants. But this seemingly straightforward substitution could
instead be done using non-nuclear technologies that are cheaper and faster, so they yield more climate solution per dollar and
per year. As Figure 2 shows, various options emit widely differing quantities of CO2 per delivered kilowatt-hour.
Lovins, 5 (Amory B. Lovins - veteran energy expert and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute, “Nuclear Follies Meet
Market Realities,” Fall 05, http://www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/Newsletter/NLRMIfallwinter05.pdf, AG)
Nothing can save nuclear power from its dismal economics. Not regulatory change: the U.S. industry has enjoyed a regulatory system of its own design
for a quarter-century with zero orders. Not new kinds of reactors: if they were free, the rest of the plant would still cost too much. Not
carbon taxes: they’d help efficiency and renewables equally and cogeneration partially. Not hydrogen: nuclear energy is a hopelessly costly
way to split water. And not the roughly $13 billion of extra subsidies just approved by Congress—markets ultimately prevail. In fact,
Standard & Poor’s just concluded (Nucl. Eng. Intl. News, 18 August 2005) those nuclear developers’ credit ratings won’t gain much, because the most basic risks remain
unresolved—and S&P wasn’t even talking about this sort of market competition.
Cost trends make nuclear’s prospects even bleaker. Windpower is expected to get at least one-third cheaper by 2020, then
cheaper still. Cogen continues to mature and gain economies of mass-production. Efficiency gets ever bigger and cheaper as new and improved
technologies, offshore and high-volume production, competition, streamlined delivery, and (above all) integrative design
outpace the using up of potential savings. (California and the Pacific Northwest confirm these trends with falling utility program costs.) And all these
technologies are empirically manyfold quicker to build than similar capacity in nuclear plants.
How about the ultimate potential size of the competing resources? At less than the delivered cost of just running a nuclear plant, even if building it cost nothing, potential U.S.
electricity savings range from about twice to four times the 20 percent U.S. market share of nuclear power, according to the utilities’ Electric Power Research Institute and to RMI,
respectively, in their joint September 1990 Scientific American article. (The difference is largely methodological, not substantive.) Lawrence
Livermore National
Laboratory found a negative-cost waste-heat cogeneration potential about as big as nuclear power today, not counting other
big opportunities in industry and buildings. Windpower’s U.S. potential on readily available rural land—equivalent to a few Dakota
counties—exceeds twice national electrical usage. European experience confirms that windpower’s intermittence is entirely manageable if
renewables are properly dispersed, diversified, forecast, and integrated with the existing grid.
For all these reasons, a portfolio of least-cost investments in efficient use and in decentralized generation will beat nuclear
power in cost, speed, and size by a large and rising margin. This isn’t hypothetical; its what today’s market is proving. To be
sure, all technologies have a certain dry hole or non-completion risk, and all have implementation hassles. But observed market behavior proves that this risk
has been far smaller for the competitive portfolio than for nuclear power.
Nuclear power is also very intermittent and has a high chance of permanent closure.
Lovins et. al, 8 – veteran energy expert and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute (Amory B. Lovins, Imran Sheikh, and
Alex Markevich, “Forget Nuclear,” Spring 08, http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid467.php, AG)
Dr. Sovacool, 7 – Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant
Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA
(Benjamin K., also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
"Nuclear vs. Coal: A False Choice," 9-24-2007, http://scitizen.com/stories/Future-Energies/2007/09/Nuclear-vs--Coal-A-
False-Choice/, AG)
Anybody that has recently watched television discussions about electricity policy or read popular newspaper articles in the
U.S. may be convinced that the true contest in American energy policy is between nuclear technologies and traditional fossil-
fuel generators.
New nuclear power systems have received significant support from President Bush, Congress, and the Department of Energy,
largely because such technologies seem to hold two comparative advantages over other technologies: they can produce
immense amounts of electricity, and they can do so without significantly contributing to global warming.
Such a narrow comparison between nuclear and fossil fuel systems, however, is both dangerous and counterproductive. It
threatens to obscure two sets of more effective supply-side solutions to America's energy problems: renewable energy
systems and small-scale non-renewable distributed generation technologies. Contrary to the commentary produced by the
media and energy lobbyists, renewable and distributed energy technologies have four advantages over both fossil fueled and
nuclear systems: they have lower lifetime costs, promote environmental equity, improve the efficiency of electricity
transmission and distribution networks, and contribute positively to energy security.
In terms of the first point, cost, data from the California Energy Commission and Virginia Center for Coal and Energy
Research have shown that wind turbines and landfill gas generators offered the cheapest forms of electricity for country at
large in 2005. Their analyses included comparing wind and biogas facilities to all other generators including advanced coal,
natural gas, and nuclear plants, and focused on the costs over the entire lifetime of a given generator.
On the second point, environmental equity, almost every phase of the process that converts conventional fuel into electricity
is extremely damaging to the environment. Fossil fuel and nuclear power plants are the nation's second largest user of water,
consuming around 48.2 trillion gallons of water per year to produce steam to turn turbines. In addition, the country's 600 coal
and oil-fired power plants produce more than one hundred million tons of sludge waste. Abandoned uranium mines can pose
radioactive risks for as long as 250,000 years after closure. And despite three decades of "clean air" legislation in the United
States, air pollution continues to pose a serious threat to human and ecosystem health. In 2001, the U.S. electric utility
industry was responsible for approximately 72 percent of the nation's sulfur dioxide emissions; 40 percent of nitrogen oxide
emissions; one third of particulate matter emissions; one fourth of mercury emissions; and almost one half of anthropogenic
carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, renewable technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, biomass generators, small-
scale hydroelectric plants, and geothermal facilities do not rely on fuels that need to be mined, transported, or stored, and they
each produce little to no air pollution.
On the third point, transmission and distribution efficiency, distributed and renewable energy systems can better enable
utilities and system operators to stabilize the grid and improve reliability. Because distributed technologies can be produced
at smaller scale, they can be located (or situated) almost anywhere, and their modularity means that generators can be
deployed to precisely match smaller increments of demand. Distributed generators, in contrast to centralized plants, help
displace electricity normally produced by a large coal- or natural-gas fired turbine, backed up by a spinning reserve, and
delivered through the power grid to the same location.
Finally, moving to the last point about energy security, distributed and renewable energy sources can help meet rising demand
in a way less risky and more easily for communities to control. Large coal, natural gas, and nuclear facilities are extremely
capital intensive and take years to build. A typical 1,100 megawatt light water reactor plant costs between $2 and $3 billion
for licensing and construction. The capital intensity of such projects complicates the process of balancing capacity with
demand, meaning plants tend to overproduce electricity. In contrast, smaller distributed technologies limit financial risk and
capital exposure. Smaller units with shorter lead times reduce the risk of purchasing a technology that becomes obsolete
before it is installed, and quick installations can better exploit rapid learning, as many generations of product development
can be compressed into the time it would take to build one giant plant.
To conclude, the wisest energy strategy for the United States—in terms of cost, environmental benefits, and potential—is not
a forced choice between coal and nuclear plants. It is instead promoting the use of smaller, decentralized and renewable
energy technologies that are quicker to construct, less fuel intensive, and more modular. It is these miniature generators—not
gargantuan and capital-intensive nuclear and fossil fuel plants—that offer the best strategy for responding to the needs of
American electricity consumers.
RPS Aff 239
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Nuclear energy and renewables must be integrated together to be successful and efficient.
Harris, 5 – co-founder of “Lucid Dream Productions.” (Robbie, “Renewable Versus Nuclear Debate,” August 2005,
http://www.consciouschoice.com/2005/cc1808/windsb11808.html, AG)
The numbers don’t add up for John Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, the parent company of Commonwealth
Edison, headquartered in Chicago.
“If you’re looking for the free lunch in energy production you’ll get very hungry,” Rowe said. “To me the issue is always
how do we make energy in a more acceptable way without imposing unacceptable costs on our customers … We don’t build
power plants because we love them, but because we ned them to keep their lights on.”
He added that Exelon will be “mixing some wind in with the existing base of coal and nuclear and gas … [and] we can do
that with reasonable economics. But we can’t bet the whole supply on greener sources, that won’t make an economic mix.”
Shwartz said he thinks that is the best possible approach.
“Renewable energy is part of the solution. We need to be realistic with our goals but we want to swing for the fence,” he said.
“Even if we sold every solar panel that exists we right now we won’t replace a nuke plant, but over 20 years if production
stepped up, you bet we could get rid of those plants.”
Shwartz pointed out that when energy is created 40 feet from where it is needed the process saves money by being more
energy efficient.
Line losses average about seven percent nationwide, however, total energy losses in the production of electricity are about 75
percent, according to Randy Udall, Director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE), a non-profit
organization in western Colorado. “A typical power plant in this country only converts 33 percent of the energy in its fuel
into electricity,” said Udall. “So, we immediately lose about 66 percent of the available energy; that plus the line losses gets
us to your 75 percent figure. So it is true to say that energy losses, including line losses, are about 75 percent in the
production of electricity. “Some of the newer combined cycle natural gas power plants, it is true, convert 50 percent or a bit
more of the energy in the gas into electricity. But the average plant, including all the coal plants, in the U.S. is around 33
percent efficient.
[Note - Joe Schwartz is the CEO and technical editor of Home Power Magazine, a bi-monthly based in Ashland,
Oregon]
RPS can work with nuclear and clean coal energies to meet CO2 standards.
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
William Durbin: Well, some of those things in the puzzle are the other types of capacity that we need to be looking at. Wind
is great. Renewables are great, but we also are going to need some very large scale zero emission power plants. And what are
large scale zero emission power plants? You're talking nuclear. You have to bring nuclear into the debate. You have to look at
clean coal technology. Well, how do you get a zero emission clean coal plant? Well, you have to build a coal plant that has
carbon capture and sequestration associated with it. Those are two very complicated technologies that are not quite ready, off-
the-shelf, to deliver tomorrow on CO2 reductions. So it's going to take some time, and that's what we're finding also as we
continue to do more research into this space. The timeframes that we're looking at here to try and meet 1990 levels by 2020,
very aggressive. Technology's not there. And if the technology's not there that means we're going to have to find an
alternative. We'll build the renewables, but what else can bring down that CO2? Energy efficiency, but that's a little longer
play as well. It'll be natural gas. So all the benefits that we're seeing in an RPS standard, where I just mentioned the reduction
in gas demand, reduction in gas prices associated with it, which also says reduction in power prices are offset by the fact that
gas is the only fuel that can step up tomorrow and start putting out lower emissions than a coal plant. But that means a lot
more gas demand is going to be consumed, not less.
RPS Aff 240
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Hall & Kirkham, 7 – natural resource attorneys with Stoel Rives LLP
(Richard R. Hall and John S. Kirkham, The Enterprise Newspaper, “Coal: Like It or Not, It's Here to Stay,” 6-1-2007,
www.stoel.com/showarticle.aspx?Show=2484) // JMP
The challenge facing government and industry is reconciling rapid economic growth and energy demand with the
environmental impacts and risks of climate change. Despite the environmental concerns and promising advances in the
development of alternative energy sources, coal will undoubtedly continue to play a significant role in power generation for
decades to come. Attempts to abruptly eliminate coal from current and/or future energy options would be imprudent and
jeopardize the availability, reliability and security of a country’s overall energy supply. To ensure future energy needs are
affordable, support for the development of new energy technologies should include research and development for clean coal
technologies as well as improving competitiveness of alternative energy sources.
Bloomberg, 8 (Jim Efstathiou Jr., “Rio Tinto Says U.S. Must Spend Billions for Clean-Coal Devices,” 6-2-2008,
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aKVuoOkwQtkI&refer=australia) // JMP
Deeper Hole
Coal-burning plants supply about half of U.S. power demand. Taxpayer dollars would be better spent on reducing greenhouse
gases by expanding solar and wind power, said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research of Takoma Park, Maryland. He suggests linking the wind-rich Midwest part of the U.S. to cities that require more
electricity instead of building expensive gas-scrubbing machinery.
``There's no shortage of energy sources with low carbon dioxide,'' Makhijani said. ``If we're going to invest in something that
isn't going to pay off for 15 or 20 years, we're going to dig a much deeper hole and make it much more costly to solve the
problem.''
Fifteen years of tests are needed before capture and storage can be installed at generators, the U.S. Energy Department has
said. Worldwide, $4 billion a year is needed for pilot projects, quadruple the current spending, said Howard Herzog, principal
research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative, who has studied carbon capture since
1989.
Boston Globe, 8 (Editorial from Loie Hayes, “Green and coal don't exactly mix ,” 6-8-2008,
www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/06/08/coal_gasification_is_dirty_and_unproven/) // JMP
I wonder if the legislators who think coal gasification is a green energy source also believed Ronald Reagan when he argued
that ketchup should count as a vegetable in school lunch programs. "Coal gasification" and "green energy" don't belong
together in the same sentence, let alone in legislation that's supposed to lessen our dependence on dirty fuels.
State subsidies should not be used to tilt the market toward technologies that tear the tops off mountains, dumps the refuse
into valleys, and buries toxins in the nation's shrinking fresh water supply. The coal lobby - and the Big Ag lobby behind the
biofuels boondoggle - are already buying up every politician within reach!
Legislators should cut these two poison pills from the energy overhaul bill that is otherwise a wonderful breath of fresh air
from Beacon Hill.
RPS Aff 241
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Sargent, 8 (Sara Sargent, “Duke Energy Corp.’s new plant will allow coal to remain king in Indiana but keep emissions low,”
6-3-2008, http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=92169) // JMP
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has issued a permit for the Edwardsville IGCC, indicating the plant’s
compliance with all state and federal air pollution requirements.
“IDEM permitted the Duke Energy Edwardsport facility based on these environmental regulations .... This plant will be a
showcase for new clean coal technology, assisting our nation in producing electricity in a more environmentally sensitive
manner,” IDEM spokesman Robert Elstro said in an e-mail.
Yet, despite IDEM’s approval, as well as thumbs-up from conservation organizations such as the Clean Air Task Force and
the Indiana Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana are vocal in their opposition.
“In Indiana they are locked into this coal addiction problem,” opined Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s national coal
campaign. “Public officials who are beating this drum are doing a disservice to Indiana because the state will be left behind in
this clean energy economy.”
Instead of coal, which he says has a “legacy of destruction with the coal mining and the carbon emissions,” Nilles champions
using alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power and encouraging state residents to consume energy efficiently
by renovating old buildings and cutting electricity usage.
Coal gasification is not does not reduce pollution or destructive mining – renewable are comparatively better
Boston Globe, 8 (Editorial from Jane K. Bright, “Coal gasification is dirty and unproven,” 6-8-2008,
www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/06/08/coal_gasification_is_dirty_and_unproven/) // JMP
Coal gasification proponents used the term "alternative energy technology," a marketing gimmick designed to mislead the
public into believing coal is clean ("Energy bill slows over 2 key provisions," May 29). It reminds me of President Bush's
"Clear Skies" power plant standards that allowed pollution to increase!
Our legislators and governor should not be duped nor should they force taxpayers to support a dirty, unproven, problematic
technology.
Coal use in any form requires mining. In the United States, mining means mountain top devastation and community
destruction. In South America, mine companies have been accused of murdering union members.
Then there is CO2, the biggest problem of all. How can we support sequestration technology to capture and store CO2 when
it has been about as successful as storing nuclear waste? What we need is real CO2 reductions.
Finally, Massachusetts voters and their representatives should know that of two coal gasification facilities in the United
States, the Indiana plant exploded in April killing two workers.
If we are required to subsidize energy, make it clean, safe, and sustainable, standards met by solar, geothermal, wind, and
ocean-generated energy, all of which are natural resources. Coal gasification fails these standards decisively.
RPS Aff 242
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Extractive industries and utilities provide declining number of jobs, for reasons that have little or nothing to do with
environmental regulations
According to the Worldwatch Institute, jobs in extractive industries are on the decline, as mechanization and mergers lead to
continuous layoffs. While coal production in the US increased 32 percent between 1980 and 1999, coal-mining employment
declined 66 percent, from 242,000 to 83,000 workers. Further, jobs in the coal industry are expected to fall by
36,000 workers between 1995 and 2020, even without any greenhouse gas–reducing policies, such as carbon caps or taxes, in
place. In the oil industry, over 40 percent of US oil-refining jobs were lost between 1980 and 1999. Petroleum refining and
wholesale distribution account for only 0.3 percent of all US employment in 2000. Further, commodity prices’ boom-bust
cycles make these industries, and employment in them, very volatile.10
Contrary to popular belief, very few of these job losses are caused by environmental regulations. The Worldwatch Institute
reports: “A survey of 224 permanent plant closings in 1980–86 by the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers’ Union found that
just 12 plants listed environmental reasons as a partial motive for closure. And surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics from 1987–92 and again from 1995 on show that environment–related reasons for layoffs were of minute
significance: 0.14 percent of all layoffs in 1995–97 (the surveys cover layoffs of 50 people or more for a month or longer).
All in all, annual layoffs from plants shut down due to environmental regulation have averaged 1,000–3,000 in the United
States since the 1970s. Relative to economy-wide layoffs of typically more than 2 million workers each year, this is less than
one tenth of 1 percent.”11
The Worldwatch study also demonstrates that mining and utility companies are responsible for substantial toxic pollution. In
1998, the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that 48 percent of the 7.3 billion pounds of toxic pollutants tracked by
its Toxic Release Inventory, are released by mining companies (a category which includes extraction of metals, coal, oil and
gas). Another 15 percent of TRI releases were attributed to the utility sector. Although these two sectors were responsible for
63 percent of the toxic releases tracked by the EPA, together they provided only 1.4 million jobs, or 1.3 percent of all private
enterprise jobs in the United States in that year.12
The fossil fuel industry provides little overall new employment, but generates huge economic externalities through pollution
that somebody has to pay to clean up, or has to endure. These externalities become manifest in the loss of productive work
days caused by illness due to pollution exposure, costs borne by industry (and eventually consumers) to clean up pollution,
or costs borne directly by taxpayers for clean-up.
RPS Aff 243
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
Without federal primacy, different jurisdictions could fail to coordinate their actions, leading to costly or impossible burdens
on hazardous material transporters. State law precedents also exist for displacing multiple actors’ roles in siting choices in favor of
creating one comprehensive permitting venue.79 Similarly, proposed legislation to address greenhouse gases contributing to climate
change received an apparent boost when several industry leaders indicated they might welcome such a federal law. Until now,
federal law has provided only limited regulation of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and agencies have been reluctant to use existing statutory powers to promulgate
regulatory constraints.80 An
array of states and cities in legislation have started to regulate greenhouse gases, and common law suits have been filed as
well.81 The apparent industry change of heart reflects a desire to “avert a multiplicity of regulations being drafted by various state governments.”82 “ ‘We
cannot deal
with 50 different policies,’ said [a representative of Shell], ‘we need a national approach to greenhouse gases.’”83 A similar
emergence of industry support for a preemptive federal response when confronted with diverse state regulation occurred
earlier in the modern environmental law era. Industry sought preemptive federal regulation of air and water pollution sources, but as
discussed above regarding floor preemption, ultimately obtained little relief other than regarding car pollution regulation.84 An
array of products are, due to their risks, subject to federal regulatory approvals, sometimes including reviews of product designs or characteristics before marketing, and at times
including even design requirements. Such federal laws pertain to medicines, pesticides, automobile safety, workplace safety, and consumer products, as well as other areas. These
regulatory schemes typically include form two preemption, explicitly prohibiting creation of additional or different design requirements by state legislatures or agencies. Several of
these statutory regimes, however, include both provisions explicitly stating the intent to preempt directly conflicting standards, while also containing savings clauses.85 Perhaps the
most unusual change in preemption policy arose in early 2006. Almost simultaneously, an array of federal agencies dealing with such risks asserted in Federal Register preambles
that their promulgated regulatory choices not only preempt directly conflicting required standards, but also supplant potential common law tort liabilities for harms resulting from
the regulated items.86
Washington Post 6 (Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change, 11/25/6,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401361_pf.html, AM)
executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see
While the political debate over global warming continues, top
federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.
The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the federal government will attempt to regulate emissions. The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help
fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in
anticipation of the regulation.
"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of
scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"
Hofmeister and other top energy company leaders, such as Duke Energy Corp.'s chief executive, James E. Rogers, back a proposal that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and allow firms to trade their quotas.
Paul M. Anderson, Duke Energy's chairman and a member of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, favors a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
His firm is the nation's third-largest burner of coal.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the highest-profile corporate skeptic about global warming, said in September that it was considering ending its funding of a think tank that has sought to cast doubts on climate change.
And on Nov. 2, the company announced that it will contribute more than $1.25 million to a European Union study on how to store carbon dioxide in natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea, Algeria and
Germany.
These changes come as Democratic leaders prepare to take over key committees on Capitol Hill. Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), who calls global warming "the greatest challenge of our generation," will take the
place of Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe refers to global warming as a "hoax."
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the incoming Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, said he hopes to "do something on global warming." Even though the Bush administration's expected
opposition might make the enactment of legislation unlikely in the next two years, many companies cannot put off decisions about what sort of power plants to build.
Duke Energy, for example, has not added significant power generation in two decades, and customer demand is rising 1 to 2 percent a year. The company has included a price for the carbon emitted in its cost
estimates for a new coal-fired generating plant proposed for Indiana.
"If we had our druthers, we'd already have carbon legislation passed," said John L. Stowell, Duke Energy's vice president for environmental policy. "Our viewpoint is that it's going to happen. There's scientific
evidence of climate change. We'd like to know what legislation will be put together so that, when we figure out how to increase our load, we know exactly what to expect."
One reason companies are turning to Congress is to avert the multiplicity of regulations being drafted by various state
governments. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of seven Northeastern states, is moving ahead with a proposed system that would set a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions, issue
allowances to companies, and allow firms to trade those allowances to comply with regulations.
California is drawing up its program. Other states are also contemplating limits. Even the city of Boulder, Colo., has adopted its own plan -- a carbon tax based on electricity use.
"We cannot deal with 50 different policies," said Shell's Hofmeister. "We need a national approach to greenhouse gases."
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the federal government is obligated to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant; its decision could force the government to come up with guidelines.
Though many energy firms had already voiced support in recent months for federal regulations limiting greenhouse gas
emissions, the coming changeover in Congress has intensified the discussions.
"There have been many more folks wanting to engage on the detailed architecture of climate-change legislation," said Jason S. Grumet, executive director of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy
Policy. "The tenor, tone and the detail of discussions has changed in the last couple of months. Nobody's going to want to be the last company to come before the Congress and say, 'I've been opposing you for
five years, but now can I have my piece?' "
RPS Aff 244
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
In addition we find that the employment rate in fossil fuel-related industries has been declining steadily for reasons that have little to do with environmental regulation. Finally, we find that supporting
renewables within a comprehensive and coordinated energy policy that also supports energy efficiency and sustainable transportation will yield far greater employment benefits than supporting one or two of
While certain sectors of the economy may be net losers, policy interventions can help minimize the impact of a
these sectors separately.
transition from the current fossil fuel dominated economy to a more balanced portfolio that includes significant amounts
of clean energy. Further, generating local employment through the deployment of local and sustainable energy technologies is an important and underutilized way to enhance national security and
international stability.
Losses in one sector are offset with gains in other areas of the economy
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Studies that focus on calculating the employment impacts of the renewables industry can be divided into two main types: a) those that use input-output (I-O) models of the economy; and b) those that use
simpler, largely spreadsheet-based analytical models. Among the studies reviewed and listed in Table 1, reports number 1, 5, 9, 12 and 13 are based on I-O models, and the rest are based on analytical models.
Analytical models typically only calculate direct employment impacts. Direct employment includes those jobs created in the manufacturing, delivery, construction/installation, project management and
operation and maintenance (O&M) of the different components of the technology, or power plant, under consideration. I-O models calculate direct employment but also account for indirect jobs that are induced
through multiplier effects of the industry under consideration. For example, the task of installing wind turbines is a direct job, whereas manufacturing the steel that is used to build the wind turbine is an
indirect job. I-O models capture such multiplier effects, as well as the economic impacts of spending by workers in the new jobs. Both types of models have advantages and disadvantages.
I-O models provide the most complete picture of the economy as a whole. They capture employment multiplier effects, as
well as the macroeconomic impacts of shifts between sectors; that is to say, they account for losses in one sector (e.g. coal
mining) created by the growth of another sector (e.g. the wind energy industry). Analytical models generally ignore
these multiplier effects, and are more likely to under-report overall employment impacts.
Slow restructuring will allow companies and communities to adapt – no net job losses
Lacey, 7 (Stephen, Renewable Energy World, “The Economic Impact of Renewable Energy,” 4-20-2007,
www.renewableenergyworld.net/rea/news/story?id=48201) // JMP
When the U.S. finally adopts high amounts of renewable energy, there will undoubtedly be jobs lost in the fossil fuel
industries. But the country won't restructure itself overnight, so companies and workers will have time to adapt to the
evolving energy landscape.
"Most of the big energy companies are rich -- they are big and diversified. There are efforts going on among all the big oil
companies to invest heavily in renewables. So I think you're not going to see job losses, you're going to see a shift, with the one
exception of coal if the industry doesn't get on board with finding a way to make coal as close to carbon neutral as possible," said Kammen.
[Note – Dan Kammen is the Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley]
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
The fact that there will be some losers does not take away from the case for making a shift in the energy economy towards
clean technologies. Perpetuating a region’s dependence on volatile and polluting industries with low and steadily declining
employment rates is bound to negatively affect that region’s development in the long run. This would be especially tragic when we have the option to
switch to supporting the growth of a sustainable new sector, which will generate substantial employment.
RPS Aff 245
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Kammen, et. al, 6 – of the Energy and Resources Group Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley
(Daniel M. Kammen, Kamal Kapadia, and Matthias Fripp, Report of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory,
“Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?” corrected version of report was
published on 1-31-2006, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html) // JMP
Although winners will outnumbers the losers, some sectors and regions will clearly be hurt by restructuring the energy industry away from fossil fuels and towards renewables
A net gain to the economy and to employment still means that some people will lose jobs, whatever the state of the fossil fuel industry. It is
possible, as already discussed, that people employed in fossil fuel–based industries may not have the required skills for new jobs, and will need retraining. It is also likely that new
jobs may arise in other locations. According to the WWF study13, even under an optimistic scenario in which all states benefit economically and in terms of net employment by
implementing a suite of clean energy policies, some states gain more than others. For example, while California is projected to gain 141,400 new jobs, and Texas 123,400 by 2020,
West Virginia is expected to gain only 6,000 new jobs. Controlling for population, this means that Texas will gain almost 70% more jobs than West Virginia by 202014
According to the same study, certain sectors will be net losers, as shown in Table 6.
The fact that there will be some losers does not take away from the case for making a shift in the energy economy towards clean technologies. Perpetuating a region’s dependence
on volatile and polluting industries with low and steadily declining employment rates is bound to negatively affect that region’s development in the long run. This would be
especially tragic when we have the option to switch to supporting the growth of a sustainable new sector, which will generate substantial employment.
Of course, negatively
impacted people and communities must be adequately compensated. They will need retraining to develop
the new skills needed in the clean energy industry. Locally relevant programs will be needed for retooling and retraining, and
for attracting new industries. As the Worldwatch study states, “as with any fundamental economic transformation, the transition will require attention.
The question facing society today is whether this change can be shaped so that the vast majority of people benefit, and so that social pain during the transition is kept to a
minimum.”15
A 20% RPS by 2020 would create enough jobs to offset current unemployment.
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf)
Because a
substantial percentage of a national RPS would be met with wind power, some opponents have argued that a federal
mandate would disproportionately benefit the upper Great Plains region where the best resources are located. That conclusion
neglects the broad economic impacts related to the manufacturing of turbine components. Every 1000 MW of wind energy
requires roughly $1 billion in rotors, generators, towers and related investments.101 A national RPS mandate that induced the
development of, say, 50GW of new wind power would generate up to $77 billion in manufacturing activity related to all the
components required to build this substantial number of new wind generators.
The Renewable Energy Policy Project used North American Industrial Classification Codes to map the dispersion of manufacturing activity related to the development of wind
energy and found that the
20 states that would receive the most investment and most new manufacturing jobs account for 75% of the
total U.S. population, and 76% of the manufacturing jobs lost in the U.S. between 2001 and 2004.
However, the regional dispersion of economic benefits is not limited to the wind manufacturing sector or to the states of the
upper Great Plains, where the most substantial wind resources are located. In the Southeast, for example, researchers at the University of Tennessee estimated that
renewable energy technologies (including biomass generators and incremental hydropower) could create more jobs per MWh
for the region than any other type of electricity generation.102
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) projected even better job creation estimates for renewable energy technologies deployed nationwide. In a 2004 study,
ASME estimated that coal and gas facilities provide only 11 job-years per MWh, while renewable technologies can provide as many
as 121 job-years per MWh.103
When researchers at UCS examined the cumulative economic impact of a 20 percent national RPS by 2020, they found that the mandate would
create almost 80% as many jobs as continued reliance on fossil fuels - more than 355,000 new jobs in domestic
manufacturing, construction, operations, maintenance, shipping, sales, and finance.104
RPS Aff 246
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
Monica Trauzzi: Rick Boucher, the chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee has been quoted as saying,
"If we're going to do climate change, I really don't see a reason to also do an RPS. An RPS is really a proxy for other means
to controlling greenhouse gases. If you're going to do it directly, I don't see a need to do an RPS." If lawmakers are able to put
together a piece of emissions legislation is there a need for an RPS?
William Durbin: Well, what's interesting here is what I was just talking about. We need a lot more time to develop the carbon
capture and sequestration technologies. We need more time for the coal and nuclear power plants to really start to come
online. That's a seven to ten year window before we start to see that capacity, online. So what can we do in the short run?
Well, an RPS standard will actually help us to begin the process of bringing down CO2 emissions so it can be viewed upon as
a first step, a relatively easy first step. There's a lot of wind projects being proposed, roughly 100,000 megawatts of wind is
being proposed today. That's a significant amount. If we can get some of that capacity built we can start moving towards
mitigating some of those CO2 increases. Not the one answer, but it will help. And when you look at other options as well,
geothermal, solar, etc., those too will help contribute. So it's not a one for one issue. One doesn't replace the other. They
require all in order to try and meet those goals.
Federal RPS would have no impact on nuclear and clean coal energies.
Durbin, 07 – head of Global Gas and Power Research for Wood Mackenzie (William, E&E News PM
May 14, “RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wood Mackenzie's William Durbin says federal RPS 'easy first step' for emissions
reduction”, lexis, AG)
Monica Trauzzi: You had mentioned nuclear and clean coal earlier. How would instituting a federal RPS affect these two
industries?
William Durbin: It shouldn't. In the context of a CO2 legislation, it shouldn't really have an effect because it doesn't meet all
of our future capacity needs. It's just a small piece and it can't meet all of the CO2 reductions that we're looking at under the
CO2 legislation. So, from our perspective, we think there's plenty of room at the table for all types of capacity to participate.
We're looking and we need a portfolio approach to meeting these challenging demands.
Energy Information Administration, 7 – Official Energy Statistics from the USFG (Department of Energy, “Impacts of a
15-Percent Renewable Portfolio Standard,” June 07, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/prps/rps.html, AG)
Under the proposed RPS program, generation from renewable resources increases relative to the reference case (Figure 3). Biomass
generation, both from dedicated biomass plants and existing coal plants co-firing with biomass fuel, grows the most by 2030, more than tripling from 102 billion kilowatthours in
the reference case to 318 billion kilowatthours with the RPS policy (Table 2). Wind generation increases by almost 50 percent by 2030, from 52 billion kilowatthours in the
reference case to 76 billion kilowatthours with the RPS.
Although total solar generation does not reach the level of wind or biomass, it has a higher absolute increase than wind and a higher percentage increase than either wind or
biomass by 2030, when compared to the reference case. Solar generation, including utility-owned solar thermal and PV and customer-sited PV, increases from 7 billion
kilowatthours in 2030 in the reference case to almost 38 billion kilowatthours with the RPS, a five-fold increase. Because customer-sited PV earns 3 credits for every kilowatthour
generated, this generation counts as approximately 110 billion kilowatthours for RPS compliance purposes in 2030. This is twice the compliance share accounted for by wind and
about half of the biomass compliance share. Geothermal and landfill gas facilities also show a slight increase in generation compared to the reference case.
The increase in renewable generation stimulated by the RPS primarily displaces coal fired generation. By 2030, coal generation is 3,086
billion kilowatthours with the RPS compared with 3,330 billion kilowatthours in the reference case, a reduction of about 7 percent. Coal generation is still
expected to grow significantly from 2,000 billion kilowatthours in 2005. Nuclear generation is reduced by less than 5 percent, to 856
billion kilowatthours with the RPS from 896 billion kilowatthours in the reference case. As with coal, this still represents significant growth
relative to 2005 generation levels. Natural gas generation is about 2 percent less than the 2030 reference case level of 932 billion
kilowatthours.
RPS Aff 247
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Energy Information Administration, 7 – Official Energy Statistics from the USFG (Department of Energy, “Impacts of a
15-Percent Renewable Portfolio Standard,” June 07, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/prps/rps.html, AG)
Under the proposed RPS program, generation from renewable resources increases relative to the reference case (Figure 3).
Biomass generation, both from dedicated biomass plants and existing coal plants co-firing with biomass fuel, grows the most
by 2030, more than tripling from 102 billion kilowatthours in the reference case to 318 billion kilowatthours with the RPS
policy (Table 2). Wind generation increases by almost 50 percent by 2030, from 52 billion kilowatthours in the reference case
to 76 billion kilowatthours with the RPS.
Although total solar generation does not reach the level of wind or biomass, it has a higher absolute increase than wind and a
higher percentage increase than either wind or biomass by 2030, when compared to the reference case. Solar generation,
including utility-owned solar thermal and PV and customer-sited PV, increases from 7 billion kilowatthours in 2030 in the
reference case to almost 38 billion kilowatthours with the RPS, a five-fold increase. Because customer-sited PV earns 3
credits for every kilowatthour generated, this generation counts as approximately 110 billion kilowatthours for RPS
compliance purposes in 2030. This is twice the compliance share accounted for by wind and about half of the biomass
compliance share. Geothermal and landfill gas facilities also show a slight increase in generation compared to the reference
case.
The increase in renewable generation stimulated by the RPS primarily displaces coal fired generation. By 2030, coal
generation is 3,086 billion kilowatthours with the RPS compared with 3,330 billion kilowatthours in the reference case, a
reduction of about 7 percent. Coal generation is still expected to grow significantly from 2,000 billion kilowatthours in 2005.
Nuclear generation is reduced by less than 5 percent, to 856 billion kilowatthours with the RPS from 896 billion
kilowatthours in the reference case. As with coal, this still represents significant growth relative to 2005 generation levels.
Natural gas generation is about 2 percent less than the 2030 reference case level of 932 billion kilowatthours.
RPS trades off primarily with coal: tradeoffs with natural gas and nuclear energy are negligible.
Energy Information Administration, 7 – Official Energy Statistics from the USFG (Department of Energy, “Energy and
Economic Impacts of Implementing Both a 25-Percent RPS and a 25-Percent RFS by 2025,” September 2007,
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/eeim/execsummary.html, AG)
The RPS causes a dramatic shift away from coal and natural gas to renewable fuels, particularly biomass and wind.
* Coal-fired electricity generation in the Policy Case is 938 billion kilowatthours (28 percent) lower in 2030 than in the
Reference Case. Natural-gas-fired generation is 99 billion kilowatthours (11 percent) lower in 2030. Generation from nuclear
power is 80 billion kilowatthours (9 percent) lower in 2030.
* In the Policy Case, biomass generation is 495 billion kilowatthours (363 percent) higher in 2030 than in the Reference
Case, while wind generation is 424 billion kilowatthours (824 percent) higher. To reach the generation levels in the Policy
Case, biomass and wind capacity grow to more than 10 times their current levels.
* To comply with a 25-percent RPS, almost 70 percent of the generating capacity added from 2005 to 2025 would have to
be renewable technologies—amounting to more than a 10-fold increase in nonhydroelectric renewable capacity over this
period.
RPS Aff 248
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
V. Impact on Consumers
The impact on consumers of a national RPS is one of the most hotly contested issues surrounding possible legislation. As one might expect, varying proposals provide widely
varying projected impacts. Even small changes can lead to significant differences. For example, the EIA determined that under a 15% national RPS, "retail electricity prices
[would] rise by an average of 0.9 percent over the 2005 to 2030 period in the RPS case," as compared to the reference case, and RECs would cost 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour
between 2020 and 2030. n186 In contrast, under a proposed 25% national RPS, the EIA determined that the average retail electricity price is 6.2% higher in 2030 and the REC
prices would vary between 3.8 cents and 4.8 cents per kilowatt hour from 2025 to 2030. n187 This is not an apples-to-apples comparison because there are a significant number of
variables in each study, n188 beyond just the RPS percentage. Nonetheless, this helps underscore the point that measuring
the specific impact of a national
RPS is complex and difficult. On a more general level, however, it is clear that there are some consistent issues consumers will face, regardless of the specific national
RPS put in place.
From a practical perspective, consumer
impacts of a national RPS would be limited, although not insignificant. Important in considering the likely
consumer impact of a national RPS is that many
consumers (indeed, roughly half of the country) are already subject to some form of RPS. As such,
the question is not a decision between a national RPS and no RPS; instead, the question is whether all consumers will be subject to an RPS or just
some. n189
For those consumers not currently buying electricity under an RPS, a state RPS may be pending. n190 Further, as one study advocating a
federal RPS stated, "Not only does reliance on state-based action make for an uncertain regulatory environment for potential
investors, it creates inherent inequities between ratepayers in some states that are paying for "free riders' in others." n191 The
study explained that renewable energy generation has a free-rider problem because [*74] "everyone benefits from the environmental advantages of renewable energy." n192 As
such, private companies might invest millions of dollars in researching and developing clean energy technologies, yet be unable to recover the full profit of their investments. n193
To the extent this is accurate, consumers not under an RPS, even those with less renewable generation resources in their state, would reap the benefits of technologies developed
under state RPS programs, without paying their fair share.
In the short term, direct consumer impacts are limited to cost concerns. By most accounts, consumers
throughout the country would face a relatively
mild increase or mild decrease in the cost of electricity. One report that reviewed the RPS program analysis of both the Union of Concerned
Scientists and the EIA found cumulative energy bill savings throughout the country in each of the four scenarios considered.
n194 The savings by region varied significantly, though. For example, in the review of EIA assumptions if there were a 20% RPS, savings, by Census region, ranging from as high
as 8.1% in the West South Central to 0.1% in the South Atlantic were reported. n195 All of the review studies showed a significant variance by region, which explains some of the
resistance to an RPS from regions, like the South Atlantic, with less renewable energy resources. Potential savings are far more limited under an RPS for the region, and if costs
were to increase, those regions would likely face a greater share of the cost increase.
Sierra Club no date cited (Myths vs. Reality About a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard,
http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/cleanenergy/renewables.asp)
Dr. Sovacool, & Cooper, 7 – *Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, VA and ** Executive Director of
the Network for New Energy Choices
(Benjamin K. Sovacool, also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy and Christopher Cooper, Renewing America: The Case for Federal Leadership on a National Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS), Network for New Energy Choices • Report No. 01-07, June, 2007,
http://www.newenergychoices.org/dev/uploads/RPS%20Report_Cooper_Sovacool_FINAL_HILL.pdf) // JMP
Senator Levin, 8 (Carl Levin, “Statement of Senator Carl Levin on Oil and Gasoline Prices,” 5-12-2008,
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48747349_statement-senator-carl-levin-oil-and-gasoline-pric) // JMP
May 12, 2008 -- "Mr. President, day after day record-high oil and gasoline prices are hurting millions of American consumers
and businesses. Unless something is done to make energy more affordable, the record-high prices will continue to reverberate
throughout our economy, increasing the prices of transportation, food, manufacturing and everything in between.
Skyrocketing energy prices are a threat to our economic and national security, and the time is long past for action.
RPS Aff 250
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Federalism DA
Federal preemption can effectively complement State efforts – creating a necessary floor while allowing States to
experiment by moving beyond it
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
A2: Federalism DA
A federal RPS sets a floor that allows States to serve as policy laboratories and won’t create economic inefficiency
It is generally recognized that federal law can preempt state laws in three different ways: "by express language in a
congressional enactment, by implication from the depth and breadth of a congressional scheme that occupies the legislative
field, [and] by implication because of a conflict with a congressional enactment." n139 These forms of preemption are
commonly referred [*281] to as "express," "field," and "conflict" preemption. Under the doctrine of express preemption, it
is elementary that all state RPS programs would be invalidated by a congressional RPS statute that explicitly provided for
preemption. In the absence of such express language, however, the relevant question would be whether "conflict" preemption
existed due to conflicts between the state and federal standards. In general, state environmental standards that are more
stringent than their federal counterparts have been upheld by the courts, either because Congress has explicitly reserved
authority in its otherwise-conflicting statute for the states to adopt such controls n140 or because of the Supreme Court's
long-standing presumption against implied preemption. n141 Meanwhile, state standards that are less stringent than federal
ones might be allowed to stand, but, as a practical matter, the state standards would become largely irrelevant because the
necessary compliance with the more stringent federal standards would effectively guarantee compliance with the state
standards. n142
In order to remove any possible ambiguity regarding more stringent state RPSs, Congress should put an explicit savings
clause into any federal RPS statute to confirm the validity of such standards. n143 Such authorization [*282] would permit
states to serve as policy laboratories n144 in environmental regulation and would restore to states some of their traditional
authority over regulating their local environments. n145 Further, unlike the case of vehicle emissions regulation, where
Congress has explicitly preempted most state standards, n146 RPS obligations that are more stringent than their federal
counterparts are unlikely to create economic inefficiency attributable to non-uniform manufacturing requirements on
industry. n147
A federal RPS will create a harmonized system that still allows States to experiment and be flexible
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Conclusion
The RPS and greenhouse gas caps are excellent policy mechanisms: unlike other policy incentives such as tax credits and
subsidies, these tools minimize government intervention and rely on the efficiency of the market--instead of continual
monetary disbursements or political salience--to dictate how utilities, industries, and consumers promote renewable energy
and fight climate change. (43) They also have the tendency to be self-expiring (or "self-sunsetting"). When utilizing RECs
and tradable permits, for example, the value of such commodities will automatically reach zero once the RPS and greenhouse
gas target levels have been met.
The impressive growth in state-based RPS and climate change initiatives utilizing these policy mechanisms is testimony,
most of all, to woeful inaction at the federal level. Perhaps new Democratic control of Congress will overcome objectives at
the federal level, but that remains to be seen. (44)
A multi-jurisdictional approach to these issues would create a national system for the first time requiring all states to
participate in a harmonized system that would include the trading of RECs and nationally certified carbon offsets. A
consensus-based federal system would produce a meaningful and achievable regime eliminating the "free rider" phenomenon
that now exists. Under a multi-jurisdictional framework, however, states wanting to do more than what the federal program
entails would be permitted to do so. Federal preemption would not be permitted to snuff out these "laboratories of
democracy" that wish to go forward with bold, aggressive, and experimental programs. If these state programs are successful
over time, one would expect to see their results gradually incorporated into the federal program.
Ultimately, however, state experience will yield profuse results only if it inspires a national standard that motivates the
country to truly promote renewable energy and fight climate change.
RPS Aff 252
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Federalism DA
No link and turn – the plan is an example of floor preemption that gives the States flexibility – their link assumes
ceiling preemption
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
If the federal government has constitutional power to address a social ill, and hence has power under the Supremacy Clause
to preempt state, local, and common law regimes, is there a principled rationale for distinguishing federal standard setting
that sets a federal floor or ceiling? At first blush, the two appear to be mere flip sides of the same federal power, only
distinguished by their different regulatory preferences for a world of minimized risk (with floors) or higher levels of risk
(with ceilings). This Article argues, however, that these two central regulatory choices are fundamentally different. Floors
embrace additional and more stringent state and common law action, while ceilings actually are better labeled a “unitary
federal choice” due to how they preclude any more lax or more stringent action as well as the different actors, incentives, and
modalities of information elicitation and proof of common law settings. Advocates of less hindered markets respond that this
is precisely the idea–regulatory certainty is enhanced with ceiling preemption, allowing producers of goods to plan with
confident knowledge of the regulatory terrain, unbuffeted by an array of uncoordinated actors. This debate was, until recently,
largely hypothetical. Recently, however, in settings as diverse as product approvals, to regulation of risks posed by chemical
plants, to possible legislation regarding greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, legislators and regulators have
suggested or asserted such a broad, preemptive impact. The federal action, whatever it is, would be the final regulatory
choice. But under what theory of regulation and legislation can one be confident that locating all decisionmaking power in
one institution at one time will lead to appropriate standard setting? In fact, advocates of risk regulation, “experimentalist
regulation” scholars, and, at the other end of spectrum, skeptics about the likelihood of public-regarding regulation, all call
for attention to pervasive risks of regulatory failure. Agency and legislative inertia, information uncertainties and
asymmetries, outdated information and actions, regulatory capture, and a host of other common regulatory risks create a
substantial chance of poor or outdated regulatory choice. Considering these pervasive risks of regulatory failure, the
principled distinctions between floor and ceiling preemption become apparent. Vesting all decisionmaking power in one
institution can freeze regulatory developments. Unitary federal choice ceiling preemption is an institutional arrangement that
threatens to produce poorly tailored regulation and public choice distortions of the political process, whether it be before the
legislature or a federal agency. Floor preemption, in contrast, constitutes a partial displacement of state choice in setting a
minimum level of protection, but leaves room for other actors and additional regulatory action. Floors anticipate and benefit
from the institutional diversity they permit. This Article closes by showing how the institutional diversity engendered by
retaining multiple layers of law and regulatory actors creates conditions conducive to reassessment and adjustment of often
rigid or outdated regulation.
Establishing floor policies allow for state experimentation and solve regulatory failure
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
Floor and ceiling preemption choices should not be assessed with mere reference to their level of stringency or laxity. They
are not merely contrasting federal choices that scholars must accept if they see constitutionally driven federalism
presumptions as inconclusive. Instead, if one starts with perhaps the central tenet that underpins federalist schemes of
governance, namely the need for skepticism about government and the need to retain roles for different levels of government,
then floor preemption is distinguishable. Despite floor preemption’s partial displacement of state choice, it retains substantial
state latitude for experimentation and provides ongoing motivation for an array of governmental and private actors to debate
regulatory choices. The retention of common law regimes further serves as a forum in which earlier governmental and private
actions can be reexamined. The unavoidable clashes and reexamination that are inherent in multi-layered federalism schemes,
like floor preemption strategies, also can provide the impetus for the reexamination aspired to, but sometimes missing, in
experimentalist scholarship. This Article thus embraces the oft-stated, but often neglected, presumption against preemption,
especially where the valence of that preemption involves ceiling preemption that constitutes the final, unitary federal choice.
Policymakers and courts assessing unitary federal choice ceiling preemption should be sensitive to inevitable losses of
institutional diversity and heightened risks of regulatory failure. Not all federal standard setting is the same. 244See Dewey,
supra note 137.
RPS Aff 253
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Federalism DA
The plan is the best of both worlds—it gives states control over their standards while allowing federal oversight
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
Once one rejects constitutionally rooted arguments as adequate to determine what should be a federal or state role, and even rejects constitutionally driven federalism
presumptions, one can still derive a principled argument to embrace federal floor preemption, yet find unitary federal choice ceiling preemption a
distinguishable and problematic choice. This argument is not rooted in the assumption that more stringent regulation is always better. Instead, this distinction is fundamentally rooted in
skepticism about government, as well as recognition of the benefits of the institutional diversity offered by multi-layered federalist structures retaining state regulatory power
and common law regimes. In fact, the different actors and modalities of state common law litigation make it a critical, although only partial, antidote to predictable sorts of government failures. 1.
Interactive benefits retained with floor preemption Although both floor and ceiling preemption involve a federal choice that prohibits
states from regulating with, respectively, greater laxity or rigor, they are not just flip sides of the same coin. Floor preemption does partially eliminate the option of decentralized regulatory choice, prohibiting
some states from their preferred tradeoff among regulatory regimes. However , floor preemption actually preserves substantial state roles , displaces only some states’
choices, and in reality does not preclude further regulatory interactions and the mutual learning that such interaction can foster. First, floor preemption only forecloses a subset of states from making choices
they would prefer. It is theoretically possible that federal legislators or regulators would impose a stringent standard that all states would reject, but it is highly unlikely. “Political safeguards” may not guarantee
that state views will be incorporated into federal decisionmaking,166 but states are undoubtedly active and often effective in both legislative and federal agency venues.167 If uniform state objections were
heard, only rarely if ever would the proposal nevertheless become law. Race-to-the-bottom literature acknowledges that federal standard setting will benefit those states with a taste for less risk or a cleaner
environment; those states will not have to drop standards to meet the competition.168 States that have an even greater taste for low risk or clean environments also are winners with floor preemption; they are
explicitly guaranteed the right to promulgate more stringent standards. In so doing, they will generate new information about what is possible. Only those jurisdictions genuinely preferring laxity lose in the
once a federal floor of minimal required stringency is set, states and
short term. They may, however, benefit from observing what can be achieved. Second,
affected industry retain discretion to devise means to attain the federal goal, subject to varying degrees of federal oversight.
Despite common errors in assuming that so-called “command and control” regulation mandates particular technological choices,169 federal standard-setting tends to set only goals, in some instances
prohibiting specification of technological means unless a numerical standard is impracticable.170 Still, industry will often prefer technological mandates or product specifications to goals mandates because of
the certainty such requirements can create, but such rigid regulation is not the norm.171 Because means are typically not specified, especially in environmental regulation, state and industry implementation
creativity is retained.172 Furthermore, standards set through comparisons to some variant of what can be achieved with “best available technology” often require federal and state regulators and other
stakeholders to examine in an ongoing way the most protective plan or riskreduction achieved in practice. This can occur in high stakes settings of promulgation of regulations, but often also occurs in more
federal “floors” allow for greater state stringency, as well as
specific, applied settings such as in issuing permits or approvals for particular regulatory targets.173 Thus,
diversity and creativity in implementing federal regulatory standards. Especially in environmental regulation the setting of , with its developed
delegated program structure, the process of making stringency or permit determinations also involves interaction among federal and state regulators, as well as other stakeholders. At every stage after legislative
setting of regulatory criteria, broad participation, and litigation rights are guaranteed. The possibility of federal “overfiling” or rejection of permit choices, or citizen suits or Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
challenges if a permit violates the law, mean that authority is pervasively monitored and checked.174 Even in regulatory settings that merely preserve state regulatory powers, a multiplicity of actors retain
roles. Disputes may be common, but that is not necessarily a sign of regulatory flaws. Instead, it may just reflect how regulation by mere hierarchical fiat is subject to challenge. The multi-layered law found
Floor preemption’s typical retention of possible common law
with floor preemption regimes provides a multiplicity of venues in which policy choices are explored.
liability in nuisance or tort further serves a valuable role. Most obviously, if a creator of risk faces potential liability for harms that it causes, it forever has an
incentive to avoid harms and reduce risks, long after a federal standard may have been set.175 Without that liability fear, and absent any new
regulation, risk creators would have no incentive to improve their operations and reduce risk, absent some other profit motive that might coincide with improvement. As further discussed below in connection
with the link between “experimentalist” or benchmarking forms of regulation and the floor versus ceiling preemption choice, common law liability regimes add a crucial different set of institutional actors.
Common law plaintiffs and their lawyers have incentives to challenge the status quo, ferret out error or misdeeds, and prompt change despite uninterested regulators, possibly ignorant public interest groups,
and opposed industry. The ultimate decisionmakers–courts and juries–are also not invested in defending earlier regulatory actions. In short, floor preemption limits choices for a subset of states, but embraces
This institutional diversity, especially with
multi-layered institutional arrangements and, in fact, sets in motion virtually constant federal, state and private stakeholder interactions.
the ongoing viability of common law regimes, allows for a substantial degree of interaction, decentralized decision making,
and room for challenging the status quo. This interaction has led agencies in a number of recent high visibility settings to reexamine past actions and modify course.176 Like
biodiversity, which can reduce an ecosystem’s vulnerability to wipeout risks faced by monocultures,177 floor preemption’s institutional diversity and related interactions leave a salutary play in the joints and
room for ongoing adjustment.
Floor preemption allows for state flexibility and avoids all of your federalism links that assume ceiling policies
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
Critics of both positions, and this Article, share the view that one must pay greater attention to agency dysfunctions and
failure in assessing the appropriate federal role. Indeed, if one starts with perhaps the most basic philosophical and
instrumental underpinnings of federalist structures—that one needs to be skeptical about the capacity and will of
government– then preemption choices start to look quite different. Unitary federal choice (or ceiling) preemption can
exacerbate risks of agency failure and precludes the benefits of multiple layers of regulators and preserved common law
regimes. As argued below, one can logically take an asymmetrical regulation approach, embracing floor preemption, yet
finding ceiling preemption a problematic institutional choice that runs contrary to the very rationales for federalism. Floor
preemption more effectively retains many of the benefits of federalist forms of government, whereas federal ceilings provide
little more than regulatory certainty, at considerable costs.
RPS Aff 254
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Federalism DA
The plan is distinct from a ceiling approach which limits State flexibility – floor preemption preserves federalism
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
This sort of recent federal “ceiling” preemption claim, or what I will generally call “unitary federal choice” preemption, is a
federal standard, but in institutional effect a very different form of standard setting than with the far more common federal
floors. Federal floors preclude less stringent state and local regulation, but allow for additional and more stringent regulation,
and typically are accompanied by savings clauses and cooperative regulatory structures. The unusual recent ceiling or unitary
federal choice preemptions, in contrast, would preclude additional more protective state regulation or common law
protections. Legal debates over federalism in the risk regulation arena thus include arguments for distinct and separate federal
and state roles, debates over the protective one-way federal ratchet of floor preemption, and now legal developments that
reflect a policy preference that flips the federal role so that federal law precludes more protective action from state and local
legislatures, agencies or even through courts and the common law system. Is there a means to sort out these disparate
normative takes on federalism and federal, state and local roles? The heart of this Article asks a central question of
federalism, but a question never prompted before by actual policy consequences until recently. Is there a principled, sound
rationale for distinguishing federal floors and ceilings? More specifically, if one rejects a constitutionally driven view about
the legitimate roles for the federal government or the states, or at least assumes federal power to act in an area, can one derive
a principled rationale to justify what this article terms asymmetrical regulation? By asymmetrical regulation, I refer to
policies that embrace a protective “one-way ratchet” of a federal regulatory floor. Analytically distinct and problematic,
however is government standard setting of a unitary federal choice ceiling that eliminates additional protections that state law
might otherwise provide. Or are all federal laws that in effect constrain the state and local regulatory menu analytically the
same, differing only in whether federal or state law determines the ultimate stringency of regulatory protections? If such
choices just reflect political power constellations and different tastes for risk or protective regulation, and both are just
differently targeted manifestations of Asymmetrical regulatory policy does create distinctive benefits. Principled rationales
exist to distinguish and embrace a protective federal one-way ratchet of floor preemption, or at least see floor preemption as
less institutionally problematic than unitary federal choice ceiling preemption. Such unitary federal choice preemption, by
definition, precludes additional state and local protections and eliminates institutional diversity limited but still preserved by
floor preemption. Unitary federal choice preemption is, upon closer examination, a regulatory choice that in operation runs
counter to many of the most valuable elements of federalist schemes. This Article’s argument does not rest on some
distinctive benefit of the federal nature of the regulatory action, although such arguments have been made and might have
merit.21 Instead, the focus here is on how federal floors retain the benefits of multiple regulatory voices, protections, and
diverse regulatory modalities. These factors serve as important antidotes to common forms of regulatory dysfunction.
Countervailing factors may weigh against the partial preemptive effect of federal floors, but existing literature to date gives
little attention to the benefits lost with the complete preemption of ceiling preemption. To explore these benefits of multi-
layered governance retained by floor preemption and the relative risks of unitary federal choice ceiling preemption, this
Article links its analysis to literature on regulatory failure risks and the burgeoning literature on “experimentalist” modes of
regulation. When one considers political economic realities of the regulatory process and the commons sorts of regulatory
flaws, the risks of unitary federal choice preemption become especially apparent. Unitary federal choice preemption should
be disfavored by policymakers, or at least adopted with due awareness of the loss of institutional benefits discussed here. Any
preemption at first blush appears contrary to “experimentalist” regulation’s goal of ongoing monitoring and revision.
However, the form of multi-layered federalism retained by floor federalism, with its preservation of state roles and usual
saving of common law regimes, actually creates a more realistic sort of interactive tension than one finds in sometimes
idealized descriptions of experimentalist regulation. Most critically, floor preemption’s retention of multiple institutions and
the different modalities and incentives of common law litigation mean that one need not rely on hyper-involved citizens and
selfless bureaucrats to prompt regulatory reexamination and adjustment. The common law system’s independence and private
incentives to challenge the status quo are particularly valuable antidotes to complacency and ineffective regulation. Although
judicial doctrine and presumptions regarding preemption are not the focus of this Article, the arguments arrayed here weigh
in favor of the usual doctrinal presumptions against preemption, but with a special additional emphasis on the valence of the
preemption and attention to retention of multiple regulatory actors.22 Federal floors retain important state and local roles, as
well as common law schemes, although they undoubtedly displace some states from policy discretion and tailoring that they
would prefer.
RPS Aff 255
7 Week Juniors – CPHS Lab
A2: Federalism DA
Plan allows for state flexibility while ceiling policies don’t
Buzbee 7--Professor Emory University School of Law (William W., "Asymmetrical Regulation: Risk, Preemption, and the
Floor/Ceiling Distinction,” Emory Law and Economics Research Paper No. 07-10, 3-20-7,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975273, AM)
C. Federal regulatory floors In the area of risk, environmental, and social welfare regulation, the federal government has for decades
been quite active. Rarely, however, do federal laws completely supplant state and local actors. Option three, which this Article will refer to as “federal
regulatory floors,” limit state and local choice, but retain several sorts of key roles for them. The most debated area of federal regulatory dominance, especially in relation to this
article’s topic, is federal environmental regulation. For purposes of this Part’s explication of four forms of interjurisdictional choice, this section will use environmental law as its paradigmatic example. As first
discussed in depth in Richard Stewart’s Pyramids of Sacrifice, and evident in most environmental laws passed during the 1970s and 1980s, federal risk regulation tends to create a multi-layered regulatory
odern statutes allocate roles to federal regulators, but also seek to entice state and local regulators to join in pursuit of federal
apparatus. These m
They also often preserve concurrent state power over the subject area, subject, as usual, to particular instances of “conflict
ends.47
preemption” where a particular federal and state regulatory choice might directly clash.48 The enticements to state and local actors often include the
simple choice of succumbing to federal regulation implemented and enforced by federal actors, or state and local opting in to assume or retain a critical implementation and enforcement role. Federal monetary
enticements in the form of conditional federal spending can also lead to cooperative state and local behavior. After New York v. U.S., simple mandates to states to take regulatory actions or face a sanction
present an unconstitutional Hobson’s choice.49 Where states, and often local governments, decide to participate in a federal regulatory scheme under the environmental laws, they typically confront a
cooperative federalism scheme of the sort often characterized as “delegated program” federalism.50 Through legislative edict or regulatory standard setting, or both, federal actors set a goal or standard that
must be accepted by all. States, local governments, affected industry, and other stakeholders start with this federal goal, often a minimum required level of stringency or protectiveness. State actors, sometimes
assisted by local governments, can in turn retain or assume key implementation and enforcement roles. They must comply not only with these levels of protection, but also devise state laws and regulations
creating institutions and procedures consistent with federal requirements. Paradigmatic examples of such delegated programs are in the interrelated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and State
Implementation Plan (SIP) provisions of the Clean Air Act51 and in the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (or NPDES program).52 Under the NPDES program, most states
take over the permitting of industry and municipal polluters, requiring polluters to discharge in conformity with federal regulations dictating acceptable levels of pollution by categories of sources.53 State laws
and regulation tailor that federal program so it dovetails with other state law structures and requirements. For the purpose of this Article, most important is how these federal schemes utilize a federal floor that
Federal requirements must be followed by state and local regulators and targets, but most such laws
acts as a one-way rachet.
specifically allow states to be even more protective with their regulation. In addition, many laws seek to entice states to play
key roles in tailoring federal goals to local circumstances. Additional state institutions retain a protective role.54 Hence, both
more stringent standard setting is permitted and multiple institutions retain roles in setting standards. For example, federal
regulations may require that a category of polluters emit air pollutants at level X, but states are allowed to require X minus 2
if they prefer a cleaner environment. Or a monitored or approved product or activity may create harms not addressed by federal law, spurring states or perhaps tort lawyers to push for
different, safer products.55 Federal laws and implementing regulations only rarely require anything other than compliance with a specified minimal level of pollution control; despite the confusing “command
and control” moniker, mandates for polluters to use a particular technology are rare.56 Regulators and polluters therefore retain choice in how best to achieve or surpass federal minimal standards. States and
local governments thus retain the ability to respond to popular support for an especially clean environment. They can crack down on high aggregate levels of pollution that can be allowed by federal pollution
laws that at times are insensitive to ambient effects of permitting choices; without such state and local latitude, particular vulnerable populations can be inadequately protected, or environmental injustice can
result.57 The Clean Water Act arguably contains the greatest number of savings clauses, some perhaps drafted to mollify legislators concerned with expanded federal power, but others containing direct, clear
content. Section 1251, the law’s opening “declaration of goals and policy,” contains a broad statement of “the policy of Congress to recognize, preserve, and protect the primary responsibilities and rights of
States to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution, to plan the development and use . . . of land and water resources, and to consult with” EPA’s administrator.58 This subsection goes on to state legislative intent
to have states administer construction grant and permit programs under the statute’s chief provisions, and also to have the federal government provide assistance with research, technical services and funding.59
These first provisions are more broad statements of policy than operative provisions or provisions that will resolve conflicts, but certainly serve as broad anti-preemption statements.60 The intent not to displace
state riparian rights law is made with unusual clarity, stating that it is the “policy of Congress that the authority of each State to allocate quantities of water shall not be superseded, abrogated or otherwise
impaired by this Chapter.”61 Section 1365(e) explicitly preserves “any right which any person . . . may have under any statute or common law to seek enforcement of any effluent standard or to seek any other
relief.” This provision was critical to the Supreme Court’s affirmation in Ouellette opinion that state common law actions for water pollution harms were not completely preempted by the Clean Water Act.62 Of
equal importance is the typical savings clause making clear that federal antipollution standards are a floor, in the sense that they constitute the minimum level of stringency or protection that must be provided
by states and political subdivisions. States can pass additional “standard[s] or limitation[s],” or “any requirement respecting control or abatement of pollution,” as long as they are not “less stringent” than
federal requirements.63 Other statutes contain similar savings clauses, with statutes containing both general statements about states’ retained regulatory power,64 as well as provisions preserving states’ rights to
protect the environment with more stringent protections.65 These federal provisions usually create a stringency floor, not a ceiling. States can enact additional parallel laws or more stringent protections.66
Furthermore, savings clauses do not displace state and local siting choices; a facility’s ability to meet a presumptive federal standard does not guarantee the ability to operate a polluting facility.67 State and
local land use and related siting laws remain in force. Only if a state or local government decides to permit the operation of a polluting facility do federal standards apply. Relatedly, State Implementation
Program (SIP) planning leaves air planning regions latitude to select among pollution sources to impose more stringent regulatory protections.68 That choice is not subject to federal second guessing, as the
Supreme Court affirmed in Union Electric.69 States can even impose such stringent regulation on certain sources that they are forced to close down.70 Most federal anti-pollution laws add up to “right to
pollute” laws, but they preserve to state and local governments the choice to, in effect, prohibit any pollution or impose further constraints on polluters’ activities. By preserving state common law claims,
damage remedies can provide relief for those suffering pollution harms under federal “right to pollute laws” such as the Clean Air and Water Acts, while creating further incentives for polluters to reduce their
As
emissions. It is the rare provision in federal environmental laws that expressly preempts additional or more protective state regulation, but as the next section discusses, examples do exist.71
discussed in Part IV, floor preemption undoubtedly displaces the choices some states would make, but will accommodate if
not provide the choice preferred by others.
D. Federal regulatory ceilings: The unitary federal choice The fourth form of interjurisdictional choice was previously a rarity. Its emergence during the past two years as a real-world choice
in legislative and regulatory actions provided much of the impetus for this Article. Here, as with form three floor preemption, the federal government sets a standard of performance or regulatory requirement
reflecting a choice about the degree of required protection, but under form four prohibits any additional or more stringent regulation by states. This somewhat overlaps with form two preemption, but it is not
. Instead, federal law effectively sets a unitary federal choice
rooted in concerns about possible clashing physical requirements regarding product design or engineering
that completely displaces other regulatory actors. The effect prohibits additional or more stringent regulation by state
institutions. Such prohibitions can take the form of federal legislation or regulation that prohibits state legislative or regulatory
standard setting, or it can take the form of legislation or regulation that prohibits any activity by additional state or local actors, even in the common law realm. As discussed below, prohibitions of
regulatory activities by legislatures or agencies raise substantially different issues than displacement of common law actors such as private litigants and courts. The “ceiling” or unitary federal choice
preemption referred to here is not typically a particular number, but a displacement of state or local actors who might otherwise have latitude to protect their citizens more than required by a presumptive federal
Ceiling or unitary federal choice preemption leaves no gap that states or other state institutions such as courts can fill. Whatever
standard.
the federal choice, it is the only regulatory choice.
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A2: Federalism DA
Non-Unique – PURPA
Ralls, 6 – Senior Regulatory Counsel at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
(Mary Ann, Energy Law Journal, “Congress Got it Right: There’s No Need to Mandate Renewable Portfolio Standards,” Vol.
27, no. 2, p.451, Proquest) // JMP
The federal government and states are already subverting each other
Barkenbus & Sovacool, 7 – *senior research associate at the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and
**Senior Research Fellow for the Network for New Energy Choices in New York and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Jack N. Barkenbus and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Environment, “Necessary but insufficient: state renewable portfolio
standards and climate change policies,” July/August, www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-167151846.html) // JMP
Of course, the discussion of federal versus state governance dates back to the country's founding, and debates about
federalism became especially pronounced during the era of the New Deal in the 1930s. The Supreme Court has long fought to
maintain a balancing act, towing the line to create "dual federalism," where the federal government regulates issues of
national import, and the states respond to issues of local import. This balance was believed to help achieve responsive
governance, governmental competition, innovation, participatory democracy, and resistance to tyranny. (4)
Fast-forward to today, and such roles have oddly been reversed. In what Case Western Reserve University law professor
Jonathan Adler termed a "jurisdictional mismatch," the state and federal governments have seemingly subverted each other's
traditional roles. (5) In a "poaching of state and local government territory," national policymakers have preempted state
action concerning drinking water contamination, solid waste disposal, land restoration, and educational standards for teacher
qualification and student performance. (6) Congruously, in what Adler termed "letting fifty flowers bloom," (7) state and
local governments have effectively shut down the national market on bromated flame retardants, adopted international
treaties on human rights, promoted smoking bans in bars and restaurants, and attempted to protect public health by regulating
obesity and red meat. (8)
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The education promoted by our 1AC is uniquely valuable – consumers are unaware of consequences of their energy
consumption
3.4.1 Myth: People Understand the Environmental Consequences of their Energy Consumption
In 1995, The Merck Family Fund commissioned a public opinion survey, which was conducted by the Harwood Group. (The
Harwood Group is part of the Harwood Public Institute for Public Innovation a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that
works to improve public life and politics.) The resulting report Yearning for Balance: Views on Consumption, Materialism
and the Environment captured citizen perspectives on issues of consumption. The report concluded, People perceive a
connection between the amount we buy and consume and their concerns about environmental damage, but their
understanding of the link is somewhat vague and general. People have not thought deeply about the ecological implications
of their own lifestyles; yet there is an intuitive sense that our propensity of “more, more, more” is unsustainable. (p. 2)
The report elaborated, but beyond a general sense that we are on the wrong track, public understanding of the link between
consumption and the environment remain somewhat fuzzy. More familiar concepts such as waste, pollution, and recycling are
seen as more directly related to environmental problems and solutions. (p. 4)
In my own work of assessing environmental issues as part of creating the Environmental Literacy and Citizenship
Assessment Instrument, I also found that people have a vague sense of cause and effect of common environmental issues. In
a simple test, I asked a group of new graduate students with a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to list the cause and effect
of three environmental issues on local and global scales. The responses showed that the students could name and describe an
environmental issue, but could not link it to a specific cause. For example, they could describe the death of the hemlocks in
the Smoky Mountains, but many attribute it to air pollution such as ozone rather than invasion by an exotic insect, the wooly
adelgid. Another example is that students listed air pollution as a problem and the cause as industry; however, much of our air
pollution is caused by the transportation sector. A colleague at a university in Illinois said her students had similarly
inaccurate responses to the same assessment. Weak cognitive linkages between environmental problems and their cause is
common in today’s society.
Yearning for Balance (Merck Family, 1995) also noted that, “Only a few [respondents] mentioned on their own that
consumption is part of the problem.” Taking personal responsibility is rarely noted in public opinion surveys related to the
environment. Respondents often remark the government is not doing enough or should do more. In general, Americans are
only vaguely aware that their energy consumption has huge negative effects on the environment.
Their denial of the energy crisis is counter-productive – it prevents mobilization of necessary resources to combat the
real and growing problem
Brown, 7 - Chair of Energy Policy in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology
(Marilyn A., “Chapter 2: Energy Myth One – Today’s Energy Crisis is “Hype” Energy and American Society: Thirteen
Myths, ed. By M. Brown and B. Sovacool, p. 47)
The past 30 years have seen a significant shift in the fuels and technologies used to produce and consume energy. Some of
these changes have strengthened the country’s energy system, especially the marked improvement in the efficiency of energy
use in buildings and industry and the diversity of fuels now used to produce electricity. Other changes have increased U.S.
energy vulnerabilities, including the surge in imported fuels and the lack of investment in new transmission lines.
Increasingly, Americans are demanding more energy while at the same time opposing new energy supply and infrastructure
projects because they lack an understanding that such changes are necessary to meet their consumption requirements. Based
on the trends noted in this paper, the nation’s energy system is as stressed today as it was in the early1970s. Over the past 30
years the United States has become increasingly vulnerable to economic, environmental, political, and military threats
because of its growing fuel consumption, lack of transportation fuel diversity, and a challenged energy infrastructure. The
myth that this energy crisis is exaggerated, fabricated, or simply a cover-up is counter-productive. Portraying the energy crisis
as “hype” thwarts mobilization of the sizeable resources and political will needed to successfully tackle the real and
significant energy challenges facing the nation and the world.
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The failure to implement a responsible energy policy cedes the political to international energy companies and wrecks
US responsible leadership
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
As might be expected, the retail electric suppliers in states with an RPS are expected to account for the bulk of the renewable
energy generating capacity in the United States. n97 It is clear that RPS states have built, and are building, more renewable
energy generation facilities than non-RPS states, but it is not clear to what extent this is the result of an RPS policy. That is,
an RPS policy provides incentives for building new renewable generation capacity, but other factors, especially the
availability of renewable energy resources, also play a significant role. n98
RPS and renewable credits provide and incentive for alternative energy
Fershee, 8 – Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law
(Joshua P., Energy Law Journal, “Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio
Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry,” 29 Energy L. J. 49, Lexis-Nexis Academic) // JMP
The mere existence of a national RPS would provide some incentive for all utilities to invest in renewable generation because
that investment would have two markets - the market for its electricity and the market for its RECs - instead of just the
market for its electricity for a traditional generation facility. n107 In [*64] addition, it is likely that power projects will
require "more equity, less debt, and shorter debt repayment periods" than in the past. n108 "Developers will probably attempt
to sign bilateral contracts with large end users, marketers, aggregators, and utilities, but contract terms are likely to be shorter
than in the past." n109 In fact, "corporate balance-sheet financing may also become more common." n110 If a utility buys
RECs and energy from another supplier, there is also a risk that purchase agreement would end up showing as a long-term
debt on the utility's balance sheet. n111 Thus, how a national RPS would impact such capital-intensive investments is hard to
predict.