UTNIF 2008
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INDIAN COUNTRYAFF
TABLE OF CONTENTSAFF1AC 2-11SOLVENCY EXT. 12-15ANSWERS TO CO2 DISAD 16-19ANSWERS TO CAP K 20-24ANSWERS TO ESSENTIALISM K 25-27NEGCAPITALISM KRITIK 1NC 28-31CAP K LINK EXTENSIONS 32-35CO2 GOOD DISAD 1NC 36-39CO2 DISAD EXTENSIONS 40-41ESSENTIALISM KRITIK 1NC 42-44ESSENTIALISM K EXTENSIONS 45-46SOLVENCY TAKEOUTS 47-50
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INDIAN COUNTRYAFF
1ACOBSERVATION ONE: ENERGY GENOCIDE
THE AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY WAS FOUNDED ON THEEXPLOITATION OF NATIVE AMERICANS AND INDIAN TRIBAL LANDS –LAND CONFISCATION, DEATH, DISEASE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL RUIN HAVEBEEN THE RESULT – TO THIS DAY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTINUESTHESE PRACTICES BY DISCOURAGING TRIBAL PARTICIPATION IN THEENERGY INDUSTRY
La Duke, Economist and Native American activist, ‘04(Winona, Indigenous People, Power, Politics: A Renewable Future for theSeventhGeneration,http://www.honorearth.org/media/pdfs/multimedia/books/Indigenous%20Peoples%20Power%20and%20Politics.pdf)
“The history of the American electric power industry is the story of America’s rise to world-wide economic preeminence. For Indian Tribes, it is a history of injustice and abuse of powerby the federal government as well as hostility to Tribal political and economic interests by thestates.Whether the subject is fossil fuels, nuclear energy or hydropower, the story is thesame. In spite of treaties and the Federal Indian trust protection responsibility to the contrary,Indian resources were confiscated for the benefit of others at the expense of Indian people.Through forced land sales, Indian removal and through abuse of the federal trusteeship, Tribeswere denied fair participation in any phase of development of America’s electricityindustry.The legacy continues today. Indian Tribes contribute vast amounts of their energyand water resources to American electric supply and energy security but receive so little inreturn. The Tribes in the Four Corners states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utahprovide the mineral and water resources that supply Southern California with one quarter of its electricity supply. Three million people in Southern California depend on Indian resourcesfor their economic and social well-being. The Tribes of the upper Missouri River Basin hadlands and waters confiscated to build the federal water projects on the Missouri River. Thoseprojects give the non-Indian economies in the region over $1.5 billion in economic benefit.These examples illustrate that no peoples give more than Indian Tribes and receive less inreturn. Tribal citizens pay among the highest electricity rates in the country, have the highestpercentage of homes without electricity, and have the least control over the quality of electricservice. The Navajo Nation, for example, the country’s most prolific energy tribe, has some50,000 people without regular electric service. No other group of Americans has suffered morefrom energy development in terms of pollution, radioactive waste, lost homelands flooded forfederal water projects and the social destruction that results from one group’s exploitation of another.To be sure, America fully expected Indian Tribes to disappear. This legacy too lives onas governmental policies and industry practices still discourage Tribal participation. But thingsare changing! – Council of Energy Resource Tribes.
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INDIAN COUNTRYAFF
DESPITE THE GREAT POTENTIAL TRIBAL LANDS OFFER FOR WINDENERGY DEVELOPMENT, A FUNCTIONALLY DISCRIMINATORY TAXCODE LOCKS THEM OUT OF THE PROCESS – STATUS QUO POLICYUNFAIRLY DISADVANTAGES TRIBES DEVELOPING WIND ENERGYPROJECTSShahinian, Law student @ U. of Michigan, ’07(Mark, “The Tax Man Cometh Not: How the Non-transferability oftax credits harms tribes”, 32 Am. Indian L. Rev. 267)
With the power to tax also comes the power to push, to encourage, to foster and tofavor. If taxation can sap economic power, tax policy can also confer vast economicrents on certain favored groups.However, America's Indian tribes are a group notfavored by federal tax policy.n2This paper is concerned with elements of U.S. taxpolicy that do [*269] unrecognized harm to Indian tribes. In the standard analysis,Indian tribes benefit from tax-free status - it is a bright line rule of U.S. tax policythat tribes and their subsidiary corporations do not pay federal income taxes.However, the guarantee of tax-free status for Indian tribes also guarantees thetribes cannot use tax credits granted by the federal government.In certain industries,federal tax credits play such an important financial role that entities unable to usethose tax credits are at a significant financial disadvantage to entities able to utilizethe tax credits. Federal tax credits play a key role in the coal bed methane extractionindustry,n3the low-income housing development industryn4, and the wind power
industry,n5among others. In some of these fields, tribes cannot make use of thetax credits, and so face a severe financial handicap as compared to entities that canutilize the tax credits. Perversely, this handicap is present in precisely the industriesthe federal government has decided to nurture and encourage - for instance, thewind energy industryTo bring focus to the discussion of tax credits and tribes, thisarticle examines how, this inability of tribes to access federal tax credits handicapstribes' ability to own and develop wind farms. Indian tribes could be a major force inthe growing U.S. wind industry. Wind power from tribal lands could provide 22% of installed U.S. electric power generation capacity.n6Renewable energy developmentis an issue with broad support in the United States and has the potential to bringsignificant economic benefits to the tribes
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