Fuel Efficiency Aff Minus Pics - Nielson

Gonzaga Debate Institute 2008 1
[Nielson/Ward/Brockway] Fuel Efficiency Aff

Electric Cars 1AC............................................................................................................................5
Electric Vehicles Are Inevitable.......................................................................................................9
Need Infrastructure .......................................................................................................................11
Solvency: Smart Grids ..................................................................................................................12
Solvency: FREEDOM Act.............................................................................................................13
Solvency: Oil Dependence.............................................................................................................16
Solvency: Emissions......................................................................................................................18
Solvency: Fuel Economy...............................................................................................................22
PEV Tech is Ready........................................................................................................................24
****Fuel Efficiency/CAFÉ Aff****.............................................................................................25
Fuel Efficiency Standards 1AC.....................................................................................................26
Inherency: Auto Lobby..................................................................................................................40
Inherency: 35 mpg’s is a Sell Out..................................................................................................41
Fuel Efficiency Solvency Ext........................................................................................................42
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: Consumption.......................................................................................43
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: Emissions............................................................................................44
Fuel Efficiency Solves Oil Dependency........................................................................................45
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: 40mpg..................................................................................................46
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: 75mpg by 2030....................................................................................48
****SUV Affirmative****............................................................................................................49
SUV 1AC.......................................................................................................................................50
SUV Hip Hop 1AC........................................................................................................................60
Inherent Barrier: Loophole............................................................................................................66
SUV Sales Increasing....................................................................................................................68
SUVs are Unsafe............................................................................................................................70
Auto’s = Identity............................................................................................................................71
Hip hop & SUVs............................................................................................................................74
SUVs = M.E. Oil Dependence.......................................................................................................75
SUVs Conquer Nature...................................................................................................................77
SUVs Enviro Damage....................................................................................................................82
SUVs Whiteness............................................................................................................................83
SUVs Security Adv........................................................................................................................84
SUVs Key......................................................................................................................................91
Solvency: 40mpg...........................................................................................................................92
Solvency: Fuel Efficiency..............................................................................................................93
Solvency: Government Action.......................................................................................................96
Solvency: Weight Classification....................................................................................................97
Solvency: Hip Hop.........................................................................................................................98
****Oil Enforcement Agency Aff****.......................................................................................104
OEA 1AC
......................................................................................................................................................105
Bush: Oil Addiction.....................................................................................................................112
Energy = American Privilege ......................................................................................................113
Solvency: Direct Action ..............................................................................................................114
Solvency: Education....................................................................................................................116
Solvency: Internalization ............................................................................................................118
Solvency: OEA ............................................................................................................................120
Solvency: Metaphoric Condensation...........................................................................................121
****General Solvency Evidence****.........................................................................................122
Government Key to Change.........................................................................................................123
Congress Key to Change..............................................................................................................124
Government Incentives Key to Change.......................................................................................125
Command and Control Solvency.................................................................................................127
Solvency: Sustainability...............................................................................................................128
****General Oil Harms****.......................................................................................................129
US = oil addiction........................................................................................................................130
Automobiles Key to Oil Addiction..............................................................................................131
US Autos = Inefficient Suck Mongers.........................................................................................132
Oil Addiction Causes Wars..........................................................................................................133
Peak Oil Timeframe.....................................................................................................................134
Oil Tipping Point.........................................................................................................................135
Oil Dependence General..............................................................................................................136
Resource Wars .............................................................................................................................137
Oil Dependence = Terrorism .......................................................................................................139
US/Iran Oil War...........................................................................................................................140
Iran War Impact Extensions.........................................................................................................142
Nuke War Impacts........................................................................................................................146
****General Global Warming Harms****..................................................................................147
Earth is Warming ........................................................................................................................148
Vehicle Emissions Cause Enviro Crisis.......................................................................................149
Air Pollution Harms ....................................................................................................................150
Global Warming = Human Caused..............................................................................................151
Global Warming Scenarios - Ice Caps.........................................................................................153
Global Warming Scenarios – Coral.............................................................................................154
Global Warming Scenario – Indigenous Rights...........................................................................155
Global Warming Scenario – Weather...........................................................................................156
Global Warming Scenario – Disease...........................................................................................157
Global Warming Scenario – Phytoplankton.................................................................................158
Global Warming Laundry Lists....................................................................................................159
Answer To: GW Solved by plants/ocean.....................................................................................160
Answer To: GW = Long Time Frame..........................................................................................161
Environment Extinction Impacts.................................................................................................162
****Environmental Justice****..................................................................................................163
Environmental Ethic Needed.......................................................................................................164
Transportation = Urban Pollution................................................................................................165
Environmental Justice..................................................................................................................166
Enviro Justice = Moral Ob...........................................................................................................170
Nigeria Human Rights.................................................................................................................172
Columbia Human Rights .............................................................................................................176
Ecuador Human Rights................................................................................................................177
Sudan Human Rights ..................................................................................................................178
Human Rights Impacts.................................................................................................................179
****Answers To: Various Case Args****...................................................................................180
Answers To: SUVs are Safe ........................................................................................................181
Answer To: CAFÉ = Car Accidents.............................................................................................182
Answer To: Auto Market Not Ready ..........................................................................................184
Answers To: Consumers Won’t Buy New Cars...........................................................................186
Tamminen, Author, Lecturer, and Strategist on energy and the environment, 2006,( Terry, Lives
Per Gallon, The True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.152-153)....................................................186
Answers To: Iran Strikes Won’t Happen......................................................................................187
Answers To: Israel Strikes ..........................................................................................................188
Answer To: Addiction Rhetoric...................................................................................................189
Answers To: Fuel Eff Tech Not Exist..........................................................................................190
Answers To: Batteries Fail ..........................................................................................................191
Answer To: Incentives Don’t Solve.............................................................................................194
Answer To: Oil Consumption Decreasing in SQ.........................................................................195
Answers To: Plenty of Oil ...........................................................................................................196
Answers To: No Solve Oil Dependence......................................................................................197
Answer To: Transition Impossible...............................................................................................198
Answers To: Ice Age ...................................................................................................................199
Answers To: Temp increase unrelated to CO2.............................................................................200
Answers To: Idso on Global Warming.........................................................................................201
Answers To: Balling on Global Warming....................................................................................202
Answers To: Environmental Justice harms poor..........................................................................203
Answer To: Enviro Justice = Cultural Imperialism.....................................................................204
****Answers To: Counter-plans****..........................................................................................205
Answer To: Ban Cars Counter-plan ............................................................................................206
Answer To: Mass Transit Counter-plan.......................................................................................208
Answer To: Fuel Cell Counter-plan.............................................................................................209
Answers To: Diesel Fuel Counter-plan........................................................................................210
Answer to: Offsetting Counter-plans...........................................................................................211
Answer To: China Off-set Counter-plan......................................................................................212
Answers To: Voluntary Counter-plan...........................................................................................213
Answers To: Ethanol Counter-plan..............................................................................................214
****Answers To: Critiques****..................................................................................................215
Answers To: Enviro K’s (General)...............................................................................................216
Answer To: Latcrit.......................................................................................................................217
Answers To: Externalization........................................................................................................219
Answers To: Heidegger – Instrumentalization.............................................................................220
Answers To: Coercion .................................................................................................................221
Answer To: Capitalism Kritik .....................................................................................................222
Answers To: Deep Ecology..........................................................................................................224
Answers To: Anthropocentrism ..................................................................................................225
Answers To: Environmentality/Luke...........................................................................................226
Answers To: Feminism................................................................................................................227
Answer To: Human Rights Kritiks...............................................................................................228
****Answers To: Disads****.....................................................................................................230
Answer To: Federalism DA.........................................................................................................231
Answer To: Auto Industry Econ. DA’s.........................................................................................233
Answer To: Economy DA’s..........................................................................................................237
Answer To: Business Confidence................................................................................................240
Answers To: Consumer Confidence............................................................................................243
Answer To: Electricity Prices DA................................................................................................244
Answers To: Coal DA..................................................................................................................245
Answers To: Oil Prices DA..........................................................................................................249
Answers To: Saudi Oil DA..........................................................................................................250
Answer To: Terrorism DA...........................................................................................................252
Answer To: Heg Good DA...........................................................................................................253
Answer To: Growth Bad .............................................................................................................254
Answers To: Malthus DA............................................................................................................255
Answer To: Enviro Movements DA............................................................................................256
Answer To: Politics – Enviro not a relevant issue.......................................................................257
Answers To: Politics – Political Capital......................................................................................259
Answers To: ANWR....................................................................................................................260
Answer To: Util. ..........................................................................................................................261
****Answers To: Theory****.....................................................................................................262
Answers To: Incentives T.............................................................................................................263
Incentives = Subsidies T .............................................................................................................266
Answers To: Alternative Energy T...............................................................................................267
Answers To: Framework..............................................................................................................268
Answer To: EPA Spending Trade-off...........................................................................................270
Electric Cars 1AC
Contention One: The Wave of the Future
The shift to electric cars is inevitable, but the government hasn’t prepared the
infrastructure. The Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle will eventually shift to full scale
electric.
Solar John, 2008 (Photovoltaic systems and renewable energy, “You’ll Buy An Electric Car Someday –
You’ll Charge It”, April 7, http://solarjohn.blogspot.com/2008/04/youll-buy-electric-car-someday-
youll.html)
Has anyone else noticed how expensive gasoline is these days? Ten years ago a gallon of
gas could be bought for under $1.00. Gasoline hit the $2.00 mark in 2004, and we were
paying $3.00 per gallon in 2006. Now it looks like gas might hit $4.00 per gallon before
the end of this year. If this trend continues, we’ll be paying $6.00 per gallon in 2012. Car
manufactures are taking notice of this, and several have electric cars in the works.
Since the days of cheap gasoline seem to be gone forever, a sudden shift to electric cars is
inevitable. With the automotive industry already working on electric cars, and battery
manufacturers competing to see who can make the best batteries, we’re well on our way.
The first generation of electric cars will be equipped with a small gasoline engine, included
to extend the range of the car. These are called plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicles, or
PHEV’s. And while the PHEV is a great intermediate step, the gasoline engine will
eventually be eliminated altogether. Quick charging batteries, and the emergence of battery
charging stations, will make that possible.
It looks as if the transition to electric cars will be more of a landslide than a trickle, a
scenario that will create some problems. The electric grid, which is already strained in
some parts of the country, may not be able to handle the additional load of charging all of
these vehicles. Fortunately, most of these electric cars will be charged at night, when other
demands on the grid are low. V2G technology (cars that supply power to the grid during
the day), will help, but infrastructure upgrades are needed before that can happen. We’ll
pay for improvements, and for the upgrades needed for the implementation of V2G
technology, through higher electric rates.
Thus, our plan:
The United States federal government should substantially increase tax incentives, modeled
after the Freedom Act, for plug-in electric vehicles and the smart grid.
Contention 2, 3, & 4 is the same as the Fuel Efficiency 1AC.

Contention 5: Solvency
1. The versatility of plug-in motors means that they can be easily made smaller, and thus,
increase fuel efficiency even more. All classes of vehicles can be manufactured this way.
Frank, 2007 (Andrew A., American Scientist, “Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles for a Sustainable
Future.” Mar/Apr, Vol. 95, Issue 2)
In addition to appropriate transmissions, plug-in hybrids also need high-power electric

motors and controllers. Advances in the fabrication of the permanent magnets used in
motors has allowed them to shrink considerably over the past three decades. These motors
can be used with today's microcomputer controllers and with special semiconductor
switches that are capable of handling many amps of current at high voltage levels, both to
transfer power to the wheels and to recapture it when the car slows. The total package--
including a down-sized internal combustion engine, a continuously variable transmission,
modern batteries, an electric motor and control electronics--need weigh no more than a
conventional engine and transmission yet can provide up to 60 miles of all-electric range
while driving at up to 60 miles per hour using the electric motor alone (and much faster in
hybrid mode with the engine running too).
The technology for plug-in hybrids is now advanced enough to allow all classes of vehicles
to be manufactured, from the smallest to the largest. In an effort to help demonstrate that
fact, my students and I have put together nine plug-in hybrids in the past 15 years,
everything from two-seat sports cars to full-size sport-utility vehicles--all of which have 60
miles of all-electric range using ordinary metal-hydride batteries.
2. The smart grid solves travel range problems and allows consumers to sell back their
energy to utility companies
Breslau, San Francisco Bureau Chief; Popescu, journalism article reporter freelance; & Loizos,
San Francisco Reporter, 2007 (Karen, Roxana, & Constance 'It's All About Energy, Stupid!'
Newsweek, 11/19/2007, Vol. 150, Issue)
Shai Agassi was cruising along in his software career, until, he says, he was asked an "annoying"
question at last year's World Economic Forum, the annual meeting of global elites: "What would
you do to make the world a better place?"
What came pouring out was a 21-page manifesto on the end of oil--and a business plan to
remake the world's transportation infrastructure. Earlier this year, Agassi left his position as a top
executive at the software giant SAP and launched "Project Better PLC" (Better Place), his
company to build a network of battery-charging stations for electric vehicles. Owners of battery-
operated cars will pull into a Better Place station and switch an empty battery for a charged one,
eliminating one of the chief obstacles to electric-vehicle transportation: the limited travel range.
The "smart grid" Agassi envisions will also allow plug-in hybrid owners to sell their car's energy
back to the grid at peak hours. This "vehicle to grid" (V2G) concept is also being studied by
utility companies, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Tesla, the electric-car manufacturer.
PG&E chairman Peter Darbee envisions a day when customers will become suppliers. "After
you drove to your office and parked at the appropriate receptacle, you could put in a sell order
like you do today with stocks, so that if the price gets to say, 14 cents per kilowatt hour, your sell
order goes through and we draw power on your car."
3. Major market-based incentives for plug-in vehicles, modeled after the FREEDOM Act,
are the 1st step to combating oil dependency and climate change
State News Service, 2007
(“Cantwell, Hatch, Obama introduce legislation to promote plug in hybrid vehicles,” June 14th,
Lexis)
Sen. Hatch and Sen. Cantwell (D-Wash.) announce the FREEDOM Act, which aims to reduce
American dependence on liquid fuels through tax credits for electric-powered vehicles. (06/14/2007)
Washington - Senate Finance Committee members Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Orrin Hatch (R-
UT), along with Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), introduced a bill to help develop commercially viable
plug-in hybrids and other electric-drive vehicles. Plug-in vehicles have the potential to shift America
off of its dependence on fossil fuels, and onto to cleaner, cheaper alternatives for transportation. The
senators highlighted the goals of the bill with a press conference today featuring two plug-in hybrids
which can get more than 100 miles per gallon in the city.
"Our transportation system in this country is out of date," said Cantwell. "We need to take advantage of
new technologies to bring our cars and trucks up to speed, save consumers money, and diversify our
country off of fossil fuels. We produce enough extra electricity right now to power most of the cars,
pickup trucks, and SUVs on our roads. It's time we made plug-in hybrid technology available to more
Americans."
"With the rapid industrialization of countries like India and China, the demand for gasoline is
unprecedented, and that's translated into higher costs at the pump," Hatch said. "We're already feeling the
pain of that, and it'll get worse unless we start shifting our transportation sector away from liquid fuels
and on to electrons. The best way to motivate that shift is with these market-based incentives, rather
than Federal mandates."
"Developing environmentally friendly fuel alternatives for vehicles is a critical step we can take to
reduce America's consumption of foreign oil and combat global climate change," Obama said. "The
technology to produce energy alternatives exists, and we must provide the appropriate incentives to
encourage consumer and manufacturer use. Supporting energy efficient technology and electric
vehicles would also help the American auto industry regain its competitive edge."
According to a January study by Tri Cities-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the
U.S. electricity grid is underutilized most of the time, and, with the proper plan in place, could
deliver enough power to fuel most of the country's cars and light trucks, thereby reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and curbing our reliance on foreign oil. Batteries on plug-in hybrids, the
vehicle type examined in the PNNL study, are typically charged at night when overall electricity
consumption is minimal. Charging a plug-in hybrid at the current national average residential rate
of 9 cents per kilowatt amounts to a cost equivalent to $1 per gallon of gas.
Their legislation introduced Thursday is a three-pronged strategy promoting Plug-in Electric Drive
Vehicles (PEDVs), which includes pure battery electric, extended range electric, plug-in hybrid electric,
and plug-in fuel cell vehicles.
First, their proposal would provide significant tax credits to consumers who purchase PEDVs.
Credits would provide up to $7,500 for small to mid-sized cars and trucks, up to $10,000 for mid to
larger cars and trucks, and up to $15,000 for big cars and trucks. Credits would also cover 50
percent of the cost of converting a vehicle, up to $2,000.
Second, their proposal would provide tax incentives for the U.S. production of PEDVs and PEDV
dedicated parts. Through 2012, American automakers, battery manufacturers, and component
makers could expense 100 percent of their retooling costs. From 2013 to 2015, this incentive would
decrease to from 100 percent to 50 percent.
Third, the proposal would give incentives for electric utilities to provide rebates to customers who
purchase PEDVs. These incentives would be scaled in a manner that would provide the largest
incentives to utilities producing the greenest energy.
4. Americans have finally hit the gasoline wall and are ready to change vehicle
consumption. Now is the time - we are at a psychological turning point.
Palmeri, Kiley, & Welch, senior correspondents, 2008 (Christopher, David & David, Business
Week, GAS MAY FINALLY COST TOO MUCH 00077135, 5/5, Issue 4082)
Is oil-guzzling America changing its ways? Some think so, though it's worth noting the U.S. still
consumes one-third of the world's annual gasoline output. "It appears we've finally hit the ceiling
that's causing the U.S. population to rethink how and where they use their vehicles," says Paul
Weissgarber, who heads the energy practice at consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Just look at the latest auto sales figures. Sales fell 8% overall during the first quarter of 2008, and
those of gas-hungry SUVs and pickup trucks dropped off a cliff, down 27% and 14%,
respectively. High gas prices are forcing even SUV lovers to shift gears. Fed up with spending
$100 five times a month to fill up his Chevy Suburban, Ron Gesquere, an auto parts executive
from suburban Detroit, recently bid $10,000 on eBay for a used Mini Cooper S. "I could make
the payments on the Mini with the savings in gas," he says. For years analysts have been
surprised that gasoline consumption continued to rise even as prices kept climbing. Now that
consumption has finally slowed, it remains to be seen if Americans are driving less just because
the economy is doing poorly or if they are altering their behavior in a lasting way. Certainly
consumers seem to be at a psychological turning point. Fuel prices are rising faster than incomes
and show no sign of slowing down. Being green is trendy, and the war in Iraq has fanned
concerns about U.S. dependence on oil from abroad.
5. The government is morally obligated to provide incentives for electric vehicles

Daniel Sperling, Energy Efficiency Center Professor at UC Berkeley, 1995, “Future Drive”,
Toward Electric Propulsion (pg. 64)
Electric Vehicles Are Inevitable
Hybrids are inevitable- environment responsibility and economic efficiency prove.
Sedgwick, Automotive News Editor, 2007 ( David, “ Hybrids become unavoidable”,
Automotive News, Cover Story, October 29)
For automakers, the hybrid powertrain is starting to feel as inevitable as death and
taxes. Every manufacturer is working on one, whether it wants to or not. Engineers
say that hybrid powertrains are complex and expensive, with a big battery pack to put
somewhere. Some think that modern diesels are a better bet - clean, less expensive than a
hybrid and efficient. Yet hybrids have caught on with the public as the environmentally
responsible choice, thanks in large part to Toyota's brilliant marketing. So other
automakers are adding hybrids to their product plans: * Nissan will introduce a
hybrid-powered Infiniti model in the next few years. * Hyundai is considering launching a
hybrid-powered Elantra and a hybrid Sonata in the United States around 2010. * In 2009,
Honda plans to launch a new hybrid car - one not based on a gasoline version - to compete
with the Prius, with annual volumes of 100,000 in North America. * Mazda is
experimenting with a hydrogen-powered hybrid, though it has no plans to market it. *
Meanwhile, Toyota sources say the automaker plans to offer a station wagon version of its
next-generation Prius hybrid, which is due in 2009. * At the show, Audi unveiled the
Metroproject quattro, a plug-in hybrid concept that hints at the company's future A1, a
small, two-door car to be produced in 2009. The concept is powered by a gasoline engine
mated to an electric motor and lithium ion batteries. There is no word yet on possible
production plans for the plug-in version. Even former skeptic Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn
is changing his tune about hybrids. Last week, Ghosn moderated his earlier criticism of the
technology. He said he had no complaint about the technology itself but simply
questioned whether Nissan could make money selling it. `Ì don't think I was against
it,'' Ghosn said of the technology. ``Hybrids are very promising.''
Electric cars are inevitable- now is the time to decide what kind of car should be the standard
Brendan Moore, 2008 (Autosavant, “VW sees market shift to electric vehicles as inevitable” 6-18,
http://www.autosavant.net/2008/06/vw-sees-market-shift-to-electric.html)
Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn recently told the Bild newspaper in

Germany that while gasoline-powered cars would still be around, "the future belongs
to the electric car."
I agree with that statement, but what about the problem of what kind of car to sell right
now, before the EV (electric vehicle) shows up en masse? VW has that same problem,
and their solution is to launch car after car that gets increasingly-better fuel economy
and emits increasingly-less pollution until the EV appears in force. VW is shooting for
cars in their European market in the next few years that get around 55 mpg average,
and given the current market environment of rising gasoline prices in the U.S., their
timing may be exquisite in terms of selling those vehicles in the United States as well.
The market is split between gas-electric hybrids and all-electric cars
Hamm, senior writer, 2007 (Steve $200 Million for Electric Cars?, Business Week,
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071027_825187.htm?chan=top+ne
ws_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives)
Interest in alternative-technology vehicles is tremendous right now, largely because of

the success of the Toyota Prius hybrid and oil prices that have climbed above $90 a
barrel. So far, Toyota Motor (TM) and General Motors (GM) are backing gasoline-
electric hybrids and playing down electric cars, while Renault (RENA) and Nissan
Motor (NSANY) tilt toward all-electric cars.
The move to electric cars is inevitable within 10 years

Dowling, Drive Journalist 2008
(Joshua Drive.com, “Shift to electric cars becomes inevitable”, June 16,
http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=53747)
The types of cars we drive will change dramatically over the next five to 10 years but,
meanwhile, we will see more hybrid vehicles as we move to what the industry calls
"the gradual electrification of the motor car".
In other words, the petrol engines will get smaller and electric engines will get bigger
until, eventually, we have the electric-only car. That's about 10 years away. A lot is
going to happen between now and then. In the coming years there will be countless calls
for governments to reduce fuel excise and other taxes on fuel. There will be road
blockades by truck operators here and overseas. But these will not sway the
inevitable.
Need Infrastructure
Tech and infrastructure are critical to energy transition
Peter Tertzakian, “A Thousand Barrels a Second”, 2006, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial
Corporation, the Thirty-Three Percent Advantage (pg. 23)
IMAGE FILE FOUND ON LINK PROVIDED BY GONZAGA DEBATE INSTITUTE
We are at a crossroad in the transportation industry. The status quo governmental policy is
fragmented and shortsighted
Sifting the Wheat from the Chaff (pg. 15)

Solvency: Smart Grids
If you build smart grids, consumers will come
Breslau, San Francisco Bureau Chief; Popescu, journalism article reporter freelance; & Loizos,
San Francisco Reporter, 2007 (Karen, Roxana, & Constance 'It's All About Energy, Stupid!'
While the development of a mass-market electric car has been slowed by battery problems,
Agassi says it makes sense to start building the grid now, just as cell-phone carriers built
transmission towers before everyone owned a cell phone. He plans to start testing cars next year.
"If you build the network, they will come," he says. Agassi has raised $200 million in venture
capital so far, and while he is so far coy about where "Better" will build its first recharging
stations, he has hinted that his native Israel, where gas costs around $6.50 a gallon and
government policy promotes electric-vehicle transportation, would make a logical test market.
Other "transportation islands" where exorbitant gas prices and favorable government policies
make the cost of battery-operated cars more competitive include Singapore, Iceland, Denmark
and Japan. No matter the language, Agassi is betting on a new way to say "fill 'er up."
THE FEDERAL GOVERNENT NEEDS TO PROVIDE TAX INCENTIVES FOR SMART

GRIDS. ALSO, THEY SHOULD WORK DIRECTLY WITH THE ELECTRIC
COMPANIES.
Energy Future Coalition, broad-based, nonpartisan alliance that seeks to bridge the
differences among business, labor, and environmental groups and identify energy policy
options with broad political support, ‘08
(“What is a Smart Grid, and why is it important?”)
Widespread deployment of smart grid technologies, and grid upgrades in general, will
require very substantial capital investments by the entities that own transmission and
distribution facilities. In the 1950s a national approach to financing the interstate highway
system was adopted and transformed the nation's transportation infrastructure. The
Working Group recommends that a parallel effort be undertaken, in the form of a "21st
Century Electricity System Security and Modernization Fund," to help support the costs of
initial deployment of the new, smart grid technologies for the nation's electricity
transmission and distribution system. Federal and state governments should work with the
electricity industry, customers, and other stakeholders to develop a specific funding
mechanism for this initiative.
In addition, regulatory policies at both the federal and state levels concerning transmission
and distribution rates must provide adequate incentives for investments in innovative
technologies. Supplemental federal tax incentives for innovative grid investments should
also be available in circumstances where rate incentives alone may be insufficient.
Solvency: FREEDOM Act
THE FREEDOM ACT SHOULD PASS – IT IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Hatch, Senator for the State of Utah, ‘08
(HATCH PARTICIPATES IN EVENTS FOR NEW UTAH GEOTHERMAL POWER
PROJECT)
Raser has also been supportive of my recent legislation S. 1617, or the Freedom Act, which
is cosponsored by Senators Barack Obama and Cantwell. The Freedom act proposes strong
tax incentives for plug-in electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and for the U.S. manufacture
of these vehicles and their technology. My aim with the Freedom Act is to initiate a shift in
our transportation sector away from oil and toward electrons. Electrons, even when coming
from a coal fired power plant have been proven to be much cleaner, greener, and cheaper
per mile than a conventional vehicle. Can you imagine the benefits of a plug-in hybrid
which gets its electricity from a geothermal plant? Raser Tech can, and so can I. Today is
an early step in that direction, and I'm confident it is only the beginning of many advances
in this direction yet to come.
FREEDOM ACT SHOULD PASS – ELECTRICITRICIUTY IS CLEANER, CHEAPER,

AND MORE ABUNDENT
Hatch, Senator for the State of Utah, ‘08
(HATCH PARTICIPATES IN EVENTS FOR NEW UTAH GEOTHERMAL POWER
PROJECT)
Raser has also been supportive of my recent legislation S. 1617, or the Freedom Act,
which is cosponsored by Senators Barack Obama and Cantwell. The Freedom act
proposes strong tax incentives for plug-in electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and for
the U.S. manufacture of these vehicles and their technology. My aim with the
Freedom Act is to initiate a shift in our transportation sector away from oil and
toward electrons. Electrons, even when coming from a coal fired power plant have been
proven to be much cleaner, greener, and cheaper per mile than a conventional vehicle. Can
you imagine the benefits of a plug-in hybrid which gets its electricity from a
geothermal plant? Raser Tech can, and so can I. Today is an early step in that
direction, and I'm confident it is only the beginning of many advances in this
direction yet to come.
The auto industry wants PEV incentives to jump start Electric car programs for the
average consumer
Thomas, AP writer, 2008 (Ken, Lexis, “Ford exec calls for funding for plug-in hybrids” June
12th, lexis)
A top Ford Motor Co executive urged the government to make a greater commitment to
the development of plug-in hybrids on Wednesday, warning that the United States was
falling behind in developing the technology critical to the advanced vehicles.
Mark Fields, Ford's President of the Americas, said at a conference on plug-in hybrids that
bold incentives are needed to speed up the development of advanced batteries that are key
to the vehicles.
"The governments of Japan, China, Korea and India are all significantly funding the
research development and deployment of plug-in hybrid vehicle technologies. This is a race
we absolutely must win," Fields said."It seems clear that a business case will not evolve, in the
near term, without support from Washington," he said at the conference, sponsored by the
Brookings Institution and and Google.org, Google Inc.'s philanthropic arm.
Fields said most of the battery supply is being developed in Asia, underscoring the need for a
government-industry partnership to help develop the next generation batteries and help
automakers upgrade their factories to build the cutting-edge vehicles.
"For those looking to plug-ins to answer our energy security concerns, we must ensure that we
have a domestic battery supply. Moving from imported oil to imported batteries clearly would
not address this growing concern," he said.
The conference, which featured displays of plug-in vehicles, drew several car manufacturers,
technology firms and alternative energy advocates who have been urging a larger commitment
from government given record-setting fuel prices and the nation's dependence upon foreign oil.
Democrats in Congress have sought a $3,000 tax break for consumers to buy a plug-in
hybrid, but many speakers said a broader number of incentives was necessary.
"We don't have time to wait. We can't have this happen slowly," said Felix Kramer, founder
of CalCars, a California company that developed plug-in hybrids.
Several car makers are testing plug-in hybrids that could allow owners to plug the vehicle's
battery into a standard wall outlet to recharge it. General Motors Corp. is developing an
extended-range plug-in electric vehicle called the Chevrolet Volt which it hopes to launch in
2010.
Toyota Motor Corp., meanwhile, announced Wednesday that it would introduce a plug-in hybrid
with next-generation lithium-ion batteries by 2010 that will target leasing customers.
Ford has a demonstration fleet of 20 plug-ins through a partnership with Southern California
Edison. The companies are studying ways to accelerate mass production of the hybrids.
Fields said the company's plug-in, which has a 10 kilowatt advanced lithium ion battery, could
average 120 miles to the gallon while the vehicle runs on mostly electric power for the first 30
miles the vehicle is driven after a complete charge.
But he said they are trying to improve the battery's durability, ensure its quality and make it more
affordable. Ford has not given a firm date on when it expects to mass market the vehicles, but
said last year that it could take 5 to 10 years.
Tax credit and deductions will give Americans more of an incentive to purchase alternative
energy vehicles
Stefan, JD candidate at American University Washington College of Law., 2007
(Chris Exploring How Today’s Development Affects Future Generations Around The Globe: In
This Issue: Sustainable Energy: Fueling The Future: A Policy-Based Comparison Of Alternative
Automotive Fuel Sources, Dec.)
Tax credits and deductions are politically popular, and could have a large effect on
encouraging consumer transition to alternative fuel sources. In the Energy Policy Act
of 2005, dollar for dollar tax credits are allowed for purchasers of new alternative
powered vehicles, or highly efficient vehicles. The policy implications of this Act is
that consumers who can afford to purchase new alternative fuel-powered vehicles
may be rewarded for doing so. Some states have also enacted similar tax incentives for
the purchase of alternative vehicles. However, the downstream market of used-vehicles
purchases is largely unaffected, limiting the overall impact that such policies may
have. Regardless, tax credits and deductions are still mechanisms for policymakers to
convince American consumers to consider alternatively powered automobiles.
Solvency: Oil Dependence
US transportation is 67% of our oil use – electric vehicles are the best chance for moving
away from oil dependence
Wynne, President Electric Drive Transportation, 2008
(Brian P. USA TODAY, “Electric car superlative: Most Earth Friendly”, March 5, p. 10A)
America's transportation accounts for 67% of all U.S. oil consumption, with most of that
oil coming from unstable regions of the world.
Electric drive, including battery, hybrid, plug-in electric and fuel cell-powered vehicles,
offers the best chance to slash our reliance on foreign oil, reduce emissions from the
transportation sector and improve environmental quality nationwide.
Our nation is being destroyed by oil. We borrow $1 Billion a day to import oil alone. Plug-
ins are our ace in the hole.
McGowan, Waste News, October 1, 2007,
(Elizabeth “Plug in Cars lead Electric Revolution”, News; Pg. 04)
When the country's former chief spy starts comparing fuel oil to salt, do you stick around
or leave the room shaking your head ?All 130-plus participants at a conference on plug-in
hybrid vehicles remained seated when keynote speaker R. James Woolsey, head of the
Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1990s, mesmerized them with his cautionary tale
Sept. 19. It goes something like this: Location, ownership and management of salt
mines mattered more than a century ago because salt was a strategic commodity for
preserving meat, a staple of the human diet. But modern refrigeration destroyed that
edge. `Òil, I think, if we handle it right, is destined for the same path,'' Woolsey stressed
during his talk at ``Plug-in Hybrids: Accelerating Progress 2007,'' organized by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ``What ought to be front and center for
all of us is destroying oil as a strategic commodity. ''This nation borrows $1 billion
daily to import oil, most from dictatorships in the Middle East, so it's a security issue,
Woolsey said. And oil use contributes 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions,
he added.Woolsey is a founder of the Set America Free Coalition, a group focused on the
security and economic implications of the growing dependence on foreign oil. Though the
United States failed at two previous attempts to wean itself of oil, in the 1970s and again in
the 1990s, now is the time to convert to alternative liquid fuels such as cellulosic ethanol
and biodiesel, Woolsey said. He called for a coalition that included ``tree-huggers,''
``hawks,'' evangelicals and Willie Nelson to persist in freeing the nation of foreign oil.
`Òur ace in the hole is electricity,'' Woolsey said, adding that flexible-fuel plug-in
hybrids cost a penny a mile, compared to 14 cents per mile for gasoline. Oil would
have to drop to $2 or $3 per barrel to compete. ``We can move a lot faster [toward
plug-in hybrids] than most people think,'' he said.
Use of plug-in hybrids is key to energy dependence.
Wynne, President of Electric Drive Transportation, 2008 (Brian P., “Electric Car
Superlative: Most Earth Friendly”, USA today, March 5)
America's transportation accounts for 67% of all U.S. oil consumption, with most of
that oil coming from unstable regions of the world. Electric drive, including battery,
hybrid, plug-in electric and fuel cell-powered vehicles, offers the best chance to slash
our reliance on foreign oil, reduce emissions from the transportation sector and
improve environmental quality nationwide. As the next generation of electric drive
vehicles hits the marketplace in the next few years, not all will be powered by "the dirtiest
type of coal," the scenario highlighted in the article. Grid electricity is growing cleaner
with advances in natural gas, cleaner coal and renewables such as wind and solar for
power generation. The National Resources Defense Council study that USA TODAY cites
notes that each region of the country will yield reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as
plug-in electric vehicles assume more of the vehicle market share. Many automakers,
utilities, power plants and environmental organizations are working together to address the
myriad challenges associated with transforming more than 100 years of the transportation
status quo. Electric drive has been identified as a viable solution to the security and
environmental challenges we face. Producing our transportation fuels domestically,
including electricity, is an opportunity that we simply cannot afford to disregard.
The electric car is the stepping stone for a total change in oil dependency
Chevalier, Asst. Editor, Electrifying Times, 1997
(Remy Culture Change,” The Great Electric Car Debate”, Iss 11, Spring
http://www.culturechange.org/issue11/electric-car-debate.htm)
We all share this ecotopic vision of cities. But we also must face the reality of the existing
infrastructure. We're stuck with an economy of scale that must be downsized before it can
be dismantled for something more equitable. Public transportation where I live is a pipe
dream. The only people using it are maids and ground keepers. The closest stop is two
miles away. So we need to create a stepping stone, an easy pill to swallow, so the
network of asphalt can be receded.
That's the electric car. It's been hard enough getting the auto industry to this point in time
where they've finally accepted the inevitable. The "Big Three" and the Japanese and
European builders have been dragged kicking and screaming to the prospect of a
world without the need for oil. At least with electric vehicles we could much more
adequately control pollution. And as better technologies come into play, thanks to the
newly found muscle of a young industry, the day might even come where tires themselves
are no longer necessary.
Without a unified front against the dynasty barons, there will never be the economic
momentum necessary to bring about this shift. The electric vehicle industry provides
a transitional proposition that in time might result in a harmonious lifestyle for all.
Solvency: Emissions
Hybrid cars will serve as the bridge toward zero emission technology.
Woodyard, Business Travel Reporter, 2007 (Chris, “Here are some of the commercial
applications for hybrid technology” USA Today, page 3b, April 12)
Hybrid cars and trucks, which use gas-electric technology, have become the poster children for
energy savings in the automobile world. But industry has been paying attention, as well. Hybrids
are quietly starting to show up in other transportation uses, from locomotives to construction
equipment. After looking over several hybrid and other "green" commercial vehicles
recently, President Bush said they will play a role in meeting his administration's goal
of reducing gasoline usage by 20% over 10 years. "There are new technologies on the
market that are being used every single day, but there is more we can do," he said. Hybrid
commercial vehicles are bigger versions of the same basic technology that's going into cars. In
automobiles, most hybrids pay off when city traffic is at its worst. Otherwise wasted energy is
captured during braking. It's stored in batteries, which discharge to assist the engine during
acceleration. Hybrid technology shows the most promise in commercial vehicles that idle for long
stretches or do a lot of starting and stopping. And engineers hope that hybrid commercial
vehicles, like cars, will be a bridge to fuel cells or other environmentally friendly
technologies that will save even more gasoline and create less pollution. "We see it as
a road map to achieving zero-emission technologies," says Don Anair, a vehicle engineer
for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The plug in hybrid can travel 40 miles without using a drop of gasoline. The result is
decreased cost and zero emissions.
The more-typical hybrids one finds on American roads today, those being sold by Toyota, Honda
and Ford, for example, follow a design philosophy that puts most of the burden of powering the
vehicle on the engine. Were these cars to offer an all-electric mode (which they don't), the batteries
would hold only enough energy to drive a very short distance. My colleagues and I like to
characterize hybrids according to the ratio of electric power to total power, a number we call the
degree of hybridization. This statistic would be 0 for a conventional car and I for a purely electric
vehicle (although one wouldn't, of course, calculate the degree of hybridization in either of these
two extreme cases). Another useful way to gauge the degree of hybridization is simply by noting
the all-electric range. A hybrid electric vehicle that can travel, say, 60 miles on battery power alone
would be termed an HEV 60.The hybrid cars being sold in the United States today have degrees of
hybridization close to 0.1. And they all operate so as never to let their batteries become appreciably
depleted, thus making them all in essence of the HEV 0 class. What is needed are hybrid cars built
with larger electric motors, smaller engines, greater amounts of battery storage and energy-
management schemes that allow the batteries to become drawn down to a small fraction of their
capacity. Such vehicles could go for several tens of miles without using gasoline at all.The
advantage of that approach becomes obvious when one considers how most passenger cars and
trucks are used by private citizens. The typical driver travels less than 40 miles a day. Thus having
a car with at least a 40-mile range on battery power alone would allow most people to use no
gasoline at all on a daily basis if they could recharge their car's batteries at night by plugging them
into an electric outlet. This practice would not only save consumers money at the pump, it would at
the same time reduce their tailpipe emissions to zero. Those who drive farther than 40 miles a day
would, of course, have to use some gasoline in their cars, but much less than they now do.
Big name companies like General Motors are developing plug in hybrids. They can reduce
emissions by a third.
Jim Motavalli, New York Times, October 1, 2007, “Hybrids with a Power Cord,” Section
12; Column 1, Automobiles; Green TECH
According to a Bloomberg News report in June, General Motors is also developing a plug-
in hybrid. Even Google.org, a charitable for-profit company set up by the popular search
engine provider, said it would create its own plug-in system.A June report by
AllianceBernstein, an investment management firm in New York, entitled ''The Emergence
of Hybrid Vehicles,'' concluded that ''Plug-in hybrid vehicles are likely to arrive as an
extension of current hybrid technology.'' The fuel-efficiency gains, the report said, ''would
be enormous for those people who typically drive only short distances each day.''Plug-ins,
like all hybrids, excel in stop-and-go duty. And their ability to make those runs on batteries
alone makes them ideal for the delivery tasks envisioned for the Sprinter project.The
Electric Power Research Institute, a trade association for utilities, estimates that a plug-in
hybrid would consume 2,000 to 2,500 kilowatt-hours of grid electricity annually. So
wouldn't vehicles like the plug-in hybrid Sprinter simply transfer their pollution source
from the tailpipe to the smokestack of a coal-burning power plant? That depends on the
source of electric power, according to a report released last month by the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit energy policy group. The council
concluded that a plug-in version of the Toyota Prius could reduce carbon dioxide emissions
by a third compared with today's Prius hybrid, but only if its batteries were charged with
California electricity -- generated mainly from relatively clean sources. ''One of the key
determinants is whether the electricity is generated using coal,'' Jim Kliesch, a co-author of
the report, said in an interview. The report says that in a part of the Midwest dominated by
coal-burning power plants, a plug-in Prius would generate 1 percent more carbon dioxide.
''Our position is that overselling plug-ins to policy makers or to John Q. Public has the
potential of causing disenchantment with the technology,'' Mr. Kliesch said.
Plug-in’s will reduce greenhouse gases and conventional pollution

Coile, San Francisco Reporter, 2007 (Zachary THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE,
“CLEANER FUTURE? PLUG IN”, July 20, p. A1)
Researchers also found that plug-in hybrids reduced greenhouse gases no matter
what energy source was used to produce the electricity, whether coal, nuclear,
hydroelectric, wind or solar. Electric hybrids generated 40 to 65 percent less
greenhouse gas than gas-fueled vehicles and 7 to 46 percent less than conventional
hybrids.
Plug-in hybrids also would slightly lower air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur
dioxide and smog-forming ozone in most regions, the study found. But emissions of
particulate matter could rise because of the increased burning of coal.
"It shows the next generation of hybrid vehicle technology will reduce both global
warming pollution and conventional air pollution in most parts of the United States ...
particularly if we are conscientiously taking steps to clean up the power grid," said
Dan Lashof, science director at the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center.
HYBIRDS ARE THE FIRST PRACTICAL STEP TO SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING AND
AIR POLLUTION
ZACHARY W. SILVERMAN, 3rd year law student, 2007 (Georgetown International
Environmental Law Review Spring, Hybrid Vehicles: A Practical and Effective Short-Term
Solution to Petroleum Dependence, p. lexis)
III. WHY HYBRIDS?

First, it employs 'regenerative braking,' which harnesses energy normally wasted by coasting and
braking. Second, the electric motor can 'assist the engine in accelerating, passing or hill climbing'
(when a vehicle needs extra power), allowing the use of 'a smaller, more efficient engine.' Third,
rather than wasting energy by idling, many hybrid engines automatically shut off when stopped,
and start up again with a press of the accelerator."
These advantages allow the hybrid to achieve vastly better gas mileage than its counterparts with
internal combustion engines. Still, this is true of other new technologies. For instance, fuel cell cars
operate "without harmful vehicle emissions," which is not true of the fuel-efficient, yet still gas-
sipping, hybrid.. Furthermore, electric vehicles "are zero-emissions ... have low costs, are
extremely quiet and provide a smooth ride." Alternative fuel vehicles, another substitute to hybrids,
use fuel such as methanol or ethanol, and run cleaner than regular gasoline vehicles. Finally, diesel
fuel, which has been used for decades, also burns cleaner than standard gasoline. In other words, all
of these technologies offer either increased or complete independence from petroleum.
There are many reasons, however, that the Sierra Club and other environmental groups recognize
the hybrid vehicle as one of the "best solutions to global warming and air pollution" and Mann cites
hybrids as "[t]he first practical step [*549] to cleaner vehicles." These reasons are linked to
problems associated with the other fuel-saving technologies, none of which the hybrid vehicle
possesses. The efficacy of hybrids lies not only in their ability to save gas, but also in their ability
to quickly, and relatively cheaply, become integrated into our society.
Plug-in’s massively slash greenhouse gases

Coile, San Francisco Chronicle Reporter, 2007 (Zachary THE SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLE, “CLEANER FUTURE? PLUG IN”, July 20, p. A1)
A study released Thursday by the Palo Alto-based Electric Power Research Institute and
the Natural Resources Defense Council confirmed what advocates of plug-in vehicles had
long suspected: Hybrid electric cars, if widely adopted in the United States, would
yield huge reductions in greenhouse gases over today's fleet of gas-fueled cars and
hybrid vehicles.
"The studies finally give an environmental stamp of approval" to plug-in vehicles,
said Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars.org, which promotes electric hybrids. "Scientist
have confirmed that unlike gasoline cars, plug-ins will get cleaner as they get older --
because our power grid is getting cleaner."
If most Americans switched to electric hybrids by 2050, greenhouse gases would be
slashed by 450 million metric tons annually -- the equivalent of taking 82.5 million cars,
about one-third of the U.S. fleet, off the road, according to the study.
ZEV’s reduce emissions 80% - we must continue to pursue zero emission transportation
California Air Resources Board, 2008 (“2008 Fact Sheet”,
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/factsheets/2008zevfacts.pdf)
While critics maintain that the ZEV regulation is a failure, in reality many successes have
come out of the regulation. For instance, over 750,000 Californians are driving partial
zero and advanced technology partial zero emission vehicles (PZEV and AT PZEV).
These vehicles have near-zero tailpipe emissions, zero evaporative emissions and an
extended emissions warranty of 15 years or 150,000 miles. In fact, they are 80%
cleaner than the average 2002 model year car.
In addition to the variety of PZEVs and AT PZEVs available, gas-electric hybrid vehicles
are also a success. With more than 100,000 hybrids on California’s roads, they give
consumers a way to reduce emissions and fuel consumption. Although these “near-
zero” emission vehicles provide critical pollution reductions in the near term, with the
increases in California’s population and in the number of miles we travel each day,
we must continue to pursue pure zero emission transportation technologies.
Air quality and electric cars go hand and hand


Solvency: Fuel Economy
Plug-ins are on the market in Europe but not in the US. They can improve fuel economy by
at least 20%.
The hybrid cars being sold today are showing improvements of 20 to 30 percent in fuel
economy, but they still fall far short of the goalposts I set for myself in 1970:100 miles per
gallon, along with better performance. I and many others are convinced that the solution is
to design hybrid cars in a way that many car makers are resisting--so that they can be
recharged by plugging them into an ordinary electrical outlet and can travel a considerable
distance on electric power alone. Only two plug-in hybrids are now on the market, and
both are being sold only in Europe: a version of the Mercedes Sprinter delivery van and the
"elect'road" variant of the Renault Kangoo, which is really an electric car with a gasoline-
powered "extender" option. General Motors has just recently announced plans to offer a
plug-in hybrid in the United States, a version of its Saturn Vue sport-utility vehicle, which
is expected to be able to travel something like 10 miles on battery power alone. And in
January GM unveiled a concept car dubbed the Volt, a plug-in hybrid with 40 miles of all-
electric range. However, it remains unclear when these new GM vehicles might go into
production.
Plug in hybrids are extremely efficient with 100 miles per gallon fuel economy.
Matt Nauman, 2007, (Mercury News, March 22, “Support Growing for Plug-in Hybrids”,
Lexis)
Like a traditional hybrid, plug-ins have both electric motors and batteries as well as a gasoline
engine. The difference, advocates say, is plug-ins have more robust batteries, which allows them to
achieve the equivalent of 100 mpg. And they can be charged using a home's electricity.
`Ì always joke, Ì'm doing the sales work for them; all the car companies need to do is to build
these vehicles,' '' said Jodie Van Horn of the Rainforest Action Network.
So far, about 8,000 soft orders have been placed for these vehicles nationwide. Locally, the cities of
San Francisco, Berkeley, Alameda and Oakland, as well as Marin County, have placed soft orders.
Kishimoto said she wants to buy a plug-in. Tom Hayse, president and chief executive of Newark-
based ETM Electromatic, which makes power subsystems for communications and defense
industries, said his company will place 13 soft orders, and he plans to offer incentives to his
employees who buy these cars.
Also Thursday, automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin revealed in a phone interview more
about his plans to build plug-ins in China and sell them in the United States. For the first time, he
said the hybrid sedans from his Visionary Vehicles brand would carry his name, Bricklin.
He intends to build four-door models costing about $35,000 that can go 40 to 50 miles on
electricity and then use a small gasoline motor to extend the driving range another 300 miles. They
might go on sale in 2009.
``The Big Three are telling the truth that the price of battery technology needs to go down,'' he said.
``What they're not saying is it won't come down until somebody orders 150,000 sets of them.''
Plug-in hybrids could get 100 miles per gallon.
Allen, Projects Writer, 2007 (Leslie J. , “ Convert your hybrid to a plug-in, sir?”,
Automotive news, pg 3, December 10)
A year or so ago, a few tinkerers and maverick garages were converting hybrid vehicles to
plug-in hybrids. Today, demand has built such conversions into a cottage industry. At least
three companies at last week's Electric Vehicle Symposium 23 were offering to boost the
Toyota Prius' mileage from 45 mpg to a claimed 100 or more. Plug-in hybrids extend the
electric range of regular hybrids by using banks of powerful batteries to store electricity
from ordinary household outlets. The cars then drive farther on electric power without
using their gasoline engines any more than an ordinary hybrid would. Many claims of
plug-in mileage, however, do not include the fuel used to generate electricity for the power
grid. OEMtek Inc., of Milpitas, Calif., says it can upgrade a Prius by supplementing
Toyota's original nickel-metal hydride battery with a lithium phosphate battery pack made
by Valence Technology Inc. OEMtek says the upgrade boosts the Prius' fuel economy to
more than 100 mpg.
Plug-in hybrids can triple fuel mileage

James R. Healey, 2008 (USA TODAY, “120 mpg may become a real possibility”, Jan. 25, p.
8B)
Automakers are moving fast to determine whether plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can be
put onto the market affordably.
PHEVs can up to triple fuel mileage in short trips, and recharging costs less than gas to go
the same distance. It appears that plug-ins cut tailpipe emissions more than enough to make
up for any pollution caused by the plants that generate the electricity to charge them.
PHEV’s get 55 to 120 mpg

James R. Healey, 2008 (USA TODAY, “120 mpg may become a real possibility”, Jan. 25, p.
8B)
Here's what you probably want to know first about the Escape PHEV: 55 miles per
gallon, according to Ford engineers' on-board computer. That was in 23 miles of snowy
suburban driving that included rolling hills, hard acceleration and slick-street wheel
spin just for the fun of it. And here's a nugget: Escape's traction control actually allows
some wheel spin, which is good on many surfaces. Too often today's traction systems in
nanny vehicles don't. Ford's Greg Frenette, chief engineer for plug-in and fuel-cell
vehicles, says up to 120 mpg in town is reasonable in flatter, moderate driving. He
forecasts 70 to 80 mpg on the highway, where the gas engine works more, and 30
miles of light driving up to 40 mph on a charged battery alone.
Electric automobiles are substantially more efficient than its gas powered counterpart

PEV Tech is Ready
Conversion to plug-in increased your gas mileage to 174 mpg. Electric cars tech is ready
Breslau, Popescu, Loizos, San Francisco Bureau Chief; journalism article reporter freelance;
2007 (Karen, Roxana, & Constance San Francisco Reporter 'It's All About Energy, Stupid!'
Impressed by the 50 or so miles per gallon of the average Toyota Prius? Pop a suitcase-size
battery pack from A123 Systems into the trunk and watch your newly converted plug-in
hybrid shoot to 174mpg. "You fill your tank three times a year," says CEO David Vieau. The
Watertown, Mass., Company has won raves in technology and investment circles by figuring out
how to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in the development of the electric car: huge,
unreliable, expensive--and flammable--batteries. While current lithium-ion batteries work
well enough for laptops and cell phones, scientists at A123 have replaced chemical
components with extremely thin layers of nanophosphate, a conductive material that makes
the new batteries smaller and quicker to charge than their predecessors.
Starting next year, A123 will sell its battery to hybrid owners who want to convert their cars
to plug-ins--models that you recharge in the garage overnight. The estimated price tag of
$10,000 for the conversion will be too steep for most individuals, so company executives expect
their main customers will be government or corporate hybrid fleets. The next step will be
factory-installed battery packs in a new generation of hybrid and electric vehicles, like the
Saturn Vue and the Chevy Volt, scheduled to hit the U.S. market in 2009. The company has
raised $132 million in capital from leading venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, as well as
from GE, Proctor and Gamble, and Qualcomm, companies eager to apply the new batteries in
their products.
Electric cars are the best option for the future

Transportation as if People Mattered (pg. 2)

****Fuel Efficiency/CAFÉ Aff****

Fuel Efficiency Standards 1AC
Contention 1: Congress Sells Out!
THE NEW CAFÉ STANDARD IS NOT IMPRESSIVE, WE PUT A MAN ON THE MOON
BUT CAN ONLY HOPE FOR 35MPG BY 2020. WE MUST AIM HIGHER.
SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of California, 2008
(GOVERNOR HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR LONG-TERM ENERGY POLICY AT
CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT, State news service)
We talk about fuel efficiency, but our average passenger vehicles get less than 25 miles per gallon, because
politicians have not been willing to hold automakers feet and oil companies' feet to the fire .
That's less than the Model T got in the 1920s. The Model T in the 1920s got more than 25 miles per gallon. I
mean, that is extraordinary. Now, since the Model T has disappeared, America summoned the
political will to put a man on the moon and to end legal discrimination and to bring down
the Berlin Wall and the list goes on and on and on. None of that, of course, was easy. It
requires tremendous sacrifice that was always painful and too often tragic. But each cause
was guided by an unyielding and optimistic vision for the future. Today we have also
visions, but visions of Congress patting itself on the back by mandating that cars ought to
go from 25 miles to 35 miles a gallon, but this is by the year 2020. And they think that this
is a great accomplishment and they have done the job, when in fact in Italy right now they
already have those policies in place and cars have to go 35 miles a gallon. I want America to
be number one, that is the bottom line. America can and must do better for both our long-term
economic security and our national security. Look, for instance, what our state and what Florida is doing. Our
state -- and I think that Governor Crist has just mentioned some of those things -- we have made real
commitments. In AB 32, to pass the laws to cut our greenhouse gas emissions back to the 1990 level by the
year 2020 and then an additional 80 percent by the year 2050. As a matter of fact, today we are releasing the
first draft of our scoping plan to implement our landmark AB 32 global warming Bill and this is going to be
something that the world will be watching very closely. We believe in action.
Thus Our Plan:
The United States Federal Government should increase corporate average fuel economy to 40
miles per gallon by 2010 and 75 miles per gallon by 2030 in the United States. Any questions,
Just Ask.
Contention 2: Oil Addiction
1. US OIL DEPENDENCY IS OVERWHELMINGLY ROOTED IN AUTOMOBILES

Peter Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006, A Thousand
Barrels A Second, The Coming Oil Break Point and The Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent
World,p.235-236
2. Oil extraction spurs violent wars. Resource wars have become the norm
William K. Tabb, Associate Professor of Economics at Queens College, 07, (Monthly
Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan. http://www.monthlyreview.org/0107tabb.htm)
Resource extraction in the contemporary era continues to spur extremes of violence and
war. In a 1997 study Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner examined the economic performance of ninety-five
countries between 1970 and 1990. They found the higher a country's dependence on natural
resource exports the slower their economic growth rate. Paul Collier and co-authors analyzed
fifty-four large-scale civil wars that occurred between 1965 and 1999 and found that a higher
ratio of primary commodity exports to GDP "significantly and substantially" increases the
risk of conflict.3 High levels of oil dependence correlate especially strongly. Timber it
turns out is also "technologically suited to rebel predation," as with the Khmer Rouge. Researchers find the
phenomenon of "war booty futures" where outsiders back rebel groups in exchange for a future share of the
takings: a prospect which features heavily in Richard K. Morgan's powerful dystopic novel Market Forces.
It should be pointed out that when we speak of wars in the last third of the twentieth century we are talking
about civil wars. Between 1965 and 1999 if we look at those wars in which more than a thousand
people were killed a year, there were seventy-three civil wars, almost all driven by greed to
control resources: oil, diamonds, copper, cacao, coca, and even bananas. Collier and Anke Hoeffler find
countries with one or two primary export resources have more than a one-in-five chance of
civil war in any given year.4 In countries with no such dominant products there is a one in
a hundred chance. In these civil wars more than 90 percent of casualties are civilians. At the
start of the twentieth century war casualties were 90 percent soldiers. Such "traditional" wars are rare today.
Resource wars with their devastating impacts on civilians have become the norm.
Contention 3: Iran Strikes
First, The United States consumes 25% of the world’s oil for 4% of the world’s population. Oil
consumption is a significant determiner of US foreign policy
Leech, independent journalist and editor of the online publication Colombia Journal, 2006
(Garry, Crude Interventions: The US, oil and the new world (dis)order, University of
KwaZulu-Natal Press, pg 1)
Second, The US will attack Iran for oil regardless of the potential short term costs to the US
because it would shore up US oil company profits
Dave Eriqat, 2006 (Counter Currents, “Why The United States Will Attack Iran”, April 8,
http://www.countercurrents.org/iran-eriqat080406.htm)
Getting back to the master plan. Many have pointed out that attacking Iran does not stand up to a cost-
benefit analysis. They argue that attacking Iran would cause Iran to retaliate by stoking the insurgency in
Iraq and threatening oil shipments through the Persian Gulf. The implication is that the U.S. will not risk
the lives of its soldiers in Iraq or risk soaring oil prices, all for the sake of imposing its political will on
Iran. They argue that not even this administration is that irrational.
These people are missing the point, however. The single-minded goal of the United States in the Middle
East is control of the oil, regardless of the cost. Let’s examine the potential costs more closely. Would the
U.S. endanger its soldiers in Iraq? Absolutely. Just look at Pearl Harbor during World War II. The U.S.
Government unquestionably knew the Japanese were going to attack and deliberately let it happen. The
U.S. Government probably even abetted the attack by clearing an unobstructed flight path for the
Japanese attackers. So would they sacrifice a few thousand more soldiers in Iraq? Sure. What if Iran
manages to slow or stop the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf? Again, that could work to the advantage
of the U.S., as I will explain below. In the meantime, who would benefit from reduced global oil supplies?
Oil companies. As oil has gone up in price during the last few years, the profits of oil companies have
skyrocketed into the tens of billions of dollars per year, for each company. We also witnessed this
administration look the other way when energy companies rapaciously exploited California’s nascent
“deregulated” electricity market, so we know where its allegiance lies.
Scenario A: World War III
1. An Attack on Iran will expand to the entire Middle East
Ryan Clarke, 2007 (Institute for Defense Studies & Analysis,”US Military Strike on Iran: Implications for
American Strategic Interests in Latin America”, Visiting Intern at the Institute for Defence Studies and
Analyses, 11/16, http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/RyanClarke161107.htm)
In the event of an attack on Iran, Tehran may attempt to activate Hezbollah in the Tri-Border Region in
an effort to work through FARC to indirectly strike the United States in Colombia. As such, when discussing the possibilities of
an attack on Iran, increased instability and threats to American interests in Colombia must be a consequence that is factored into
the decision making process. Iran, through its Hezbollah proxy, has consistently demonstrated its global
reach and there exists a possibility that the current regime in Iran would not be opposed to
expanding the conflict outside of the Middle East if it were attacked.
2. Starting a war in the Middle East will escalate into World War III.
Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, 2007 [The Unthinkable: The US- Israeli Nuclear War on Iran
,http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20070121&articleId=4536]
The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on
a military adventure, "a long war", which threatens the future of humanity. At no point since
the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to
the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive
fallout, over a large part of the Middle East. There is mounting evidence that the Bush
Administration in liaison with Israel and NATO is planning the launching of a nuclear war against
Iran, ironically, in retaliation for its nonexistent nuclear weapons program. The US-Israeli military
operation is said to be in "an advanced state of readiness". If such a plan were to be launched, the
war would escalate and eventually engulf the entire Middle-East Central Asian region. The war
could extend beyond the region, as some analysts have suggested, ultimately leading us into a
World War III scenario
Scenario B: Terrorism
1. A military strike makes Iran much more likely to support terrorists around the world.
Center for Strategic and International Studies- 2007 (“Judging the Iranian Threat
20 Questions We Need to Answer” www.csis.org)
Iran’s history suggests that use of its various terrorist allies—from Hezbollah to Palestinian Islamic Jihad
and others— is a normal tool of Iranian foreign policy. There is ample evidence that Iranian officials or
their proxies regularly increase their surveillance of U.S. facilities when tensions rise, demonstrating a
clear interest in attacking U.S. personnel as part of their diplomatic strategy. Iran seeks to demonstrate to
Western countries the costs of their policies, while at the same time seeking friends among Third World
nations that share Iranian resentment of Western hegemony. This is true most of all in the Arab-Israeli
arena, where Iran’s strategy is to be the world’s most anti-Israel country—a position that has been gaining
it significant support among Arab publics for more than a year. Iran’s true goal is to invite limited Western
retribution for aiding terrorist actions, which will garner widespread sympathy that far outweighs the
punishment it incurs.
2. Terrorism threats the very survival of civilization itself.

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, political analyst, 2004 (August 26 – September 1, 2004, Al-Ahram Weekly On-
Line, 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
nuclear weapons have been used only to threaten. Now we are at a
the two bombs dropped on Japan,
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.
Contention 4: Global Warming
First, Vehicle emissions cause ozone depletion, acid rain, and global warming
II. OIL DEPENDENCY IS A PROBLEM
Many people recognize on a general level that oil dependency presents various problems.
The purpose of this Part is to discuss these ills in depth. Through this discussion it will
become apparent that we must start looking to alternatives to "gas-guzzlers" that run on
typical internal combustion engines. At the forefront of these problems is the damage that
fossil fuel abuse does to the environment. Not only are these problems serious, but they are
also quickly becoming even more urgent. A second and related negative effect of oil
dependency is its detrimental effect on human health.
Arguably the greatest concern surrounding the use of fossil fuels is the environmental harm
it causes.. First, the burning of fossil fuels creates hydrocarbon emissions, which are the
precursors to smog. Vehicle emissions account for about 29% of hydrocarbons in the air.
Second, personal vehicles release [*546] nitrogen oxides, resulting in the creation of
ground level ozone and acid rain. Vehicle emissions are responsible for 34% of nitrogen
oxide in the air. N Third, about 90% of carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, is produced by
mobile transportation in America 's urban areas. In total, vehicle emissions account for
about 51% of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. n Finally, personal vehicles produce
carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is in large part responsible for the global warming
effect. Thus, not only do personal vehicles emit matter that is harmful to the environment,
but they also emit a volume of environmentally harmful compounds into the air that makes
them one of the most--if not the most--egregious polluters.
Second, Global Warming will cause economy collapse, increase frequency of severe weather
events and displace millions of people
Geller Executive Director of South West Energy Efficiency Project 2003(Howard, Energy
Revolution, Policies for a Sustainable Future Pg 8-10)
Third, The destruction of the Earth from our oil addiction is worse than extinction
Terry Tamminen, Cullman Senior Fellow for Climate Changeat the New America Foundation,
2006 (Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction, p.7-8)
Scenario A: Ice Caps
Water expansion is not just melting ice… it will cause Venice, Alexandria, and Florida to
completely disappear off of the map. Millions will die.
Glenn Adelson and James Engell, Harvard and Wellesly College professors, Environment:
An Interdiciplinary Anthology, Yale University Press, 2008.
Scenario B: Famine
Greenhouse gasses have already killed thousands and thousands more are expected to die
from famines
Contention 5: Solvency
1. We must start cutting by 2010 to achieve the dramatic cuts we need in time to prevent
going over the global warming tipping point
Steve Kirsch, philanthropist and entrepreneur, 2007 (Who should be our next President?, May
26, http://www.skirsch.com/politics/president/comparisonFull.htm)
Scientists tell us that we must cut our emissions substantially by 2020 and then keep cutting until
we've reduced emissions by 90% or more. The faster we do this, the better. If we do not do this, the
problem becomes too big to solve because we pass a tipping point beyond which the oceans start
emitting CO2. When that happens, climate is a runaway train; even if we drop our emissions to
zero, we cannot stop it from growing. We cannot predict how hot it will get in that case. Eventually,
things could get so bad that we may be unable to grow food anywhere on the planet. For example,
this USA Today article points out that, among other bad things, that the entire continent of Australia
will be unable to grow food at a 7.2 degree temperature rise. That may not be far away if we do not
take action. Under one scenario in the IPCC report, temperatures could rise by 6.4 degrees Celsius
by 2100 (see the A1FI scenario in Working Group I Summary For Policymakers Table SPM.3).
And a report from our own National Academy of Sciences that just came out says this is now
happening faster than the worst case IPCC predictions (i.e., worse than the A1FI scenario), i.e., it's
much much worse than even the pessimists thought. And reality reflects this.
This fact is undeniable: this year, Australia may become the first continent that has to import food
to survive. It only gets worse from there (although in some areas it gets better for a very small
temperature increase, then it gets worse again after that). At some point (and they cannot predict
when this will happen according to the IPCC report), all continents will be in the same position.
The only trouble with that is when that happens, then where do we all import our food from? This
question remains unanswered but if you know, please let me know!
If you think I'm exaggerating or that global warming isn't that serious or that we have more time,
please see Global Warming: Why we need to cut dramatically by 2020 which explains the science,
debunks the debunkers, and explains why we must take action now and why we must achieve
dramatic cuts by 2020 and beyond rather than simply throw up our hands and say "we cannot solve
this."
To avoid a global train wreck, we must start cutting dramatically by 2010 at the latest and we must
achieve dramatic cuts (20% and preferably more) by 2020. So we must elect the a President in
2008 who has both the leadership skills and who clearly understands the urgency of the problem.
And to do that we must elect the right candidate in the Primary. We cannot just elect any Democrat
because of the frontrunners, currently only Edwards has clearly demonstrated that he has the
leadership skills to solve this problem.
2. The standard must be 75 mpg by 2030 to meet greenhouse targets

Jonathon Ramsey, 2008 (“Automakers facing a 75 mpg CAFE rating by 2030?” April 16,
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/16/automakers-facing-a-75-mpg-cafe-rating-by-2030/)
The Big Predictions for the Future have begun. This is the numbers game where eye-popping numerical
targets start being thrown around before we've come anywhere close to achieving the eyebrow raising
targets that are still 14 years away. According to Margo Oge at the EPA, the CAFE standard will need to
jump to 75-MPG by the 2030s to meet greenhouse targets.
There is, somewhere, a "widely backed scientific-community proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions
by 50 to 80 percent by 2050 from 2000 levels." Based on current realities, the EPA has reckoned that the
fleet average for fuel economy would need to more than double from the 2020 target of 35 mpg in about
15 or so years in order to achieve even the minimum standard.
3. The government’s rallying cry to abandon oil as a fuel packs the biggest punch—we are at the
breaking point; its time to increase fuel efficiency
Tertzakian, “A Thousand Barrels a Second”, 2006, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial
Corporation, To the Ends of the Earth (pg. 146)
4. Americans have finally hit the gasoline wall and are ready to change vehicle
consumption. Now is the time - we are at a psychological turning point.
Is oil-guzzling America changing its ways? Some think so, though it's worth noting the U.S. still
consumes one-third of the world's annual gasoline output. "It appears we've finally hit the ceiling
that's causing the U.S. population to rethink how and where they use their vehicles," says Paul
Weissgarber, who heads the energy practice at consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Just look at the latest auto sales figures. Sales fell 8% overall during the first quarter of 2008, and
those of gas-hungry SUVs and pickup trucks dropped off a cliff, down 27% and 14%,
respectively. High gas prices are forcing even SUV lovers to shift gears. Fed up with spending
$100 five times a month to fill up his Chevy Suburban, Ron Gesquere, an auto parts executive
from suburban Detroit, recently bid $10,000 on eBay for a used Mini Cooper S. "I could make
the payments on the Mini with the savings in gas," he says. For years analysts have been
surprised that gasoline consumption continued to rise even as prices kept climbing. Now that
consumption has finally slowed, it remains to be seen if Americans are driving less just because
the economy is doing poorly or if they are altering their behavior in a lasting way. Certainly
consumers seem to be at a psychological turning point. Fuel prices are rising faster than incomes
and show no sign of slowing down. Being green is trendy, and the war in Iraq has fanned
concerns about U.S. dependence on oil from abroad.
Inherency: Auto Lobby
AUTO AND OIL COMPANIES HAVE PUSHED AND LOBBEYED SO THAT NO NEW
ENVIORMENTAL POLICES WILL PASS
Terry Tamminen, Author, Lecturer, and Strategist on energy and the environment, 2006,
Lives Per Gallon, The True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.131-132

Inherency: 35 mpg’s is a Sell Out
35 mpg’s will not out perform any major economy in the world
The Star-Ledger, 2008 (“NO ONE GUZZLES GAS BETTER”, January 20, p. 1)
Last month, the United States enacted federal legislation to increase fuel efficiency
standards. They are slated to reach 35 miles per gallon by 2020. We wonder: Which of
these major economies will the United States outperform with its new fuel efficiency
standard?
Answers: A. European Union. B. Japan. C. China. D. None of the above.
A. European Union is not correct.
The European Union leads the way toward higher fuel efficiency standards, with a goal of
reaching 48.9 miles per gallon for new passenger vehicles as early as 2012. The current
standard requires more than 40 miles per gallon - about 15 percent higher than the U.S.
goal set for 12 years from now. The state of California, however, is following the EU's
lead, targeting a proposed 44 miles per gallon standard by 2050. Twelve other U.S. states -
including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon - have joined California in
setting stricter fuel economy regulations than the national standards.
B. Japan is not correct.
Japan currently has a standard of about 40 miles per gallon. It aims to further improve fuel
efficiency by 17 percent by 2015, reaching 46.9 miles per gallon - and is thus close on the
EU's heels. With a goal of 30.6 miles per gallon by 2012, South Korea lags behind its
Asian counterpart. Yet, it still exceeds the U.S. average of 25 miles per gallon.
C. China is not correct. With a current average of slightly under 35 miles per gallon,
Chinese fuel standards are on target to reach the government's goal of 35.8 miles per gallon
by 2009. In other words, cars in China will not only meet, but exceed, the goal just
established by the United States for 2020 - more than a full decade earlier. Meanwhile,
Australia and Canada are targeting 34.4 and 34.1 miles per gallon, respectively, by 2010.
D. None of the above is correct.
The goal of 35 miles per gallon, set by the United States for 2020, will fail to reach the
levels already surpassed by Japan and the European Union. And within the next year, the
average fuel economy of China's passenger vehicles will surpass the U.S. goal for 2020.
The top-selling car in the United States, the Toyota Camry, gets only 25 miles per gallon.
Cars currently on U.S. roads that already reach the 2020 standard include the Nissan
Altima Hybrid (at 42 miles per gallon in the city) and the Honda Civic Hybrid, pictured,
(at 49 miles per gallon).
Fuel Efficiency Solvency Ext.
Mandatory efficiency standards are the main cause of efficiency improvements
Removing market barriers to efficient energy allows for it to become the norm
Government sponsored efficiency standards improve products – more stringent standards

are possible
Revolution, Policies for a Sustainable Future Pg 98)

Fuel Efficiency Solvency: Consumption
EFFICIENCY IS KEY TO DECREASING FUEL CONSUMPTION
World,p.186
INDIVIDUALS MUST CONSUME LESS VIA FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES

World,p.252-253
Fuel efficiency regulations make conservation appealing

Specter, Staff Writer, 2008 (Michael, “Big foot; in measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to
confuse morality and science” The New Yorker, pg 44, February 25)
No effort to control greenhouse-gas emissions or to lower the carbon footprint—of an

individual, a nation, or even the planet—can succeed unless those emissions are priced
properly. There are several ways to do that: they can be taxed heavily, like cigarettes, or
regulated, which is the way many countries have established mileage-per-gallon standards
for automobiles. Cap and trade is another major approach—although CO2 emissions are a
far more significant problem for the world than those which cause acid rain, and any
genuine solution will have to be global. Higher prices make conservation appealing—and
help spark investment in clean technologies. When it costs money to use carbon, people
begin to seek profits from selling fuel-efficient products like long-lasting light bulbs,
appliances that save energy, hybrid cars, even factories powered by the sun. One need only
look at the passage of the Clean Water Act, in 1972, to see that a strategy that combines
legal limits with realistic pricing can succeed. Water had always essentially been free in
America, and when something is free people don’t value it. The act established penalties
that made it expensive for factories to continue to pollute water. Industry responded at
once, and today the United States (and much of the developed world) manufactures more
products with less water than it did fifty years ago. Still, whether you buy a plane ticket, an
overcoat, a Happy Meal, a bottle of wine imported from Argentina, or a gallon of gasoline,
the value of the carbon used to make those products is not reflected by their prices.
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: Emissions
Fuel reductions have been effective at reducing emissions.
Howes, Senior Lecturer, Griffith School of Environment, 05
(Michael., Politics and the Environment,)

Fuel Efficiency Solves Oil Dependency
Fuel economy solves oil shocks
DAVID FRIEDMAN, JASON MARK, PATRICIA MONAHAN, scientists, & CARL NASH,
& CLARENCE DITLOW, auto industry experts, 2001 (Union of Concerned Scientists,
“Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles”, June,
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_vehicles/drill_detroit.pdf)
Vehicle travel over the coming decades is projected to continue rising at nearly historic
rates (EIA 2000a). Unfortunately, fuel economy is not rising to compensate for this trend.
The fuel economy of the average new vehicle sold in the United States has actually been
declining since 1987 and is now at a two-decade low (Heavenrich and Hellman 2000). In
the absence of aggressive policies to boost vehicle fuel economy, fuel use will grow at
unprecedented rates, and oil shocks will no longer remain a distant memory. With
aggressive fuel economy standards, however, as well as strong government support and
reasonable assistance, we can turn around our passenger vehicle oil use within the next 15
years and insulate the nation from oil concerns like those of the 1970s.
Reducing oil demand prevents oil shocks that destroy the economy
Reducing demand for oil will protect the economy from energy price shocks. Observable
and dramatic changes in GDP growth have occurred as the world oil price has fluctuated
(EIA 2001b). As figure 13 illustrates, inflation tracks movements in the US price of oil
(EIA 2001b). Higher energy prices lead to greater costs of production, higher commodity
prices, and ultimately an increase in the amount one pays at the check-out line for basic
goods. Our economy grows when oil prices and inflation are low. Alternatively, when oil
prices skyrocket, inflation follows, and our economy suffers (figure 14). The three major
oil price shocks in the last 30 years were all followed by recessions.31 The coupling of
skyrocketing energy prices with recessions is particularly troubling given that 50 percent of
our oil is imported and that share is expected to rise (EIA 2001b). In 1973, when OPEC’s
first price shocks reverberated through the economy, only 25 percent of our petroleum was
imported. Given our increasing dependence on foreign oil, the US economy may be more
vulnerable now to world price fluctuations. Reducing pressure on oil demand through fuel
efficiency can help protect the economy from the destabilizing impacts of rising oil prices.
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: 40mpg
40mpg by 2010 would save billions at the pump, cut CO2 by trillions of pounds, and offset US oil
dependence
PR Newswire, 2007 (“Survey: Bipartisan 78% of U.S. Voters Reject Go-Ahead-Slow Approach
to Federal Mile-Per-Gallon Car Standards, Strong Support Seen for '40 mpg by 2010'”,
June 6, p. lexis)
It turns out that American voters have excellent reasons to be at odds with automakers,
Congress and the Bush Administration when it comes to go- ahead-slow hikes to federal
fuel-efficiency vehicle standards: A separate CSI/40MPG.org report shows that,
compared to the much more modest 35-MPG-by- 2018 approach set out in one major
bill on Capitol Hill, a 40-MPG-by-2010 plan would (1) save consumers a total of $246
billion at the gas pump by 2018, (2) cut 2.4 trillion additional pounds of carbon
dioxide (CO2) pollution linked to global warming and (3) offset the equivalent of the
current U.S. reliance on oil imported from the Middle East. Under the more aggressive
mileage standard, 58 percent of the vehicles on the road in the U.S. would achieve 40 mpg
by 2018 versus 11 percent or less under the go-ahead-slow approach.
40mpg for our entire fleet would cut 2 million barrels of oil a day and decrease greenhouse gases by
30%
Mark Fischetti, 2002 (Technology Review, Why Not a 40-MPG SUV?, Nov.,
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12989/)
Such improvements in gas mileage would have a huge impact on U.S. oil dependence and
the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if the U.S. fleet's fuel
use improved to 40 mpg, the nation would save two million barrels of oil a day-75
percent of all the oil the United States imports from the Middle East. And it could
mean a 30 percent decrease in greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide.
Detroit could make a 40mpg SUV

Mark Fischetti, 2002 (Technology Review, Why Not a 40-MPG SUV?, Nov.,
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12989/)
But is it really too difficult to build a reasonably priced SUV that can get 40 mpg and still
provide the performance, comfort, and reduced emissions consumers expect? The
surprising fact is that an assortment of fuel efficiency technologies exist in industry and
university labs. Even more startling is that many of these technologies are based on
the conventional internal-combustion engine. They don't require complex electric-gas
hybrid drive trains like those under the hoods of the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight (see
Visualize). Nor are they based on anything as exotic as fuel cells. If the automotive industry
put some corporate horsepower behind moving these technologies into production-and
that's a big if, given the lack of U.S. regulations and consumer demand-the gas-saving
technologies could start hitting showrooms within five years. Indeed, if it chose to,
Detroit could manufacture a 40-mpg SUV by the end of the decade.
40 mpg is the 1st step to fuel efficiency
JEFF JONES, Journal Politics Writer, 2006 (Albuquerque Journal, “DEMS ON A
MISSION”, July 25, p. A1)
"It's going to take a 'man in the moon' effort to change our dependency on foreign oil,"
warned Richardson, a former energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations.
"Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, countries with instability and unfriendliness, are
basically holding the keys to our national security."
Richardson drew a round of applause when he accused the Republican-led Congress of
inaction in increasing requirements for vehicle fuel efficiency.
"The first step we should take is: Make it mandatory 40 miles per gallon," Richardson said.
"It's ridiculous that the Congress has failed to address this issue of fuel efficiency."
Fuel Efficiency Solvency: 75mpg by 2030
Fuel efficiency must be 75mpg by 2030 to cut greenhouse emissions 50-80%
David Shepardson, 2008 (Detroit News, “Car makers could face 75mpg rules by 2030s, EPA
says”, April 14, http://autonewsservice.org/041708/at_dn_041408_car_makers.htm)
The nation's passenger cars and light trucks may have to average 75 miles per gallon by the
2030s, a top federal environmental official said at the SAE International World Congress.
Margo Oge, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation
and Air Quality, said Monday at the SAE International 2008 World Congress in Detroit
that's the level of fuel economy needed to meet a widely backed scientific-community
proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 80 percent by 2050 from 2000 levels.
Congress has mandated automobiles and light trucks average an industry fleet-wide
average of 35 mpg by 2020, a 40 percent increase over current requirements.
To meet the low end of the 2050 proposal, automakers would have to average 75 mpg in
the 2030s, Oge.
****SUV Affirmative****
SUV 1AC
Contention One: A Loophole Big Enough to Drive a Light Truck Through It
The CAFÉ distinction between light tucks and cars allows automakers to escape
regulation by increasing the weight of trucks. Light trucks are now the heaviest, least
efficient vehicles on the road.
Campbell, 2005. (Dillon, “The biopolitics of security: Oil, Empire and the sports utility
vehicle.” American Quarterly 57(3): 943-972)
At the heart of the CAFE standards is the distinction between a “car” and a “light truck.”
Cars are defined simply as “4-wheel vehicle[s] not designed for off-road use” while light
trucks are four-wheel vehicles designed for off-road operation (has 4-wheel drive or is
more than 6,000 lbs. GVWR and has physical features consistent with those of a truck); or which is
designed to perform at least one of the following functions: (1) transport more than 10 people; (2) provide
temporary living quarters; (3) transport property in an open bed; (4) permit greater cargo-carrying capacity
than passenger-carrying volume; or (5) can be converted to an open bed vehicle by removal of rear seats to
form a flat continuous floor with the use of simple tools.
This distinction is significant because when the CAFE regime was established, in contrast
to its treatment of cars, Congress did not set a target for the improvement of light truck fuel
economy. The first standard came in 1979 (15.8 mpg) and rose to 20.7 mpg in 1996 with a
marginal increase to 22.2 mpg required by 2007.42 These standards fall well short of what
is technologically possible in automotive efficiency, with 20.7 mpg being no more than
what had been achieved on the road in 1983.43 It was a consumer politics of identity that
motivated the distinction between cars and light trucks. Automotive manufacturers,
industry groups, and their political allies in Congress argued that light trucks were the
“workhorses of America,” and “commercially vital” for the blue-collar businessmen and
farmers who needed cheap transport for their materials. However, by the late 1960s manufacturers had
started to stress the family and leisure benefits in advertisements for light trucks, and by the time
Congress was creating the distinction between cars and light trucks on the grounds of
commercial utility, more than two-thirds of the light trucks on the road were being used as
family transport, with nearly three-quarters carrying no freight whatsoever.44 Moreover,
each time the regulations changed, automakers altered their models so they could escape
the restrictions set by CAFE standards. When the weight limit for light trucks subject to
CAFE standards rose from 6,000 lbs. to 8,500 lbs., automakers kept their products free
from the standards by increasing the size of their models to 8,550 lbs. or more. As a result,
the regulatory regime turned many light trucks into the heaviest passenger vehicles on the
road.45 Light trucks did not only benefit from more lenient fuel economy standards. They
were granted less restrictive environmental standards and exempted from “gas guzzler”
and luxury taxes, and their purchase can be written off
against income tax.46 These benefits were granted because light trucks were a market sector U.S.
automakers had almost exclusively to themselves following the imposition in 1964 of a 25 percent tariff on
imports. In place for nearly thirty years (and still in place for pickup trucks), these benefits gave U.S.
automakers comparative advantage in an underregulated sector of the market, and policymakers have been
lobbied incessantly about the need to protect this valuable sector. It is this dynamic that has led the
automotive industry to be one of the principal opponents to international climate control agreements. Faced
with pressure to improve fuel efficiency in order to reduce emissions, the major manufacturers argued such
requirements would harm their economic position, a claim that was pivotal in the Bush administration’s
decision to withdraw U.S. support for the Kyoto protocol.48
Thus, Our Plan:
The United States Federal Government should increase corporate average fuel economy by
reclassifying luxury vehicles, including Sports Utility Vehicles, weighing 6,000 pounds or more
as automobiles section 280F(d)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Contention 2: Securing the Urban Jungle
1. Vehicles are part of the imaginaries, geographies, and practices of national identity.
SUV’s manifest American concern for security and survival making daily life into a
militarized frontier to be conquered.
Campbell, 2005. (D., “The biopolitics of security: Oil, Empire and the sports utility vehicle.”
American Quarterly 57(3): 943-972)
Incorporating some of the codes of cultural militarism, the Explorer also embodied
elements of the classic rhetoric of American identity, thus demonstrating the way in which
vehicles are part of the imaginaries, geographies, and practices of national identity (fig. 2).
Baby boomers did not want vehicles akin to the old-fashioned station wagons that had dominated the
family vehicle market until the 1990s. Instead, they wanted to use their increasing affluence to
express a rugged individualism by purchasing vehicles that allowed them to “to feel a bond
with the great outdoors and the American frontier.” Central to this was four-wheel-drive
technology. Prospective buyers told consumer researchers they almost never used this
capacity but wanted it anyway. The fact that 80 percent of SUV owners live in urban areas
and no more than 13 percent of their vehicles have been off road does not diminish this
desire (fig. 3). The reasoning behind this paradox was that four-wheel drive offered the promise of
unfettered freedom to drive anywhere during vacations. These customers might have given up their
childhood dreams of becoming firefighters, police officers or superheroes, and had instead become parents
with desk jobs and oversized mortgages. But they told Ford researchers that SUVs made them feel like they
were still carefree, adventurous spirits who could drop everything and head for the great outdoors at a
moment’s notice if they really wanted to do so.
Combined with this fantasy of vehicular freedom, SUV owners manifest a concern with
social insecurity. French medical anthropologist turned marketing consultant Claude Rapaille argues that
SUVs offer the physical embodiment of Americans’ concern with “survival and
reproduction.” According to Rapaille, the United States is a society riven with the fear of
crime and other insecurities (even in the period prior to September 11). The same conditions
that have led to the private security guard industry and the growth in gated communities are behind the
consumer’s desire to ensure that the family vehicle offers a high level of personal security. Amidst this
neo-medievalization of society, as Americans retreat to our fortified enclaves (or capsules)
secure against others, SUVs become “armored cars for the battlefield.” With high front ends,
towering driving positions, fenders designed to replicate the haunches of wild animals, and grills
intentionally designed to evoke snarling jungle cats, SUVs give their owners an aggressively
panoptic disposition to the world. With names like Tracker, Equinox, Freestyle, Escape, Defender,
Trail Blazer, Navigator, Pathfinder, and Warrior—or designations that come from American Indians
(Cherokee, Navajo) or places in the American West (Tahoe, Yukon)—SUVs populate the crowded
urban routes of daily life
with representations of the militarized frontier. In the words of one marketing consultant, they say
to the outside world: “America, we’re risk takers; America, we’re rugged.”67 This comes across in
interviews with SUV owners in California who, while acknowledging the problems caused
by the motoring choice, explain it in terms of security: “The world is becoming a harder
and more violent place to live, so we wrap ourselves with the big vehicles.” In the words of
another: “It gives you a barrier, makes you feel less threatened” (fig. 4).68 Crucially, both those voices
belong to mothers and indicate how SUVs find particular favor among women. Keen on the high riding
position for “No Boundaries.” Ford Explorer advertisement.
2. Security is reproduced by reconstituting the division between those on the inside and
those on the outside. Securitization produces US cities as misery, violence, and disorder.
Ultimately, from this perspective we will not challenge social spaces because the world
outside appear dangerous and the world inside is safe.
Gunster, teaches critical theory and media studies at the School of Communication at Simon
Fraser University 2004 (Shane, “You Belong Outside,” Ethics and the Environment 9: 2 9(2)
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 22-24).
Since the seventeenth century, modern notions and practices of sovereignty have established the role of the
state as guaranteeing civil order within its borders and protecting its citizens from the chaos that supposedly lies
outside them. But as this system has slowly been broken down by the flows and mobilities enabled by globalization
processes of all kinds, the state has grown both less willing and less able to impose and secure a
predictable and homogeneous social landscape. Instead, many of these functions, especially within
North America, have either disappeared or been privatized. Fragmented microcosms of control
—‘gated communities’ being but the most obvious example—have emerged to reproduce security and
order by reconstituting the division between those on the inside and those on the outside.101 The
HumVee, like its predecessor the Jeep, was originally produced to protect the American empire
from those who threatened it from afar. But in a world that now has, as Ford uncannily puts it, no
boundaries, the misery, violence, and disorder that was once so successfully contained to other
places now appears in the First World. Large cities in the U.S., notes Davis, “have become the
domestic equivalent of an insolvent, criminalized Third World country whose only road to
redemption is a combination of militarization and privatization.”102 In this ‘climate,’ marketing a
civilian Hummer to a wealthy, urban, upper-class is but one facet of the ongoing privatization
and commodification of military, surveillance, and security technology. As this technology and
its aesthetic become pervasive, it creates spiraling cycles of fear and consumption that ultimately
serve only to reinforce each other. Criticizing ‘Fortress L.A.,’ Davis explains how “the neo-military syntax of
contemporary architecture insinuates violence and conjures imaginary dangers.”103 The design and marketing
of SUVs as ‘armored cars for the battlefield’ is perfectly adapted to the hostile semiotics of these
kinds of urban topographies. “A little bit of security,” assures a Chevrolet Blazer campaign, “in an insecure
world.”104 Yet this is hardly a return to the primeval reptilian psychology that Rapaille sees lying at the core of
human nature. Instead, it involves a very particular response to a social environment (or more
precisely to the cultural representation of that environment) that is deeply mediated by the
ideological structures of neo-liberalism and the consumptive practices of consumer capitalism.
Incessant celebrations of a luxurious interior defended by an armored shell champion the mobile and
aggressive privatization of public space in which those with wealth and resources can use and enjoy the commons
while maintaining complete control over their own personal environment. In political terms, it both inspires and
complements a neo-liberal subject that grounds its well-being, security, and happiness in access to personalized
technologies of power that create enclosed spaces of work, leisure, and transportation that are relatively protected
from the broader social environment. Social space becomes something one moves through—a
spectacular environment to be loved or feared, enjoyed or ignored—but rarely (if ever)
something to be created or changed by collective design. The face one turns to the outside world
is powerful and menacing in order to secure and protect the comfort and civility of the interior. A
new television spot for the Mitsubishi Endeavor, for example, opens with a rapid montage of a black SUV racing
through various urban scenes accompanied by an aggressive, hard rock soundtrack. As the camera passes through
the tinted windows, the music abruptly dissolves into the theme song for SpongeBob
Squarepants, a cartoon playing on the Endeavor’s built-in DVD. Parents smile contentedly at the happy children in
the back seat. “It’s perfect for families,” notes the narrator, “but who needs to know,” as the camera passes back
through the windshield and the rock soundtrack returns.105 Characteristically, Rapaille relies upon a crude
biological conception of patriarchy to explain these sorts of divisions: “Men are for outside and women are for
inside, that’s just life; to reproduce men have to take something outside and the women take something inside.”106
The menacing exterior fits the (male) reptilian instinct for survival while the soft ‘womblike’ interior matches the
(female) reptilian instinct for reproduction. Again,
nature is offered as both an explanation and a justification for the localized inscription of an ideological form of
sovereignty, that is, a relation of power between self and other that has its origins in specific social and historical
conditions.
3. The discourses of homeland security are being materialized in automotive form. Our
insecurities with the world are the reason we retreat into our Hummers and wrap ourselves
in the American flag when it is challenged. The result is a paradoxical move that only
increases the potential for crisis.
Campbell, D. 2005. (“The biopolitics of security: Oil, Empire and the sports utility vehicle.”
With televised coverage of the invasion of Iraq once again foregrounding the Humvee, the
Hummer H2 became the best-selling large luxury SUV in America (with women accounting for
one-third of all purchases). Hummer owners have exhibited a profound patriotism, and the vehicles have
come to occupy a special cultural place (as the featured vehicle on the popular TV show CSI: Miami, for
example). As one H2 owner declared, “When I turn on the TV, I see wall-to-wall Humvees, and I’m proud . .
. They’re not out there in Audi A4’s . . . I’m proud of my country, and I’m proud to be driving a product that
is making a significant contribution.”73 Advertisements for the Hummer have called up all the reasons
people favor SUVs and are leavened with some measure of self-parody. Alongside images of the H2,
the tag lines include “When the asteroid hits and civilization crumbles, you’ll be ready”; “It
only looks like this because it is badass”; and—with special appeal to the prospective female customer—“A
new way to threaten men.” One Hummer poster, for which the copywriters might not have appreciated the
contemporary geopolitical significance of their statement, inadvertently encapsulated the H2’s meaning:
“Excessive. In a Rome at the height its power sort of way” (fig. 5).74 Unsurprisingly, the in-your-face-
attitude of the Hummer (part of “the axles of evil”) has made it a favorite target of protest
groups campaigning against SUVs, ranging from Web sites abusing H2 owners to the satire of Bill
Maher and Micah Ian Wright, the evangelical “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign, and the Earth
Liberation Front’s (ELF) arson against the vehicles.75 Responding to what the FBI regards as “domestic
terrorism” by the ELF, Hummer owners have wrapped the flag ever more tightly around their
vehicle. According to the founder of the International Hummer Owners Group (IHOG [sic]), “the H2 is
an American icon . . . it’s a symbol of what we all hold so dearly above all else, the fact we
have the freedom of choice, the freedom of happiness, the freedom of adventure and
discovery, and the ultimate freedom of expression. Those who deface a Hummer in words
or deeds . . . deface the American flag and what it stands for.”76
What these developments indicate is the extent to which the discourses of homeland security
are being materialized in automotive form. As De Cauter argues, the fear produced by networks
unbundling and splintering our locales means we retreat to capsules, but this increased
capsularization only enhances fear, which in turn drives further capsularization. By addressing
cultural anxieties with embodiments of material power, the U.S. auto industry is therefore
pursuing a path familiar to national security policy. But this response is also paradoxical,
because meeting insecurities founded on oil dependence with products that will consume ever
more petroleum is simply to promote the conditions of crisis.
4. The politics of security cannot secure life. The will to security is self-defeating and a
prime incitement to violence that endangers the very survival of humans.
Dillon 96 (Michael, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of
Lancaster, The Politics of Security)
To put it crudely, and ignoring for the moment Heidegger's so-called ànti humanist' (he thought 'humanism'
was not uncannily human enough) hostility to the anthropocentrism of Western thought. As the real prospect
of human species extinction is a function of how human being has come to dwell in
the world, then human being has a pressing reason to reconsider, in the most ordinary way
possible, notwithstanding other arguments that may be advanced for doing so, the derivation of its
understanding of what it is to dwell in the world, and how it should comport itself if it is to
continue to do so. Such a predicament ineluctably poses two fundamental and inescapable
questions about both Philosophy and politics back to philosophy and politics and of the relation
between them: first, if such is their end, what must their origins have been? Second, in the midst
of all that is, in Precisely what does the creativity of new beginnings inhere and how can it be
preserved, celebrated and extended? No matter how much we may want to elide these
questions, or, alternatively, provide a whole series of edifying answers to them, human beings cannot
ignore them, ironically, even if they remain anthropocentric in their concerns, if they wish
to survive. Our present does not allow it. This joint regress of the philosophical and the
political to the very limits of their thinking and of their possibility therefore brings the
guestion of Being (which has been the question of philosophy, even though it has always been directed towards
beings in the answers it has offered) into explicit conjunction with the question of the political once
more through the attention it draws to the ontological difference between Being and beings, and
emphasizes the abiding reciprocity that exists between them.
We now know that neither metaphysics nor our politics of security can secure the
security of truth and of life which was their reciprocating raison d'66tre (and, raison d'etat).
More importantly, we now know that the very will to security - the will to power of sovereign
presence in both metaphysics and modern politics - is not only a prime incitement to
violence in the Western tradition of thought, and to the globalization of its (inter)national
politics, but also self-defeating; in that it does not in its turn merely endanger, but
actually engenders danger in response to its own discursive dynamic. One does not have
to be persuaded of the destinal sending of Being, therefore, to be persuaded of the
profundity - and of the profound danger- of this the modern human condition.
Contention 3: Master of Nature
1. SUV’s emblematic of a narcissistic consumption that privileges fantasies of technological power

at the expense of the natural and social environment
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 12-13).
In recent years, SUVs and their drivers have increasingly attracted the contempt of those who argue that in
addition to their excessive fuel consumption and the danger they pose to cars, these vehicles are emblematic of a
narcissistic, avaricious disposition that privileges fantasies of technological power at the expense
of the natural and social environment. In 1998, the Sierra Club kicked off a wave of anti-SUV sentiment with
a contest to rename Ford’s mammoth Excursion; “Ford Valdez—Have you driven a tanker lately?” was the winning
slogan, driving home the blatant discrepancy between ads for SUVs and their real ecological impact.60 Published in
2002, Keith Bradsher’s polemic High and Mighty has attracted
considerable media attention for its thorough and well-researched critique of SUVs, ranging from the misguided
public policy that inspired their development to the political economy that sustains their production to the serious
dangers they pose to both their own occupants and other drivers. In November 2002, the Evangelical Environmental
Network launched a widely reported campaign entitled ‘What Would Jesus Drive?’ to encourage Christians to
reassess their transportation choices.61 Shortly after, a
coalition of entertainment professionals led by Arianna Huffington produced a series of controversial ads that linked
gas-guzzling SUVs with oil revenues that may be funneled to terrorist organizations, an ironic commentary on the
current Bush administration’s campaign to link the casual use of marijuana with the violence of drug cartels.62
Dozens of anti-SUV websites range from the provision of critical information to recommending
direct action against these vehicles and those who drive them. These and other efforts have
stirred an often fierce debate about SUVs that ranges widely over a variety of issues including
their impact on the environment, their safety, their effect upon drivers, their cultivation of U.S.
dependence on foreign oil supplies, and so on.
2. A technological approach to the world forces a conceptualization of things as

commodities to be used and manipulated by humans. We lose our ability to stand-open to
nature’s revealing of itself and believe ourselves to be the ‘Lords of the Earth,’ failing to
realize that it is both nature and ourselves that have become the victims of technological
manipulation.
Condella 1(Craig A., Fordham University, “Overcoming the Destining Of Technological Being,” Fall 2001 Symposium:Humanity’s Place
in the Cosmos, November 6, 2001, http://www.fordham.edu/philosophy/fps/symposia/2001fall/condella.htm)
What, then, is the essence of technology? In searching for an answer to this all-important
question, Heidegger (as he so often does) looks back to the ancient Greeks to locate techne
as a form of poiesis, i.e. a bringing-forth. It is a way of bringing something forth from
concealment to unconcealment. Technology, simply put, is a mode of revealing which
brings something into presence. As a form of revealing or unconcealment, technology
evinces itself fundamentally as a happening of truth – an occurrence referred to by the
Greeks as aletheia. In sum, the essence of technology is a bringing-forth from concealment
to unconcealment and, consequently, an occasioning of truth. Curiously enough, nothing
overtly dangerous emerges from the essence of technology as identified by Heidegger, but
then again why should it? After all, nothing about the ancient Greek notion of techne,
which included the fine arts no less than the works of the craftsman, strikes us as
straightaway threatening. For Heidegger, then, the Greek notion of techne allows us to
grasp technology’s essence, but not the danger which we presently encounter. To find the
latter, we must determine what it is exactly that makes the technology of modernity so
unique.
According to Heidegger, “The revealing that rules in modern technology is a challenging,
which puts to nature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy which can be
extracted and stored as such.” Herein we encounter the essence of modern technology
as a challenging-forth, along with its rendering of nature as standing-reserve. With
modern technology, the bringing-forth of techne is fundamentally transformed into a
challenging-forth. What modern technology challenges can be see as twofold. First, and
perhaps more obvious, is its challenging of nature. Modern technology essentially
transforms nature into an energy source which it manipulates and uses at its own
discretion. Nature, at the hands of modern technology, is reduced to Bestand
(standing-reserve). Beyond even this challenging, however, are the demands placed
upon man who, put simply, is challenged-forth into the challenging of nature.
Heidegger calls this challenging-forth of man to order nature as standing-reserve Ge-
stell (enframing) and thus locates the essence of modern technology outside of human
control.
Modern technology, as a revealing that orders, is thus no mere human doing.
Therefore we must take the challenging that sets upon man to order the actual as standing-
reserve in accordance with the way it shows itself. That challenging gathers man into
ordering. This gathering concentrates man upon ordering the actual as standing-
reserve.
In the end, modern technology as Ge-stell creates a situation in which man orders
nature and thus posits himself as “lord of the earth” when, in all reality, he himself is
being ordered in just the same way. Within such a situation, man becomes blind to all
other modes of revealing outside of the technological. He sees nature as existing
fundamentally for him while being driven by a power greater than himself, a power
which not only distorts nature but obfuscates man’s understanding of his own self.
With modern technology, man is hoodwinked into believing that he fulfills his true
essence to the very extent that he dominates his surroundings. Whereas man prides
himself on using technology to his own advantage, it is modern technology which, in
all reality, uses man. Not until we see modern technology as something outside of our
control can we even begin to overcome the danger harbored within its very essence.
3. Our inability to perceive the essence of the world and instead replace it with the
commodification constructed by a technological world view prevents us from authentically
being in the world and leaves us in a state of ontological damnation resulting in complete
nuclear annihilation
Zimmerman 94 (Michael E., Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University, Contesting Earth’s
Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity, 119-20)
Heidegger asserted that human self-assertion, combined with the eclipse of being, threatens
the relation between being and human Dasein.53 Loss of this relation would be even
more dangerous than a nuclear war that might "bring about the complete
annihilation of humanity and the destruction of the earth."54 This controversial claim
is comparable to the Christian teaching that it is better to forfeit the world than to lose one's
soul by losing one's relation to God. Heidegger apparently thought along these lines: it is
possible that after a nuclear war, life might once again emerge, but it is far less likely
that there will ever again occur an ontological clearing through which such life could
manifest itself. Further, since modernity's one-dimensional disclosure of entities
virtually denies them any "being" at all, the loss of humanity's openness for being is
already occurring.55 Modernity's background mood is horror in the face of nihilism,
which is consistent with the aim of providing material "happiness" for everyone by
reducing nature to pure energy.56 The unleashing of vast quantities of energy in nuclear
war would be equivalent to modernity's slow-motion destruction of nature: unbounded
destruction would equal limitless consumption. If humanity avoided nuclear war only to
survive as contented clever animals, Heidegger believed we would exist in a state of
ontological damnation: hell on earth, masquerading as material paradise. Deep
ecologists might agree that a world of material human comfort purchased at the price of
everything wild would not be a world worth living in, for in killing wild nature, people
would be as good as dead. But most of them could not agree that the loss of humanity's
relation to being would be worse than nuclear omnicide, for it is wrong to suppose that the
lives of millions of extinct and unknown species are somehow lessened because they were
never "disclosed" by humanity.
Contention 4: Insecure & Loving It
1. Congress should close the loophole by including luxury vehicles weighing more than 6000
pounds in the definition of automobile
Carrie M. Dupic, J.D. Lewis & Clark Law School, 2005 (Lewis & Clark Law Review, “THE
SUV TAX LOOPHOLE: TODAY'S QUINTESSENTIAL SUBURBAN PASSENGER
VEHICLE BECOMES SMALL BUSINESSES' QUINTESSENTIAL TAX BREAK”, 9 Lewis &
Clark L. Rev. 669)
Congress needs to take action to close the SUV tax loophole directly at its source: the section
280F(d)(5)(A) definition of passenger automobile. Closure of the loophole may be accomplished
by expressly including SUVs weighing more than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight in the
definition, as was proposed [*698] in Senate Bill 265 and House Bill 727, so that heavy SUVs
will be subject to the same deduction caps as are passenger automobiles. Taking this action will
remove the incentive for small businesses and self-employed individuals to purchase heavy
SUVs, the features of which are not necessary to carrying out their work, just for the bigger tax
write-off.
Congress must also take care to preserve exceptions for farmers, construction workers, timber
operators, and other businesses requiring large vehicles for their work, to accord with the original
intent of section 280F that such businesses get the benefit of taking uncapped deductions for the
expensive vehicles that they need. Language like that proposed in Senate Bill 265 and House Bill
727 may be used to provide this exception from the deduction limitations. Moreover, Congress
should expressly state its intent that businesses legitimately needing large vehicles may enjoy
uncapped deductions, while other businesses will be subject to the section 280F deduction
limitations, no matter what kind of luxury vehicle they buy.
4. Our struggle is the metaphoric condensation of a larger struggle against oil dependency
Slavoj Zizek, 1999 (The Ticklish Subject, p. 208-209)
SUV Hip Hop 1AC
Chapter 1: Ridin in my Escalade
The hip hop generation has fallen hard for the SUV. The next green challenge is selling
green cars to the hip hop generation
Carol Cooper, 2001 (Whole Earth, “The Afrofuture Is Now”, Summer, p. 54)
One major marketing challenge: how to sell green cars to the status- and style-conscious hip-hop
generation. Children and grandchildren are important considerations for black Americans--most
of today's chart toppers already have kids. So you'd think that as procreative trend setters, we'd
want to preserve some breathable air for our heirs, to go along with that safe-deposit box full of
diamond and platinum jewelry. Unfortunately, dinky, sluggish items like the Honda Insight (or
even the more promising Toyota Prius)--although perfect for a single urban female exec of the
rock-climbing/tree-hugging persuasion--just make the wrong statement for power players like
DMX or Puffy Combs, who need speedy, roomy, downright imposing luxury vehicles to contain
friends, family, and their larger-than-life economic and cultural potency.
While many well-heeled twenty-first-century African Americans are quite bullish on Pur water
filters, organic foods, cutting-edge herbal supplements, yoga, gravity boots, and the latest in
audio/visual and home gym equipment (usually customized), they still fall hard for the diesel-
guzzling, road-hogging, tire busting, upholstered tanks called "sports utility vehicles." Riding
high above ordinary traffic, surrounded by nearly 5,000 lbs. of steel, conveys a very comforting
sense of invulnerability to the typically embattled black consumer. The most savvy of these
young entrepreneurs lease their vehicles rather than buy, so they can trade up every year and
deduct the cost as a business expense.
Chapter 2: Consuming Africa
1. The SUV loophole resulted in an explosion of SUVs all weighting more than 6000 pounds and
with an average of 15 miles of gas to a gallon
Union of Concerned Science, 2008 (“Tax Incentives: SUV Loophole Widens, Clean Vehicle Credits Face
Uncertain Future”, 6/20, http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/cars_pickups_suvs/tax-incentives-suv-
loophole-vs-clean-vehicle-credits.html)
1997 provision in the U.S. tax code (Section 179) provided small businesses with a tax
write-off of up to $25,000 for a vehicle weighing more than 6,000 pounds- used 50% of the
time for work purposes. The original intent behind this provision was to encourage
investments in pickup trucks, minivans, and other needed service vehicles. A far smaller
incentive was provided for cars—less than $7,000 over two years.
The explosion of SUV, pickup, and minivan sales in America’s passenger vehicle fleet has
turned this small business benefit into a massive loophole in the tax law. Currently, 38
different passenger SUVs including the Lincoln Navigator, which nets a combined 15
miles per gallon according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Cadillac
Escalade (16 mpg), the BMW X5 (18 mpg), the Mercedes-Benz ML55 (16 mpg), and the
notorious Hummer H2 (estimated 11 mpg) all weigh more than 6,000 pounds. This
loophole allows some of the least fuel-efficient passenger vehicles on the road today to
qualify for a significant tax break.
In 2003, the Bush administration proposed increasing the tax deduction to $75,000.
Lawmakers responded by expanding it to a whopping $100,000 as part of the $350 million
tax cut package. Yet Congress did not change the weight-based classification of the
vehicles, creating a huge benefit for the largest, least efficient vehicles.
2. The desire to diversify oil importation is now a major security objective. The result will
be new zones of insecurity in Sub-Sahara Africa funded by the US military. The 1st step to
undoing this is dealing with US consumption.
In recent years, faced with increased dependence on oil imports, the United States has been
seeking to diversify supply, with some paradoxical outcomes. As the country was preparing to go
to war with Iraq, the United States was importing half of all Iraqi exports (which satisfied only 8 percent of
America’s needs), even though this indirectly funded the regime of Saddam Hussein.32 Some Republicans in
Congress used this data to smear then-Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle as an Iraqi sympathizer,
arguing that the Democrat’s failure to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)—
as the Bush administration desired—forced America into unholy commercial alliances.33 While this
argument conveniently overlooked the fact that ANWR’s 3 billion barrels of reserves could supply
only six months of the United States’ total oil needs, it demonstrated how the
internalization of a cleavage between business and environmental interests is sustained
through an association with external threat. The drive for diversification is now a major
security objective. In the 2001 review of energy policy chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, the final
chapter of the report focused exclusively on strengthening global alliances with energy producers to achieve
that goal.35 However, the geopolitical pursuit of energy security is likely to produce new and
intensive forms of insecurity for those in
the new resource zones, which are located in some of the most strategically unstable global
locations.36 As a result, the United States has been providing increased military support to
governments in the Caspian Basin area, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa—
regardless of their ideological complexion or human rights record.
A geopolitical understanding of these developments is necessary but not sufficient. That is because the
geopolitical frame focuses solely on the supply of oil without interrogating the demand for this resource that
makes it so valuable. Possession of a material resource is meaningless unless social networks value that
resource. As such, an analysis of the demand side, and attention to the politics of consumption
as much as the problem of production, is a first step toward understanding the biopolitics
of security.
3. Angola and Chad have been looted for oil. 1 in 5 don’t live to their 5th birthday. Millions
die in oil wars.
William K. Tabb, 07 (Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan.,
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0107tabb.htm)
Indeed, the oil rich countries of Africa: Nigeria, Gabon, the Sudan, the Congo, Equatorial
Africa, and Chad: have long histories of coups, military rule, and strongmen. Millions have
died of hunger and disease as a result of wars over oil, diamonds, copper, and other
resources as armed rebels steal, rape, and murder making life-generating economic activity
difficult if not impossible. In the Congo, one of the resource richest countries on the planet,
a half dozen countries have armies deployed and countless rebel groups have fought to
control rich deposits of gold, diamonds, timber, copper, and valuable cobalt and coltan in
what is often referred to as "Africa's First World War." Global Witness reports that despite
being the fourth largest oil producer in Africa, Congo Brazzaville has overseas debt of $6.4
billion as a consequence of Elf Aquitaine, the former French state oil company's strategy of
influence peddling and bribery.
In Angola, Joseph Savimbi, backed by foreign powers from the Cold war, amassed a
reported $4 billion from diamonds, ivory, and other resources sold abroad in his decades of
looting and brutality before he was killed. In Angola a million people died in the civil war,
one child in five does not live to its fifth birthday, and 40 percent of Angola's population
has been displaced. Almost none of the income from the state-owned oil company found its
way to Angola but was instead diverted to overseas banks. It was the wholesale looting of
Angola's oil revenues that fueled that country's vicious civil war.
4. Oil has been a curse for Africa. Nigeria has 70% of their population living on less than a
dollar a day. Oil related environmental damage is beyond human description.
Ben Hillier, 2008 (Socialist Alternative, “Oil and Empire”, Edition 121/October,
http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=106)
You might think that all of this economic competition must be a godsend to the destitute masses
of the African continent. After all, capitalist development is what the continent desperately needs,
right? Unfortunately, the opposite is the case.
Nigeria, the continent's largest producer, struck oil nearly 50 years ago. Between 1960 and 1973
output increased 120-fold, with government oil-revenues increasing nearly 140-fold in the
decade from 1970. Yet as US academic Michael Watts points out, "Between 1970 and 2000 in
Nigeria, the number of people subsisting on less than one dollar a day grew from 36 per cent to
more than 70 per cent, from 19 million to a staggering 90 million." The IMF could curiously
write of this that oil "did not seem to add to the standard of living." Little wonder, when 85 per
cent of the revenues accrue to 1 per cent of the population.
Added to this is the environmental devastation. Constant leaks and spills in the Niger Delta have
seen the beaches run black. The water has a constant oily film over the top, fish stocks are
depleted and acid rain diminishes local crop yields. A group of scientific researchers who visited
three of the nine Niger Delta States in the late 1990s noted "most places we went, the extent of
damage [was] sincerely beyond human description." One oil spill alone in 1998 released over
800,000 barrels of oil into the local region.
In most villages there are no schools, medical clinics, or social services, no clean drinking water
and almost no paying jobs. People struggle to eke out a living, while all around them oil wells
owned by foreign companies pump billions of dollars' worth of oil a year from under their feet.
5. Vote aff to prioritize human suffering over energy issues

Johann Hari, 2008 (Common Dreams, Our Cry for Cheap Oil Is Crude and Deadly, July 14,
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10341/)
An old woman from the Delta tries, in the new American documentary Sweet Crude, to talk
directly to you. She says: “I’d like people all over the world to realise there’s a segment of
humanity suffering as a result of oil production - ordinary men, women, children. They should
think about them and not think simply of energy. Think of us as people. That’s more important
than anything.”
Chapter 3: Socially Conscious Hip Hop
Hip hop is a powerful vehicle for messages. We affirm a socially conscious hip hop as an
incentive to close the SUV loophole. Hip hop community members should connect
American consumption to violent oppression in the pursuit of oil.
Hip-Hop is a vehicle to find you find and learn to interrogate it.

Dierdre Glenn Paul - author, 2000, ( “Rap and Orality: Critical Media Literacy, Pedagogy, and
Cultural Synchronization”, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, pg 246)
The significance of this article lies in the premise that rap is a vehicle through which teachers can
privilege student voices, especially those of black and Latino urban-center youth, while
simultaneously teaching them to interrogate those voices (Giroux, 1990; Giroux & Simon, 1989).
Rap can serve as literature independently without necessarily being paired with other literature.
Rap can foster a "pedagogy which engages popular culture in order to affirm rather than mute the
voice of the student" (Giroux & Simon, 1999, p. 228).
Hip hop is an oppositional practice that subverts the laws, practices, and representations of
the dominant order from within.
Peter McLaren, Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information
Studies at University of California at Los Angeles, 1997 (Revolutionary Multiculturalism:
Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium, p. 168-9)
I locate gangsta rap as an "oppositional practice" in the sense that Michel de Certeau uses
the term. While de Certeau is referring to the actions of the Amerindians, I believe his
ideas are applicable to many contemporary groups -- e.g., African Americans -- who find
themselves exploited and oppressed. According to de Certeau,
even when they were subjected, indeed even when they accepted, their subjection . . . often
used the laws, practices, and representations that were imposed on them by force or by
fascination to ends other than those of their conquerors; they made something else out of
them; they subverted them from within -- not by rejecting them or by transforming them
(though that occurred as well), but by many different ways of using them in the service of
rules, customs, or convictions foreign to the colonization which they could not escape.
They metaphorized the dominant order; they made it function in another register.
Socially and politically conscious hip-hop has historically been used as a tool for critical
discourse, polarizing the injustices and inequities of American society
Derrick P. Aldridge – author, 2005, (“ From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas”
,“The Journal of African American History”, pg. 226)
The preceding quotation from historian Robin D. G. Kelley captures the manner through which
socially and politically conscious (SPC) Hip Hop emerged from the social, economic, and
political experiences of black youth from the mid- to late 1970s. (2) Hip Hop pioneers such as
Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, among others
articulated the post--civil rights generation's ideas and response to poverty, drugs, police
brutality, and other racial and class inequities of postindustrial U.S. society. (3) In many ways,
early hip hoppers were not only the progenitors of a new form of black social critique, they also
represented the voice of a new generation that would carry on and expand upon the ideas and
ideology of the civil rights generation. (4) Since the early years of Hip Hop, SPC hip hoppers
have continued to espouse many of the ideas and ideology of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM)
and Black Freedom Struggle (BFS), but in a language that resonates with many black youth of
the postindustrial and post--civil rights integrationist era. (5) For instance, on Michael Franti's
2001 compact disk (CD) Stay Human, Franti uses rap and reggae-style lyrics to critique U.S.
capitalism, imperialism, racism, and globalization and to offer analyses of discrimination,
prejudice, and oppression similar to those of activists and theorists of the CRM and BFS. In his
song "Oh My God," Franti lays out what he believes are the hypocrisies of U.S. democracy by
pointing out its discriminatory practices against the poor and people of color, its use of the death
penalty, its indiscriminate bombing of other countries, and its counterintelligence activities that
subvert the rights of U.S. citizens.
Inherent Barrier: Loophole
The light truck standards are less stringent than autos; this is a gaping loophole.
In 1975, most light-duty vehicles were pickup trucks and vans used for commercial or farm
applications. There was concern that the functionality of these vehicles would be restricted
if they were required to meet the same standards as cars. Thus, since its inception, the
CAFE law has permitted light trucks to meet a standard that is less stringent than that of
automobiles. Ironically, this loophole caused increased fuel costs for these farmers and
businesses, costs that could have been avoided if stricter standards had been established.
Adding insult to injury, these increased expenses have now filtered into much of the fleet,
as light trucks account for nearly one in two vehicles sold. The small exception has become
a gaping loophole.
Current CAFÉ light truck loopholes have allowed overall fuel efficiency to decline in the
last 20 years.
The CAFE regulatory regime has helped reduce American oil imports—without these minimal
standards the United States would be currently using an additional 2.8 million barrels of oil per
day.49 However, overall this legal framework has failed to curb import dependence. Indeed, the
CAFE regulatory regime has had two profoundly negative effects. The first has been to permit
an overall decline in U.S. automotive efficiency in the last twenty years. While the original goal of
the 1975 legislation was achieved in its first decade, fuel economy has been getting worse ever
since. Because of the popularity of light trucks, the U.S. vehicle fleet is currently 6 percent less
efficient than the peak achieved in 1987–88.50 The second consequence of the CAFE regulatory
regime is that it has created the market position of light trucks that in turn have undermined the
original gains in automotive fuel efficiency. The distinction between cars and light trucks created a
market niche in which the automakers could profitably produce heavy, inefficient, polluting, and
unsafe vehicles. And as the policymakers have made incremental steps toward tightening the
regulations, the automakers’ drive to escape these controls has meant the production of even larger
and less efficient vehicles. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, this regulatoryinduced
expansion is “almost like an arms race.”51 This interplay in the network connecting policymakers,
auto manufacturers, and consumers is, therefore, a classic example of the strategic interactions that
define social relations in a biopolitical context.
The SUV loophole resulted in an explosion of SUVs all weighting more than 6000 pounds and with
an average of 15 miles of gas to a gallon
Union of Concerned Science, 2008 (“Tax Incentives: SUV Loophole Widens, Clean Vehicle Credits Face
Uncertain Future”, 6/20, http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/cars_pickups_suvs/tax-incentives-suv-
loophole-vs-clean-vehicle-credits.html)
1997 provision in the U.S. tax code (Section 179) provided small businesses with a tax
write-off of up to $25,000 for a vehicle weighing more than 6,000 pounds- used 50% of the
time for work purposes. The original intent behind this provision was to encourage
investments in pickup trucks, minivans, and other needed service vehicles. A far smaller
incentive was provided for cars—less than $7,000 over two years.
The explosion of SUV, pickup, and minivan sales in America’s passenger vehicle fleet has
turned this small business benefit into a massive loophole in the tax law. Currently, 38
different passenger SUVs including the Lincoln Navigator, which nets a combined 15
miles per gallon according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Cadillac
Escalade (16 mpg), the BMW X5 (18 mpg), the Mercedes-Benz ML55 (16 mpg), and the
notorious Hummer H2 (estimated 11 mpg) all weigh more than 6,000 pounds. This
loophole allows some of the least fuel-efficient passenger vehicles on the road today to
qualify for a significant tax break.
In 2003, the Bush administration proposed increasing the tax deduction to $75,000.
Lawmakers responded by expanding it to a whopping $100,000 as part of the $350 million
tax cut package. Yet Congress did not change the weight-based classification of the
vehicles, creating a huge benefit for the largest, least efficient vehicles.
SUV Sales Increasing
Light trucks are growing in sales
Although CAFE standards have not changed for 15 years, the vehicle market—which
consisted mainly of cars in 1975—has gone through a dramatic transformation. What used
to be considered the “car market” is now more appropriately the car and light-truck market.
Nearly all of the growth in vehicle sales over the past 25 years has come in light trucks
(figure 4). This trend is exacting a tremendous toll on our environment and our economy,
since the result is more and more inefficient, dirty vehicles on the road. Not only are light
trucks held to a fuel economy standard lower than that for cars, but they have also
traditionally been permitted to emit more pollution from the tailpipe under federal
environmental rules. The result is that today the average light truck on the road emits 47
percent more smog-forming pollution and 43 percent more global warming pollution than
the average car (Mark 1999). Booming SUV Sales The largest gains in the vehicle market
have been in the SUV segment, where sales increased more than 17-fold during the period
from 1975 to 2000. Vans and pickups also saw important growth, while the car market
shifted to more midsize vehicles, with reductions in both small- and large-car sales (table
3).
Because of the lack of CAFÉ standards to SUV’s, American automakers now make more
light trucks than cars
Given the favorable regulatory regime, the auto manufacturers have exploited the
opportunities afforded light trucks to such a degree they have changed the character of the
new vehicle market. With the weak regulatory regime permitting old technology as the
basis for light trucks, low production costs mean these vehicles are particularly profitable.
As a result, the big three American automakers now make more light trucks than cars, and
light trucks (a category including pickups, minivans, and SUVs) outsold cars for the first
time in 2001.52 In particular, the boom in SUV sales (which increased by a ctor of 10 to 25
percent in this time) has seen light trucks overtake the car as the favored form of passenger
vehicle in the United States.53 With light trucks constituting 54 percent of the new vehicle
market in 2003–04, large pickup trucks became increasingly popular, and automakers
ensuring their new “luxury crossover vehicles” are officially classified as light trucks, this
sector looks set to dominate family motoring in the United States for some time.
SUV’s are big profits and a growing share of all new vehicle sales in the US.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 5-8).
The promotional juggernaut behind SUVs has become literally inescapable in
contemporary media. Automakers and their dealers spent $9 billion advertising SUVs
between 1990 and 2001.18 Between January and November 2002, media spending on the
top ten models alone was well over $500 million.19 The ubiquity of SUV ads shadows the
tremendous market success of SUVs themselves, joining personal computers, cellular
phones, and mutual funds as the most explosive new consumer commodities of the last
decade. As a share of all new vehicle sales in the United States, SUVs have risen steadily
from 1.8 per cent in 1980 to more than 25 per cent in 2002, producing a remarkable
transformation of the contemporary automotive landscape.20 The North American auto
industry relied heavily on SUV sales in its return to profitability in the 1990s: low cost of
design and production, the absence of competition from foreign automakers, and high
consumer demand positioned the SUV as an ideal commodity. Although increased
competition and supply has gradually lowered net unit earnings, automakers continue to
generate profits of 15–20 per cent on an SUV compared to 3 per cent or less on a car.21
Attracted by this rate of profit, Japanese and European firms have flooded into the SUV
market in recent years: between 1995 and 2002, the total number of models has almost
tripled from 28 to 75.22 In particular, the SUV has quickly come to dominate the luxury
vehicle market: the highly successful entry of expensive ‘crossover’ models such as the
Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg, and the Infiniti FX45—built upon car rather than
truck frames—has made luxury SUVs the fastest growing vehicle category in an otherwise
sluggish automotive market.23 Given the high profits at stake, automakers have a powerful
incentive to increase (and defend) the profile of their brands within a crowded field of
choices. It is a classic case of what advertising critics Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson
have suggestively called ‘sign wars’;24 and the principal semiotic territory over which this
battle is fought is nature.
SUVs are Unsafe
SUVs rollover
A vehicle’s rollover safety is a combination of its rollover propensity, restraint performance

in rollovers, and roof strength. SUVs are roughly twice as likely to roll over as passenger
cars. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently began to
provide static stability index (SSI) consumer information in its New Car Assessment
Program on all light motor vehicles.34 The SSI provides a strong indication of a vehicle’s
rollover propensity and confirms concerns regarding the rollover safety of many of the
heavier vehicles. Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) 216 governs roof
strength, but the standard is so weak as to be virtually meaningless.
SUVs murder light cars on the road

In two-vehicle collisions, compatibility refers to the degree to which each vehicle

minimizes the potential for injury in both vehicles. Weight disparity is a major factor in
compatibility, as light trucks are, on average, more than 1,000 pounds heavier than
passenger cars. The second factor in compatibility is the height of the primary structure of
a vehicle. Passenger car manufacturers design cars with their primary structure set between
14 and 21 inches above the ground in order to meet federal bumper and side-impact
standards. Light trucks are not subject to the bumper standards, and their primary structure
is often well above that of passenger cars.36 Thus, a light truck is likely to override the
safety structure of a passenger car in a crash. This is particularly disastrous if a light truck
strikes the side of a passenger car.
Fatalities in SUVs have doubled

The reduction in light-vehicle occupant fatalities is a result of a number of factors,

including a substantial increase in safety belt use, the almost universal installation of
airbags in recent model light motor vehicles, and the implementation of the dynamic
sideimpact standard. Rollover fatalities have decreased modestly in passenger cars, but
they have increased dramatically in pickup trucks and SUVs, consistent with the
comparative growth in the number of these vehicles in the fleet. Overall, fatalities in
rollovers of pickups and SUVs have more than doubled.
Auto’s = Identity
The SUV is the imperial icon of automobility which is both sustained by oil in the form of
the car and requires increasing oil consumption through the use of the car urban life
promotes.
Other paradoxes in the rise of the SUV also involve the relationship between the individual
and the collective. The SUV’s popularity is drawn from its association with the freedom
and rugged individuality of the frontier, but the dominant market position of the light truck
sector would not have been possible without the regulatory designs of Washington
bureaucrats and politicians. The SUV invokes notions of wilderness and adventure, even
though its owners, who rarely if ever venture beyond the urban, are driving a vehicle that is
highly damaging to the environment.86 And SUV owners defend their vehicle choice
against criticisms of these kinds by invoking an American’s right to be free of government
and regulation, even though the entire infrastructure of motoring that makes it possible to
choose one model over another—road construction, maintenance, law enforcement, and
the like—requires a state subsidy upward of $2.4 trillion annually.87 The pervasiveness of
these paradoxes stems from the way individual choices are part of a biopolitical whole with
geopolitical consequences, something signaled by the concept of automobility.
The concept of automobility—or that of the “auto social formation” or “car culture”—calls
attention to the hybrid assemblage or machinic complex that the apparently autonomous
entities of car and driver compose.88 In the “automobilized time-space” of contemporary
society we can observe a networked, sociotechnical infrastructure that is in process, an
infrastructure in which there is “the ceaseless and mobile interplay between many different
scales, from the body to the globe.”89 Automobility thus is one dimension of empire, in
the sense proposed by Hardt and Negri. The relationship between the auto and the urban
has always been at its strongest in the United States. The beautification of cities through
the construction of avenues, malls, and parkways in the early twentieth century coincided
with and furthered the rise of the automobile.90 While the development of technology was
obviously important, a transformation in American urban culture—wherein streets came to
be viewed as traffic ways rather than recreational social spaces—was fundamental to the
creation of the auto social formation.91 Most obvious in the urban planning of Robert
Moses, whose bridges, expressways, and parkways transformed New York City and its
environs, these infrastructural developments came to be the leitmotif of modernity.92
National highway systems became the centerpieces of utopian plans—as in General
Motors’ “Futurama” in the 1939 World’s Fair in New York—and were realized in the cold
war years as a consequence of the Interstate Highways and Defense Act of 1956.93
Although constructed as a means to achieve the unification of social life, the web of traffic
routes that permeate urban space have in practice furthered the fragmentation of the urban
and its peri-urban and suburban spaces, creating in the process new borderlands (which in
turn require new capsules of security).94 The distanciation of life elements (home from
work, family from friends, haves from have nots) that are part of this urban fissure in turn
promotes further reliance on automobility as people seek to overcome, traverse, or bypass
these divisions. Importantly, this partitioning of the urban world has been codified in and
encouraged by planning legislation. Embodying a functionalist view of the city as an
organized machine, American urban planners from the 1920s on relied on a system of
zoning controls that separated uses and imposed homogenous criteria on specified areas.
Hostile to mixed usage or hybrid formations, these uniform zoning codes (known as
Euclidean zoning after a 1926 Supreme Court decision in favor of the village of Euclid)
have produced urban sprawl and the elongation of travel routes.95 In the absence of public
transport systems, these urban forms have further increased reliance on the car. For
residents of the border zones known as “edge cities,” there is little choice but to rely on
private transport for mobility. Contemporary urban life is both sustained by oil in the form
of the car and requires increasing oil consumption through the use of the car urban life
promotes.
Citizens are thus coerced into a limited flexibility, creating a situation that is “a wonderful
testament to the ability of a sociomaterial structure to serve its own reproduction.”96
Not that this is exclusive to America. The United States remains the archetypical case of
the auto social formation, with more automobiles than registered drivers, and a per capita
fuel consumption rate that is ten times the rate of Japan’s and twenty times as much as
European city dwellers.97 Nonetheless, the social forces behind automobility are global,
and societies other than the United States (China, for example) are witnessing profound
growth in private vehicle usage. SUVs are growing in popularity—while equally attracting
opprobrium—in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and other EU states. As
the icon of automobility, the SUV is imperial.
We are an autocentric society


The auto industry builds an entire way of life.
David B Reynolds, Co-Chairman, Litigation Department, Co-Chairman, Technology
Practice Group, 2002, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.103-104

The SUV is a symbolic, not pragmatic, choice
Richard K. Olsen, Jr., 2002 (Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture,
“Living Above it All: The Liminal Fantasy of Sport Utility Vehicle Advertisements”, Eds. Mark
Meister & Phyllis M. Japp, p.178)
The SUV is a popular, controversial and perplexing breed of vehicle. SUVs are not designed for
suburban life, yet most are driven in suburbia; they are not very maneuverable in parking lots,
nor are they very zippy on on-ramps. They are not fuel-efficient. Many also have greater
potential for rolling-over. While they are often safer in accidents involving smaller vehicles, they
have not been proven safer in general than other types of vehicles. So why have they become so
popular? Why are there over fifty varieties with more coming every day?
The “Western Cowboy” myth could offer one explanation of their popularity. Certainly the four-
wheel drive, ground clearance, and very name—sport utility vehicle—capture the American
“can-do” attitude and spirit of adventure and exploration. These vehicles, however, are not
marketed solely—or even primarily—on their utility at all. While no single study could fully
explain their popularity 2, a significant contributor to their success can be revealed in the
underlying liminal fantasy of many SUV advertisements. These ads perpetuate a particular view
of nature and our relationship to it. The meanings promoted by these ads are important because,
as Mead (1934) and others have argued, we react to things on the basis of what they mean for us.
The SUV choice is often a symbolic, not a pragmatic, one. An examination of SUV
advertisements using the concepts introduced in the following section provides clues to their
popularity.
Hip hop & SUVs
SUVs are part of the bling-bling hip hop lifestyle
SHANKAR, Prof at BYU, 2006 (SHALINI, Journal of Material Culture,
“METACONSUMPTIVE PRACTICES AND THE CIRCULATION OF OBJECTIFICATIONS”,
Desi = South Asian community in Silicon Valley, Cali)
Middle-class Desi youth in my study used the word ‘bling’ or its original form ‘bling bling’ to
refer not only to diamond and gold jewelry, but also to other signifiers of a particular flashy
style. These included high-end cars and large SUVs that were fully loaded with top of the line
audio systems, seat upholstery, and other embellishments; as well as home theater and sound
systems, apparel such as branded clothing, sneakers, and other accessories. While referring to
them generally as bling, youth additionally described these objects as ‘mad tight’ (very stylish,
highly enjoyable) and respected people who were able to own them because they made ‘hella
bank’ (lots of money). Some youth reported taking aesthetic cues about bling from hip-hop
videos filled with luxury cars, mansions, and fine clothing and jewels, while others credited their
hip friends as their motivation to acquire bling. Unlike other Desi youth who have musical
aspirations to become hip-hop artists (Sharma, 2004), youth in my study primarily adopted
material dimensions of hip-hop style. Youth discussions of style, however, went beyond bling to
broader definitions of what it meant to be Desi – from talking, gesturing, humor, and
comportment, to clothing and hairstyles, to cars they drove and parties they threw – as a part of
their aesthetic. These characteristics worked with, rather than against styles such as bling.
Assimilation is marked symbolically in transportation. The SUV represents the pinnacle of

assimilation into American culture.
James Kim, Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, 2004 (Camera Obscura, The
Legend of the White-and-Yellow Black Man: Global Containment and Triangulated Racial
Desire in Romeo Must Die, p. 171-172)
To make this global frame of reference a little more plausible, let me close this section by
observing that Romeo Must Die often seems preoccupied with matters of the global economy.
Most notably, Han's progress toward assimilation is marked by the acquisition of newer and
better modes of transportation. First, he's trapped and immobile in a Hong Kong prison. Once he
escapes, he gets a bicycle (the best one can do in the Far East, it would seem). On arriving in the
United States, he steals a yellow cab, and so forth. Interestingly, the movie stops rewarding Han
with new vehicles once he acquires, of all things, a Ford SUV (the pinnacle of immigrant
aspiration, obviously). Han gains access to other vehicles, [End Page 171] to be sure: for
instance, he lingers in his brother's European convertible sports car for a while, and he briefly
gets behind the wheel of a Mercedes; but he never so much as turns the ignition of the former,
and when in the latter, he finds himself being gunned down by ruthless assassins on Japanese
motorcycles. Encoded in the assimilation narrative, then, is a cautionary tale whose unambiguous
moral is "buy American."
SUVs = M.E. Oil Dependence
The SUV symbolizes the need for the US to maintain its military reach in the Middle East –
The SUV makes insecurity a self-fulfilling prophecy
Campbell, D. 2005. “The biopolitics of security: Oil, Empire and the sports utility vehicle.”
American Quarterly 57(3): 943-972
While individual SUV owner-drivers cannot be said to directly endorse terrorism simply as
a result of automotive choice, it is the case that the SUV has come to underpin U.S.
dependence on imported oil. This dependence in turn underpins the U.S. strategic interest
in global oil supply, especially in the Middle East, where the American military presence
has generated such animus. As a result, the SUV symbolizes the need for the U.S. to
maintain its global military reach. Given the dangers this global military presence pro-
vokes, it might be possible to say the SUV is one of America’s greatest national security
threats. This article explores the validity of those connections as part of a critical
examination and retheorization of the relationship between oil and security. Its aim is to
conceptualize the relationship between individual choices and geopolitical effects, yet to
do so without adopting the moral leveling of crude arguments that demonize certain
individual behaviors in the correlation of drugs, oil, and terror.
The US is heavily invested for the foreseeable future in securing the oil supply from the
Middle East – consumption is increasing
Securing global oil supply has been a tenet of U.S. foreign policy in the post–World War II
era. Because the Middle East holds two-thirds of the known reserves of oil, this objective
has made the region an unavoidable concern for successive U.S. administrations. As the
largest and most economical supplier of Middle East oil, Saudi Arabia has had a central place in this strategic
calculation, with the United States agreeing to defend (internally and externally) the Saudi regime in return
for privileged access to Saudi oil. Over the years, this arrangement has cost the United States tens of billions
of dollars in military assistance.30 This strategy was formalized in the Carter Doctrine of 1980,
which, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, declared that any power that
threatened to control the Persian Gulf area would be directly challenging fundamental U.S.
national security interests and would be seen as engaged in an assault on the United States.
None of this would be required if the United States did not rely on imported oil for its
economic well-being. However, in 2002 oil imports fueled 53 percent of domestic consumption, and the
U.S. Department of Energy forecasts only increasing dependence. By 2025 oil import
dependence is expected to rise to around 70 percent of domestic needs.31 These percentages
mean the United States will consume an additional 8.7 million barrels of oil per day by
2025. Given that total petroleum imports in 2002 were 11.4 million barrels per day, this is a very substantial
increase.
The desire to diversify oil importation is now a major security objective. The result will be
new zones of insecurity funded by the US military. The 1st step to undoing this biopolitical
security is dealing with US consumption.
In recent years, faced with increased dependence on oil imports, the United States has been
seeking to diversify supply, with some paradoxical outcomes. As the country was preparing to go
to war with Iraq, the United States was importing half of all Iraqi exports (which satisfied only 8 percent of
America’s needs), even though this indirectly funded the regime of Saddam Hussein.32 Some Republicans in
Congress used this data to smear then-Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle as an Iraqi sympathizer,
arguing that the Democrat’s failure to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)—
as the Bush administration desired—forced America into unholy commercial alliances.33 While this
argument conveniently overlooked the fact that ANWR’s 3 billion barrels of reserves could supply
only six months of the United States’ total oil needs, it demonstrated how the
internalization of a cleavage between business and environmental interests is sustained
through an association with external threat. The drive for diversification is now a major
security objective. In the 2001 review of energy policy chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, the final
chapter of the report focused exclusively on strengthening global alliances with energy producers to achieve
that goal.35 However, the geopolitical pursuit of energy security is likely to produce new and
intensive forms of insecurity for those in
the new resource zones, which are located in some of the most strategically unstable global
locations.36 As a result, the United States has been providing increased military support to
governments in the Caspian Basin area, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa—
regardless of their ideological complexion or human rights record.37
A geopolitical understanding of these developments is necessary but not sufficient. That is because the
geopolitical frame focuses solely on the supply of oil without interrogating the demand for this resource that
makes it so valuable. Possession of a material resource is meaningless unless social networks value that
resource. As such, an analysis of the demand side, and attention to the politics of consumption
as much as the problem of production, is a first step toward understanding the biopolitics
of security.
SUVs Conquer Nature
SUV’s deploy a war against nature metaphor – convincing the public they can conquer and master
nature in an SUV. There is a false conception that SUV’s are majestic and friendly to the
environment
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 8-10).
War, in fact, is an especially fertile metaphor through which to consider the evolving promotional
field around the SUV. In the last decade, more and more advertising has forsaken Arcadian visions of
natural bliss in order to foreground the SUV’s power to confront the dangers of an untamed wilderness.
Leaving aside for a moment the explicit militarization championed by vehicles such as the Hummer,
violence has become one of the preeminent strategies through which brands distinguish themselves
from the competition. Occasionally this appears directly. Mimicking the puerile confrontational style
more at home in pickup advertising, a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer ad proclaims: “Our 270 horsepower
engine can beat up your . . . wait, you don’t have a 270 horsepower engine.”25 A similar DaimlerChrysler
ad asks “Why drive some pathetic excuse for an SUV when you can wrap your hands around Dodge
Durango?” bragging that “this baby carries around chunks of those wimpy wanna-be [SUVs] in its tail
pipe.”26 More common, though, is the celebration of the SUV’s virtues via its engagement with a
wilderness that appears frightening and dangerous, an uncompromising and hostile place that can only be
mastered by sufficiently aggressive technology. The comparative merits of one model over another are
dramatized by the speed and ferocity with which nature can be subdued. The executive vice-president of
PentaMark, Jeep’s advertising firm, puts it this way: “No matter what nature throws at you unexpectedly,
you’re still protected. It takes care of you. Once you’re in a Jeep, you’re safe and secure and you can get
out of it. We try to hit on those emotional connections.”27 And based upon the dominant tropes within
SUV ads, one of the most effective (and acceptable) means of generating ‘those emotional connections’ is
to cast nature as enemy.
Print advertising, for example, almost always highlights a vehicle’s ability to ‘conquer’ or
‘master’ the roughest terrain. Suzuki will “conquer just about anything the landscape throws at you,”28
Isuzu “puts the world at the mercy of your whims,”29 and Jeep invites you to “get out there and show
Mother Nature who’s boss.”30 An extensive 2002 campaign for Toyota used images of the 4Runner SUV
driving through the forbidding landscape at the foot of Mt. Everest to show its capacity to take on the
most dangerous and inhospitable locations. With inset photos of struggling climbers, one ad reads:
“Everest at 4,347 metres. Nerves fray. Muscles twitch. Engine roars”31 while another states “Everest at –
24 degrees. Jawbone chatters. Spine shivers. Engine roars. Bitter cold and uncharted terrain wither
against the 4Runner’s available i-Force V8 engine.”32 Television commercials feature images of goggled
figures fighting through a blizzard and a frayed tent being whipped about by a fierce wind, powerful
visual testimonial to the mountain’s harsh environment. As an SUV bounces over rocks and splashes
through rivers with Everest’s profile in the background, a somber Edmund Hillary warns that “Everest
can be a ferocious mountain.” 33 Toyota also teamed up with the Outdoor Life Network to producea
reality-TV show entitled ‘Global Extremes’ in which contestants engaged in various wilderness
challenges in competing for the chance to climb Mt. Everest in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary
of Hillary’s ascent. In ads such as these, nature takes the form of an inscrutable, unpredictable, and often
nasty place. On the one hand, it offers an invigorating alternative to the mundane routine of everyday life,
a proving ground on which individuals can test their mental and physical endurance en route to the
revitalization of human experience. On the other, it demands a tough, hard ‘ready for anything’
disposition as a means of surviving the countless dangers the world throws your way.
The most striking manifestation of this theme appears in ads which literally enact a struggle
between the SUV and nature in the form of aggressive contests of strength, speed, agility and power with
a variety of wild predators. Recent television spots have featured a miniaturized Saturn VUE deftly
evading being caught by a pursuing cougar,34 a Nissan Path finder playing the role of matador as it
nimbly darts around an enraged bull in an empty arena,35 and great white sharks encircling and attacking
a water bound Ford expedition.36 Beyond fending off feral aggression, the SUV itself often appears as a
predatory creature. A new spot for Cadillac opens with an enactment of the ‘Running of the Bulls’ in
Pamplona; as the opening strain of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock and Roll’ builds, the camera pulls back to reveal
that the bulls are themselves fleeing three black SUVs.37 Featuring a Chevrolet Tahoe on a rocky
mountain slope under stormy skies, a recent ad explicitly offers readers the chance to turn the tables on
nature: “You’ve heard of mountain lions running loose through subdivisions. This is the opposite.”38
“Power changes everything,” advises yet another commercial, showing a pack of lions fleeing from a
Nissan Pathfinder that we eventually discover is driven by an enterprising antelope.39 A pack of
crocodiles shrink in fear from a Lexus LX470: “Let nature worry about you for a change.”40
The SUV is more than just man vs nature; it reframes social interactions through nature
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 10-11).
At one level, ads like these merely reenact conventional Enlightenment narratives about
technology: as an ad for Jeep puts it, “It’s your classic man vs. nature struggle.”41 In
survey after survey, consumers consistently identify the perceived safety of four-wheel
drive (4WD) as the main reason for choosing SUVs.42 Obviously, the best way to
represent 4WD as a safety feature is the symbolic relocation of these vehicles from paved
roads where this technology is largely irrelevant (and actually decreases maneuverability
and braking efficiency given added weight) to an environment in which it can more
plausibly be shown to enhance driver control. Beyond the simplistic division between
nature and technology sponsored by these types of images, however, fantasies in which
these vehicles literally become wild creatures envisions a far more fluid boundary between
social and natural worlds. They offer the SUV as a mimetic form of technology which
enables an adaptation to the natural world by imitating and perfecting the physical
attributes (e.g., speed, power, agility, inscrutability) and simplistic patterns of interaction
(e.g., flight, conflict) of the animals one finds there (in the idealized images of advertising).
The Dodge Durango, for example, was intentionally designed to resemble the features of a
jungle cat, with the grille representing teeth and the large fenders the bulging muscles in a
snarling jaw. “A strong animal has a big jaw, that’s why we put big fenders,” explains one
of the designers.43 Seductive phantasmagoria arise in which stylized depictions of nature
organize desire for social forms of technology, thereby revisioning social life itself through
a natural prism. Many of the SUV’s most potent pleasures, as defined through its
promotional field, come to depend upon the active investment of consumers in simplistic
natural motifs as a means of thinking through the essence of social interaction.
The uniting of SUV’s with nature fuses them into the nature ecosystem erasing the broader
ecological consequences of our mass consumption.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 7-8).
The No Boundaries campaign may represent the best organized and most extensive effort to unite
nature and the SUV, but every automaker has embraced similar themes at one point or another. Nature
appears as a benign, forgiving refuge from the everyday, a place in which people can immerse themselves
in soothing contemplation of the mysterious beauty of the wild. Ads wax poetically about the quiet virtues
of isolation in contrast to the crowded, noisy streets of the city. “I never found the companion so
companionable as solitude,” notes a Chevrolet Blazer ad, approvingly quoting the words of Henry David
Thoreau.13 Appearing in magazines such as Wired, Barron’s, Business Week, and Cigar Afficonado, a
2001 campaign showcased the H1 Hummer nestled unobtrusively in sparse yet spectacular landscapes.14
“How did my soul get way out here?” asks one ad, noting with Zen-like humility that “Sometimes you
find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself.”15
More often than not, the landscape remains untouched as the SUV slips through, blending into the natural
environment. “Road maps? Who the heck needs road maps?” boasts a Nissan Pathfinder ad.16 Or even
roads for that matter. “These vehicles occupy the wilderness in the same ways animals do,” points out
media scholar Robin Andersen; “within the depiction they attain the status of a biological phenomenon.
No longer machine or the product of human endeavour, they become a natural part of the ecosystem.”17
In a breathtaking act of myth-making, the social and physical infrastructure required to support mass
automobility, as well as the broader ecological consequences that accompany the mass consumption
of these vehicles, are magically erased. Instead, the SUV is offered as a technology for the redemption of
nature, a lens through which we might glimpse its secret aesthetics and truly experience and appreciate its
sublime majesty. Urban (and suburban) space implicitly figures as a bland dystopia from which we all
‘naturally’ wish to escape into the rugged purity of the wild.
Nature has become an allegory for the SUV. Society and nature are stabilized in a way that makes
the wars of capitalism and neoliberalism appear inevitable.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 16-18).
As an alternative framework of explanation, I think much of the appeal (and significance) of
nature in SUV advertising can and must be traced to the resonance these images have with how people
experience a world in which abstract institutions, structures, and processes beyond democratic regulation
govern more and more spheres of social life. Natural imagery furnishes an ideal set of signifiers through
which to express and conceptualize in mythic form the erosion of human autonomy at the hands of forces
that seemingly lie beyond human regulation or control. In his brilliant analysis of nineteenth-century
Paris, Walter Benjamin identifies natural metaphors as a preeminent strategy of popular French authors
for expressing the way in which commodification and industrialization was affecting people’s perception
and experience of urban space. Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, and Honoré Balzac
all relied heavily upon ‘primitive’ imagery to describe the dominant ‘structure of feeling.’ “The poetry of
terror,” wrote Balzac, “that pervades the American woods, with their clashes between tribes on the
warpath—this poetry which stood [Fenimore] Cooper in such good stead attaches in the same way to the
smallest details of Parisian life.”76 The most successful and popular literary styles were those that
expressed the experience of urban capitalism through the metaphors of an untamed wilderness. Nature
appeared as a fertile allegory for locating oneself within a set of social processes that had grown
inscrutable, unpredictable, and dangerous as they became reified, acquiring a life and logic seemingly
independent of collective human regulation. 77
Society, in other words, takes on the form of a ‘second nature’ as people conceptualize and
interact with it as a fixed and unchanging entity, beyond our understanding and control. In the Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts, Marx argues that one of the defining qualities of life under capitalism
is the alienation of workers from their activities and the products of their activity. “The alienation of the
worker in his [sic] product means not only that his labour becomes an object, assumes an external
existence, but that it exists independently, outside himself, and alien to him, and that it stands opposed to
him as an autonomous power. The life which he has given to the object sets itself against him as an alien
and hostile force.”78 The mediation of human activity through the commodity form produces astrange,
phantasmagorical world which its authors can no longer control or even recognize as their own creation.
“Our emancipated technology,” writes Benjamin, “stands beside contemporary society as a second nature
and indeed, as economic crises and wars show, as a no less elemental naturenthan that confronted by
primitive societies.”79 Instrumental reason and associated forms of capitalist industrialization predicated
upon the mastery of nature generate a profound alienation of human beings fromboth the natural and
social world. “As its final result,” note Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “civilization leads back to
the terrors of nature.”80 Both appear and are experienced as hostile, threatening environments and,
in an endless tautology, each is taken as evidence for the normality and inevitability of the other. On the
one hand, narrow visions of rugged individualism and hyper-competitive Darwinism are projected upon
an anthropomorphized nature; on the other, these virtues feature prominently in cultural representations of
nature: ‘discovering’ them there is subsequently used to justify their presence within human societies as
an inescapable fact of ‘human nature.’
Over the last three decades, the globalization of corporate power, the dominance of neo-liberal
politics, and the extension of capitalist social relations have created a cultural, political, and economic
environment in which people are regularly assailed with the message (and the prevailing experience of
helplessness to back it up) that they have no choice but to submit and adapt to the dictates of transnational
markets, the unpredictable chaos of global politics or, more recently, the bureaucratic fascism of the ‘war
on terror.’ In this context, nature provides an ideal marketing signifier because it expresses the utopian
desire to escape this environment into an Edenic paradise but simultaneously gives voice to the dystopian
fear that retreat into a defensive shell is the only option left for comfortable survival. Desire and fear,
utopia and dystopia: natural imagery sponsors the blending of these disparate emotions and ideals into a
fluid, if schizophrenic, promotional field that accommodates the affective mobility of consumers as they
shift back and forth from one pole to the other. This conceptual blurring of the natural and the social is
itself routinely inscribed within the metaphor laden discourse of SUV advertising. Acura crowns its MDX
“lord of the jungle (concrete or otherwise)”81 and Subaru lauds the Outback as perfect “for all those
perilous journeys through the wilds of the asphalt jungle.”82 Phantasmagoric animal spirits arise out of
the mist on city streets as a Ford Escape passes by, constructing a magical vision of the wild that lies
hidden in the heart of the city.83 At one level, such ads provide a kind of ironic commentary on the
absurdity of using SUVs for urban transport; but at another, they legitimate and enforce the analogy
between social and natural dangers. Using metaphor to blend images of urban space and wilderness, ads
such as these explicitly invite readers to use nature as a concept to express, reflect upon, and engage with
key dimensions of social experience.
SUVs Enviro Damage
SUVs are a key contributer to smog and waste tons of energy
Elizabeth Williamson, 2003 (That's the Ticket! From SUV's:to a Cleaner Earth, Washington Post
Staff Writer, The Shalom Center, July 20, http://www.shalomctr.org/node/400)
Climatologists point to Washington's large number of SUVs as a key contributor to its Code Red
smog alerts in the summer, because such vehicles burn more gas and emit more pollution than
most cars.
In bulleted points listed on half of each yellow ticket, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network,
based in Takoma Park, says that SUVs contribute to global warming by emitting 40 percent more
pollution than an average car, and that switching from a car to a 13-miles-per-gallon SUV
"wastes more energy than leaving the refrigerator door open for six years." The other half of the
ticket was a preprinted postcard addressed to Ford Motor Co. chief William Clay Ford Jr., urging
the automaker to keep its promise to introduce a new version of the Ford Escape next year —
one with a cleaner, more efficient hybrid electric/combustion engine — and to improve
emissions levels in all its SUV models.
SUVs Whiteness
SUVS are bought to form a “whiteness” in which we try to protect ourselves from the urban world.
Epperson graduate student at the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University 2004
(Bruce, “Is form destiny? Technologies of Personal Security, July , The Johns Hopkins University Press,
Volume 45 Number 3)
What is it about ersatz military toys and homes behind walls that inspires such anger? In Behind the
Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America (New York: Routledge, 2003),
Setha Low expresses her disdain for the gated, architecturally uniform, covenant-controlled residential
development using the vilest epithet she can muster: “nice.” The pursuit of niceness, the process of
maintaining a clean, orderly, homogeneous, and controlled neighborhood to preserve stable housing
values, is also a way of creating “whiteness.”Whiteness, in turn, has less to do with racial identity than
a mindless, submissive cultural assimilation. Keith Bradsher’s more notorious High and Mighty: SUVs
—The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way (New York: Public Affairs,
2002), on the other hand, argues that both sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and gated communities
succeed because they appeal to the dark “reptilian dreams” that lurk in each of us. “We’re going back
to medieval times,” Bradsher quotes automotive marketing psychologist Clotaire Rapaille as saying,
“and you can see that in the way we live in ghettos with gates and private armies. SUVs are exactly
that, they are armored cars for the battlefield.” The person who drives an SUV is not only the sort who
is willing to gain a 10 percent improvement in his own odds of surviving a crash by doubling or
tripling the chances of killing you, he is the kind who wants you to know he is fully capable of making
such a calculation. And why all this anger now? Neither the SUV nor the planned suburb is a
particularly new idea. In 1935, Chevrolet bolted a station wagon body on the chassis of a pickup truck
and called it the Suburban. It came in two versions: a fully glassed estate wagon with three rows of
seats and room for eight, and a panel truck. The estate wagon made the pages of Vanity Fair, but it
didn’t ride very well, had only two doors, and never really caught on with the horsey set. It was the
panel truck that kept the model going, proving especially popular with morticians, who used it to fetch
flowers, bodies, and coffins, saving the hearse for funeral days. In 1963 Jeep brought out the
Wagoneer, a four-door, four-wheel-drive station wagon. It was boxy and expensive, and remained a
specialty item. But the Wagoneer’s replacement, the slightly smaller Cherokee, was more refined and
far more successful. Introduced in 1983, it was a well-engineered unit mating a semi-unibody shell
with a lightweight chassis—the first modern SUV.
SUVs Security Adv
Massive SUV’s support aggressive, violent social ideals – the result is 5 lives for every 1 an
SUV might save.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 11-12).
While wilderness spectacles furnish ideal venues for the graphic depiction of aggression,
violence, and conflict, these themes also spill over into the portrayal of social relations with other vehicles
and drivers, affirming that the rugged individualism which governs the ‘natural’ world is equally
dominant in the ‘urban jungle.’ Campaigns for full-size SUVs, for example, commonly boast about their
ability to dominate the road and intimidate other drivers. Cadillac advertising, for example, regularly
focuses upon the Escalade’s aggressive profile. “Yield” advises a 1999 newspaper ad, featuring a sinister
close-up of the Escalade’s front end bearing down upon the reader.44 “Mere measurements to you,” notes
a 2002 ad describing the SUV’s massive height and weight, “But persuasion to those in front of you.”45
Yet another series portrays it as a boxer or street fighter: “And in this corner in all black . . .”46 and “Let’s
take this outside.”47 Other brands similarly stage a menacing disposition as an index of the SUV’s
appeal. Lincoln Navigator promises to “Kick derriere.”48 Tracks atop a transport truck fantasize about the
Jeep Liberty’s ability to literally drive over things that obstruct its passage: “Jeep Liberty Benefit #12:
The power to master all things, on and off the road.”49 A pair of ads for the Dodge Durango advise the
reader to “Tread lightly, and carry a big V-8”50 and labels theSUV a “Sport Brute.”51 The Chevrolet
Blazer ZR2 has a “bold, aggressive stance. (Intimidating, isn’t it?)”52 A Honda CRV emerges from a
misty swamp: “It’s like a monster in a horror movie. It keeps coming back meaner and stronger.”53 “Now
let’s see who gets sand kicked in their face at the beach,” notes a 2002 ad foregrounding the CRV’s
increased size. Recent campaigns for Hummer and Jeep are shot from a position just below the front
bumper: the viewer is literally prostrate before the vehicles, visually reinforcing copy such as “It only
looks like this because it’s badass”54 or “Pretty much every lane is a passing lane.”55
As many critics have noted, these are more than just empty threats. Heavy vehicles with rigid
frames and high ground clearance pose a considerable safety risk to the drivers of smaller cars. While car
bodies are designed to crumple around drivers and thereby absorb the shock of sudden impacts, the stiff
rails used in SUV and pickup construction effectively transfers that shock to other vehicles and their
occupants. Moreover, the height of light trucks means that in collisions with smaller vehicles they
often slide over a car’s hood or trunk and impact the passenger compartment with considerable force. In
his superb analysis of the ‘crash incompatibility’ problem, Keith Bradsher notes that the front end of a
Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup truck, which it shares with the Ford Excursion SUV, is 49 inches above
ground, close to the height of the roof of the Ford Taurus passenger sedan. According to U.S. federal
regulators, the lethal combination of height and stiffness in light trucks inflicts an extra 2,000 fatalities
each year.56 Casualties in traffic accidents are effectively rearranged from light truck to car as SUV
drivers literally purchase a feeling of increased security at the cost of the safety of other drivers.57 For
every Ford Explorer driver whose life is saved in a multi-vehicle collision because they are in an
SUV rather than a large car, for example, an extra five drivers are killed in vehicles struck by
Explorers.58 In crashes with a second vehicle, full-size SUVs kill that vehicle’s occupants at a rate of 205
per 100,000 accidents compared to 104 for minivans and 85 for cars.
SUVs appeal to people’s deep-seated desires for survival and reproduction – arming ourselves
against the illusion of danger
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 15-16).
Less common but equally significant, natural tropes assume the burden of explaining the
psychological appeal of the SUV. Recent debate over these vehicles often moves beyond their social and
ecological implications to the ‘natural’ characteristics of their drivers. In a much discussed part of
High and Mighty, for instance, Bradsher explores the attributes of SUV owners through the atavistic
consumer psychology of Clotaire Rapaille, a French anthropologist who has played an important
consulting role in the design and marketing of SUVs. People’s reactions to commodities, argues
Rapaille, can be divided according to a crude schematic of brain activity: intellect, emotion, and a
primitive desire for survival and reproduction he terms ‘reptilian.’ SUVs are “the most reptilian vehicles
of all because their imposing, even menacing appearance appeals to people’s deep-seated desires for
‘survival and reproduction.’”66 As the fear of crime, however irrational, has risen in lockstep with the
intensification of violence in the mass media, the SUV offers itself as an ideal technology for armoring
the self against the perceived dangers that lurk outside. “I think we’re going back to medieval times,”
Rapaille observes, “and you can see that in that we live in ghettos with gates and private armies. SUVs
are exactly that, they are armored cars for the battlefield.”67 At one level, this testimony is fascinating
and offers key insights into how nature is deliberately mobilized in advertising as a barely veiled
metaphor for perceived dangers within society. Yet Rapaille’s simplistic description of aggressive
technology as a ‘natural’ response of the ‘reptilian’ component of the brain to the perception of increasing
social danger participates in a mythic naturalization (and mystification) of social and historical
phenomena.
SUV’s play on a fantasy of freedom from the urban that makes nature an end point or
destination that we escape to.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 5-6).
Since the emergence of the automobile as a commodity in the early twentieth century,
natural themes and imagery have been used to attach a utopian flavor to movement through
space. From the 1920s onward, car advertising has often invoked the fantasy of leaving
behind the constraints of a crowded, mundane, and polluted urban environment for the
wide open spaces offered by nature. In words that have guided advertisers (and urban
planners) ever since, Henry Ford once quipped, “we shall solve the city problem by leaving
the city.”2 Charting the evolution of automotive promotional discourse, Andrew Wernick
argues that the reliance upon natural imagery intensified in the 1970s and 1980s as people
grew disenchanted with technology (and its militaristic overtones) and expressed concerns
over growing traffic congestion, energy consumption, and road construction. Among the
easiest tactics for advertisers wishing to deflect the negative associations invoked by the
car was, and remains, an image based rearticulation of cars with nature.3 Invoking nature
as the endpoint of vehicular travel affirms one of automobility’s most precious and fiercely
guarded illusions, namely, that spatial mobility offers access to places, experiences, and
events that are fundamentally different from everyday life, that one can escape to
somewhere other than where one is now. Furthermore, as Martin Green explains, the use of
nature to frame flight to the countryside summons up a powerful nostalgia for the simpler
times and lives connoted by idealized scenes of rural life.4
Nevertheless, SUV marketing takes the appropriation of natural themes and imagery to
new ‘heights,’ with epic campaigns that place vehicles atop mountain peaks, in the midst of
dense forests, or racing across vast deserts. Leading the way in this appropriation of nature
has been the Ford Motor Company. Although its market share has suffered recently, Ford
spearheaded the promotion of the SUV in the 1990s with the Explorer which quickly
became the best selling family vehicle of the decade, producing immense corporate profits.
Guided by consumer research that showed people wanted vehicles that made them appear
bold, adventurous, and carefree, Ford successfully positioned the SUV as an embodiment
of the traditional ‘frontier’ fantasy of leaving the city for the authenticity, purity, and
freedom of the great outdoors.5 “Looking to get away from it all? Escape the pressures of
urban living?” asks one of the vehicle’s first ads. “In a new 4-door Explorer, there’s no
such thing as city limits.”6 Eight years later, virtually identical copy captions an image of a
couple swimming together in a deserted lake at sunset: “With every splash, you can feel
the city washing off you.”7 In October 1999, Ford systematized this articulation of the
SUV with nature in a sweeping new campaign entitled ‘No Boundaries.’ Drawing upon a
wide range of promotional strategies, it used outdoor images, locations, and activities to
reach customers whom the company claims “have a spirit of rugged adventure.”8 Print ads,
for example, showed people engaged in wilderness activities such as hiking, kayaking, or
rock climbing, an SUV parked nearby on a beach, rocky plateau, or forest grove. In one
sequence, geographic coordinates are used to entice readers to visit Ford’s website to
discover the identity of these pristine locations.
The Hummer is a projection of the war in our everyday world.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 18-20).
As noted above, violence is the preeminent trope through which the conflation of nature
and society is engineered and, without question, this strategy has achieved its highest
profile in the evolving promotional field around the Hummer brand. Introduced in 1979,
the HumVee is a military transport and assault vehicle used by the U.S. military that has
featured prominently in news coverage of wars in the Middle East, especially the ‘Desert
Storm’ operation of 1991. Fearful of declining military demand
following the end of the Cold War (and motivated by the incessant lobbying of Arnold
Schwarzenegger), AM General started producing the $100,000 Hummer for the civilian
market in 1992. As Leigh Glover explains, early print advertising emphasized the vehicle’s
violent mastery of the natural environment: “premeditated and deliberate aggression,
violence, and the deployment of weaponry against nature are endorsed by the
manufacturer.. . . Nature has become an assault course, its geomorphology reduced to
measured contours and gradients of technological challenge.”84 The truck quickly
acquired a sizable media profile, however the company failed to sell enough units to
generate much profit. In 1999, GM acquired the rights to the Hummer, hoping to transform
it into an aspirational flagship symbol for the corporation given the brand’s enormous
popularity with younger Americans.85 The casual brutalization of nature deployed in the
earlier ads was displaced by a more sinister articulation of nature and society in which the
truck’s off-road prowess implicitly figured as a means of protecting oneself against social
dangers. In a shameless yet highly instructive capitalization upon public fear, GM used
Schwarzenegger to unveil the new H2 in downtown Manhattan on the three-month
anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Print advertising for the H2 reproduces the
aesthetic of Desert Storm with the vehicles featured under a scorching sun in an empty
desert landscape with taglines such as “when the asteroid hits and civilization crumbles,
you’ll be ready.”86 The New York Times reports that “dealers will be required to build
new showrooms that resemble military barracks with plenty of brushed steel and exposed
bolts inside.”87 For their part, automotive journalists have eagerly celebrated the truck’s
military pedigree with gushing reviews: an early Toronto Star piece, for example, opened
by asking readers if they were “Tired of getting pushed around on the Don Valley
Parkway?”88 while a later review in the National Post review half-seriously opened, “We
thought we were Navy SEALs. The Florida rain beat down like a sonuvabitch and we were
perched on the Hummer’s truck bed, ready to leap out and help citizens in need.”89 Most
telling is the response of a Los Angeles Hummer driver when asked why he bought the
truck: “I call this my urban escape vehicle,” he answered. “Fires, earthquakes, riots. I’m
ready.”90
The SUV offer wealthy consumers an ideological framework for an escapist fantasy while invoking
fear of a warring and hostile world.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 20).
Fires, earthquakes, and riots: natural disaster effortlessly flows into social chaos, constructing a
fierce tableau in which one has little choice but to brace oneself against the perils of a hostile world. As
Mike Davis brilliantly chronicles in Ecology of Fear, these events have become one and the same in a city
in which upper- and middle-class fear of a largely nonwhite underclass is so often articulated via the
motif of natural catastrophe. It is surely no coincidence that Hummer sales are strongest in Los Angeles,
Miami, and Texas, urban locations in which steady immigration has visibly changed the racial
complexion of city streets.91 The unpredictability and ferocity of natural forces, whose impact upon
human societies is accentuated by a consistent failure to integrate ecological awareness into urban
planning and development, is invoked as emblematic of an increasingly harsh social environment. Not
only is it a jungle out there, it’s also a war: in the promotional field of the SUV the two flow into one
another and become one and the same. Writing about the fear of cougars that episodically grips suburban
Los Angeles, Davis observes:
Too often, wildness is equated with urban disorder, and wild animals end up as the symbolic
equivalents of street criminals; or conversely, they acquire all the psychopathic connotations of
sentimentalized pets or surrogate people. The Otherness of wild animals is the gestalt which we
are constantly refashioning in the image of our own urban confusion and alienation. Where nature
is most opaquely unknowable, as in the “character” of animals, we intensely crave the comfort of
anthropomorphic definition and categorization. And where it is the human world that threatens,
this impulse is mirrored in our desire to give our fears shape: as beasts.92
The use of nature in SUV ads and elsewhere creates a cultural space in which social anxieties are at once
expressed and mystified as the representation and resolution of social contradictions takes on an
imaginary natural form. Multi-million dollar advertising campaigns do not invent the desire for these
vehicles out of thin air; rather, they offer (wealthy) consumers a potent ideological framework with which
to (mis)recognize and (mis)conceptualize ‘urban confusion and alienation’ via a mythical, polysemic,
natural landscape that nourishes escapist fantasy of an Arcadian paradise while invoking the challenges of
an untamed frontier and summoning the fear of unknown dangers.
SUVs alienate from the urban world – it provides security in isolation
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 21-22).
In addition to the comfort of heated, powered, leather seats and the handcrafted aesthetic of
exotic tropical woods, SUV interiors now bristle with an exhaustive array of information
technology. Global positioning systems, voice-activated navigation consoles, DVD
screens, MP3 players, and push button executive assistance telecommunications networks
are the latest luxury features to feature prominently in SUV ads. John Urry and Mimi
Sheller speculate that the integration of these technologies into automobiles might shift the
political economy of auto production toward smaller vehicles: technological sophistication
could replace size as a primary determinant of profit.97 While this logic may hold true for
European and Japanese consumers who have largely resisted the lure of SUVs and pickups,
luxury and technology have largely been positioned as complementary to size within the
North American market. While SUVs have attracted a very high media profile, the market
share of full-size pick-up trucks—even more dangerous to other drivers than SUVs—has
quietly exploded, in large part because of how this technology has been used to outfit
spacious ‘crew-cabs’ as family vehicles.98 More to the point, navigation systems and
digital assistance networks are ideal technologies to supplement mercenary fantasies of
armored nomads roaming a dangerous environment. While information technologies have
assumed increasing significance in the promotional field around vehicles, their
representation tends to confirm urban experience as fundamentally reified in ways that
mimic the role of nature. “The alienated city,” observes Frederic Jameson,“is above all
space in which people are unable to map (in their minds) either their own position or the
urban totality.”99 In contrast to broader social or political projects of ‘cognitive mapping,’
information technologies are marketed as a privatized, commodified ‘solution’ to this crisis
by drawing upon the same kind of emotional sentiments used to sell 4WD as a safety
feature: the world out there is hazardous and difficult to negotiate and one’s security
requires specialized technology. An Infiniti QX4 ad in which the SUV emerges from a
massive concrete maze expresses this sentiment beautifully: “A network of 24 highly
calibrated global-positioning satellites to guide you. 3 million miles of US roadways to
explore. This way to the future.”100 Owning the vehicle provides one with privileged (and
necessary) access to networks of global expertise and power. A profusion of entertainment
technologies similarly enhance the vehicle’s aura as a secure, self-sufficient place,
replicating the comforts of home, minimizing the need for even visual interaction with
what lies outside.
SUV’s turn us into armed nomads carving out security space. Freezing the urban environment costs
the potential of cities to be a real alternative to consumerism
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 25-26).
In recent years, critics have made considerable progress in raising consciousness about the contradictions
between the images of nature used to promote SUVs and the devastating impact these vehicles actually
have on the natural environment. However, very little attention has been directed to the impact these
advertising campaigns have upon how people understand and conceptualize the urban environment.
Beyond nurturing utopian fantasies of a pristine frontier, natural imagery offers a powerful set of cultural
tools through which one’s relationship with urban and suburban space can be envisaged as an encounter
with a hostile and inscrutable otherness. In the first place, this ideological process offers a seductive (if
simplistic) means of thinking about a world in which abstract structures and processes increasingly
govern all spheres of social life. More importantly, though, it gives individuals the opportunity to actively
embrace this fate by inserting themselves into dream worlds of nature in which the (technological)
cultivation of independence, adaptability, self-sufficiency, and toughness is routinely romanticized and
glorified. As armored nomads, one confronts urban alienation, crumbling infrastructure, and the erosion
of community as the incarnation of a new ‘uncivilized’ frontier in which one (seemingly) has little choice
but to carve out mobile zones of comfort and security. De facto, using natural imagery to express these
types of narratives marginalizes democratic political responses to these kinds of social issues. Cities,
argues Davis, have an incredible capacity to manage the relationship between human beings and their
physical environment in innovative and efficient ways. “Above all, they have the potential to counterpose
public affluence (great libraries, parks, museums, and so on) as a real alternative to privatized
consumerism, and thus cut through the apparent contradiction between improving standards of living and
accepting the limits imposed by ecosystems and finite natural resources.”110 Frozen into a second nature,
though, urban space loses this flexibility and radical potential: it becomes something to protect oneself
against rather than something to participate within and actively construct.
SUVs Key
Targeting SUVs is a strategic first step
Elizabeth Williamson, 2003 (That's the Ticket! From SUV's:to a Cleaner Earth, Washington Post
Staff Writer, The Shalom Center, July 20, http://www.shalomctr.org/node/400)
He, Varchaver, a holistic nutritionist, and Sasha worked their way across the parking lot,
choosing their battles carefully. "Try and avoid the four-cylinders," Tidwell told his wife, as
Sasha wondered aloud exactly which of the lotful of big vehicles were the culprits. As motorists
returned to their ticketed cars, Tidwell politely asked their help in improving SUV efficiency,
which incidentally would save them money on gas. Most simply nodded and thanked him,
seemingly relieved that they hadn't racked up a parking violation.
Tidwell decided not to ticket minivans and pickup trucks — though he said they are often as
inefficient and dirty as SUVs — saying that Rome wasn't built in a day. For now, the groups are
targeting SUVs, he said, because of their popularity, and because "we feel the overwhelming
majority [of SUV drivers] support fuel improvements."
Solvency: 40mpg
SUVs can meet a 40 mpg standard
The majority of the conventional technologies applied to the advanced family car can also be
used for an advanced family truck. The SUV analyzed in DeCicco et al. achieves a fuel economy
rating of 40.1 mpg. This SUV uses a larger version of the same stoichiometric gasoline direct-
injection, variable-valve-control engine and substitutes an optimized five-speed automatic
transmission for the existing four-speed version. The mass of the SUV is reduced by 33 percent
in this advanced case, the aerodynamic drag coefficient is lower by 10 percent, and the rolling
resistance is 20 percent below that of the baseline vehicle. The mass-reduction target is more
aggressive than that used for the family car, for two reasons. First, since the SUV has yet to take
advantage of unibody construction to produce a lighter but structurally sound frame, there are
more opportunities for weight reduction.18 In addition, the heavy and stiff body of today’s SUVs
is very dangerous to other drivers on the road; more aggressively reducing its weight and altering
its design can improve the safety of other vehicles. The added cost for these technology additions
was evaluated to be $2,087 (DeCicco et al. 2001).
Solvency: Fuel Efficiency
Closing the SUV loophole is a key step to improving fuel efficiency
DAVID FRIEDMAN, JASON MARK, PATRICIA MONAHAN, scientists, & CARL NASH, &
CLARENCE DITLOW, auto industry experts, 2001 (Union of Concerned Scientists, “Tapping
Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles”, June,
After 15 years of stagnant fuel economy standards, significant pressure from many
stakeholders has prompted the US government to investigate a reinvestment in fuel
economy policy. Based on the findings of this study, UCS recommends that the US
government and the automobile industry responsible for supplying our passenger vehicles
take the following steps: 1. Raise the CAFE standards for light-duty trucks to that of
passenger cars in the near term. Closing the “light-truck loophole” is a key first step in
improving fuel economy.
SUV’S AREN’T EFFICIENT WE MUST DRIVE LIGHTER VEHICLES

World,p.188-189
SUV loophole costs an additional $20 billion in gas costs

The light-truck loophole created with the original CAFE legislation allows minivans, SUVs, and
pickup trucks to burn 33 percent more fuel for each mile they drive than the standard for cars
allows. This disparity was created to protect rural residents, farmers, businesses, and other
consumers from higher vehicle prices. Instead, it will cause Americans to spend $20 billion more
on gasoline in 2001 than they would have without the light-truck loophole.
The SUV loophole encourages business to buy the heaviest least efficient
Jim Walczak, 2004 (“Tax Loophole For New SUV & Pickup Truck Owners”, April,
http://4wheeldrive.about.com/cs/drivingtipssafety/a/aa041603a_4.htm)
If the federal government is in the business of steering consumers toward the purchase of a particular sort
of vehicle, then don't environmentalists have a right to a seat at the table alongside the auto industry
lobbyists?
Business owners are being talked out of buying more fuel-efficient cars over gas-guzzling SUVs. For
example, a business owner wanting to buy a Lincoln Town Car would receive a $7,660 deduction, just
one-fourth what he might save by buying a Lincoln Navigator. It would take more than 15 years to recoup
the entire cost of the car.
SUV’s have poor fuel efficiency

Clark L. Rev. 669)
Environmentalists' main concern with SUVs is their poor fuel efficiency. SUVs are far less fuel
efficient than cars and minivans, and according to author Keith Bradsher, "as millions of
Americans [have] switched to SUVs, especially big ones, overall gas mileage [has] suffered" in
this country, with the average efficiency of all vehicles sold in the United States in steady
decline. The SUV's thirst for fuel not only gouges drivers' wallets at the pump, but also
contributes significantly to three larger problems: dependency on foreign oil, air pollution, and
global warming. Naturally, there have been calls for higher standards for the SUV's fuel
economy, and a push to encourage consumers to [*681] buy more fuel-efficient vehicles,
including vehicles that do not rely entirely on gasoline as their energy source.
SUVs are gas guzzlers that emit ridiculous amounts of carbon
Richard K. Olsen, Jr., 2002 (Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture,
“Living Above it All: The Liminal Fantasy of Sport Utility Vehicle Advertisements”, Eds. Mark
Meister & Phyllis M. Japp, p.178)
The 1999 Ford Explorer weighed over 1,200 pounds more than the Ford Focus, a compact car.
The 1999 Excursion was 4,639 pounds heavier than the Focus. The raw materials and
manufacturing processes invested in the Ford Excursion and other large and/or luxurious SUVs
are significantly higher than in standard automobiles. In addition, SUV gas mileage clearly
suffers from the additional weight. While meeting government regulations for low emissions, the
Excursion's ten miles per gallon does not compare favorably with Focus' twenty-eight miles per
gallon, or even the Explorer's eighteen miles per gallon (Neil, 2000). Rauber (1999) offers
compelling examples of the various hazards of SUVs:
The dangers caused by SUVs are not just to their own drivers or to others on the road. Half of all
cars these days are gas-guzzling sport utes, minivans, or pickups, and the more fossil fuel
consumed, the more global-warming gas is added to the atmosphere. In its lifetime, a fuel-
efficient Honda Civic emits 40 tons of carbon dioxide, a Ford Excursion 134 tons. The reason is
the huge loophole in the CAFÉ law that requires fleets of passenger cars to average 27.5 miles
per gallon, but allows light trucks an average of 20.7 mpg. (P. 21)
Solvency: Government Action
SUVs are a symbol of automobility that results in a situation where energy efficiency
declines and oil dependence increases. Government laws and regulations play a pivotal role
in enabling automobility.
The SUV is a vehicle of singular importance. It is a node in a series of networks that range
from the body to the globe, which, when combined, establish the conditions of possibility
for U.S. strategic policy and demonstrate that geopolitics needs to be understood in the
context of biopolitics. In the story outlined here, it is the central role of mobility in
American society that grants oil its social value. This article has outlined the key moments
of connectivity in those networks that have given rise to the American auto social
formation—the way the transport sector dominates petroleum use; the importance of
passenger vehicles as the major consumers of oil in the transport sector; how light trucks
have come to be the auto manufacturers’ dominant product, overtaking the car as the
choice for the majority of families, who find themselves with little choice other than the
private vehicle as they move through the domains of their lives. All this—the auto social
formation of automobility— has resulted in a situation in which energy efficiency declines
and dependence on oil from unstable regions increases as Americans drive further in less
economical vehicles. Pivotal in this account is the role played by various laws and
regulations—including fuel economy standards, exemptions for light trucks, tax rebates,
trade tariffs, international environmental agreements, and zoning codes—in enabling and
supporting automobility. Indeed, the story is tragic insofar as the regulatory regime
designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce oil dependence (the CAFE standards)
has in fact created inefficiency and given rise to a class of vehicles (SUVs) that undermine
the overall objective. Those vehicles are the embodiment of a new articulation of
citizenship that effaces its social and global connectivity, but SUVs are unquestionably
implicated in (if not solely responsible for) the United States’ rejection of the Kyoto
Protocols and its initiation of an illegal international conflict.
State efforts to close the SUV loophole fail. Congress must close it.
Clark L. Rev. 669)
State legislative efforts to close the SUV tax loophole have failed. Thus far, Congress has also
failed to close the SUV tax loophole, although it has had a few opportunities to do so. First,
Congress has ignored proposals to amend section 280F to close the SUV tax loophole directly at
its source. And although recent congressional records clearly indicate Congress's disapproval of
the SUV tax loophole, the recent changes to business tax incentives under the Jobs Act merely
narrow the loophole, and do nothing to eliminate it. There has been much talk about closing the
SUV tax loophole, but the fact remains that the loophole still exists, and until Congress finally
closes it, the loophole will continue to award greater write-offs to those who unnecessarily
choose heavy SUVs for business use.
Solvency: Weight Classification
Classifying by weight, the SUV has taken the place of the American luxury car.
Clark L. Rev. 669)
Classifying passenger automobiles by weight rather than by function is what leads to the SUV
tax loophole as it exists in section 280F today. Initially, the weight classification was sufficient to
separate passenger automobiles from the heavier trucks and vans that workers in farming,
construction, timber, and other hauling businesses relied on to do their work. This achieved
Congress's goal of denying big write-offs to those who abused the cost recovery system by
purchasing expensive, luxury cars just to save on taxes, while allowing uncapped expensing and
depreciation deductions to those who actually needed the more expensive, heftier vehicles to do
their work. This system of discrimination, based on vehicle weight, fulfilled Congress's intent so
long as the luxury vehicles businesspeople were interested in weighed less than 6,000 pounds.
But the advent of the SUV as America's new luxury vehicle of choice changed businesses'
purchasing incentives, quickly working to open up the SUV tax loophole in section 280F.
In recent years, there has been an "explosion of SUV, pickup, and minivan sales" in the United
States, as consumers have increasingly preferred such vehicles as a trendy alternative to the
traditional passenger car. A few authors note that these vehicles, which the Code classifies as
light trucks, now account [*680] for about half of the total U.S. new-vehicle market, and the
SUV - "today's quintessential suburban passenger vehicle" - is now a common substitute for cars,
"even luxury cars." With the SUV's current prevalence and popularity in the American auto
market (despite its poor gas mileage), businesses now have the opportunity to buy a trendy,
luxury vehicle that falls outside the definition of passenger automobile, and therefore qualifies
for uncapped deductions against gross income. Moreover, recent tax incentives for new business
asset acquisition, including increased expensing and bonus depreciation, have widened the SUV
tax loophole by enabling businesses to enjoy even greater uncapped write-offs.
WEIGHT DETERMINES CONSUMPTION- THE MAGIC BULLET IS LIGHT

WEIGHT CARS
World,p.190-191
Heavy automobiles decrease efficiency – the weight costs us 2.1 billion gallons of oil a year

Solvency: Hip Hop
The hip hop generation determines future consumption in the US
Carol Cooper, 2001 (Whole Earth, “The Afrofuture Is Now”, Summer, p. 54)
The self-styled "hip-hop generation" has often been pilloried for its crass consumerism, but
Madison Avenue really appreciates it. If they want to know what white America will consume
tomorrow, they take a good long look at what black hipsters are consuming today.
In three critical categories--transportation, communication, and personal ornamentation--black
Americans are notorious early adopters, signaling the high style or high serviceability of a new
brand by rapid assimilation, followed by often radical customization. And best of all for product
manufacturers, these consumers even provide free advertising by listing their favorite new toys
on the hit singles from gold- and platinum-selling albums.
Hip-Hop as a pedagogy develops independent thinkers and learners competitive on a

college level; a pedagogy unlearned in the school setting
Jabari Mahiri- author, 2000, (“Pop Culture Pedagogy and the End(s) of School”, Journal Title:
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, pg. 382)
Many of these youths are finding that they are highly competitive in college testing and for
college admissions because their experiences have prepared them to be the independent thinkers
and learners that colleges value. Samuelson found that her informants also loved to engage in an
ongoing critique of the limits of compulsory schooling. As one of the girls stated, "I used to go to
school; now I learn." These unschoolers are not just the children of political or religious fringe
groups; they also include a growing number of youths who have found a degree of personal
power and pleasure in technological alternatives to school-based teaching and learning.
The discourse of unschoolers, like the discourse of hip-hop culture, offers explicit challenges to
the discourse of schooling. In some of the other studies presented in the book, the challenges or
implications for schooling are not as explicit, but nonetheless they reflect the workings of pop
culture pedagogies that dynamically engage people in technologically mediated processes for
making meaning and for giving meaning to people's lives.
A multicultural curriculum not only liberates people of the culture being taught, but everyone
willing to indulge in the culture of another
Henry A. Giroux – author, 1997, “ Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling A
Critical Reader”, pg. 248
If . . . one managed to change the curriculum in all the schools so that [Afro-Americans] learned more
about themselves and their real contributions to this culture, you would be liberating not only [Afro-
Americans], you'd be liberating white people who know nothing about their own history. And the reason
is that if you are compelled to he about one aspect of anybody's history, you must lie about it all. If you
have to lie about my real role here, if you have to pretend that I hoed all that cotton just because I loved
you, then you have done something to yourself. You are mad. 4
We must reanalyze the way we look at history to deconstruct the white supremist lens in which we
view the world
In white supremacist society, white people can "safely" imagine that they are invisible to black people
since the power they have historically asserted, and even now collectively assert over black people,
accorded them the right to control the black gaze. . . . [And yet] to name that whiteness in the black
imagination is often a representation of terror. One must face written histories that erase and deny, that
reinvent the past to make the present vision of racial harmony and pluralism more plausible. To bear the
burden of memory one must willingly journey to places long uninhabited, searching the debris of history
for traces of the unforgettable, all knowledge of which has been suppressed. 10
Multiculturalism is more than critical discourse , but gives us the space to reconstruct society
In this view, multiculturalism becomes more than a critical referent for interrogating the racist
representations and practices of the dominant culture, it also provides a space in which the criticism of
cultural practices is inextricably linked to the production of cultural spaces marked by the formation of
new identities and pedagogical practices that offers a powerful challenge to the racist, patriarchal, and
sexist principles embedded in American society and schooling. Within this discourse, curriculum is
viewed as a hierarchical and representational system that selectively produces knowledge, identities,
desires, and values. The notion that curriculum represents knowledge that is objective, value free, and
beneficial to all students is challenged forcefully as it becomes clear that those who benefit from public
schooling and higher education are generally white, middle-class students whose histories, experiences,
language, and knowledge largely conform to dominant cultural codes and practices. Moreover, an
insurgent multiculturalism performs a theoretical service by addressing curriculum as a form of cultural
politics which demands linking the production and legitimation of classroom knowledge, social identities,
and values to the institutional environments in which they are produced.
Hip-Hop has historically been used as a tool for critical discourse to articulate the injustices
and inequities of American society
Derrick P. Aldridge – author, 2005, (“ From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas”
,“The Journal of African American History”, pg. 226)
The preceding quotation from historian Robin D. G. Kelley captures the manner through which
socially and politically conscious (SPC) Hip Hop emerged from the social, economic, and
political experiences of black youth from the mid- to late 1970s. (2) Hip Hop pioneers such as
Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, among others
articulated the post--civil rights generation's ideas and response to poverty, drugs, police
brutality, and other racial and class inequities of postindustrial U.S. society. (3) In many ways,
early hip hoppers were not only the progenitors of a new form of black social critique, they also
represented the voice of a new generation that would carry on and expand upon the ideas and
ideology of the civil rights generation. (4) Since the early years of Hip Hop, SPC hip hoppers
have continued to espouse many of the ideas and ideology of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM)
and Black Freedom Struggle (BFS), but in a language that resonates with many black youth of
the postindustrial and post--civil rights integrationist era. (5) For instance, on Michael Franti's
2001 compact disk (CD) Stay Human, Franti uses rap and reggae-style lyrics to critique U.S.
capitalism, imperialism, racism, and globalization and to offer analyses of discrimination,
prejudice, and oppression similar to those of activists and theorists of the CRM and BFS. In his
song "Oh My God," Franti lays out what he believes are the hypocrisies of U.S. democracy by
pointing out its discriminatory practices against the poor and people of color, its use of the death
penalty, its indiscriminate bombing of other countries, and its counterintelligence activities that
subvert the rights of U.S. citizens.
Hip Hop today is making strides towards expanding the limitations of the civil rights
movement (CRM) by reaching the youth through music and hip-hop
Derrick P. Aldridge – author, 2005, “ From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas”
,“The Journal of African American History”, pg. 226
The fact that the Hip Hop generation of today is thirty-five or more years removed from the
CRM has made it difficult for either generation to recognize the commonalties in their ideas. In
addition, linear approaches to examining history have reinforced a temporal disconnect between
Hip Hop and the CRM. Such approaches obscure the ideological connections between the civil
rights era and Hip Hop, disguise the fluidity of ideas between the two generations, and conceal
the influence of past ideas on Hip Hop. (12) As a result, it is more difficult to see, for example,
how the ideas of Martin Delany, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Marcus Garvey, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm
X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to name a few, are reflected in and similar to the ideas proposed
by rappers such as Public Enemy, Sister Souljah, Michael Franti, and dead prez.
SPC Hip Hop, however, attempts to address these temporal limitations through techniques that
morph time and provide a wider lens for seeing the organic, metaphorical, symbolic, and
concrete connections between Hip Hop and the CRM and BFS. Many hip hoppers, for instance,
employ techniques such as imaging, sampling, and scratching to transcend space and time and to
place their ideas into closer temporal proximity to the CRM and BFS. Imaging is a general term I
use to describe the process by which hip hoppers reproduce or evoke images, events, people, and
symbols for the purpose of placing past ideas into closer proximity to the present. Hip hoppers
employ imaging by appropriating, for example, the voices and images of civil rights figures and
events in their music or videos.
Hip hop voices the problems of black urban life. It is an organic intellectual approach to
knowledge
Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium, p. 154)
In this article I am generally referring to gangsta rap and do not wish to conflate this term
with those of rap or hip-hop. When I speak generally about rap music as a form of black
cultural address, without specifically calling it gangsta rap, I am emphasizing rap music's
situatedness within hip-hop culture, its criticism of the dominant white culture's racial and
economic discrimination, and the contradictory urban expressions of African American
economic and racial marginality. Here I share Tricia Rose's perspective that rap "is a black
idiom that prioritizes black culture and that articulates the problem of black urban life." I
am referring to rap artists as cultural workers engaged to a large extent in "the everyday
struggles of working-class blacks and the urban poor." Jeffrey Louis Decker refers to such
cultural workers as "hip hop nationalists" who function in the manner suggested by
Gramsci's description of organic intellectuals.
Turn- Repetition isn’t commodification – it’s a type of social resistance

Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium, p.158)
Tricia Rose's discussion of mass-produced repetition undercuts perspectives by Adorno,

Attali, and Jameson by arguing that repetition in rap is not always connected to the
commodity system of late capitalism in the same way as other musical forms. She argues
that repetition in mass-cultural formations can also serve as a form of collective resistance.
Hip hop is a form of independent, situated cultural resistance

The operational or performative logics of gangsta rap vary but what is constant is what
Lawrence Grossberg calls "affective agency" -- its ability to articulate "mattering maps" in
which agency is defined as brushing up against the prison of everyday life. Michael Dyson
describes the emergence of rap within a context that emphasizes its situatedness as a
cultural form of resistance. According to Dyson,
Rap music grew from its origins in New York's inner city over a decade ago as a musical outlet to creative
cultural energies and to contest the invisibility of the ghetto in mainstream American society. Rap
remythologized New York's status as the spiritual center of black America, boldly asserting appropriation and
splicing (not originality) as the artistic strategies by which the styles and sensibilities of black ghetto youth
would gain popular influence. Rap developed as a relatively independent expression of black
male artistic rebellion against the black bourgeois Weltanschauung, tapping instead into the
cultural virtues and vices of the so-called underclass, romanticizing the ghetto as the fecund root
of cultural identity and authenticity, the Rorschach of legitimate masculinity and racial unity.
Hip hop can be a counter-hegemonic form of resistance that creates an interchange among
struggling black peoples all over the world who fight racism and capitalist exploitation
David Troop Rap Attack. African Jive to New York Hip Hop, Houston Baker's Black
Studies: Rap and the Academy, and Tricia Rose brilliant Black Noise: Rap Music and
Black Culture in Contemporary America are just a few of the burgeoning scholarly
commentaries on rap that offer a much more congenial account of rap's potential for
developing forms of counterhegemonic resistance than the account of gangsta rap that is
offered by Shocked and Bull. For these critics, it is important to understand how and why
the terms governing the popular responses to rap have come into being and how they have,
to a large extent, become naturalized. Accordingly, these writers maintain the need to see
hip-hop in a much broader context: as a global cultural practice that is articulated through
the tropes and sensibilities of the African diaspora and the history of Afro-America, and
that creates a "diasporic interchange" and "diasporic intimacy" among struggling black
peoples the world over who are fighting racism and capitalist exploitation. As Nick De
Genova emphasizes, "rather than as an expression of social pathology, gangster rap's
imaginative empowerment of a nihilistic and ruthless way of life can be better understood
as a potentially oppositional consciousness -- albeit born of desperation, or even despair."
Common subjective understandings of alienation among oppressed groups are articulated
through rap; as a cultural force it is integral in providing black urban youth with both an
expression of race and with codes of solidarity. As De Genova puts it, "gangsta rap can be
found to transcend the mere reflection of urban mayhem and enter into musical debate with
these realities, without sinking into didacticism or flattening their complexity." Rap needs
to be understood not so much for its musical poaching through "sampling" as for the way
that it is premised on what Tricia Rose calls "transformations and hybrids" -- developing "a
style that nobody can deal with." She writes that
transformations and hybrids reflect the initial spirit of rap and hip hop as an experimental
and collective space where contemporary issues and ancestral forces are worked through
simultaneously. Hybrids in rap's subject matter, not unlike its use of musical collage and
the influx of new, regional and ethnic styles, have not yet displaced the three points of
stylistic continuity to which I referred earlier: approaches to flow, ruptures in line and
layering can still be found in the vast majority of rap's lyrical and music construction. The
same is true of the critiques of the postindustrial urban America context and the cultural
and social conditions which it has produced. Today, the South Bronx and South Central
Los Angeles are poorer and more economically marginalized than they were ten years ago.
Hip hop provides a public voice for black men who are usually silenced and overlooked. It
is a direct response to racism and exploitation
Bell hooks lucidly illustrates that the context out of which rap has emerged is intertwined
with the public stories of black male lives and the history of the pain suffered by black men
in a racist society. She is worth quoting at length:
Rap music provides a public voice for young black men who are usually silenced and
overlooked. It emerged in the streets -- outside the confines of a domesticity shaped and
informed by poverty, outside enclosed spaces where . . . [black bodies] . . . had to be
contained and controlled. . . . The public story of black male lives narrated by rap speaks
directly to and against white racist domination, but only indirectly hints at the enormity of
black male pain. Constructing the black male body as site of pleasure and power, rap and
the dances associated with it suggest vibrancy, intensity, and an unsurpassed joy in living.
It may very well be that living on the edge, so close to the possibility of being
"exterminated" (which is how many young black males feel) heightens one's ability to risk
and make one's pleasure more intense. It is this charge, generated by the tension between
pleasure and danger, death and desire, that Foucault evokes when he speaks of that
complete total pleasure that is related to death. Though Foucault is speaking as an
individual, his words resonate in a culture affected by anhedonia -- the inability to feel
pleasure. In the United States, where our senses are daily assaulted and bombarded to such
an extent that an emotional numbness sets in, it may take being "on the edge" for
individuals to feel intensely. Hence the overall tendency in the culture is to see young
black men as both dangerous and desirable.
****Oil Enforcement Agency Aff****
OEA 1AC
Contention 1: The Oil Addiction Mandate
1. America is addicted to oil

George Walker Bush, president of the United States, 2006 (State of the Union Address, Jan 31,
http://www.c-
span.org/executive/transcript.asp?cat=current_event&code=bush_admin&year=2006)
Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem:
America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best
way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion
to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources -- and we are on the
threshold of incredible advances.
2. The Oil Enforcement Agency was founded to enforce oil addiction state of the Union
Address
The Oil Enforcement Agency states….
(http://oea.freedomfromoil.org/home/)
The Oil Enforcement Agency was founded on January 31, 2006, by an act of civic charter
following the 217th State of the Union Address. In his address, the President of the United States
established the Agency's mandate: "We have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil. To
break this addiction ... we must ... move beyond a petroleum-based economy."
The mission of the OEA is to enforce this mandate by bringing to justice those organizations, and
principal members of organizations, involved in oil-addiction-fostering extraction, manufacture,
or distribution of oil or oil consuming vehicles; and to recommend and support programs aimed
at reducing dependence on said oil and other fossil fuels.
Contention 2: Oil Endangers Our Environment
Same as the global warming scenario in the CAFÉ aff --

Contention 3: Oil Addiction Endangers Human Rights
1. US oil partner’s human rights records range from bad to heinous. This is genocide by
environmental means. Reducing our oil imports can restore the US human rights
reputation.
Rob Nixon, environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, 2001 (“A Dangerous Appetite
for Oil”, NYT, Oct. 29, http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1029-04.htm)
For 70 years, oil has been responsible for more of America's international entanglements and
anxieties than any other industry. Oil continues to be a major source both of America's strategic
vulnerability and of its reputation as a bully, in the Islamic world and beyond.
President Bush recently urged America to reduce its reliance on foreign oil. We can take his
argument further: by scaling back our dependence on imported oil, we can not only strengthen
national security but also enhance America's international image in terms of human rights and
environmentalism.
Importing oil costs the United States over $250 billion a year, if one includes federal subsidies
and the health and environmental impact of air pollution. America spends $56 billion on the oil
itself and another $25 billion on the military defense of oil-exporting Middle Eastern countries.
There are additional costs in terms of America's international reputation and moral credibility:
our appetite for foreign fossil fuels has created a long history of unsavory marriages of
convenience with petrodespots, generalissimos and fomenters of terrorism.
The United States currently finds itself in a coalition with Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the
Northern Alliance. Their human rights records range from bad to heinous. This is a conjuncture
familiar to oil companies. From the Persian Gulf states to Indonesia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,
Colombia, Angola and Nigeria, they have cozied up to dubious, often brutal regimes that allow
corporations to operate with few environmental or human rights constraints.
Outside the West, the development of oil resources has repeatedly impeded democracy and social
stability. The oil-extraction industry typically concentrates wealth and power and provides many
incentives for corruption and iron-fisted rule. In most oil-exporting countries the gap between
rich and poor widens over time. From the perspective of local people beneath whose land the oil
lies — Bedouins in the Middle East, the Huaorani in Ecuador, Nigeria's Ijaw and Ogoni, the
Acehnese of Indonesia — the partnership between oil transnationals and repressive regimes has
been ruinous, destroying subsistence cultures while offering little in return. The Nigerian writer
Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged in 1995 for leading protests against such destruction, dubbed the
process "genocide by environmental means."
2. RECOGNIZING OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO HUMAN RIGHTS ARE KEY TO SURVIVAL.
DALAI LAMA 1998 (His Holiness, Nobel peace laureate the Dalai Lama on 8 December 1998 at a UNESCO Paris
gathering on human rights on the eve of the twenty-first century. HUMAN RIGHTS - PERSPECTIVES: Universal
Responsibility: Key to Human Survival )
Human rights are of universal interest because it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom,
equality and dignity and they have a right to achieve them. Whether we like it or not, we have all been born into this
world as part of one great human family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another,
to one religion or another, adhering to this ideology or that, ultimately each of us is just a human being like
everyone else. We all desire happiness and do not want suffering. If we accept that others have an equal right
to peace and happiness as ourselves, do we not have responsibility to help those in need? The aspiration for
democracy and respect for fundamental human rights is as important to the people of Africa and Asia as it is
to those in Europe or the Americas. But often it is just those people who are deprived of their human rights who are
least able to speak up for themselves. The responsibility rests with those of us who do enjoy such freedoms.
Human rights abuses are often targeted on the most gifted, dedicated and creative members of society. As a result, the
political, social, cultural and economic developments of a society are obstructed by violations of human rights. Therefore, the protection of these
rights and freedoms are of immense importance both for the individuals affected and for the development of society as a whole. Some
governments have contended that the standards of human rights laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are those advocated by
the West and do not apply to Asia and other parts of the Third World because of differences in culture and social and economic development. I do
not share this view, and I am convinced that the majority of ordinary people do not support it either. I believe that the principles laid down in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights constitute something like a natural law which ought to be followed by all peoples and governments.
Moreover, I do not see any contradiction between the need for economic development and the need to respect human rights. The right to free
speech and association are vital in promoting a country’s economic development. In Tibet, for example, there have been countless instances
where unsuitable economic policies have been implemented and continued long after they have failed to produce benefits, because citizens and
government officials could not speak out against them. Internationally, our rich diversity of cultures and religions should help to strengthen
fundamental human rights in all communities. Underlying this diversity are basic human principles that bind us all
together as members of the same human family. However, mere maintenance of traditions should never
justify the violations of human rights. Thus, discrimination against persons of different races, against women, and
against weaker sections of society may be traditional in some places, but if they are inconsistent with universally
recognised human rights, these forms of behaviour should change. The universal principle of the equality of all
human beings must take precedence. Need for Universal Responsibility The world is becoming increasingly
interdependent, and that is why I firmly believe in the need to develop a sense of universal responsibility. We need
to think in global terms because the effects of one nation’s actions are felt far beyond its borders. The
acceptance of universally binding standards of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and in the International Covenants of Human Rights is essential in today’s shrinking world. Respect for fundamental
human rights should not remain an ideal to be achieved but a requisite foundation for every human society. Artificial barriers that have divided
nations and peoples have fallen in recent times. The success of the popular peoples’ movements in dismantling the East-West division which has
polarised the whole world for decades has been a source of great hope and expectations. Yet there still remains a major gulf at the heart of the
human family. By this I am referring to the North-South divide. If we are serious in our commitment to the fundamental principles of equality,
principles which, I believe, lie at the heart of the concept of human rights, today’s economic disparity can no longer be ignored. It is not enough
to merely state that all human beings must enjoy equal dignity. This must be translated into action. We have a responsibility to find ways to
achieve a more equitable distribution of world’s resources. We are witnessing a tremendous popular movement for the
advancement of human rights and democratic freedom in the world. This movement must become an even more
powerful moral force, so that even the most obstructive governments and armies are incapable of suppressing it. It is
natural and just for nations, peoples and individuals to demand respect for their rights and freedoms and to struggle
to end repression, racism, economic exploitation, military occupation, and various forms of colonialism and alien
domination. Governments should actively support such demands instead of only paying lip-service to them. It
is my belief that the lack of understanding of the true cause of happiness is the principal reason why people inflict suffering on others.
Some people think that causing pain to others may lead to their own happiness or that their own happiness is of such importance that the pain of
others is of no significance. But this is clearly short-sighted. No one truly benefits from causing harm to another being. Whatever immediate
advantage is gained at the expense of someone else is short-lived. In the long run, causing others misery and infringing upon their peace and
happiness creates anxiety, fear and suspicion for oneself. The development of love and compassion for others is essential for creating a better and
more peaceful world. This naturally means we must develop concern for our fellow brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than
we are. Therefore, we have a moral duty to help and support all those who are presently prevented from
exercising the rights and freedoms that many of us take for granted. As we approach the end of the 20th century,
we find that the world is becoming one community. We are being drawn together by the grave problems of over
population, dwindling natural resources, and an environmental crisis that threaten the very foundation of our
existence on this planet. Human rights, environmental protection and great social and economic equality are
all interrelated. I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater
sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one’s own family or one’s
nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the
best guarantee for human rights and for world peace.
Thus, Our Advocacy
Affirm the Oil Enforcement Agency.
Contention 4: Join the OEA
1. We must reframe environmental obligations to take us beyond short time frames &
election disads. Direct action is a response to this long term approach.
Carter, Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies,
Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy, p. 98-99)
2. The OEA is key to making an effective prefigurative politics which is the only way we
can change the government.
Bogad, Associate Professor of political performance at the University of California at
Davis, 2007 (Larry, “Radical Simulacrum, Regulation by Prank: The Oil Enforcement
Agency”, Contemporary Theatre Review, Volume 17 (2), pg 261)
3. The OEA reads the letter of law against itself allowing for a type of prefigurative politics
where we can individually recognize our role in the oil crisis.
4. Our struggle is the metaphoric condensation of a larger struggle against oil dependency
Slavoj Zizek, 1999 (The Ticklish Subject, p. 208-209)
Bush: Oil Addiction
Bush’s State of the Union declared US oil addiction
In his State of the Union address in January 2006, President George W. Bush admitted that
the country had a serious problem: "America," he said, "is addicted to oil." No doubt,
Bush's statement largely reflects concern for United States dependence on oil in an
unstable and largely anti-American Middle East. However, the President was also very
clear in his warning that our oil addiction is [*544] destroying the environment. To this
end, Bush proposed that the country use technology to "move beyond a petroleum-based
economy." He particularly concentrated on how technology could be used to create more
environmentally friendly automobiles, imploring:
We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in
better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen.
We will also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not
just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new
kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.
Energy = American Privilege
Energy is embedded into our lives
Revolution, Policies for a Sustainable Future Pg 1-2).
Oil is a privilege woven seamlessly into American life


Solvency: Direct Action
Direct action is a means of empowerment that responds to a lack of political access.
Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy Today, p. 2)
Direct action is a way to get publicity on an issue

Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy, p. 28)
Direct action is a powerful means to place pressure on the government through drawing
attention
Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy, p. 3
Direct action environmental groups have an empirical record of success

Direct action movements provide a challenge to liberal politics.

Symbolic direct action gets an issue into political debate which changes dominant political
discourse
Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy, p.240-241)

The affirmative’s formulaic methods will lack media attention needed to promote direct
public action.
Daly, Professor at the Imperial College in London, 2006
(Bindi, Inter-Disciplinary, “Promoting Environmental Citizenship? A Critique of the Moral Persuasiveness of Direct
Action Environmental Protest,” 7/6/06, http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/ejgc/ejgc5/daly%20paper.pdf, accessed
7/16/08)
Activists, then, hope to promote a stronger sense of environmental citizenship by encouraging
people to engage in direct action. But how, exactly, do they hope to achieve this? There has been
some discussion of the importance of direct action in terms of ‘image events’ (see, for example,
DeLuca 1999) – while the activists might not ‘succeed’ in immediate terms, their action may well
increase public consciousness of an issue. If successfully captured by the media, DeLuca argues,
these events may serve as what he terms ‘mind bombs’ in society by altering public
consciousness. However, by the end of the 1990s, the media (certainly at a national level)
appeared to have become rather weary of what had arguably become a rather formulaic form of
protest. Certainly neither of the camps described here received the level of national press coverage
enjoyed by, for example, the protest against the Newbury Bypass in 1996.
Solvency: Education
Lack of consumer knowledge prevents the use of energy efficiency
POLICY MAKERS MUST BE VISIONARIES THAT EDUCATE THE PUBLIC

World,p.234
Knowledge is the critical discourse to industry, government, and community environmental

change
The only way to solve global warming is to burn less oil and gas – it requires a lifestyle
change
Bill McKibben, 2005 (Why a new approach to global warming would make for a better
politics, and planet, SPECIAL REPORT, Pg. A10, October, The American Prospect)
So what happened? Carbon dioxide happened. If you want to understand the death of
environmentalism, you need to understand the gas on which it choked. Carbon dioxide
(CO2) was fatefully different from all the pollution that had come before it. Unlike carbon
monoxide -- the key ingredient in nasty brown smog, the pollutant that helped kill
Londoners breathing coal fumes -- carbon dioxide, ironically, is essentially nontoxic. But
CO2 is the inevitable byproduct of fossil-fuel combustion. It's not something going wrong;
it's what's supposed to happen when you burn coal or oil or gas. But its molecular
composition traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space, thus causing the
phenomenon we now know as global warming -- a phenomenon that will produce
temperatures by century's end higher than at any time since before the beginning of
primate evolution. And to solve it? There's really only one way, which is to reduce the
amount of CO2 we produce. That is, burn less coal and oil and gas.
Which is why it's not like the environmental problems we faced in the past. We can't solve
it with a new law or a catalytic converter on our tailpipe. We need to upend the entire way
we go about powering our lives, which is to say upend our economies and daily habits.
And for American politicians, channeling American voters, that has always seemed far too
much to contemplate. The definitive declaration came early on, from the first President
Bush, as he prepared reluctantly to attend the huge 1992 environmental summit in Rio de
Janeiro, when the worry about global warming was supposed to start yielding real results.
Bush announced, "The American way of life is not up for negotiation."
Mobalizing the public is critical to spur government action
Kraft, Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs UW-Green Bay, 2006 (Michael E.,
Environmental Policy: New Directions For the Twenty-First Century Sixth Edition Ed:
Norman J. Vig, CQ Press, pg 8-9)

Solvency: Internalization
Internalized norms and commitment to the environment solve better than externalized
norms
Green, Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, 2006 (Andrew “You cant pay them enough:
subsidies environmental law and social norms.”, Harvard Environmental Law Review )
Internalized norms gain importance because of the difficulties of externally enforced norms in
large-number, negative pay-off contexts. Monitoring, for example, is easier (since compliance with
the norm is monitored by the individual herself) than for externally enforced norms (monitored by
third parties). 78 The notion of "internalized" norms is closely tied to the view that if an individual
feels guilt or shame from a choice, it affects how she views herself. 79 This view of internalization,
however, does not capture an important difference underlying the reasons for choices. Feelings of
guilt or pride are tied into the cost-benefit calculus and the choice of action will depend, for
example, on the level (cost) of guilt as compared to the other costs and benefits of the action.
Commitment, on the other hand, is a side constraint, limiting permissible action and therefore not
tied to the necessity of sanctioning either internally or externally. Sen argues that commitment
cannot be reduced merely to a feeling of guilt at not complying with the underlying rule. The
motivation from bad feelings may be too small in many cases to account for the costs incurred in
observing certain rules. 80 Norms may therefore be important for making progress on environmental
issues such as climate change. Change in consumer behavior may come not only from relative
price changes, but also from the impact of norms (and in particular internalized norms). One
difficulty, however, in building a theory around internalization is that any such theory may be non-
falsifiable. 81 Any choice not related to relative price or to reputation may be attributed to a taste or
a commitment. It may be difficult to separate [*424] out the influences of any internalized value or
commitment in a manner that is testable. Such a concern does not mean internalized norms should
be abandoned. Understanding choice and the impact of legal and policy change requires both
working through rational choice theory and considering the limitations on this framework. A fuller
theory of "rational" behavior is important for describing how choices are made but it may also be
important in making predictions from the theory more accurate. 82 For example, as will be seen in
the next Part, it will aid in discussing the possibility and desirability of using subsidies to influence
people's attitudes toward the environment and ultimately their choices across different options that
may affect climate change. The difficulty will be in incorporating greater
INDIVIDUAL ACTION IS ESSENTIAL TO SOLVE OIL DEPENDENCE

Solvency: OEA
The affirmative solves all of your prankster impact turns – the OEA is able to combine its
prankster ways with a simulacrum of regulation which allows for peaceful protest.

Solvency: Metaphoric Condensation
The plan acts as metaphoric condensation for a larger struggle
Slavoj Zizek, 1999 (Ticklish Subject, p. 204)

****General Solvency Evidence****
Government Key to Change
State intervention for pollution control of cars is required in a CBA calculus
Wenz, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Springfield, 2007
(Peter, Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the
Environmental Movement, “Does Environmentalism Promote Injustice for the Poor?”, Ed:
Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo page 61-62)
In the absence of government policy, oil dependency will continue

World,p.209-210
Environmental policies unquestionably improves the environment

Norman J. Vig, CQ Press, pg 28)
Government action is key to prevent environmental threats. Issues of public goods cannot
be solved by private industry alone – collective action corrects market failures

Congress Key to Change
Congress is the most influential body in environmental policy – they have the power of the
purse
Congress is key to environmental policies.

Environmental policy is at a crossroad. Federal policy can only solve with Congress in charge.

Government Incentives Key to Change
Pollution charge incentives achieve pollution control targets with minimal social costs
A. Myrick Freeman III, research professor of economics at Bowdoin College and a former
senior fellow at Resources for the Future, 2006 ( Norman Vig, Michael E. Kraft, Environmental
Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, Sixth Edition, Pg 211-212)
GOVERNMENT INCENTIVES ARE KEY

World,p.236
Pollution charge incentives encourage industry to account for the cost of pollution
A. Myrick Freeman III, research professor of economics at Bowdoin College and a former
senior fellow at Resources for the Future, 2006 ( Norman Vig, Michael E. Kraft, Environmental
Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, Sixth Edition, Pg 204)
Government incentives are key to reform.

Government incentives are critical to make alternative vehicles more attractive to

consumers
Chris Stefan, JD candidate at American University Washington College of Law., 2007
(Exploring How Today’s Development Affects Future Generations Around The Globe: In This
Issue: Sustainable Energy: Fueling The Future: A Policy-Based Comparison Of Alternative
Automotive Fuel Sources, Dec.)
The next question to be tackled is how to encourage people to trust and purchase alternative fuel-
powered vehicles. While concerns about the environment and energy supply are present amongst
the populace, economics determine consumer actions. In order to make the economics of
alternative fuel vehicles more attractive to consumers the tax code must be adjusted and research
and development must be encouraged by subsidizing such projects. Policymakers must
understand the importance of these changes in order for alternative fuels to become the norm in
our society.
Market rewards work best with regulations
Daniel Press, Professor and Chair of. Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz and Daniel A.
Mazmanian, Ph.D., previously served as USC School of Policy, 2006 ( Norman Vig, Michael E.
Kraft, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, Sixth Edition, Pg
280)
BECAUSE OF THE SLOW RATE OF CAR/TRUCK REPLACEMET, INCENTIVES BE

PROCIDED TO PROMOTE A MORE FUEL EFFICIENT SOCIETY
World,p.194-195
Funding isn’t available for alternative energy in the status quo

Revolution, Policies for a Sustainable Future Pg 37-38
Tax credits promote energy efficiency – consumers use them

Incentives are critical to create alternative energy markets for the poor
Vehicle taxes have led to low use of transport energy and encourage energy efficiency
Government procurement can launch energy efficient technologies into the market place

Command and Control Solvency
Command and control effectively clean up the environment
268-269)
Reduced enforcement makes voluntary programs less effective – regulation is critical

282)

Solvency: Sustainability
Energy efficiency is critical to sustainability

****General Oil Harms****

US = oil addiction
The US is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign oil
America currently consumes the most oil in the world

THE US PRODUCES 25% OF GLOBAL CO2. US CAR EMISSIONS EXCEED ALMOST

ALL COUNTRIES IN THE GLOBE COMBINED.
US fuel efficiency was worse in 2005 than in 1985.


Automobiles Key to Oil Addiction
US transportation sector drives oil consumption – its 80% of our consumption
Campbell, Professor of International Politics at the University of Newcastle, 2005
(David, “The biopolitics of security: Oil, Empire and the sports utility vehicle”, American
Quarterly, 57(3): 943-972)
The value of oil comes from its centrality to one of the defining characteristics of U.S.
society—mobility. It is mobility that drives U.S. oil consumption as the transportation
sector accounts for two-thirds of petroleum use. In turn, passenger vehicles are the
largest consumers of oil in the transportation sector, using 40 percent of the 20 million
barrels of oil consumed each day. Their central role in the consumption of oil is only
going to expand, as increases in the number, size, and usage of vehicles propel
America’s petroleum appetite. Of the additional 8.7 million barrels of oil that will be
required each day by 2025, 7.1 million barrels (more than 80 percent) will be needed to
fuel the growth in automobility. In global terms, this appetite is staggering, with the
U.S. passenger vehicle fleet alone responsible for one-tenth of all petroleum
consumption.
Transportation is the biggest oil hog of all

The production of gasoline requires double the amount of crude oil


US Autos = Inefficient Suck Mongers
Status Quo, US vehicle advances have not been energy efficient
The combustion engine equals inefficiency; increasing efficiency is the key to conservation

Oil Addiction Causes Wars
US military interventions secure oil for US energy needs.
US oil policies will exacerbate global disorder


Peak Oil Timeframe
Peak oil will hit at 2012 and we will have low supplies at 2050. We must change our rate of
fossil fuel use.
KwaZulu-Natal Press, pg 219-220)
BREAK POINT WILL HAPPEN IN 2 YEARS

World,p.181
2008 IS THE YEAR FOR THE GOV TO ENCOURAGE CONSUMERS TO MAKE A

LIFESTYLE CHANGE- WE ARE AT THE BREAK POINT
World,p.221-222
Peak Oil will occur in 2010


Oil Tipping Point
We are at the tipping point for oil and face problems ahead
Corporation, the Coming of Oil Break Point (pg. 6-7)
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE – WE NEED TO MAKE PERMANENT CHANGES NOW!

World,p.207
There is no clear brink to how much oil we have left

Economic growth is the cause of increasing oil consumption—the break point is coming
In the next decade, the oil industry will no longer be able to produce oil
US strategic petroleum reserves will only last three months in a mega-crisis

THE BREAK POINT IS HERE ITS TIME TO MAKE THE CHANGE

World,p.224-225

Oil Dependence General
ENDING OIL DEPENDENCY SAVES MILLIONS FROM DEATH AND DIEASE
Oil prices, including future price estimates and future contract prices, are increasing now
Inflation is a poor measure of oil prices

Conflict and politics make oil prices volatile which can throw the whole economy in peril
Energy use is on the rise and should double by 2025 – oil demand increasing

Resource Wars
Empirically, resource wars kill millions; this is the history of colonial conquest
William K. Tabb, 2007, (Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan.
The close relation between war and natural resources is of long standing. What else was
colonial conquest about? Vast estates held by the Dutch East India Company came under
direct control of the Crown as did the lands conquered by the British East India Company.
What was in demand in Europe dictated the commodities produced and the natural
resources that were ripped from the earth. European violence set the terms on which
resource extraction occurred. There was no free trade for mutual benefit based on
comparative advantage. There were few constraints on the violence employed in the
extraction of resources starting with the "shock and awe" of bombardments and fire storms
of wars of conquest and followed by the pitiless subjugation of people of color. Having
defeated the locals in battle the invaders suborned local elites and customs to extract
resources from those they had conquered.
The form of the exploitative relationships with particular colonial and neocolonial
overlords depended in large measure on the local traditions and social structures the
invaders found. The Spanish used the Inca mita system of requisitioned labor for the mines
where the subjugated died by the thousands from brutality and, as in the case of the vast
silver mines of Potosi, by mercury poisoning. The crushed ore was mixed with mercury
and trodden by the workers with their bare feet and then heated producing poisonous
vapors. King Leopold murdered millions in the Congo employing slavery, terror, maiming,
and mass killings because it was his view that "the colonies should be exploited, not by the
operation of a market economy, but by state intervention and compulsory cultivation of
cash crops to be sold to and distributed by the state at controlled prices."1
The US maintains a military establishment to protect its consumption

David Korten, President of the People-Centered Development Forum, 2002 (BEYOND THE
GLOBAL SUICIDE ECONOMY, June 22, http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/2002/Gobal6Billion.htm. )
So what does this mean for international relationships, in particular between high and low
income countries? The wealthy nations of the North are living far beyond their own means —
especially my country, the United States. We maintain extravagantly wasteful levels of
consumption by expropriating the resources of other peoples and countries. It requires
maintaining a vast and hugely expensive military establishment — which is the real reason
George W. is engaging in a U.S. military buildup in the absence of any identifiable enemy.
Millions die in resource wars. Angola and Chad got looted for oil. 1 in 5 don’t live to their
5th birthday.
William K. Tabb, 07 (Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan.,
Indeed, the oil rich countries of Africa: Nigeria, Gabon, the Sudan, the Congo, Equatorial
Africa, and Chad: have long histories of coups, military rule, and strongmen. Millions have
died of hunger and disease as a result of wars over oil, diamonds, copper, and other
resources as armed rebels steal, rape, and murder making life-generating economic activity
difficult if not impossible. In the Congo, one of the resource richest countries on the planet,
a half dozen countries have armies deployed and countless rebel groups have fought to
control rich deposits of gold, diamonds, timber, copper, and valuable cobalt and coltan in
what is often referred to as "Africa's First World War." Global Witness reports that despite
being the fourth largest oil producer in Africa, Congo Brazzaville has overseas debt of $6.4
billion as a consequence of Elf Aquitaine, the former French state oil company's strategy of
influence peddling and bribery.
In Angola, Joseph Savimbi, backed by foreign powers from the Cold war, amassed a
reported $4 billion from diamonds, ivory, and other resources sold abroad in his decades of
looting and brutality before he was killed. In Angola a million people died in the civil war,
one child in five does not live to its fifth birthday, and 40 percent of Angola's population
has been displaced. Almost none of the income from the state-owned oil company found its
way to Angola but was instead diverted to overseas banks. It was the wholesale looting of
Angola's oil revenues that fueled that country's vicious civil war.
Oil Dependence = Terrorism
Foreign oil dependence brews terrorism
The transportation sector is entirely dependent on oil which leaves us vulnerable to the
geopolitics of the Middle East.
Shultz, George P. & Woolsey, R. James., 2005, (Mechanical Engineering, “The Petroleum
Bomb”, Vol. 127 Issue 10, Oct, p30-3
Four years ago, on the eve of Sept. 11, 2001, the need to reduce radically our reliance on
oil was not clear to many and, in any case, the path of doing so seemed a long and difficult
one. Today, both assumptions are being undermined by the risks of the post-9/11 world and
by technological progress in fuel efficiency and alternative fuels. A single well-designed
attack on the petroleum infrastructure in the Middle East could send oil to well over $100
per barrel and devastate the world's economy. That reality, among other risks, and the fact
that our current transportation infrastructure is locked in to oil, should be sufficient to
convince any objective observer that oil dependence today creates serious and pressing
dangers for the United States and other oil-importing nations. Dependence on petroleum
and its products for the lion's share of the world's transportation fuel creates special
dangers in our time. These dangers are all driven by rigidities and potential vulnerabilities
that have become serious problems because of the geopolitical realities of the early 21st
century. Those who reason about these issues solely on the basis of abstract economic
models that are designed to ignore such geopolitical realities will find much to disagree
with in what follows. Although such models have utility in assessing the importance of
more or less purely economic factors in the long run, as Lord Keynes famously remarked,
"In the long run, we are all dead." The current transportation infrastructure is committed to
oil and oil-compatible products. There is a range of fuels that can be used to produce
electricity and heat and that can be used for other industrial uses, but petroleum and its
products dominate the fuel market for vehicular transportation. Neither the use of natural
gas in buses and other fleet vehicles nor the addition of corn-derived ethanol to gasoline in
some states has appreciably affected petroleum's dominance of the transportation fuel
market. That dependence leaves us vulnerable. The Greater Middle East will continue to be
the low-cost and dominant petroleum producer for the foreseeable future. The region is
home to around two-thirds of the world's proven reserves of conventional oil. Almost half
the world's reserves are in just Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. The Greater Middle East will
inevitably have to meet a growing percentage of world oil demand. This demand is
expected to increase by more than 50 percent in the next two decades, from 78 million
barrels per day in 2002 to 118 MBD in 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration. Much of the increase in demand is expected to come from China and India
US/Iran Oil War
The US will attack Iran to control the oil in the Middle East
There’s been a lot of speculation about whether or not the United States will attack Iran.
Roughly equal numbers of people believe the U.S. will and will not attack. Disregarding
the public blustering from both governments, I believe the U.S. will attack Iran in 2006.
Here’s why.
The master plan of the United States is to control the oil in the Middle East. Only two
countries stood in the way of that plan: Iraq and Iran. Iraq has been neutralized and
will remain impotent for the next decade because of civil war. Iran alone now stands in
the way of the U.S. master plan. But before proceeding with this line of argument, let’s
take a side trip.
Oil shortages will be a reason to stop Iran at any cost. US desire to control all oil in the Middle East
will result in a couple of nuclear bombs that level cities in Iran.
In the meantime, Iran will foment Shiite insurrection in Iraq, resulting in a dramatic
increase in casualties among American soldiers. Iran can also sink a few U.S.
warships and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, and indeed slow or stop the flow of oil
through the gulf. Of course, the U.S. will spin this Iranian retaliation as a reckless and
fanatical escalation of the war. Americans, angry at seeing their soldiers killed and their
warships sunk, will rally even more fervently around their president. The U.S.
Government will point to the world’s growing economic problems ensuing from the
shortage of oil as evidence that Iran needs to be stopped, whatever the cost. The
world’s industrialized nations that are so dependent on oil will publicly renounce taking
harsher action against Iran while privately hoping that the U.S. does whatever it takes to
get the oil flowing again.
Then, without warning, the U.S. will drop a couple of nuclear bombs on a couple of
medium sized cities in Iran, just like it did in Japan sixty years ago. The justifications will
be the same as before: to bring a speedy end to the war. Of course, the world will be
outraged, but its reaction will be muted because the U.S. will have already broken the
nuclear taboo when it used the “bunker busters,” and besides, what can the world really do
about it? Iran will surrender, and the U.S. will be fully in control of the Middle East and
two of its most important sources of oil: Iraq and Iran.
We are building and empire in the Persian Gulf to secure by military force oil supplies.
William K. Tabb, 2007, (Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan.
Hegemony has always been a bipartisan consensus. With regard specifically to the Middle
East we have the Carter Doctrine: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the
Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States
of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including
military force." Since Carter created the Rapid Deployment Force with this intervention in
mind the United States has moved to forward positioning, the establishment of a huge
permanent military presence in the region, including a number of multi-billion dollar bases
in Iraq, huge fortified cities with all the comforts of home, fast food places, video stores,
and car rental agencies for the soldiers who garrison the empire along "the arc of
instability." All of this takes place in territories which coincide with the parts of the Global
South where oil is found. That the official rationale is now the war on terrorism in place of
anticommunism is secondary to the continuation of the basic policy of world domination.
Iran War Impact Extensions
An Iran attack would involve bunker busters – this would blur the line between
conventional and nuclear weapons killing hundreds of thousands immediately
Senator Dianne Feinstein in 2006 (LA Times, Confronting Iran,
http://feinstein.senate.gov/06speeches/iran0415-oped.htm)
The dangers inherent in preemptive action are only multiplied by reports that the administration may be
considering first use of tactical, battlefield nuclear weapons in Iran: Specifically, nuclear "bunker busters"
to try to take out deeply buried targets. There are some in this administration who have been pushing to
make nuclear weapons more "usable." They see nuclear weapons as an extension of conventional
weapons. This is pure folly. As a matter of physics, there is no missile casing sufficiently strong to thrust
deep enough into concrete or granite to prevent the spewing of radiation. Nuclear "bunker busters" would
kill tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people across the Middle East. This would be a
disastrous tragedy. First use of nuclear weapons by the United States should be unthinkable. A preemptive
nuclear attack violates a central tenet of the "just war" and U.S. military traditions.
Iran is the most likely country to go to war with the US

Project AIRFORCE 2006 [RAND project AIRFORCE, edited by David A. Shlapak, Prepared for the
United States Air Force, “Shaping the Future Air Force”, RAND.com]
Figure 2.1 presents in schematic form our approach to identifying the scenarios on which U.S. defense
planners should focus in preparing for future conflicts against states. Basically, the United States
must be prepared to fight and win wars in which three components are present: • Important
national interests are at stake • An adversary state is pursuing objectives inimical to those
interests • That state has the military means to advance its objectives.
In the near- to mid-term, there are three potential opponents that meet all three criteria:
• North Korea possesses an array of “asymmetrical” military capabilities, especially nuclear weapons,
which pose serious threats to key U.S. allies, such as South Korea and Japan. In addition, Pyongyang’s
record as a vendor of missile and other dangerous technologies represents perhaps the most severe
proliferation risk confronting the United States.
• China’s growing military capabilities are well documented, as are its differences with the United
States regarding the fate of Taiwan.4 In the mid- to long-term, it seems likely that friction will grow
between Washington and Beijing as China’s influence in East Asia begins to rub up against, and
perhaps erode, the U.S. position there.5
• Iran is the most ambiguous of the three candidates. Its military forces are currently the feeblest
of the trio, although the acquisition of nuclear weapons would do much to offset Tehran’s
weakness in most conventional areas. Further, unlike North Korea and China, Iran lacks a specific
territorial bone to pick with a U.S. friend or ally. However, the Iranian regime is definitely hostile
toward the United States, has a track record of both supporting international terrorism and
endeavoring to subvert U.S. allies in the Gulf region, and is striving to develop a military capable of
threat-ening its neighbors (albeit more coercively than via invasion), most of whom are U.S. friends or
clients.
Iran retaliation leads to all out war
Michel Chossudovsky 2006 [Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the
Center for Research on Globalization, Nuclear War against Iran,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CH20060103&articleId=1714]
Tehran has confirmed that it will retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes
directed against Israel (CNN, 8 Feb 2005). These attacks, could also target US military facilities
in Iraq and Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation
and all out war. At present there are three distinct war theaters: Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.
The air strikes against Iran could contribute to unleashing a war in the broader Middle East Central
Asian region..
When we say nuclear war, we mean it – the days of large militaries crossing borders are
over.
Project AIRFORCE 2006 [RAND project AIRFORCE, edited by David A. Shlapak, Prepared for the
United States Air Force, “Shaping the Future Air Force”, RAND.com]
The “classic” major combat operation—which as typically conceived has involved combat against an
adversary with a second- or third-rate combined arms force that is committing large-scale
aggression across a land border—is disappearing. Future “big wars” will, above all, usually be
shadowed by the adversary’s possession of nuclear weapons (and perhaps its willingness to use
them) and/or by relatively sophisticated conventional strike capabilities that can threaten U.S. forces
and coalition partners. The opponent’s war aims may also be more oriented toward punishment or
coercion than outright conquest and occupation, which could dramatically reduce the time lines
for an effective U.S. response. A nuclear-armed North Korea, for example, will require
dramatically less time to lay waste to South Korea, or Tokyo, than it would to invade and invest
Seoul using conventional military forces.2
The US would use Bunker Busters thereby blurring the line between conventional and
nuclear use of weapons
Feinstein 2006 [Dianne, US Senator, LA Times, Confronting Iran,
http://feinstein.senate.gov/06speeches/iran0415-oped.htm]
The dangers inherent in preemptive action are only multiplied by reports that the
administration may be considering first use of tactical, battlefield nuclear weapons in Iran:
Specifically, nuclear "bunker busters" to try to take out deeply buried targets. There are some in
this administration who have been pushing to make nuclear weapons more "usable." They see
nuclear weapons as an extension of conventional weapons. This is pure folly. As a matter of
physics, there is no missile casing sufficiently strong to thrust deep enough into concrete or
granite to prevent the spewing of radiation. Nuclear "bunker busters" would kill tens of
thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people across the Middle East. This would be a
disastrous tragedy. First use of nuclear weapons by the United States should be unthinkable. A
preemptive nuclear attack violates a central tenet of the "just war" and U.S. military traditions
Striking Iran will destroy US leadership, aka hegemony.
Amuzegar 2006 [Jahangir, finance minister and economic ambassador in Iran’s pre-1979 government,
MIDDLE EAST POLICY, VOL. XIII, NO. 2, SUMMER 2006, The Author Journal Compilation, Middle
East Policy Council “NUCLEAR IRAN: PERILS AND PROSPECTS”, http://www.blackwell-
synergy.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1475-4967.2006.00252.x]
The use of military force by Washington alone, or through a “coalition of the willing” also
involves a range of dire consequences. First, it is most likely to face stiff resistance and
retaliation from Iranian forces.89 Tehran has already threatened Washington with a
counterpunch, saying, “The U.S. may have the power to cause harm and pain” but it is also
vulnerable.90 Tehran now boasts of having recruited 40,000 volunteer suicide bombers. Iran
also possesses thousands of surface-to-air missiles in range of U.S. forces in Iraq. Iranian
naval and air forces could attack oil facilities and tankers in the Persian Gulf and choke off
oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian navy exercises during April 2006 in the
area where new weapons were tested were meant to warn against a naval blockade. Tehran
may use its fifth-column assets in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan to destabilize those
countries or engage in mischief against U.S. and Israeli targets around the world.91 The
Mahdi army of Moktada Sadr, closely linked to Tehran, has loyal agents in both the Iraqi
police and army and can come directly to Iran’s support.92 Lebanese Hizballah possesses
thousands of missiles based in Israel’s proximity. Military strikes are also likely to alienate
not only Washington’s European allies, but also even the most moderate and pro- American
groups elsewhere. Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Middle East countries with Shiite
populations will witness crises and demonstrations, stirring up feelings of resentment, anger
and hatred throughout the Muslim world and reinforcing the perception of an anti-Islamic
Judeo- Christian conspiracy.93 The Tehran government will receive a good deal of
sympathy and support from the Non-Aligned Movement as well.94 There is also a
presumption — although questioned by some analysts — in which Iranians of all political
stripes will rally around the flag and unite behind the current leadership despite their
opposition to the theocratic regime.95 Some analysts even argue that a military strike would
be a godsend for the regime as it would create ill-will against the West, enhance the
system’s authority, and prolong the regime’s survival as a vast majority of citizens genuinely
support their country’s having a domestic nuclear capacity.96 The move may actually
harden Iran’s resolve to pursue its nuclear programs even more diligently.97 And there will
be charges of aggression in the United Nations, based on a “unilateral, preemptive, illegal and
unprovoked assault.”98 Finally, an attack on the Bushehr power plant would run the risk of
many civilian casualties in addition to other collateral damage, including an environmental
disaster dreaded by all U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf region. A former U.S. national
security adviser believes that Washington’s war with Iran would be “the end of America’s
present role in the world.”99 As has been pointed out by many strategic analysts, neither
non-universal stiff sanctions nor military strikes short of actual invasion and occupation
would be enough to topple the regime.100 And even if the mullahs were defeated, which
foreign government or international organization has the ability or manpower to carry out an
extended occupation or to prevent a civil war? Iran of 2006 is vastly different from that of
1941, when it was easily occupied and administered with the help of a cooperating
government. In short, the military option is regarded as irrational, lots of pain for not much
gain.101 Yet it should be kept in mind that irrationality has never in history served as
insurance against wrongful acts by political daredevils.
The US would have to drop nuclear bombs to neutralize Iran
Another “rational” argument against attacking Iran is that the U.S., by virtue of its
constrained manpower, can only feasibly attack Iran by air, which would not be very
effective if limited to “military” targets. This is true, but it misses the point. The initial air
assault against Iran would be merely the first step in what the U.S. probably hopes will
become a larger war. Why? Because the only way the United States can successfully
neutralize Iran is by dropping a couple of nuclear bombs on its civilian population,
forcing Iran to surrender unconditionally.
Iran will defend the Straits of Hormuz if attacked by the US

MSNBC, July 2, 2008 (“Oil passes $144 to set yet another record”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/)
Traders are worried Tehran could try to halt shipments and seize control of the
strategically important Strait of Hormuz if attacked by Israel or the United States.
About 40 percent of the world’s tanker traffic passes through the Middle Eastern
choke-point.
Iran’s oil minister warned Wednesday that an attack on his country would provoke a
fierce response, but said Tehran would not cut oil deliveries and would continue supplying
the market even if struck.
In New York, however, Iran’s foreign minister did not rule the possibility that Iran
could try to restrict oil traffic in the strait if the country was attacked.
“In Iran we must defend our national security, our country and our revolutionary
system and we will continue to do so,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
Nuke War Impacts
Nuclear war causes kills 50 to 100 million people immediately, plus environment damage
that kills us all in the following weeks
Davis, Davis has served in the US government and as a consultant on energy and environmental
issues for some three decades. 2007.
(David, Ignoring the Apocalypse)
Nuclear war would cause billions of deaths.

Davis, Davis has served in the US government and as a consultant on energy and environmental
issues for some three decades. 2007.
(David, Ignoring the Apocalypse)

****General Global Warming Harms****

Earth is Warming
Global temperatures are rising at a rapid and uneven pace.
Bender, Professor of philosophy at the University of Colorodo-Colorodo Springs, 2003
(Frederic L., The Culture of Extinction: Toward a Philosophy of Deep Ecology , Humnaity
Books pg 29-30)
There is an upward trend of between seven and eight degrees on some places of the earth
within a decade and growing.

Vehicle Emissions Cause Enviro Crisis
SO2 emission create acid rain which destroys the enviro
The auto industry is booming and is causing an environmental nightmare—a shift is

possible to stop these harms
Transportation sector for more than 1/3 of all US greenhouse gases

Transportation is the source of roughly one-third of all the heat-trapping gases

(greenhouse gases) linked to global warming that are released in the United States every
year (EIA 2000a). Greenhouse- gas emissions from the US transportation sector amount to
more than most countries release from all sources combined.5 The production,
transportation, and use of gasoline for cars and light trucks resulted in the emission of
1,450 tons of greenhouse gases by the United States in 2000—over one-fifth of US global
warming emissions that year.6
Air Pollution Harms
Air pollution of devastates economy’s and decreases life spans

Global Warming = Human Caused
GLOBAL WARMING COMES FROM INCREASED CO2 WHICH IS CAUSED BY
HUMANS
Lives Per Gallon, The True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.86
Human action is amplifying global warming, through clear scientific evidence.

Books Page 32)
Burning of Fossil Fuels is the main cause of Global Warming

Human made emissions will increase global warming 50% in the coming century
Fred Pearce, 2008 (New Scientist, Rising Teperatures bring their own CO2, NEWS, this
week, pg. 11, March 22)
"There seems to be a change of about 40 parts per million (ppm) in CO2 levels for every 1
°C change in temperature," says Cox, who has revisited the Little Ice Age data. Since
further global warming is inevitable in the near future, it means we're heading for big
natural increases in CO2 on top of human-made emissions.
This extra increase will boost global warming in the coming century to about 50 per cent
above mainstream climate projections, says Cox, because they only include the effect of
CO2 on temperature, and not temperature's effect on CO2.
"The system turns out to be more sensitive than we thought. If we get 4 °C of warming in
the coming century, that by itself will raise CO2 levels by an extra 160 ppm. And that may
be rather conservative." Current levels are 380 ppm, compared with pre-industrial levels of
270 ppm. Many scientists believe anything above 450 ppm will create a devastating global
climate.
Cox's findings were among many unnerving observations about past climate change
presented at the meeting suggesting existing climate models are too optimistic.
"We are headed into unknown territory and the only things we have to guide us are physics
and our knowledge of the past," says Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller at NASA's
Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
Greenhouse gases are increasing and come from burning fossil fuels – the impact will be
millions dead.

Global Warming Scenarios - Ice Caps
CO2 WILL LEAD TO GLOBAL WARMING WHICH MELTS THE ICE CAPS &
CAUSES SEA LEVELS TO RISE
Ocean levels are rising, threatening cities and could rise 16 feet over the next 100 years.
Greenhouse gases have added a level of unpredictability in the environment which is not
desirable
Alaska’s permafrost is melting and changing balance proving mass climate change.
Warming is clearly occurring. Rising sea levels threaten three quarters of the world’s
population.
Books ppg 32-33)
Global Warming will cause irreversible ecological damage sans a shift in energy policy

Global Warming Scenarios – Coral
Co2 ALTERS OCEANS PH LEVELS WHICH DISSOLVES CORAL

Global Warming Scenario – Indigenous Rights
GLOBAL WARMING VIOLATES INDIGEOUS RIGHTS

Global Warming Scenario – Weather
The climate is more extreme nowadays with more hurricanes and typhoons.
Global warming causes extreme weather which results in the increase of oil prices

Global Warming Scenario – Disease
Slight temperature changes can produce huge increases in diseases
Books pg 34)

Global Warming Scenario – Phytoplankton
Weak ozone kills phytoplankton which are key to global oxygen levels.
Books pg 44)

Global Warming Laundry Lists
Global Warming causes cancer, destroys plants, and results in species extinction
Change, p.101-102

Answer To: GW Solved by plants/ocean
PLANTS AND OCEAN ABSORBTION DOES NOT SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING

Answer To: GW = Long Time Frame
Even 1% change in atmosphere can severely affect the climate.
NOT KNOWING WHEN OUR IMPACT HAPPENS ISNT A REASON TO IGNORE IT


Environment Extinction Impacts
We have 40 years to reverse environmental decline or face extinction
Change, p.101

****Environmental Justice****
Environmental Ethic Needed
Its time to make sacrifices for an environmental ethic; wholesale change empirically improves social
conditions and the economy
Viewing nature as the amoral Other leads to the conquering and domination of nature in the
name of security.
Jamieson, Professor of Environmental Studies, Philosophy at NYU, 2007 (Dale, Environmental
Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental
Movement, “Justice: The Heart of Environmentalism Ed: Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C.
Pezzullo page 93-94)
Being part of nature prevents humans from reducing nature to a basket of distributable goods.

Transportation = Urban Pollution
Urban pollution can be directly linked to transportation
Cars and trucks are also the largest single source of air pollution in most urban areas.
Emissions from a vehicle’s tailpipe are by far the largest source of pollution from cars
today; emissions from fuel production and delivery—so called upstream emissions—are
becoming just as significant, however, as tailpipe emissions standards are tightened to
protect public health. As environmental regulations require vehicles to emit fewer and
fewer pollutants from the tailpipe, these upstream emissions will become one of the
dominant sources of toxic emissions and smog-forming pollutants. Unlike tailpipe
emissions, upstream pollution can be directly linked to vehicle fuel economy. Reducing
gasoline use by half can cut upstream emissions by the same amount, since reduced fuel
use means a reduction in all of the activities associated with bringing more fuel to market.
Environmental Justice
Language shapes our action. Enviro Justice is a way to shift environmentalism to include
people. All people have the right to a clean, healthy environment.
DeLuca, Adjunct Professor, Environmental Ethics Program, UGA, 2007 (Kevin,
Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the
Environmental Movement, “A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the
Infinite Self-Absorption of Humans”, Ed: Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo page
30-31)
Alternative energy incentives to fight global warming economically benefit the poor.
Wenz, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Springfield, 2007 (Peter,
Putting justice at the center of environmentalism gives it motivational heart.

Pezzullo page 98)
Management of the environment is key to help impoverished people by providing them equal
access to resources.
Environmental debates exclude the voices of disenfranchised groups.

Pezzullo page 92)

US Foreign policy creates ideology that sets the domestic country superior and foreign
country inferior. This creates perceived danger among population.
Quarterly, 57(3): 943-972)
This record demonstrates that the boundary-producing political performance of foreign
policy does more than inscribe a geopolitical marker on a map. This construction of
social space also involves an axiological dimension in which the delineation of an
inside from an outside gives rise to a moral hierarchy that renders the domestic
superior and the foreign inferior. Foreign policy thus incorporates an ethical power of
segregation in its performance of identity/difference. While this produces a geography
of “foreign” (even “evil”) others in conventional terms, it also requires a disciplining of
“domestic” elements on the inside that challenge this state identity. This is achieved
through exclusionary practices in which resistant elements to a secure identity on the
“inside” are linked through a discourse of “danger” with threats identified and
located on the “outside.” Though global in scope, these effects are national in their
legitimation.
Mysteriously, impoverished indigenous communities suffer because of our gas guzzling

nation. It is their neighborhoods and communities which must contain the oil refineries and
gas pipelines.
Quarterly, 57(3): 943-972)
At the same time, this deterritorialization of the space of automobility and its security
effects does not mean we exist above and beyond territory. To the contrary, the
globalization of automobility and its security implications results in the creation of
new borderlands with uneven consequences. These borderlands are conventionally
understood as distant, wild places of insecurity where foreign intervention will be
necessary to ensure domestic interests are secured. They include zones of exploration
and the spaces traversed by pipelines, both of which involve the further
marginalization of impoverished indigenous communities. The fate of these people
and places is subsumed by the privilege accorded a resource (oil) that is central to the
American way of life, the security of which is regarded as a fundamental strategic
issue.
Environmental justice should go beyond the domestic and encompass the globe
Pezzullo page -93)

The creation of communities are not benign but rather an venue for environmental racism.
Epperson graduate student at the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University
2004
(Bruce, “Is form destiny? Technologies of Personal Security, July , The Johns Hopkins
University Press, Volume 45 Number 3)
Behind the Gates is part of a new “third wave” of literature examining the process of
suburbanization. Sam Bass Warner’s seminal works Streetcar Suburbs (1962) and The
Private City (1968) represent the first wave, which looked at the origins of the early
suburbs. The high-water mark of the second wave of books, examining the development of
post–World War II communities, was Kenneth Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier (1985). For
Warner, Jackson, and their respective contemporaries, urban physical form is the offspring
of middle-class values. Cities look like they do because they are the bricks-and-mortar
reflection of the tastes, aspirations, and hopes of their property-owning residents.
Conversely, the new urbanists, taking their cues from architecture, view the built
environment as a deliberately crafted tool intended to shape the psychology of its
occupants. Change the urban form, the argument goes, and you change the way people
think, feel, and act. Low’s study is based on almost a hundred interviews of residents in
seven gated communities, three outside New York City, three near San Antonio, and one
adjacent to Mexico City. The three Long Island communities are in-fill developments with
a mix of housing types, including single-family detached (SFD) units, town houses, and
apartments. The San Antonio developments are all on the urban fringe and contain only
SFDs. Prices range between two hundred and fifty thousand and one million dollars. Vista
Mar, near Mexico City, is a very large (thousand-unit) SFD subdivision that created its own
voluntary homeowners’ association in response to local government’s inability to enforce
development regulations and deliver urban services. The diverse geography and mix of
housing types improve Low’s study, and the inclusion of Vista Mar, the first detailed look
at a North American suburb located outside the United States, is the most significant
strength of her work. Initially, Low comes to conclusions very similar to her predecessors’.
The suburb is a place where the features of the natural and built environment are
combined to allow a society of individualistic, somewhat xenophobic citizens to
mediate their disparities by relying on mutual avoidance and the physical
manifestations of consensus, thus minimizing the need for confrontation and overt
coercion. But whereas the earlier studies found this to be an organic feature of the
environment (Warner) or a transitional improvisation (Jackson), Low labels it “moral
minimalism.” The older works took racism for granted and looked at the ways this
bias was reflected in the built form, but Low’s “third wave” perspective leads her to
ask how a fundamentally racist built environment may influence future generations.
Warner and Jackson analyzed racism retrospectively. To them, the suburb is a time
capsule, fixing a fluid and ephemeral past indelibly in stone. Low evaluates racism
prospectively. For her, the walled and gated developmentis a living virus, infecting
each succeeding generation with the prejudices of its creators.
Economy today exploits the environment, oppresses ethnicities and these movements have
caused speed in a hard fought struggle.
Figueroa, 2002.
(Robert, “The Environmental Justice Reader”, p. 241-242)
The environment should be viewed as a resource whose distribution should be governed by
a principle of equality.
Environmental justice movements solves by redefining the scope of the environment

DeLuca, Adjunct Professor, Environmental Ethics Program, UGA, 2007 (Kevin,
Environmental Movement, “A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the
Infinite Self-Absorption of Humans”, Ed: Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo page 29)
US environmental justice movement needs an international perspective to end run around

business barriers
Roberts, Professor at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, Professor of
Sociology at the College of William and Mary, US. , 2007 (J. Timmons, Environmental Justice
and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement, “Justice:
The Heart of Environmentalism Ed: Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo page 300-301)

Enviro Justice = Moral Ob
Environmental justice must be a moral responsibility. Giving voices to those suffering the
worst environmental injustices furthers the environmental justice movement.
Uma Outka, 2005 (Maine Law Review, “ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE AND THE PROBLEM OF
THE LAW”, p. 232)
This recognition invites us to conceive of environmental justice as the solution to environmental
discrimination, such as in waste facility siting decisions, as well as to broader environmental concerns, such as air
or water pollution generally. By linking our concern for environmental injustice more closely with our concern
for the earth, we advance both goals, because environmental injustice harms not just the communities that
suffer the injustice, but the environment at large as well. To the extent that we fail to consider
environmental justice a moral responsibility, and fail to make a conscious effort toward equitable
distribution of environmental harms, we perpetuate ineffective pollution control and tolerate ongoing
environmental degradation. The fact that environmental injustice is not always visible to the public at large has led to
complacency over the level of pollution our laws allow. The toxic exposure that communities like Waterfront South or Chester
endure is only "tolerable" because white, wealthier people do not live there. Who can imagine an incinerator being built in the
rich Camden or Philadelphia suburbs? The result is that the environment continues to be polluted at a rate that is unsustainable
and in many cases irrevocable. By giving a voice to those suffering the worst environmental injustices, and
demanding the right to participate in decision making that affects them, the movement furthers social and
environmental objectives.
Environmental justice reframes utilitarian legal calculations; instead it is driven by moral
concerns for groups of disadvantaged communities
Ke Jian, associate professor at the Research Institute of Environmental Law, 2005 (Temple Journal of
Science, Technology & Environmental Law, “INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PUBLIC
POLICY: 2004 U.S.-CHINA ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY
ROUNDTABLE: ARTICLE: Environmental Justice: Can an American Discourse Make Sense in Chinese
Environmental Law?”, Spring, p. 266-267)
Due to the many different positions and attitudes about the environmental justice movement, there are numerous interpretations
of the status of environmental justice today. From my own perspectives and evaluations of the social movement and its legal and
policy implications, I present the following framework of the discourse, beginning with the following conclusions:
Environmental justice refers to a political and social movement to address the disparate distribution of
environmental harms and benefits in the United States. The environmental justice movement not only led to
more public awareness of problems of race and equity in environmental protection but also increased its
legitimacy as a bona fide environmental issue;
The discourse about environmental justice mainly came from the legacy of the environmental movement and Civil
Rights crusade in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and is a reflection and extension of civil rights laws in the
field of environmental protection;
The discourse about environmental justice contains more of a political message than a legal message in the context of history,
culture, and the economy. However, the law can play a key role in dealing with the issue;
The internal impetus of the environmental justice movement is its moral and ethical considerations. That
is, the moral and ethical concern for groups of disadvantaged people. It contains universal value for
environmental law and policy globally;
The discourse is about and applicable to certain communities and specific groups of people, i.e. communities of racial minorities
and low-income, rather than individuals;
In addition to the two traditional frameworks (environmental movement and civil rights movement), environmental justice
provides a new framework through which critical pieces of environmental law and policy in the United States
can be considered, such as environmental rights, utilitarianism, and a cost-benefit analysis;
Environmental justice considerations arise in virtually all aspects of environmental law and challenge some of the fundamental
underpinnings of environmental law and policy, although environmental justice does not necessarily require a comprehensive
implementation and enforcement system;
Civil rights are one of the foundations of environmental justice. However, the domain of civil rights extended from its original
focus of race to other groups of disadvantaged people such as those living in low-income communities;
Environmental justice is collective-right-based while traditional environmental law is duty-based or individual-right-based;
Environmental justice in the United States is not only based on moral passion but also on empirical
evidence.
Nigeria Human Rights
Oil has been a curse for Africa. Nigeria has 70% of their population living on less than a
dollar a day. Oil related environmental damage is beyond human description.
Ben Hillier, 2008 (Socialist Alternative, “Oil and Empire”, Edition 121/October,
http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=106)
You might think that all of this economic competition must be a godsend to the destitute masses
of the African continent. After all, capitalist development is what the continent desperately needs,
right? Unfortunately, the opposite is the case.
Nigeria, the continent's largest producer, struck oil nearly 50 years ago. Between 1960 and 1973
output increased 120-fold, with government oil-revenues increasing nearly 140-fold in the
decade from 1970. Yet as US academic Michael Watts points out, "Between 1970 and 2000 in
Nigeria, the number of people subsisting on less than one dollar a day grew from 36 per cent to
more than 70 per cent, from 19 million to a staggering 90 million." The IMF could curiously
write of this that oil "did not seem to add to the standard of living." Little wonder, when 85 per
cent of the revenues accrue to 1 per cent of the population.
Added to this is the environmental devastation. Constant leaks and spills in the Niger Delta have
seen the beaches run black. The water has a constant oily film over the top, fish stocks are
depleted and acid rain diminishes local crop yields. A group of scientific researchers who visited
three of the nine Niger Delta States in the late 1990s noted "most places we went, the extent of
damage [was] sincerely beyond human description." One oil spill alone in 1998 released over
800,000 barrels of oil into the local region.
In most villages there are no schools, medical clinics, or social services, no clean drinking water
and almost no paying jobs. People struggle to eke out a living, while all around them oil wells
owned by foreign companies pump billions of dollars' worth of oil a year from under their feet.
Vote aff to prioritize the human suffering Nigeria over energy issues
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10341/)
An old woman from the Delta tries, in the new American documentary Sweet Crude, to talk
directly to you. She says: “I’d like people all over the world to realise there’s a segment of
humanity suffering as a result of oil production - ordinary men, women, children. They should
think about them and not think simply of energy. Think of us as people. That’s more important
than anything.”
Nigeria is a key supplier of US oil

Peter Brookes, senior fellow, 2007 (The Heritage Foundation, “The Niger Delta Blues”, May 23,
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed052307a.cfm)
Africa now provides nearly 20 percent of our oil imports, making the African continent's relative
geographic proximity and high-quality, "sweet" (low-sulfur) crude a real winner for American
energy security.
And no African country is more important to our energy addiction than the West African giant,
Nigeria-our largest oil supplier in Africa and our fifth largest globally (after Venezuela, Saudi
Arabia, Mexico and Canada).
In Ogoni, pipelines are poorly maintained and cause 35 million tons of of CO2 emissions.
Comfort, CEC Executive Director, 02.
(Susan, “The Environmental Justice Reader”, p. 232-234)
Our cry for cheap oil is destroying Nigeria – where people live with nothing and die by age
40
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10341)
When you cry for cheaper oil, do you know what you are really asking for? Gordon Brown has
just shown us. He has unwittingly exposed the pipeline that runs from your petrol station to the
poisoned people of the Niger Delta. The more you howl for cheap oil, the more they will be
Shell-shocked into submission.
To understand, you need to know the story of the Niger Delta, a once lush land of mangrove
swamps at the base of Nigeria. In the late 1950s, in the final days of British imperial rule, Shell’s
local subsidiary discovered it lay on top of vast pools of oil. Britain immediately became its
number one user, with the US close behind. In the long decades since, more than $200bn worth
of oil and gas has been pumped from beneath the Delta people’s feet.
So you would imagine the Niger Delta must now be an oasis of riches, with its 30m people
bathing in wealth. But no: they live with nothing and die by the age of 40. While the lifeblood of
twenty-first century techno-life is pumped from their land, they live in the Stone Age, with no
schools, no hospitals and barely any electricity. They have felt three effects from the petrol. Their
land has been poisoned by oil spills; the fish they lived off have been turned into stunted, toxic
rarities; and when they ask for compensation, they are shot at.
When the people of Nigeria spoke up, the result is brutal military intervention to keep the
oil flowing
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/14/10341)
The people of the Niger Delta have not watched this destruction of their homeland - for us -
passively. They signed petitions, went to the oil barges to ask for a fair share of the proceeds, and
refused to co-operate with the oil companies. The response? According to Human Rights Watch,
the Nigerian military - hungry for its own hefty cut of the cash - beat, tortured or killed them,
sometimes with the active help of some of the oil companies.
For example, in 1998, more than 100 ordinary villagers went to one of Chevron’s barges to ask
peacefully to speak to the company’s managing director. They were told to wait.
They saw helicopters approaching, and assumed they were Chevron spokespeople - until the
gunfire began. Two of them were shot dead. Others were taken away and tortured. The rest
managed to flee. A Chevron spokesman admitted the corporation flew in the Nigerian soldiers
who did the shooting - and that the protestors they murdered were unarmed.
Peaceful protests had been swelling in popularity since the early 1990s - so the movement’s
leaders were seized. The head of the local Internal Security Task Force, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul
Okuntimo, made clear why, in a 1994 memo that was later leaked: “Shell operations are still
impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken,” he wrote, including “wasting
targets … especially vocal individuals.” (Shell claims the memo is fake, and if it is real they find
it “abhorrent”.) One of the arrested leaders, the playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, said: “This is it -
they are going to execute us. For Shell.” In his final plea before he was hanged, he asked: “Why
should the people on oil-bearing land be tortured?”
WHILE NIGERIA HAS MADE BILLIONS IN OIL REVENUES, BUT PER CAPATIAL
PEOPLE MAKE LESS THEN A DOLLAR ADAY
The US is the largest purchaser of Nigerian oil – without an end to this assault, violence is
bound to escalate.
Dee Burton, 2005 (Common Dreams, “U.S. Oil From Nigeria Tainted With Blood”, Dec. 14,
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1214-30.htm)
Nigeria is the largest African producer of oil and the United States is the largest purchaser of
Nigerian oil. At the same time that polluted water and soil make a sustainable life of fishing or
farming increasingly rare in the Niger Delta, many indigenous oil workers see no oil revenues.
And men and women continue to die from violent exchanges at oil sites, while all incidents go
uninvestigated by the oil companies and both the Nigerian and United States governments.
Unless there is an end to the ecological assault upon the Niger Delta and the inequitable
distribution of oil revenues, violence is bound to continue and escalate.
Oil companies are destroying Nigeria – communities are struggling to survive
Dee Burton, 2005 (Common Dreams, “U.S. Oil From Nigeria Tainted With Blood”, Dec. 14,
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1214-30.htm)
Oil corporations have operated for decades in Nigeria, the world’s fifth-leading oil producer,
with no fear of penalties for trashing the environment or violating the human rights of nine ethnic
groups in the Niger Delta. The Ogoni, fishers and farmers like other peoples of the nine Niger
Delta states, lived off the land until 1958 when Shell Nigeria began drilling oil. Gas flaring and
river dredging for pipelines began almost immediately, transforming the fertile delta into a
wasteland of oil, chemicals, and pollutants.
The resultant destruction of land and contamination of rivers has made it impossible for Niger
Delta citizens to continue to fish and farm. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s leaders have grown rich from
corporate oil, and gladly assign security forces to counter, and sometimes silence, citizen
protests. In 1995 the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha deemed hanging to be the
necessary means to quell the articulate voice of poet Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogoni
activists.
These nine Ogoni environmentalists were hanged in Nigeria following a sham trial that
attempted to end protests against the government and Shell. Saro-Wiwa, who founded the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, had led these peaceful protests for almost two
decades. One would have hoped that these activists' sacrifice, and the accompanying
international outrage, would have led to an era of corporate responsibility and respect for human
rights. Instead, a decade later, Niger Delta communities still struggle to survive as oil companies
protect their own single-minded interests.
Oil industry in Nigeria is corrupt

Peter Brookes, senior fellow, 2007 (The Heritage Foundation, “The Niger Delta Blues”, May 23,
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed052307a.cfm)
While the rebel's tactics are deplorable, they do have a legitimate beef with Abuja. The Niger
Delta is notoriously poor; as little as 1 percent of the government's oil take trickles down to
Nigeria's 140 million people.
Worse yet, oil industry corruption is a big problem, too. In broad daylight, criminal syndicates-
with official complicity -- siphon off as much as $2 billion in oil every year in a practice dubbed,
"bunkering."
Columbia Human Rights
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OCCUR EVERYDAY IN COLUMBIA FOR US OIL

Ecuador Human Rights
AN Ecuador Tribe has been brought to extinction for the benefit of one day (20 million
barrels) worth of oil. US companies are laying waste to other parts of the world to feed the
US oil addiction.

Sudan Human Rights
The Sudanese government is committing human rights abuses to open oil fields
Julie Flint, 2002 (Sunday Herald, “Slaughter in the Name of Oil”, March 24,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0324-02.htm)
The United Nations' relief operation for war-affected areas of Sudan, Operation Lifeline Sudan,
has had no permanent presence in Ruweng County since the work on the pipeline began. In the
absence of outside witnesses, government forces -- and the southern rebels of the Sudan People's
Liberation Army -- enjoy complete impunity.
Word of the offensive late last year might never have reached the outside world had the European
Campaign on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), a coalition of European NGOs including Christian Aid, not
sent a human rights lawyer to the area.
ECOS was launched in May 2001 to lobby European governments and companies involved in oil
to pull out of Sudan until there is agreement on the equitable sharing of Sudan's oil wealth and
guarantees that it will not be built on human rights abuses. Lawyer Diane de Guzman said her
visit had unearthed new evidence of government abuses.
'The human rights abuses are horrific and systematic,' she said. 'The government is going in,
burning the villages, killing people, clearing areas in order for the oil companies to work.
Human Rights Impacts
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS TRUMP OTHER CLAIMS.
****Answers To: Various Case Args****
Answers To: SUVs are Safe
SUV’s achieve their safety by externalizing their danger. For every 1 person saved, 5 are
killed – this is the concept of biopolitics.
In collisions that do not result in rollovers, SUVs do offer their occupants greater safety
when compared with those in the other vehicle. However, the safety of SUV occupants
comes at the cost of substantially higher death rates for those they collide with. When
SUVs hit a car from the side, the occupant of the car is twenty-nine times more likely to be
killed than those riding in the SUV. What this means is that in collisions that do not result
in rollovers, SUVs achieve their relative safety by externalizing danger. Keith Bradsher has
concluded that “for each [Ford] Explorer driver whose life is saved in a two- vehicle
conclusion by choosing an Explorer instead of a large car, an extra five drivers are killed in
vehicles struck by Explorers.” This has led the current head of the NHTSA to lament that
“the theory that I am going to protect myself and my family even if it costs other peoples
lives has been the operative incentive for the design of these vehicles, and that’s just
wrong.” But in the absence of regulation, individuals faced with growing numbers of
SUVs on the road are going to opt for these vehicles, even though this will increase the
collective danger. The result, in Bradsher’s words, is a “highway arms race.”
Biopolitics justifies killing in the name of preserving life. This logic is responsible for some
of the worst cases of mass genocide ever.
Michel Foucault argues that biopolitics arrives with the historical transformation in waging
war from the defense of the sovereign to securing the existence of a population. In
Foucault’s argument, this historical shift means that decisions to fight are made in terms of
collective survival, and killing is justified by the necessity of preserving life.16 It is this
centering of the life of the population rather than the safety of the sovereign or the security
of territory that is the hallmark of biopolitical power that distinguishes it from sovereign
power. Giorgio Agamben has extended the notion through the concept of the administration of
life and argues that the defense of life often takes place in a zone of indistinction between
violence and the law such that sovereignty can be violated in the name of life.17 Indeed, the
biopolitical privileging of life has provided the rationale for some of the worst cases of mass
death, with genocide deemed “understandable” as one group’s life is violently secured
through the demise of another group.
Answer To: CAFÉ = Car Accidents
United states CAFÉ standards had no negative side effect – cars are safer and pollute less
WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE C.A.F.E BY 14MPG W/O MAKING

VEHICLES UNSAFE
There is no safety problem – automakers are stirring up unfounded fear

Fischetti, veteran science writer and editor for numerous national publications 2002 (Mark,
Technology Review, Why Not a 40-MPG SUV?, Nov., http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12989/)
Roland Hwang, a vehicles expert at the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental
group based in New York City, says that argument is "irresponsible." He claims the auto
makers are fueling consumers' fears about safety only to persuade them to buy bigger
vehicles, which, he says, yield the highest profits. He notes that federal and insurance
industry tests show that the safety record of SUVs is about the same as that for other
cars. Even Honda America's manager of environmental and energy analyses, John German, agrees
that "if all vehicles weighed 100 pounds less, there would be no impact on safety."
Empirically prove, lighter cars are safer

FRIEDMAN, MARK, MONAHAN, scientists, & NASH & DITLOW, auto industry
experts, 2001 (David, Jason, Patricia, Carl, Clarence, Union of Concerned Scientists, “Tapping
SUVs in general, and pickups in particular, seriously violate all of the principles of
compatibility. On the other hand, the passenger car fleet has been moving toward increased
compatibility. In the passenger car fleet, the disparity in vehicle weight has decreased
dramatically over the past 25 years. Since the adoption of the CAFE standards, small
passenger cars have become heavier while large passenger cars have become lighter, with
the biggest growth in the new-car fleet coming in the middle with 3,500-pound cars. These
cars went from 12.5 percent of the new-car fleet in 1975 to 51.9 percent in 2000
(Heavenrich and Hellman 2000). For the 1975 model year, cars with inertia weights of less
than 2,500 pounds made up 10.8 percent of the new-car fleet but only 2.6 percent in model
year 2000. In contrast, passenger cars in the over-4,500-pound weight class and above
made up 50 percent of the new-car fleet in 1975 but only 0.9 percent in 2000. The net
effect of these changes was a safer passenger car fleet, particularly when one considers the
improved safety technology put into passenger cars.
Our evidence is comparative. CAFÉ standards are safer.
FRIEDMAN, MARK, MONAHAN, scientists, & NASH, & DITLOW, auto industry
Fatalities in single-vehicle crashes went down more than 25 percent from 1979 to 1999,
while light-duty vehicle occupant fatalities in two-vehicle crashes went down only about
10 percent. The reduction in single-vehicle crash fatalities was driven by a 45 percent
reduction in passenger car single-vehicle crash fatalities, indicating that technologies were
adopted that significantly improved vehicle safety. On the other hand, the greater number
of light trucks in the US fleet increased passenger- car occupant fatalities in crashes with
light trucks by more than 50 percent. This overwhelmed a decrease in passenger- car
occupant fatalities in crashes with other passenger cars of under 50 percent. Overall, two-
vehicle crashes would have killed nearly 1,000 fewer people without the major increase in
light trucks as passenger car substitutes.
Cars following CAFÉ standards have made more safety progress than SUVs
Two-vehicle crashes between passenger cars kill only about half as many people as they
did 20 years ago, while fatalities in passenger-car/light-truck crashes have increased by
nearly 50 percent. This fact further emphasizes the problem with the current disparity in
the vehicles driven on the road today. Figure 15 shows trends in two-vehicle fatal crashes
in terms of the number of deaths for those driving a vehicle per number of registered
vehicles of that type on the road (see also table F-1 in appendix F for the actual numbers of
fatalities). This figure indicates a fatality risk based on the exposure of each type of
vehicle. Had the ratio of light trucks to passenger cars remained as it was in 1979 (22
percent rather than the current 37 percent), nearly 1,000 fewer fatalities would have
occurred in two-vehicle crashes between light vehicles. Fatality rates per registered vehicle
in single-vehicle crashes show a decline for all vehicles. Differences can be seen, however,
for cars versus light trucks (figure 16 and figure 17).38 The passenger-car nonrollover
fatality rate per 100,000 registered passenger cars went from 13.7 in 1979 to 5.0 in 1999 ,
which represents a reduction in risk of over 60 percent (figure 16). For light trucks and
vans, the rate went from 8.1 to 3.9, a reduction of 50 percent. Overall, cars have been
making more safety progress in single vehicle crashes than have light trucks.
Answer To: Auto Market Not Ready
Congresses 35 mpg by 2020 law has already jump started the fuel efficiency market.
Automakers will be ready for the plan.
Sholnn Freeman; Washington Post Staff Writer 2008 (“Fast, Phat And Efficient, Too;
Carmakers Shift Attitude on Fuel Economy”, Washington Post, Jan. 14, Pg. D0)
Faced with the stark choice between feeding Americans' appetite for big, powerful cars
and embracing new technologies that will use less fuel and emit fewer gases, the world's
automakers appear intent on having it both ways. A year ago, auto industry executives
arrived here at the North American International Auto Show under intense scrutiny from
lawmakers, environmental groups and consumers demanding solutions to climate change
and the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Now that Congress has agreed to an energy bill
requiring car companies to raise their corporate average fuel economy to 35 miles per
gallon by 2020, the uncertainty has passed and the industry's dynamics have shifted. This
year almost all major manufacturers are engaged in a technological arms race to appear
fuel-efficient while still conveying speed and excitement.
Automakers have been steadily changing their product lineups, adding technological
features and shrinking vehicles and engine displacement. Ford is equipping thousands of
vehicles with turbochargers and fuel-injection technology that provide extra power but
burn fuel more efficiently. General Motors and Toyota are in a race to build mass-produced
cars that run on high-tech lithium ion batteries.
We can have higher standards

Intelligencer Journal, CSPAN Incorporator and partner, ‘08
(Green Piece, New Era)
That it took this long to pass a bill aimed at reducing our addiction to foreign oil is a
testament to the clout of the automotive industry and the timidity of a Congress afraid of
the shadow cast by the oil and automotive industries. Peters' announcement is expected to
herald a new generation of hybrid automobiles - gas/electrics, plug-ins and flex fuel
vehicles - that will cut America's dependence on fossil fuels. What made her announcement
more pronounced was the Bush administration's decision to pursue an even more
aggressive schedule, requiring new cars and trucks to meet a fleetwide average of 31.6
mpg by 2015.When the Democratic Congress passed the bill last year, it was estimated it
could cut oil demand by up to 1.1 million barrels per day and save consumers $700 to
$1,000 per year in fuel costs. This is not just a government idea, but a public one. It was
clear at auto shows earlier this year that the public wants sturdy, reliable, fuel-efficient
hybrid vehicles.Volkswagen has announced a diesel-hybrid Rabbit that gets 69 mpg, and
the pace car at the recently completed Indy Japan 300 was an ethanol-hydrogen-powered
Honda. Locally, Metro Pizza converted its delivery fleet to run on vegetable oil. We are
entering a brave new automotive world. Some alternative fuel-powered vehicles may end
up like the Betamax videocassette tape recording system - a good idea that simply didn't
make it in the marketplace. Others may be the new Microsoft .Automotive history is
littered with the corpses of creations - including steam-powered automobiles - that didn't
survive for various reasons. But each contributed to the ever-evolving automobile. In years
to come, service stations may be equipped with gasoline, electric plug-in units, biofuel
pumps and hydrogen docks. And all may help keep America moving while reducing our
dependence on fossil fuels.
We have the tech for fuel efficient cars; it’s just not being used. Large performance oriented
autos are damaging to the environment
SILVERMAN, 3rd year law student, 2007 (Zachary, Georgetown International
Perhaps the biggest problem in promoting the use of hybrids is that most Americans just do
not seem to be interested in making an environmentally friendly choice to the extent that
they would have to purchase a smaller, more environmentally friendly car. There are many
reasons for this, but perhaps two stand out: first, Americans simply have higher priorities,
and second, the government has, in many ways, encouraged (or at least not
discouraged) the purchase of large, inefficient automobiles.
When purchasing a car, it seems as though Americans are interested in features other than
fuel efficiency. Speed is one of these interests. Auto makers, no doubt listening to the
public demands, have even gone so far as to develop technology that could make cars
more efficient, but instead have used that technology to create performance machines.
Indeed, John M. DiCicco, a senior analyst at the [*553] non-profit group Environmental
Defense notes, "[t]here is no shortage of technology" necessary to improve fuel
economy. That technology is simply not being used, in all instances, for that purpose.
Notes Wald, "[t]he average vehicle, which twenty-five years ago accelerated to sixty miles
an hour in 14.4 seconds, now does it in 9.9 seconds, a pace once typical only of sporty or
luxury cars like Camaros and Jaguars." Even some hybrids are geared toward
performance now, as opposed to fuel efficiency. Motavalli describes the difference
between the performance-oriented Honda Accord Hybrid and the fuel-efficiency-oriented
Toyota Camry hybrid:
The Accord Hybrid uses its small electric motor mostly for added boost, but the Camry
actually runs on batteries alone at low speeds. Toyota 's approach is different in other ways,
too. Instead of a sizable V-6, it has a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine rated at 147 horsepower.
But the Camry's electric motor contributes more than the Accord's.
The Camry reaches 60 m.p.h. in 8.9 seconds, a decent showing that nonetheless pales
before the zippy Accord's 6.9 seconds.
Not surprisingly, the Camry's fuel-economy edge is "significant" with an EPA rating of 40
miles per gallon in the city and 38 on the highway; the Accord, on the other hand, only
achieves 25 miles per gallon in the city and 34 on the highway. Performance is a major
draw for American car buyers--even those who choose to buy hybrid vehicles. And
while many see fuel economy as a function primarily of size, it is important to note
that the EPA sees fuel economy as a function of weight and performance in equal
proportions. Therefore, when Americans make the choice to buy a high-performance car,
their decision has detrimental effects on the environment.
Answers To: Consumers Won’t Buy New Cars
There is a huge market for fuel efficient vehicles in the US
Civil Society Institute, 2007 (“FUEL-EFFICIENT CAR GAP” GROWING AS U.S. FALLS TO
TWO 40MPG+ VEHICLES, WHILE NUMBER OF GAS-SIPPING CARS UNAVAILABLE IN
U.S. RISES TO WELL OVER 100", Feb. 14,
http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/021407_CSI_40mpg_fuel_efficiency_news_release.pdf)
The ORC national opinion survey conducted for CSI/40MPG.org shows that there is a
potential market of at least 2.5 million U.S. consumers for the introduction of the fuel-
efficient cars now being sold overseas but not in this country. Nearly nine out of 10
Americans (88 percent) -- including roughly three out of five (58 percent) who feel
strongly -- think U.S. consumers should have access to the dozens of more fuel-efficient
cars available from U.S. automakers overseas -- but not in this country. Similarly, more
than four out of five Americans (81 percent) -- including half who agree strongly -- think
U.S. consumers should have access to the dozens of more fuel efficient cars available from
foreign automakers overseas - but not in this country.
Consumers want fuel efficient vehicles

Civil Society Institute, 2007 (“FUEL-EFFICIENT CAR GAP” GROWING AS U.S. FALLS TO
TWO 40MPG+ VEHICLES, WHILE NUMBER OF GAS-SIPPING CARS UNAVAILABLE IN
U.S. RISES TO WELL OVER 100", Feb. 14,
http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/021407_CSI_40mpg_fuel_efficiency_news_release.pdf)
ORC Senior Research Associate Graham Hueber said: “There is a potential market of 2.5
million or more U.S. consumers for the introduction of fuel-efficient cars now being sold
overseas, but not in this country. In a level that remains unchanged from a November 2005
CSI/40MPG.org survey asking the same question, more than one in 10 American adults
(12 percent) say they ‘have faced a delay in getting the fuel-efficient car they wanted or
were concerned enough about reports of delays not to proceed with purchasing such a
vehicle.’ Significantly, this level of frustrated consumers is nearly equal to those reporting
‘they had no concerns and were able to buy the fuel-efficient car they wanted (14
percent).’”
THERE IS A MARKET FOR ZEV’S – EVERY TIME THEY ARE PRODUCED

CONSUMERS SNATCH THEM OFF THE MARKET IMMEDIATELY
Tamminen, Author, Lecturer, and Strategist on energy
and the environment, 2006,( Terry, Lives Per Gallon, The
True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.152-153)
Answers To: Iran Strikes Won’t Happen
The US is still talking about striking Iran
MSNBC, 2008 (“Oil passes $144 to set yet another record” July 2nd
“It’s a combination of things,” Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said
of the run-up. “People are buying oil because they’re worried about tight supplies, the
weak dollar, war breaking out in Iran. It doesn’t look like any of this stuff is going to settle
down any time soon.”
Ongoing rhetoric about possible attacks on Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and
OPEC’s second-largest exporter, left the market jittery.
The continuing risk of striking Iran is reflected in our oil costs

“In the meantime, though, market perceptions of Iranian supply risks are likely to keep rising
over the next few months and cause knee-jerk price flare-ups in response to ostensibly bullish
headlines,” he said in a research note.
Separately, the Nymex said it was raising the margins on crude oil and related futures
contracts, effectively requiring traders to post a larger amount of money to trade the
commodity.
Oil prices are rising because of the threat of a war with Iran
Oil prices shot to a new record above $144 a barrel Wednesday as the government reported a bigger-
than-expected drop in U.S. supplies and the threat of conflict with Iran weighed on traders’ minds.
The latest spike means a barrel of crude has gone up by about half since the end of last year, when oil was
going for $96 a barrel. Retail gasoline prices climbed to a record of their own in the U.S.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose as high as $144.32 on the New York Mercantile Exchange shortly
after the regular trading session ended. The contract also notched a new closing record, settling at $143.57 —
a full $2.60 above the previous high from a day earlier.
Answers To: Israel Strikes
Israel will not strike against Iran, and even if did it would not be very effective.
Center for Strategic and International Studies- 2007 (“Judging the Iranian Threat
20 Questions We Need to Answer” www.csis.org)
Israel will not strike Iran because doing so would not further Israeli strategic interests. Such
a strike would be inordinately complicated to carry out, and even a successful campaign of
massive air strikes would only set back Iran’s dispersed nuclear program for a couple of
years at most. At the same time, an air campaign would likely rally the Iranian public
around their government, highlight to the Iranian government the importance of that
program, and drive the Iranians to redouble their efforts. Politically, an Iranian government
under Israeli attack would likely see enhanced domestic support. At the same time, Iran
would probably step up its support for groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
that target Israel, and Israel would bear international condemnation for an unprovoked
strike out of the blue. Central to the Israelis’ problem is the fact that, although Israel may
consider many of Iran’s actions to be hostile and directed toward them, those actions are
largely permitted under the terms of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Israelis might
consider such an attack to be militarily necessary, but for much of the rest of the world it
would constitute an unprovoked aggressive action. The constraint on Israel is not so much its
inability to reach Iran, but rather a decidedly unfavorable balance sheet following an attack.
Answer To: Addiction Rhetoric
We must change our addictive behaviors to change our self-concept

Ross, 2006, (Patricia, The Truth Will Set You Free, or How a Troubled Philosophical Theory
May Help to Understand How People Talk About Their Addiction, Philosophy, Psychiatry, &
Psychology Volume 13, Sept. No 3:211–222)
Behavior change causes conceptual change. Moreover, if addicts believe that their addictions
are in control their lives—that their autonomy is compromised because of the addiction—
then the causation is from addiction to belief in lack of autonomy. The causation goes from
behavior to belief. And to change that self-conception, one must first stop drinking, for
example, and as a result of that, alters one’s self-conception (gain or regain a sense of
autonomy). It seems that only when the addiction is not in control of one’s life that one can
begin to alter one’s self-conception, especially in terms of autonomy. Thus, any
intervention that requires a conceptual change before a behavioral change seems doomed
to failure. Therapeutic intervention must first stop the behavior, and as a result of that begin
to develop a different self-conception.
Addiction is weak willed behavior – this conception doesn’t eliminate responsibility

YAFFE, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Law USC, Spr. 2001( Gideon, Recent Work on
Addiction and Responsible Agency, p.180-181)
An alternative to the view that addiction eliminates freedom takes addiction to influence
the agent either not to employ, or to misemploy, her capacities for rational conduct. This
approach contrasts addictive behavior with the peculiarly repugnant behavior of a person
who acts objectionably but whose conduct is the product of correctly functioning rational
processes. Perhaps, that is, addictive behavior is as much under control as the behavior of
the unaddicted, but the conduct of the addicted agent does not spring from the exercise, in
service of something objectionable, of rational capacities, in the way that the most morally
objectionable conduct does. To adopt this approach is to see addiction as irrational
behavior—weak-willed behavior—performed by agents in possession of the capacity to act
as they ought. Action expressive of weakness, it seems, is diminished in responsibility,
rather than excused entirely from responsibility, and so this approach, in placing the addict
in category (3), provides grounds, for instance, for lesser sentences for addicts, or for lesser
moral censure than would be appropriately applied to an unaddicted agent who acts
similarly.
Answers To: Fuel Eff Tech Not Exist
Government mandates are essential to motivating the auto industry.
Fischetti, veteran science writer and editor for numerous national publications,2002 ( Mark
Technology Review, “Why Not a 40-MPG SUV?”, Nov., http://www. technologyreview.com/Energy/
12989/)
The larger point is simply that with no mandate from Washington or the public, the auto
industry has little motivation to change. Doug Patton, a senior vice president at Denso
International America in Southfield, MI, puts the subject into perspective: "What is the customer
demanding? What is the government requiring? That's how we look at it."
To researchers, this is discouraging talk. MIT's Heywood says most of these technologies have
been in development for years. If the automakers wanted to, he says, they could readily make
them inexpensive and reliable. "The car companies don't give their engineers enough credit
for being able to solve practical problems," Heywood says. "Until management says, Okay,
let's really go for it,' the technology doesn't get past an advanced development prototype."
Giving such orders, he adds, "won't happen until management thinks it has evidence that the
technology will make the product sell in the marketplace or will create a new marketplace."
All vehicles in the US could move to 40mpg; we have the technology.

Fischetti, veteran science writer and editor for numerous national publications, 2002 (Mark,
Technology Review, Why Not a 40-MPG SUV?, Nov., http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12989/)
Indeed, if all new cars and light trucks adopted available and emerging gas-saving
technologies, the average fuel economy of U.S. cars would surge to 46 mpg, up from today's
27 mpg. And SUVs could average 40 mpg, up from today's 21 mpg, according to a recent
study prepared in part by John DeCicco, a senior fellow at Environmental Defense, a New York
Citybased environmental group. (The study was coauthored by Feng An, a modeling expert at
Argonne National Laboratory, and Marc H. Ross, a physicist and automotive-policy expert at the
University of Michigan.) Two-thirds of the benefit would come from improving the power train,
and the rest would come from cutting weight and reducing aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance.
And even though retail prices of vehicles would rise some $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the
model, consumers would save that much at the gas pump within five years. "The industry doesn't
lack the technology, it lacks the priority," DeCicco says.
Answers To: Batteries Fail
Lithium batteries are lighter and made with cheaper metals
Truett, Engineering Reporter, 2006 (Richard, Automotive News, Lighter battery key to success
of hybrids; Lithium-ion offers weight, cost benefits over nickel metal, July, p. 21)
Manufacturers in Europe, the US and Japan are working to replace nickel-metal hydride
batteries with lithium ion. The switch could begin in the US as early as 2008. Earlier this
month, Nissan Motor launched the Atlas 20 medium-duty truck in Japan with lithium-ion
batteries. Officials at Ford Motor, Toyota Motor and US supplier Johnson Controls say
lithium-ion batteries will begin replacing nickel-metal hydride batteries in high
volume around 2010. Johnson Controls has a joint venture with French battery maker Saft
Groupe. "There's less weight, greater power density and, eventually, lower cost" with
lithium ion, says Tom Watson, Ford's manager of hybrid propulsion systems. "We think
that in the long term when you look at the cost-efficiency curve, lithium ion has much
better potential than nickel metal. The benefits that it provides are just too
overwhelmingly positive to pass up."
Inside lithium ion Nickel-metal hydride batteries are hydrogen-based and require
more expensive metals than lithium ion. When lithium-ion battery packs replace
nickel-metal hydride packs in hybrids, they will be about the same size but half the
weight. The implications are numerous. A lighter battery pack would improve
performance and increase fuel economy. Lithium-ion batteries also could enable plug-
in hybrids to become a reality, says Al Mumby, general manager of Johnson Controls'
hybrid-battery business unit. Ford's Watson sees lithium ion as the battery of the future for
his company's fleet of US-only hybrids. Watson says lithium ion is expected to play a large
role in Ford making a profit selling hybrids.
Lithium-ion batteries solve the plug-in battery problem
YOUNG, financial investor, 2007 (Larry, The Virginian-Pilot, “Energy Reality Check”, January
14,, p. D2)
Fourth, Japanese scientists made a big breakthrough in nanotechnology manganese
lithium-ion batteries in 2006. These amazing new batteries will last 10 years, will not
overheat, are lighter, will discharge 90 percent without damage and can power a
small all-electric car 50 miles. They recharge to 80 percent capacity in 15 minutes using
220 volts or overnight using 110 volts.
Lithium-ion batteries solve the battery problem of electric vehicles

Richard Truett, Engineering Reporter, 2006 (Automotive News, Lighter battery key to success
of hybrids; Lithium-ion offers weight, cost benefits over nickel metal, July, p. 21)
Batteries may be the key to the future of gasoline-electric hybrids. If hybrids are ever
going to earn automakers a profit, the cost of the batteries must decrease and the life of the
battery pack increase. The number of battery suppliers also must expand so that
batteries are just another commodity, like windshield wipers and headlights. Lithium
ion - the same type of powerful, compact battery in your mobile phone and digital
camera - could be the wonder battery that delivers all that and more. Virtually all of
today's hybrids use nickel-metal hydride batteries. Nickel metal has proved to be
reliable, but the battery packs are heavy, and the materials inside are expensive
compared with those in lithium-ion packs. Expensive replacement Also, most experts
think that hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius, will need a replacement battery pack after
eight years or 100,000 miles. If so, that could hurt the resale value of used hybrids because
it would present subsequent owners with a battery replacement bill of between €2,400 and
€4,000.
Lithium-ion batteries solve the battery problems

Frank, Professor, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering B.S. (1955), University of California,
Berkeley M.S., 2007 (Andrew A., American Scientist, “Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles for a
Sustainable Future.” Mar/Apr, Vol. 95, Issue 2)
Advanced lithium-ion batteries now becoming available for automotive use are smaller and
lighter than the metal-hydride cells we have so far employed, which will allow for lighter
vehicles with the same electric range or ones that can go even farther before they begin to
use gasoline. At the moment, the main roadblocks to lithium-ion cells are higher cost,
reduced longevity and concerns about safety, but some battery makers claim to have solved
these issues with their newest designs. I look forward to testing some of the latest lithium-
ion batteries in one of the plug-in hybrids that I am now building with my students. I fully
expect that lithium-ion cells of one variety or another will eventually replace metal-hydride
batteries in hybrid cars, offering a two- to threefold increase in energy storage for a pack of
a given weight, along with a greater ability to absorb energy quickly during regenerative
braking and, perhaps, with adequate durability to last for 15 years and 150,000 miles.
Batteries are ready – they take less charging time & the tech keeps getting better
Raabe, Denver Post Staff Writer, 2006 (Steve, Knight-Ridder Tribune, “Push for alternative-fuel
vehicles puts brakes on electric-car development”, June 13, p. lexis)
"Electricity, in my mind, will be the superior method of transportation," Mustoe said.
"Batteries have always been the killer with their weight and inefficiency, but battery
technology has come a long way and it keeps getting better."
Analysts say the EV1 was handicapped by its limited range of about 100 miles, after which
the batteries had to be recharged for several hours.
Now, nickel-metal-hydride and lithium-ion batteries offer more range and less
charging time than lead-acid batteries.
Lithium batteries double the power

NORMILE, studied civil engineering at Villanova University, 2007 (Dennis, The New York
Times, As Hybrids Evolve, Gains Grow Elusive, Nov. 4, p. 6)
All those calculations are based on nickel-metal hydride batteries; going to lithium-ion
batteries with greater power storage capacity would increase the benefits. Toyota, like
other companies, is working on that technology. The goal is to make the combined
battery pack and charger about the size and weight of the current Prius battery, but
twice as powerful.
Batteries are improving

Sperling, Energy Efficiency Center Professor at UC Berkeley, 1995, (Daniel, “Future Drive”,
Toward Electric Propulsion (pg. 49))
Batteries are currently underdeveloped due to lack of research funding


Answer To: Incentives Don’t Solve
COMPANIES HAVE AN ECONOMIC INCENTIVES TO CHANGE
Tamminen, Author, Lecturer, and Strategist on energy and the environment, 2006, (Terry,
Lives Per Gallon, The True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.91)

Answer To: Oil Consumption Decreasing in SQ
The weak economy has made a drop on the amount of driving but this could be due to
demographics and population growth not real hard lying change
Demographic factors may also be driving down gasoline consumption. When the postwar
march to the suburbs was in full swing and the nation's highways expanded, gas
consumption grew by an average of 4% a year. In more recent years that rate has
moderated to 1.2%. A study released in April by the EIA posited that part of the decline
could be attributed to falling population growth and baby boomers exiting their peak
driving years. That translates into fewer car sales on a per capita basis. Many analysts have
been knocking down their estimates of growth in worldwide oil demand because of weaker
consumption in the U.S. Mind you, it's not yet certain that falling gas consumption is here
to stay. Historically, consumption tends to dip during recessions, then rebounds with the
economy. "There have really only been a few times Americans have cut back their gas
consumption over a long period of time," says Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesperson for the
American Automobile Assn. "Those occasions are where you've had high prices and a
recession, such as 1974 and 1981. It looks like we're heading into another one of those."
EIA researchers expect consumption growth will rise back up to 0.9% next year--though
that's still below what the U.S. has averaged so far this decade. So even if gas consumption
does bounce back it's likely to do so at a slower pace. "Consumer habits are pretty sticky,"
says Adam Robinson, an energy analyst at Lehman Brothers. "We've seen a long period of
high prices that has finally hit the consumer, and now they're going to shift their
preferences." Indeed, some commuters are finding public transport to their liking. Aly
Cohen, a 27-year-old financial analyst at Costco Wholesale, first tried taking the bus to
work in January. Now, with her employer picking up most of the $63 tab for a monthly bus
pass, she has stopped driving to work altogether and cut her gas consumption in half. "It's
nice," she says. "I can take a nap or read." Such a shift in commuting habits, if copied on a
large scale, may alter U.S. energy consumption in significant and surprising ways.
OIL ADDICTION WILL COUNTINUE TO GROW FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006,( Peter, A Thousand
Barrels A Second, The Coming Oil Break Point and The Challenges Facing an Energy
Dependent World,p.231)

Answers To: Plenty of Oil
OIL IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO PRODUCE EVERYONE IS AFFECTED
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006, ( Peter, A Thousand
New oil reserves must constantly be found—it’s a cycle

Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation, 2006(Peter, “A Thousand Barrels a
Second”, To the Ends of the Earth (pg. 98)
Finding more oil is costly and results in global warming


Answers To: No Solve Oil Dependence
Oil independence is not rejecting all oil; its reducing our imports to the point where it no
longer has a strangle hold on our economy. This is function independence
Motor Authority, 2008 (“Could the US achieve oil independence by 2030?”, June 5,
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/industry/us-oil-independence-by-2030/)
Oil independence has been the holy grail of American energy policy for years, but now
experts in the field believe the United States could achieve the goal as early as 2030 - if the
correct policy decisions are made.
Robert Greene, a fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, believes that oil
independence does not consist of halting oil importation from foreign powers, but rather
reducing the amount of oil imported so that it no longer has a stranglehold on the economy,
reports Ward’s Auto. In short, he defines oil independence as functional independence, as
opposed to complete freedom from oil.
In a meeting with the Society of Automotive Engineers, Green explained that oil
independence is “achieving a state where your consumption actions are not subject to
restraining or directly influenced by others as consequence of the need for oil.”
Answer To: Transition Impossible
Transitions are not impossible. We have changed dominant energy sources multiple times
throughout history

Answers To: Ice Age
The stratosphere is becoming colder and does not offset the warming of the ground and sea
Adelson and Engell, Harvard and Wellesly College professors 2008 ( Glenn, James,
Environment: An Interdiciplinary Anthology, Yale University Press)

Answers To: Temp increase unrelated to CO2
Temperature changes come prior to CO2 emissions, but that proves the situation is worse
than we thought it was – not that global warming doesn’t exist.
Fred Pearce, New Scientist 2008( Rising Teperatures bring their own CO2, NEWS, this
week, pg. 11, March 22)
CLIMATE sceptics are right. Temperature increases do precede rises in atmospheric
carbon dioxide - the opposite of what you would expect if changes in CO2 levels were
really driving climate change. That's the verdict of leading atmospheric modeller Peter
Cox, a climate expert at the University of Exeter, UK. Yet far from dismissing the threat of
global warming, Cox says this means things are worse than we thought. Events in the Little
Ice Age, 400 years ago, prove the point, he says.
One of the most important pieces of evidence linking climate change to greenhouse gas
emissions is that for tens of thousands of years, temperature changes have been in lockstep
with atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. But sceptics keep pointing out that temperature
changes seem to come first.
That charge is true, says Cox. "In climate predictions, we have been in denial about how
temperature changes CO2." But that certainly does not mean we don't need to worry about
rising CO2 levels, he stresses. "People on both sides want a one-way link, but the historical
record shows that causality goes both ways." Rising - or falling - temperatures and CO2
concentrations reinforce each other. Embarrassingly for climate modellers, Cox added:
"Actually, CO2 is more sensitive to temperature than the other way round." This is
supported by a study of the Little Ice Age by Cox and colleagues (Geophysical Research
Letters , vol 33, p L10702).
Answers To: Idso on Global Warming
Idso is flat wrong –CO2 doesn’t increase plant life, it destroys it.
Bender, Professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, 2003
Books pg 35-36)

Answers To: Balling on Global Warming
Balling is wrong- Warming kills seed germination.
Books pg 37-38)
Balling is wrong- he endorses inaction which allows our advantage’s scenario to occur.
Books pg 38-40)

Answers To: Environmental Justice harms poor
Environmental justice is primarily about humans – it doesn’t trade the people for the
environment
DeLuca, Adjunct Professor, Environmental Ethics Program, UGA, 2007 (Kevin, Environmental
Movement, “A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the Infinite Self-
Absorption of Humans”, Ed: Ronald Sandler and Phaedra C. Pezzullo page 27)

Answer To: Enviro Justice = Cultural Imperialism
Environmental justice requires all cultures to give up some practices

****Answers To: Counter-plans****

Answer To: Ban Cars Counter-plan
During Hurricane Katrina those without cars were stranded – Katrina is a reminder that
private car ownership is good.
Berlau, Center for Entrepreneurship at Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2006
(John, Eco-Freaks, Environmentalism is Hazardous to your health, page 110-111).
Cars reduce pollution

Moore, Relationship Manager for Triodos Bank, lending to renewable energy projects
across the UK, 06.
(Stephen, Entrepreneurship and the Spirit of America: Volume 33)
The “ban cars” counterplan is out of touch with reality

Sperling, Energy Efficiency Center Professor at UC Berkeley, 1995,(Daniel, “Future Drive”,
Transportation as if People Mattered (pg. 3))
Hurricane Katrina proves that the automobile is a liberator

(John, Eco-Freaks, Environmentalism is Hazardous to your health, page 112).
Automobiles increase life expectancy

(John, Eco-Freaks, Environmentalism is Hazardous to your health, page 121).
Blame for environmental destruction not solely automobiles

Advantages of cars exceed the cost


Banning cars doesn’t work without the infrastructure

Answer To: Mass Transit Counter-plan
Mass transit is best in urban cities
Mass transit would do little to decrease oil consumption

Mass transit has little capacity to expand nationwide


Answer To: Fuel Cell Counter-plan
Fuel Cell technology is not advanced enough to be practical and it would be economically
inefficient to use.
Reese, Buisness Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Buisness,
2007 ( Shaneka, “Addicted to the pump” Northwestern Journal of International Law &
Business, Spring)
Fuel cells harness the electricity created from the chemical reaction that occurs from
combining hydrogen and oxygen. "[The] fuel cells are "stacked' together [and] combine
their electrical outputs into enough electricity to power a car." There are, however, several
challenges to implementing the fuel cell technology: hydrocarbon fuel reforming,
hydrogen storage, cost reduction, and infrastructure development all must be
addressed before the implementation can occur. With hydrocarbon fuel reforming, the
problem extends from changing over a completely oil-based gasoline system into one
based on hydrogen. The issue with hydrogen storage is that automakers must find a way to
make hydrogen tanks as space efficient and easy to refill as gasoline tanks. The problem
with cost is that even with the significant decrease in price over the past couple of years,
"the price is still too high to gain commercial support for use in vehicles ... ."
Moreover, there is no significant infrastructure right now to support a change to
hydrogen fuel systems.
Answers To: Diesel Fuel Counter-plan
DIESIEL FUEL IS HIGHLY EFFICIENT BUT EMITS SMOG
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006, (Peter, A Thousand
SWITCHING TO DIESEL FUEL COMES AT AN INCONVIENECE TO MOST BECAUSE OF

THE RAISING COST OF DISEL AND THE VARITY OF DIESEL PRODUCING STATIONS

Answer to: Offsetting Counter-plans
Global Warming will inevitably increase as the Earth maximizes industrial growth.
Everyone has a responsibility to prevent the culture of extinction.
Books pg 41)
Perm: International cooperation key to solve for alternative energy


Answer To: China Off-set Counter-plan
Only 1.25% of the Chinese population possesses cars. US car ownership is the highest in
the globe.
Tabb, professor of economics at Queens College for many years, and economics, political
science, and sociology 2007, (William, Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan.
To cheerleaders for U.S. imperialism it is the ineptitude of the Bush-Cheney policies, not
their goals, that receive criticism. The critique of anti-imperialists now includes a maturing
ecological consciousness. Struggles over energy are being conceptualized more usefully in
terms of the economic system as well as energy alternatives. Indeed there is growing
awareness that the final resource war will likely be for the planet's survival. Currently, only
1.25 percent of China's population possesses a car. If car ownership in that country were to
reach the U.S. level, and the forecasts are that in 2031 China will have a per capita income
close to that of the United States in 2004, China would have a billion vehicles. If they all
needed to run on gasoline there is simply not enough oil and of course the greenhouse
gases produced would heat things up distressingly. One hopes for technological
breakthroughs but the precautionary principle suggests some major changes are in order as
global energy consumption presses on available supply. A system that privileges
accumulation over sustainability, individualism over solidarity, cannot be accepted.
Energy efficient technologies are non-existent in China


Answers To: Voluntary Counter-plan
EXTERNAL MEASURES REQUIRED TO INTIATE REAL CHANGE
World,p.182
CONSERVATION MEASURES REQUIRE LEGISLATION TO MAKE THEM

PERMANENT
MARKETS ALONE WILL NOT RAPIDLY REBALANCE OIL

Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006,(Peter, A Thousand
Dependent World,p.216-217)
Strong government-private sector cooperation is essential


Answers To: Ethanol Counter-plan
ALTHOUGH FLEXIBLE AGRICULTURAL FEEDSTOCKS CAN’T REALISTICALLY CURB
AMERICANS OIL DEMNANDS
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006, (Peter,A Thousand

****Answers To: Critiques****
Answers To: Enviro K’s (General)
Democratic processes and debate are key to solving environmental ethics.
Minteer and Manning, assistant Professor in the Human Dimensions of Biology Faculty in
the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and Rubenstein School of
Environment , 2003 ( Ben A. and Robert E. , “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch
24 “Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics: Democracy, Pluralism, and the Management
of Nature”, Blackwell Publishing, Ed: Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III, pg 324-
325)
WE NEED STRUCTURAL REFORM

Reynolds, Co-Chairman, Litigation Department, Co-Chairman, Technology Practice
Group, 2002(David, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.116)
STRUCTURAL REFORMISM MOBALIZES AND ENDS REVOLUTIONARY

CYNICISM
Group, 2002,(David, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.117)
PROGRESSIVE FORCES SHOULD COMBINE STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

Change, p.119)
Combination of varying environmental ethics is key to formulate effective environmental

policy.
Minteer and Manning, assistant Professor in the Human Dimensions of Biology Faculty in the
School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and Rubenstein School of Environment ,
2003 ( Ben A. and Robert E. , “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch 24 “Pragmatism in
Environmental Ethics: Democracy, Pluralism, and the Management of Nature”, Blackwell
Publishing, Ed: Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III, pg 327)

Answer To: Latcrit
Blackness is a political category for mobilization of all oppressed people
Manning Marable speaks to a new articulation of the concept of blackness that is defined
not in racial or ethnic/cultural terms but as a political category that speaks to new forms of
political mobilization:
We must find new room in our identity as people of color to include all other oppressed
national minorities -- Chicanos, Peurto Ricans, Asian/Pacific Americans, and other people
of African descent. We must find the common ground we share with oppressed people who
are not national minorities -- working-class people, the physically challenged, the
homeless, the unemployed, and those Americans who suffer discrimination because they
are lesbian or gay. I believe that a new multicultural America is possible, that a renaissance
of Black militancy will occur in concert with new levels of activism from the
constituencies mentioned above. But it is possible only if we have the courage to challenge
and to overturn our own historical assumptions about race, power, and ourselves. Only
then will we find the new directions necessary to challenge the system, to "fight the
power," with an approach toward political culture that can truly liberate all of us.
Education should use multiculturalism as a tool to become border crossers

Multiculturalism is too important as a political discourse to be exclusively appropriated by liberals and
conservatives. This suggests that if the concept of multiculturalism is to become useful as a pedagogical
concept, educators need to appropriate it as more than a tool for critical understanding and the pluralizing
of differences; it must also be used as an ethical and political referent which allows teachers and students
to understand how power works in the interest of dominant social relations, and how such relations can be
challenged and transformed. In other words, an insurgent multiculturalism should promote pedagogical
practices that offer the possibility for schools to become places where students and teachers can become
border crossers engaged in critical and ethical reflection about what it means to bring a wider variety of
cultures into dialogue with each other, to theorize about cultures in the plural, within rather than outside
"antagonistic relations of domination and subordination."
Multiculturalism as a pedagogy challenges essentialism
Henry A. Giroux – author, 1997 “ Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling A
Critical Reader”, , pg. 248
I want to argue that educators need to rethink the politics of multiculturalism as part of a broader attempt
to engage the world of public and global politics. This suggests challenging the narratives of national
identity, culture, and ethnicity as part of a pedagogical effort to provide dominant groups with the
knowledge and histories to examine, acknowledge, and unlearn their own privilege. But more is needed in
this view of multiculturalism than deconstructing the centers of colonial power and undoing the master
narratives of racism. A viable multicultural pedagogy and politics must also affirm cultural differences
while simultaneously refusing to essentialize and grant immunity to those groups that speak from
subordinate positions of power. As Gerald Graff and Bruce Robbins point out, the most progressive
aspect of multiculturalism "has been not to exalt group 'particularism' but to challenge it, to challenge the
belief that blackness, femaleness, or Africanness are essential, unchanging qualities."
Answers To: Externalization
Turn- Laws create internalization of different life choices
Green, Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, 2006 (Andrew, “You can’t pay them
enough: subsidies environmental law and social norms.”, Harvard Environmental Law
Review )
Internalization may also occur not because of future transactional opportunities but as a result of
individuals seeking esteem. Law signals a consensus and, if others can monitor and sanction non-
compliance, individuals will change their beliefs about a choice. They internalize the new
consensus because they are striving for esteem. This internalization is slightly different from the
updating of probabilities, or changes in externally enforced norms, discussed in the last section.
The underlying values or norms of the individual change, not just her estimate of the risk of
sanction, or her experience of external sanction. 125 Such an approach to internalization is also
closely related to instrumental decision-making and the rational choice framework. Relatedly, a law
may not only lead to an internalization of a norm but may displace or "crowd out" an existing
norm. 126 If an individual obtains intrinsic benefits from an act, or possibly sees acting from
altruism as part of her self-conception, paying her for taking the act may remove this benefit [*433]
or reduce the impact of the act on her self-conception. 127 The result is that a law or policy designed
to offer a price incentive, such as a subsidy, can have two effects: the standard relative price effect
and a "crowding out" effect on intrinsic or moral motivations. This impact is closely tied to the
view of internalized norms as a "taste" for the particular action. Perhaps more importantly,
subsidies and other such policies also have an impact on commitment. While the approaches to
internalization discussed above partly explain the connection between subsidies and norms, they
fail adequately to capture the importance of social responsibility. Central to the connection between
climate change policy and commitment may be a sense of social responsibility. For example, for
individuals actually to reduce their consumption of products that produce GHGs, they may need to
alter their view of their responsibilities as citizens. 128 This concept of social responsibilities is tied
to individuals' identification with a group. 129 An individual may develop specific commitments (in
the sense of constraints on a choice set) because she identifies with a particular group, and adopts
its rules or shared goals. Individuals not only receive these rules or goals from the group but also
can be part of developing these commitments through discussion within the group. For example, if
the shared goals relate to responsibility for or protection of the environment, such as a goal of
reducing GHG emissions, they may act as a constraint on the individual's choice set. But if the
individual does not identify with a particular group with such shared environmental goals, or if the
group has a shared goal of individual choice or autonomy in making choices that may have
consequences for climate change, the individual may not be subject to any commitment. She will
then follow standard utility maximization.
Answers To: Heidegger – Instrumentalization
Their links arguments are dead wrong – our instrumental valuing of the environment
shows an appreciation for the natural world.
Weston, professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies and Chair, Department of
Philosophy at Elon University, 2003 (Anthony, “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch 23
“Beyond Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics”, Blackwell Publishing, Ed:
Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III, pg 311)
Nature can have both instrumental and intrinsic value.

Philosophy at Elon University, 2003 ( Anthony, “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch
23 “Beyond Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics”, Blackwell
Publishing, Ed: Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III, pg 312-313)
Combining instrumental value with intrinsic value is key to criticism.

Philosophy at Elon University, 2003 ( Anthony, “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch
23 “Beyond Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics”, Blackwell

Answers To: Coercion
Government “intrusion” on autonomy is justified. The status quo which induces
individuals to act on internalized norms without thought is more coercive than the aff.
Government may be able to lead by creating processes and institutions, as well as using
instruments, that promote inclusive deliberation. Fostering debate on instruments to
address climate change may lead to shared goals around climate change and therefore shift
norms. It will be important to examine the complex overlap between the effectiveness of
the process at reaching a result, the degree of public participation and deliberation and the
efficiency of the instrument that is ultimately chosen. The nature of this overlap requires
further work. Finally, even if these positive questions can be answered, there remains a
further normative question: should government attempt to change norms? Aside from
issues of government's actual capability to do so (such as due to information constraints
and rent-seeking), governmental efforts to alter norms may excessively intrude on
individual autonomy. Using information to attempt to "activate" existing norms or even to
"de-bias" individuals does not seem particularly intrusive of autonomy. Purposeful norm or
value management, however, seems more intrusive, inducing individuals to act on
internalized norms without thought. 156 But it is not quite this simple. As noted before, these
new norms may work to overcome existing inefficient or welfare-reducing norms which
themselves potentially limit autonomy. 157 Government processes for making decisions,
including incorporating different interests, plays a role in the creation of values but also in
the legitimacy of government's attempts at revising norms. Deliberation helps create shared
goals and values and may promote internalization of these shared goals as commitments. It
may also, however, build confidence and trust in, and legitimacy of, the decisions made by
government to the extent it treats individuals as part of the [*440] process, as "agents
whose freedoms matter, not just as patients ...." 158 Further empirical work is therefore
needed to better understand the important link between government processes, instrument
choice, and norms.
Answer To: Capitalism Kritik
Lowering dependence on fossil fuel no longer require a foreign policy based on exploitation.
KwaZulu-Natal Press, pg 221-222)
CAPITALISM KRITIQUES SHOULD WORK IN THE SYSTEM TO GET LEADERS

Group, 2002, (David, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.111)
WE CANT SURRENDER REFORM TO THE CORPORATE PARTIES

Change, p.112)
Turn- Energy consumption is controlled by the wealthy

AVOID UNIVERSAL CONCLUSIONS NEITHER REFORM NOR REVOLUTION IS

ENTIRELY CORRECT
Group, 2002,( David, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.113)

SUV’s are a symbol of transnational capitalism deterritorializing the world. Self-sufficiency takes
center stage and leaves little space for concern for the public good.
2004 ISSN: 1085-6633, pg 24-25).
Enacting nomadic allegories that pit individuals against a rugged, beautiful, and often dangerous
natural environment glorifies the ‘survivalist chic’ of entrepreneurial self-reliance that constitutes one of
the cornerstones of neo-liberal ideology. “You are. It is.” announces an ad for the Infiniti FX 45,
dissolving the borders between individual and car into a stylish cyborg identity by listing the attributes
common to both: “renegade fearless unexpected bold true spontaneous curious intriguing unwavering rare
brash provocative intuitive genuine daring uncommon irreverent brazen dynamic dreamer.”107
Conversely, a companion ad articulates precisely what the FX 45 and its drivers are not: “sign up go with
the flow join the committee be one of us be one of the guys be a team player be a company man get on
board keep in step follow the crowd run with the pack conform follow the leader settle down settle in
blend in get comfortable adjust we need a consensus join the club fit in adapt.”108 Ads such as these
interpellate SUV drivers as neo-liberal subjects, summoning fantasies of autonomy and independence
predicated upon the reduction and even elimination of relations with larger communities and social
networks. Globalization, forexample, figures strongly in SUV advertising that uses stylized portraits of
exotic locations and cultures to hail potential buyers as savvy, cosmopolitan, and ready for anything,
members of a transnational elite for whom world travel has become a requisite element of both business
and leisure. National boundaries wither before dreams of capitalist deterritorialization in which expanding
networks of communication and transportation reconstitute the alien geographies and cultures of all
people as privileged sites for an experiential tourism that offers welcome relief (for a lucky few) from the
boredom and routine of everyday life. “From the grand avenues of Monaco to the deserts of Dubai, it’s
never out of place” notes a recent Land Rover ad.109 Recent television spots position the Land Rover in a
bustling Asian market, being ferried across a South American river on a primitive wooden raft, and racing
down sand dunes past appreciative Bedouin nomads. As these narratives of rugged individualism unfold
in magazines, newspapers, film and television screens, there is little place for notions of the public good
or recognition of the cooperative social relations that actually make life possible. Instead, self-sufficiency
and toughness take center stage as the celebrated virtues of human existence. And natural signifiers are
the privileged cultural strategy in this regard, regularly pressed into service to reframe exile from a
shrinking public commons and the accompanying retreat into the safety of privatized enclaves
not merely as natural and inevitable, but as an exciting and invigorating opportunity for adventure.
Answers To: Deep Ecology
Nature can have intrinsic value but human life must always come first.
Philosophy at Elon University, 2003 ( Anthony, “Environmental Ethics: An Anthology ch 23
The permutation is key to end both environmental and social domination

Intrinsic value is not necessary – recognizing the environment as a source is liberating.

Democratic and political action are key to an environmental ethic.

Contextual policies incorporate hosts of ethical human-nature relationships.


Answers To: Anthropocentrism
Attributing metaphysical conciousness to the inanimate world only reaffirms
anthropocentric mindsets.
Their appeals to be included in traditional structures doom them to anthropocentrism

turning the Kritik.
Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III, pg 310-311)
Human centered value systems are key to sustaining a true environmental ethic.

Answers To: Environmentality/Luke
NOT WORKING IN THE SYSTEM RESULTS IN DIVISION
Group, 2002, (David, TAKING THE HIGH ROAD, Communities Organize For Economic
Change, p.111-112)

Answers To: Feminism
SUVs produce very gendered and raced perspectives in the world
Mimi Sheller, 2004 (Theory Culture Society, “Automotive Emotions: Feeling the Car”, p. 231)
As Sarah Lochlann Jain observes in an ethnographic account of the day-to-day mobility of a

suburban mother in the US, the huge popularity of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) among young
families builds on gendered practices of mobility and of public and private space: . . . the SUV
has been marketed as a vehicle that can uniquely fuse the hitherto ‘uncool’ aspects of family life
with the hipness of the outdoor adventure. . . . But this nexus of marketing and consumption also
has a history in women’s responsibility for the family’s safety and men’s idealization of the car
as a means of escape and a tool for identity. . . . The privatization of this [typical] family project
as one reproduced through consumption is also seen in an understanding of ‘safety’ that relies on
chauffeuring children as much as ‘winning’ in potential car accidents. (Jain, 2002: 398)8 The
‘masculine’ appeal of the SUV has attracted especially professional mothers, as they cultivate a
high-achieving public persona in the workplace, while the more familial aspects of the SUV
(room for the shopping, the children’s friends and equipment, the cup-holders and the video
consoles) enable them to maintain a more caring ‘feminine’ side, both roles being
overdetermined by prevalent gender inequalities. From Hochschild’s perspective the social
embedding of these vehicles allows for management of the plural ethics and feeling rules that
structure public and private gender identities in contradictory ways. At the same time use of the
SUV intensifies certain kinds of gendered (and we could add ‘raced’) identities and emotionally
cathects them with the material cultures of suburbia.
Answer To: Human Rights Kritiks
Not promoting human rights because of national interest or sovereign divisions lead to
some of the worst atrocities in history
Amstutz, prof of poli sci at Wheaton, 1999 (Mark R. International Ethics, p. 86)
Why have major powers failed to halt the brutality of modern authoritarian and totalitarian
regimes? Why have they failed to protect innocent masses from the break down of domestic
regimes and the spread of civil strife? To a significant degree, state have been reticent to protect
human rights in foreign countries because they are unwilling to challenge the norm of
sovereignty and risk war over interests not considered vital to the nation. Historically, states have
used military force to pursue secondary interests, such as the welfare and humanitarian needs of
foreign societies. Thus, the pursuit of a humanitarian foreign policy is often reduced to a
fundamental choice between political autonomy or human rights, between sovereignty or the
alleviation of suffering, and, unless compelling national interests are involved, regimes are likely
to give sovereignty precedence over cosmopolitan human rights. Thus, when war broke out in
the former Yugoslavia in 1991, nearby European powers refused to use military power to prevent
the killing of more than 200,000 persons and displacement of nearly two million others. When
civil war broke out in Rwanda between two rival groups (Tutsis and Hutus), the major powers,
with the exception of France, did little to halt the genocide that resulted in the mass murder of
nearly 800,000 persons and the placement of more than two million refugees.
Universal human rights are grounded in a common morality. The negs alternative is
relativism which is untenable. Our approach is the perm.
Amstutz, prof of poli sci at Wheaton, 1999 (Mark R. International Ethics, p. 75)
There are two important points that need to be made about the claims of cultural relativism, one
empirical and the other normative. Empirically, the claim of total moral diversity is simply
untenable. As A.J.M. Milne has noted, moral diversity cannot be total “certain moral principles
are necessary for social life as such, irrespective of its particular form. Milne argues that there is
a common morality shared by all people. This morality involves such moral norms as justice,
respect for human life, fellowship, freedom from arbitrary interference, and honorable treatment.
However, every community is also based on a “particular” morality that is derived from each
community’s distinctive institutions, social order, and cultural values. As a result, the actual
morality of a community involves both a common and particular morality. Universal human
rights are those rights rooted in a shared, or common, morality.
The alternative to universal human rights is moral relativism which is too dangerous to live
with – sets the ground for gross violations against human beings
Amstutz, prof of poli sci at Wheaton, 1999 (Mark R. International Ethics, p.11-12)
In the final analysis, cultural relativism is a wholly unacceptable ethical theory because it is
impossible to live with the doctrines severe consequences. If there are no standards, everything is
possible, and if everything is possible, torture, forced expulsion, systematic violations of human
rights, denial of freedom, and religious persecution are not wrong. Although moral values and
cultural patterns vary across societies, there is significant agreement among primary norms. For
example, most human beings have a basic moral intuition that gross violations against other
human beings are wrong. Thus, it does not follow, as cultural relativists assert that there are no
universal norms. Despite the existence of moral and cultural pluralism among secondary and
tertiary norms, most thinkers reject cultural relativism. They do so, as Thomas Donaldson has
noted, not because of compelling evidence of moral absolutism (i.e. the notion that eternal,
universal ethical norms exist and are applicable to human actions) but because relativism is itself
intellectually indefensible.
****Answers To: Disads****

Answer To: Federalism DA
Supreme Court ruling says the federal government regulates vehicle emissions
Jerry Adler Senior editor at Newsweek 2007, (Newsweek, “Moment of Truth; Is the push to
save the planet a fad, or a turning point? Here's hoping it's the real deal.”, April 16, p. 45)
On that very question could hinge the fate of much of life on Earth. Last week was
bracketed by two events that could make 2007 a turning point in the effort to control global
warming. On Monday, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government
had the power under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.
This victory for environmentalists was quickly snatched away by President Bush, who
announced the next day that his administration had no intention of doing anything of the
sort. But the ruling set an important precedent for treating carbon dioxide as a threat to
human welfare, and opens the way to regulating it by tightening fuel-economy standards.
On Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, marshaling the research of
nearly 1,000 scientists from 74 countries, issued a long-awaited report on climate-change
"impacts, adaptation and vulnerability." The study found that global warming was already
affecting the Earth's ecosystems; it predicted that continued climate change, in combination
with other environmental stressors such as population increases and greater urbanization,
would lead to more-severe and widespread drought, greater coastal and riverine flooding,
and "increased risk of extinction" for 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species.
Depending on how much temperature rises, food production in the temperate regions
(including parts of the United States and Canada) could actually increase, but would
probably decline in much of the tropics.
States are prohibited from enacting a standard fuel economy
Chanin, Editor-in-Chief, NYU Annual Survey of American Law, 2003
(Rachel L., “California’s Authority To Regulate Mobile Source Greenhouse Gas Emissions,”
New York University Annual Survey of American Law, 58 NYU Ann. Surv. Am. L. 699).
This Note examines one state's recent passage of ambitious environmental regulation. On July 22, 2002,
Governor Gray Davis signed into law unprecedented legislation that would make
California the first state to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The
New York Times lauded the legislation as "unquestionably the most important step taken in
this country to control greenhouse emissions since 1998, when the Clinton administration
signed the Kyoto Protocol ... ." Arguably, preemption provisions [*700] in the Clean Air
Act and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) statute preclude California from
regulating such emissions. An examination of California's authority to regulate greenhouse
gas emissions highlights the larger issue of how state efforts to establish environmental
regulations may be constrained by federal statutes alleged to preempt state action.
Part I of this Note discusses the rise in the state regulatory movement, particularly in the
area of emissions regulation. Part II then outlines California's recently-enacted legislation
to curb greenhouse gas emissions - California Assembly Bill 1493 (AB 1493). The Note
then explores whether California's regulation is preempted: Part III provides a brief
overview of general preemption law; Part IV analyzes preemption under the Clean Air Act,
with Part V addressing the related issue of whether there is authority to regulate
greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act; and Part VI examines preemption under the
CAFE statute. This Note concludes that California retains substantial authority to regulate
greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. While California is clearly prohibited by
the CAFE statute from enacting a fuel economy standard, the state retains authority under
the CAFE statute and the Clean Air Act to impose a supply-side emissions-per-mile
standard on manufacturers. Furthermore, the CAFE statute does not preclude California
from enacting demand-side programs that encourage consumers to purchase vehicles with
lower greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, California's AB 1493 represents an important opportunity
for meaningful greenhouse gas emissions regulation, and illustrates the power of states to
promulgate policies to fill the federal environmental regulatory void.
Answer To: Auto Industry Econ. DA’s
Non-Unique: The auto industry is dropping through the floor
Jones, Associate editor MSNBC, 2008
(Weak housing, energy prices likely to put damper on sales, MSNBC, Jan)
Just as the automotive industry is about to reap the savings from a new cost-saving labor
contract, and just as some of Detroit’s newest products are starting to sell well, turmoil in
the housing market will likely slow U.S. car sales in 2008.“It started over the summer, and
we expect it to continue in 2008, hitting hard in the first half of the year,” said George
Magliano, director of automotive industry research at Global Insight, who recently wrote a
report on the outlook for next year called “The Long, Cold Winter Descends Upon the
Auto Market.” Magliano and other industry analysts expect auto sales to be hit hard as the
housing downturn continues to drag the economy down.“It’s going to be a rough year,”
Magliano said. “The issue is we are getting battered by a really bad economy right now, so
the consumer will pull back and get more cautious ... All that means interest in buying
[vehicles] will drop through the floor."Amid dwindling sales and continued fierce
competition from overseas rivals, the Big Three U.S. manufacturers — General Motors,
Ford and Chrysler — each secured a landmark, four-year labor agreement with the United
Auto Workers union this year, despite brief strikes against two of the manufacturers.The
deals are significant because they free the automakers from the shackles of their past,
giving them the ability to hire new workers at lower wages and shift their expensive health
care liabilities to a union-run trust fund, potentially saving billions of dollars.
US auto industry is failing because of lack of fuel efficiency standards. US government
action is essential to save the industry.
Business, Spring)
What is difficult to understand is if the market is moving towards offering more fuel
efficient vehicles, why are American automakers still against Kyoto? Foreign automakers
continue to gain market share in the United States due to appealing designs, price, and
quality of their vehicles. 237 American automakers have failed to do this and therefore
have had trouble increasing and defending their market share. 238 As much as automakers
have tried to win back car buyers looking for fuel efficient [*733] vehicles, they have had
little success. 239 The current government list for most fuel efficient cars is dominated by
Toyota and Honda, who account for seven of the twelve vehicles (including some ties) in
the top ten; American automakers only accounted for three vehicles, all hybrids. 240 If the
government requires emissions cuts, it will also have to provide some assistance in making
the cuts, because the industry-wide changes will be an extensive undertaking that, if
unsuccessful, would prevent the United States from meeting the emissions goal in Kyoto.
This would give American auto makers a foundation to expand the development of better
technologies and have them reach the consumers. The involvement of both the government
and the auto industry would be crucial in the success of achieving the standards set forth in
Kyoto as well as keeping the struggling auto industry from folding.
The US automotive industry’s switch to more efficient auto’s increases competitiveness and
causes a domino effect of technologies.
Business, Spring)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ("IPCC") identified emissions of carbon dioxide as the
chief contributor to global warming, concluding also that the burning of fossil fuels is the most
significant source of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Carbon dioxide is one of the most
common gases found in our atmosphere and is regulated by a natural carbon cycle. This cycle consists of
carbon dioxide being released into the air and then being absorbed by vegetation and water; however, this
process is disrupted by additional emissions from human activity and deforestation. With greater emission
of carbon dioxide and less vegetation to absorb it, a substantial portion remains in the
atmosphere, warming the earth. The IPCC was developed by the World Meteorological Organization
and the United Nations Environmental Programme to assess information relevant to climate change, the
impact of climate change, and what measures can be taken to mitigate the damage. Most recently, the 2007
report states that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have increased
markedly as a result of human activities since 1750. The rise of electricity has contributed a slightly greater
percentage of this increase than fossil-fuel based transportation. However, automakers already have
available technology that can significantly reduce this problem, and that same technology,
if used in production of new models, could increase American automakers' ability to
compete with foreign automakers who are steadily gaining market share. In addition, a
change started among automakers could have a domino effect, leading other industries to
develop and implement technologies that could further help in reducing emissions.
Government incentives are the key to US auto industry catching up with foreign
competitors
Business, Spring)
The Bush administration opposes the international drive to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase
financing for non-polluting energy sources. 105 The current administration's opposition stems from the desire
to let the marketplace fix itself and to decide how quickly renewable energy sources will be adopted. 106 The
Bush-Cheney energy plan does not mention [*719] Kyoto and focuses on increasing energy supplies using
coal, oil, gas, and nuclear energy (the only non-polluting source of energy); the plan refers to efficiency,
renewable energy, equity, and the environment as minor issues that are at the margin of the energy policy. 107
To an extent, this laissez faire economics approach to energy sources seems to be working. New technologies
are being researched and developed. However, by failing to emphasize the importance of changing energy
sources, the Bush-Cheney Energy plan further delays American industries' ability to adjust to changes being
made around the world. Though technologies are being researched and developed, they are not
being implemented in a timely manner. 108 Considering how far behind U.S. automakers
already are, the best way to have these technologies developed is through government
support of the auto industry. As will be discussed later, foreign automakers have already
entered into the automobile market with new technologies that make their line of cars ever
more fuel efficient. 109
The auto industry must make a shift to green auto’s- consumers don’t want gas guzzlers
Maynard and Bunkley, Reporters at the New York Times, 2007 (Micheline and Nick,
“Getting to Green”, The New York Times, October 24)
Yet, with gasoline prices at $3 or more a gallon, and with the environment a pressing issue
for consumers worldwide, auto companies have little choice about paying attention to
developing green automobiles. As Mr. Friedman of Concerned Scientists said: ''It isn't just
about making more patriotic and environmentally friendly cars, it's also good business.
Consumers are walking away from gas-guzzling vehicles.'' Mr. Burns agrees, saying, ''For
pure, raw business reasons, we've got to solve this problem because we want to continue to
grow.'' That realization has meant some serious adjustments for carmakers who gave the
subject little attention or who backed away from their original commitments. Some
analysts say that Ford and Chrysler fall into that camp, a particularly uncomfortable
position for Ford, which had a lock on the title of greenest American company a few years
ago. At the time, Ford was headed by an avowed environmentalist, William Clay Ford Jr.,
Ford's great-grandson, who served as chief executive from 2001 until last year and remains
its executive chairman. Among other things, Mr. Ford built an environmentally conscious
assembly plant in Dearborn, Mich., and pledged to improve the fuel economy of his best-
selling S.U.V.'s by 25 percent and to produce more hybrids. With the company losing
billions of dollars, he retreated from both promises, saying that Ford needed to take a
broader approach to green issues. But his replacement, Alan R. Mulally, has intensified
Ford's environmental effort again.
The 2007 fuel efficiency laws make new energy efficient vehicles a matter of survival
Freeman; Washington Post Staff Writer 2008 (Sholnn, “Fast, Phat And Efficient, Too;
Carmakers Shift Attitude on Fuel Economy”, Washington Post, Jan. 14, Pg. D0)
However, David Champion, chief of auto testing at Consumer Reports, said automakers
that use environmental technology solely to boost performance will be taking a risk. "I
don't think it's worked when the focus has been on increasing horsepower with a small
increase in fuel economy," he said. He said carmakers such as Toyota and Honda struggled
with early versions of hybrids that boosted performance while delivering only negligible
increases in fuel economy, including the hybrid versions of the Highlander and the Accord.
Shifting gears for this year's auto show, Honda showed its CR-Z hybrid prototype, a small
car with a gas-hybrid electric system focused heavily on fuel economy. "People want to
buy a hybrid that gets phenomenal gas mileage," Champion said. Environmentalists are
also watching how automakers deploy new fuel efficiency technology. "Automakers must
face two realities of today's marketplace: $3 per gallon gasoline and 35 mpg fuel economy
standards," said Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director at the Natural Resources Defense
Council. "Automakers that best figure how to produce cars that reflect these realities, while
still being fun to drive, will be the ones that thrive in the future. Fuel efficiency is no
longer just virtue for automakers; it's a matter of survival."
Answer To: Economy DA’s
Americans are not confident with the economy and will not spend with 87% saying the
economy is going down
Lambro Chief political correspondent for the Washington times 2008 (Donald, The Recession
fixation, Washington Times SECTION: COMMENTARY; June 2, A25)
Americans remain "deeply pessimistic" about the future of the U.S. economy, with a
whopping 87 percent saying it's getting worse, according to a Gallup poll. It's unlikely this
number will appreciably decline, even after the economic figures begin to improve. That's
because consumer confidence is always a lagging indicator that doesn't turn up until long
after the nation's economy has begun to bounce back. That's bad news for the Republicans,
who need to show some tangible evidence of an improving economy in order to blunt the
Democrats' portrait of a country mired in recession, or even worse. The country isn't in a
recession as it is commonly, if somewhat arguably, defined: two consecutive quarters in
which the economy has stopped growing. In first quarter 2008, the economy did grow, but
only just; it inched upward by an anemic 0.9 percent. Economists expect growth in the
second quarter to come in at around 1 percent or more, moving higher in the second half.
But such definitions prove meaningless to people who have lost their jobs or are struggling
to make ends meet amidst $4-a-gallon gasoline, higher food bills and a troubled economy.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan said the country was in a depression, he drew ridicule from
Jimmy Carter's advisers, who said he didn't understand the definition of that term. At a
Labor Day campaign kickoff rally of immigrants near the Statue of Liberty, Reagan said,
"Well, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor
loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses
his."
Oil and record gas prices remain a huge drag on the economy. Growth can pull the US
economy out of a downturn
Lambro, Chief political correspondent, 2008 (Donald, The Recession fixation, Washington
Times SECTION: COMMENTARY; June 2, A25)
The soaring value of oil and record gas prices remain a huge drag on the economy, though oil
costs will be somewhat offset by lower interest rates. A stronger dollar would help bring down
oil prices, too. Meanwhile, the tax rebates and the Fed's rate cuts are slowly working their way
through the economy's bloodstream .Democrats want us to believe the economy is in crisis, but it
isn't. We are in a sharp slowdown, one of many our country has experienced and overcome many
times before. It is instructive to recall the economic upturn in the second half of 2003 in response
to the Fed's deep rate cuts when "stocks, bond yields and the economy all soared," Mr. Malpass
notes. At this point, there are glimmers of recovery that suggest this downturn may be shorter
and shallower than anyone predicted. Americans are understandably pessimistic, in part by what
is going on in their states and communities, but also due to a drumbeat of negative stories on the
nightly television news, a gloomy oracle that sees nothing but doom ahead .Yet through it all, we
remain the world's largest economy, producing $14 trillion worth of goods and services each
year, selling $1.4 trillion of stuff abroad in a vigorous global economy running flat-out on trade.
U.S. export grew at by nearly 3 percent in the first quarter. We got whacked hard by the housing
collapse and credit crunch, but it's good to remember that we have a very resilient economy that
has pulled us out of innumerable panics, recessions and depressions. We'll grow and pull
ourselves out of this downturn, too, a little wiser for the mistakes that were made. Things may
appear a bit gloomy now, but there is every reason to be confident about America's future.
TURN- C.A.F.E. STANDARDS INCREASE JOBS

Tamminen, Author, Lecturer, and Strategist on energy and the environment, 2006(Terry,
Lives Per Gallon, The True Cost Of Our Oil Addiction, p.142)
Increasing oil prices results in the raising of prices for everything

Tertzakian, Chief Economist of ARC Financial Corporation, 2006, (Peter, “A Thousand Barrels a
Second”, To the Ends of the Earth (pg. 95)
HIGH GAS PRICES WRECK THE ECONOMY

Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation, 2006, (Peter, A Thousand
THE ENERGY GAME WILL BE WON BY THE MOST EFFICIENT CONSUMER

Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation, 2006, (Peter, A Thousand

Reducing energy use can insulate the economy from destabilization – the aff short circuits
the DA impact
experts, 2001 (David, Jason, Patricia, Carl, Union of Concerned Scientists, “Tapping Automaker
Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles”, June,
Current macroeconomic models can estimate changes only at the margin of our economy.
More radical impacts due to our growing use of oil and our increasing impact on the
environment can be difficult to predict and even more difficult to value. For example, how
do we know the point at which increasing energy costs may ignite a recession? How do we
measure the costs of global climate change, the loss of a species, the desertification of a
once-lush ecosystem? These more intangible costs and benefits have tremendous
implications for national wealth and prosperity, yet they prove unwieldy for the models and
are thus excluded from the analysis. Reducing energy usage and costs can insulate the
economy from destabilizing events that do not figure into this economic model.
Answer To: Business Confidence
Corporations are ready to act to prevent the impending crisis
Adler Senior editor at Newsweek 2007, (Jerry, Newsweek, “Moment of Truth; Is the push to
save the planet a fad, or a turning point? Here's hoping it's the real deal.”, April 16, p. 45)
Of course, CEOs of public companies are supposed to represent the interests of their
stockholders, not their children. And so they do. A certain amount of what is billed as
environmental awareness by American business might be more accurately described as
cost-cutting. The prospect of $60-a-barrel oil for the foreseeable future concentrates the
minds of America's corporate managers powerfully on the goal of reducing the
consumption of energy and raw materials, as forward-looking companies like Wal-Mart
and UPS have discovered that General Electric's commitment to building energy-efficient
engines and other products is paying off in sales, not just good will. Utilities have to
answer to state regulators, who are increasingly demanding conservation and strategies for
carbon reduction. But more important, the corporations that have taken the lead on
environmental issues recognize that they cannot be bigger than the economy as a whole.
The quest for new social and technological systems that don't require endless and
increasing inputs of finite resources goes by the term "sustainability." Who has a greater
stake in sustainability than the world's biggest corporations?
No one, and everyone: we are all in this together, even the oil and coal companies, whether
they recognize it or not. As the following pages show, cities and states across America,
companies large and small, religious leaders and educators are all rising to the challenge of
building a sustainable future. They are coming to understand that the impending crisis
transcends their individual agendas, because if civilization itself is at stake, it isn't going to
matter what the capital-gains tax rate is, or whether 10th graders are taught intelligent design or
evolution. The time to act is now, if we don't want our children someday to wonder, how could we have
been so stupid?
World energy markets are worth 6 trillion. Entrepreneurs have gone green.
Breslau San Francisco Bureau Chief Popescu journalism article reporter freelance Loizos, San
Francisco Reporter 2007(Karen, Roxana, Constance, 'It's All About Energy, Stupid!' Newsweek,
00289604, Nov. 19, Vol. 150, Issue)
Presidential candidates used to get away with little more than plugging ethanol in Iowa and
the requisite pledge to clean the air and water for the next generation. Not in 2008. With oil
prices nearing $100 a barrel and public concern over global warming rising faster than Al
Gore's trophy pile, this year's campaign cliché is "energy independence." Along with
health-care plans and strategies for Iraq, the candidates are churning out detailed proposals
to slow climate change and wean the country from imported oil. Last week in Iowa, Hillary
Clinton announced a plan to increase U.S. biofuel production. Two days later, she popped
up in New Hampshire with home-improvement expert Bob Vila to trade tips on energy
efficiency. This weekend in Los Angeles, she and John Edwards will attend the first-ever
presidential candidates' debate on climate change. Not to be outgreened, Republican Sen.
John McCain is pushing his bill to cap and trade greenhouse-gas emissions. New York City
mayor (and potential independent challenger) Michael Bloomberg is calling for a carbon
tax. Rudy Giuliani is pushing solar, wind and even nuclear power as "a matter of national
security." The polls, it seems, have figured out what venture capitalists and entrepreneurs
have known for years: green is Topic A. "It's really smart to pull up renewable energy as a
headline issue," says Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ray Lane, who now invests
exclusively in "cleantech" ventures, even though, he cautions, "I have not become a tree-
hugger--or a Democrat." Rather, it's because the $6 trillion world-energy market,
dominated for the past century by fossil-fuel interests, is being swarmed by thousands of
entrepreneurs peddling game-changing technologies in solar, wind, geothermal and bio-
energy, batteries, electric "smart grids" and plain-old efficiency. The technologies are
moving from the lab to the marketplace just as political pressure mounts to force
companies to curb their greenhouse-gas emissions. "It's a perfect storm," says Lane.
Businesses are increasingly invest in the environment
(Michael., Politics and the Environment, )
Collaboration between government and private sector produces good R&D innovation
Your bizcon DA is the most pernicious form of anthropocentrism


Answers To: Consumer Confidence
Fuel efficiency far outweighs the cost to the consumer
As automakers pass the cost of fuel economy improvements on to consumers, and

consumers find that fuel savings more than compensate for these costs, the US economy
will benefit. Increased automaker income and consumer savings will stimulate investment,
improve wages and salaries, and lead to an overall increase in national income levels. To
evaluate the magnitude of these effects, UCS modeled the economic and employment
benefits from the stronger CAFE standards scenario using the IMPLAN input-output
macroeconomic model.30 Overall, the results indicate that jobs, wages, and national wealth
all show net gains over a 10- and 20-year horizon. These results are consistent with other
studies that have concluded that the cumulative benefits of enacting fuel-efficiency and
other energy- reduction strategies for transportation far outweigh the costs (Bernow and
Duckworth 1998, Alliance to Save Energy et al. 1997).
Answer To: Electricity Prices DA
Turn – Post plan electricity prices will go down because we can use generating stations 24 hours
and not pay for wasted maintenance.
Frank, American studies scientist and American industry major, 2007 (Andrew A, “Plug-in
Hybrid Vehicles for a Sustainable Future.” Mar/Apr, Vol. 95, Issue 2)
Although a plug-in hybrid will initially have a higher sticker price than what's found on a
conventional car, the differential is bound to diminish with time. In any event, the cost of
the automobile is only a part of the equation. Even if plug-in hybrids cost somewhat more,
they can still end up providing a better value to the customer. For example, plug-in hybrids
can be charged from the grid late at night, at what in many places are lower nighttime
rates, making the cost of transportation energy only a small fraction of what one pays now
for gasoline or diesel fuel. Electric-power companies are sure to expand the availability of
discounted nighttime rates in the future, to ease the burden on their systems during peak
daytime hours. Right now, the demand for electricity during the day exceeds that at night
by almost 50 percent. Hence about a third of electric-power plants have to be cut back or
shut down at night, which leads to idled generating capacity (not unlike what happens with
the engine of a conventional car). But even when they are doing nothing, these generating
stations are expensive to maintain--and these costs must ultimately be passed on to
consumers. Having a substantial number of people charging their plug-in hybrids at night
would tend to even out demand, helping producers bring down the fees they charge
everyone for electricity.
Turn - With appropriate incentives, Plug in hybrids can feed energy back into power grids.
Frank, American studies scientist and American industry major 2007 (Andrew A., American
Scientist, “Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles for a Sustainable Future.” Mar/Apr, Vol. 95, Issue 2)
With appropriate financial incentives, plug-in hybrids could one day serve to feed energy
back into the grid on occasion, thus helping electric-power producers satisfy peaks in
demand, which typically take place in the late afternoon. If, say, a kilowatt of power were
transferred from a given car for an hour or two, its battery pack, which might hold 15
kilowatt-hours of energy, would not be drawn down significantly. The reduction in all-
electric range would amount to less than 10 miles--indeed the effect could be minimized or
entirely reversed if, after the peak in demand had passed, the same amount of energy were
then returned from the grid back to the car before it was driven.
Answers To: Coal DA
Efficiency standards can be added to electricity grids
Market reforms introduce greater competition – can reduce electricity prices

Natural gas is the key bridging fuel to alternative energies

If America switched to hybrids the increase in electricity use would be relatively low
Coile, reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle 2007 (Zachary, THE SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLE, “CLEANER FUTURE? PLUG IN”, July 20, p. A1)
The new study sought to answer a key question: Would switching American's fuel of
choice from gasoline to electricity significantly reduce greenhouse gases? Or would a new
fleet of electric hybrids increase the use of coal at power plants, producing emissions as
bad or worse than gasoline?
Scientists from the Electric Power Research Institute -- a nonprofit think tank funded
mainly by electric utilities -- and the Natural Resources Defense Council used computer
models to simulate what would happen to emissions. They tested different scenarios based
on how quickly Americans embraced the new hybrids and what type of energy -- clean or
dirty -- was used by utilities.
The study found that if 60 percent of Americans shifted to plug-in hybrids by 2050, it
would lead to an increase in electricity usage of 7 to 8 percent TPARA---- a relatively
small increase, indicating that hybrids would not necessarily require a surge of new power
plant construction. Plug-in hybrids are charged mostly at night, when demand for
electricity is low.
Natural gas is plentiful and cleaner


We should clean up the electricity grid – this is not the fault of plug-ins
Clayton, Chief staff writer of the Christian Science Monitor, 2006 (Mark, Christian Science
Monitor, “A reality check on plug-in hybrids”, September 25, p. 3)
Plug-ins would chop CO2 emissions by 15 percent on a national average, compared
with conventional hybrid cars, the ACEEE report found. At the same time, the plug-in
would emit 157 percent more sulfur-dioxide pollution. The need, plug-in proponents say,
is for policies that would clean up the electricity grid so that PHEV technology
supplies cleaner skies along with energy independence.
Even with coal fired electricity, electric cars pollute 1/3 less
Kennedy, adviser to the Virginia governor, 2007 (Jack, The Roanoke Times, U.S., STATE
SHOULD PUSH NEXT-GENERATION VEHICLES, December 22, p. B7)
Electric car fuel is cheap when compared to fossil fuels. An electric car charge costs less
than $1 as compared to gasoline today. Assuming that electric cars use coal-fired
electric plants to gain their charge, the cars would still be responsible for a third less
greenhouse-gas pollution than today's conventional carbon-based gasoline-powered
car.
Won’t be dirty coal – grid electricity is improving
Wynne, president of Electric Drive Transportation department, 2008 (Brian, USA TODAY,
“Electric car superlative: Most Earth Friendly”, March 5, p. 10A)
As the next generation of electric drive vehicles hits the marketplace in the next few years,
not all will be powered by "the dirtiest type of coal," the scenario highlighted in the article.
Grid electricity is growing cleaner with advances in natural gas, cleaner coal and
renewables such as wind and solar for power generation.
The National Resources Defense Council study that USA TODAY cites notes that each
region of the country will yield reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as plug-in
electric vehicles assume more of the vehicle market share.
Many automakers, utilities, power plants and environmental organizations are working
together to address the myriad challenges associated with transforming more than
100 years of the transportation status quo. Electric drive has been identified as a
viable solution to the security and environmental challenges we face.
The electric car will encourage the use of solar panels to cover the cost of increasing electricity bills
Solar, member of the Capital Sun Group Corporation, 2008 (John, Photovoltaic systems and renewable
energy, “You’ll Buy An Electric Car Someday – You’ll Charge It”, April 7,
http://solarjohn.blogspot.com/2008/04/youll-buy-electric-car-someday-youll.html)
Like the invention of radio, TV, and the personal computer, the plug-in electric car
appears to be the next great invention that will change the way we live. The sudden
switch from gas to electricity will trigger an increase in the price we pay for
electricity, but those who use PV for some or all of their needs will suffer the least.
The surge in the cost of electricity will result in a greater demand for solar panels and
equipment, leading to shortages and price increases. To avoid dealing with those
shortages and price increases, now is the time to install solar electric panels and systems.
And as an added bonus, the massive shift away from internal combustion engines,
combined with an increased use of solar panels, will have a positive affect on the quality of
our air. You gotta love that!
Even with the increased use of coal, electric vehicles still pollute less than regular cars
Healey, Reporter for USA Today ,2008 (James, USA TODAY, “Plug-in cars could increase
air pollution”, Feb. 26, p. 3B)
The NRDC calculus shows that a plug-in charged from a power plant burning the
dirtiest type of coal still has an overall pollution level less than a conventional gasoline
car. But it would produce 11% more greenhouse gas emissions than a regular, non-plug-in
hybrid, according to Luke Tonachel, vehicles analyst at the NRDC and co-author of the
group's report on plug-ins. The report was produced jointly with the non-profit Electric
Power Research Institute.
He says, however, that charging a plug-in with electricity from renewable resources --
wind or water, for instance -- cuts overall greenhouse gas emissions to as low as a
conventional gasoline car getting 74 mpg. No current gasoline car does that.
Pollutants from electricity are half as bad as from auto emissions
Emissions from vehicles worse than from power plants

Sperling, Energy Efficiency Center Professor at UC Berkeley, 1995, (Daniel,“Future Drive”,
Hybrid Vehicles: Always Second Best? (pg. 110) )
Electricity can be produced without pollution

Sperling, Energy Efficiency Center Professor at UC Berkeley, 1995, (Daniel,“Future Drive”,
Toward Electric Propulsion (pg. 44) )

Answers To: Oil Prices DA
Global hoarding will result in the continuation of increasing oil prices—they will never be low
again.
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of Arc Financial Corporation, 2006 (Peter,“A Thousand Barrels a
Second”, To the Ends of the Earth (pg. 102))
The oil disadvantage is a sign we put all our eggs in the wrong basket
CHEAP OIL PRICES ARE GONE FOREVER


Answers To: Saudi Oil DA
HIGHER FUEL STANDARDS LOWER TERRORISM – SAUDI MONEY FUNDS
TERRORISM
Anchorage Daily News, Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune, ‘2007
(Interesting switch: Sen. Ted Stevens pushes stronger auto gas mileage standards)
More fuel-efficient vehicles would be good for national security and the fight against
global warming. They reduce the country's dependence on oil imported from
countries whose petrodollars support terrorism (think Saudi Arabia) and embolden
dictators (think Venezuela). Better fuel economy will reduce one of the country's largest
sources of greenhouse gases, which accelerate global warming. Forcing automakers to sell
fuel-sipping vehicles is not the only way to achieve those goals, though. A significant,
permanent increase in gasoline taxes would work. So would a sliding scale tax on vehicles,
depending on their weight or their fuel economy rating. But for three decades, the country
has used fuel economy requirements to improve the gas mileage of vehicles. Though
imperfect, it is the one tool that has been politically acceptable. Now is the time to use it
again. BOTTOM LINE: Sen. Stevens has apparently converted to the cause of requiring
more fuel-efficient vehicles. Good for him.
HIGHER FUEL ECONOMY WOULD NOT HURT SAUDI ECONOMY

EBELL, Director Energy and global warming policy Competitive Enterprise Institute, ‘08
(“A crude awakening“ The Washington Times)
Using more ethanol could, as Mr. May asserts, lead to a very slight decline over several
decades in the global demand for crude oil and thereby lower prices a bit. However, he is
wrong to think that lower oil prices, whatever causes them, would particularly hurt
Saudi Arabia or Iran. Those countries are the world's lowest-cost producers. If oil
prices drop back to 2000 levels, this will lower the profits of all producers, but it will
devastate the high-cost producers in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Finally, Mr.
May states that his scenario would protect national security. The argument behind this
claim is that countries such as Saudi Arabia would have less money to propagate radical
Islamic ideas around the world. However, spreading radical Islam is a priority, and an
inexpensive one, for the Saudi government. It was doing it when oil was $20 a barrel. Will
governments in the Middle East or Venezuela be friendlier to us when the price goes back
to $20? If Arab fundamentalists or Hugo Chavez pose serious threats to our national
security, we should confront those threats directly rather than through goofy roundabout
policies that are almost certain to harm Americans more than our enemies.
The US accepts Saudi Arabian human rights violations to get that oil
Norman Kempster, 2000 (LA Times, “Oil-Hungry US Ignores Human Rights Abuses Of Saudi
Arabia”, March 28, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/032800-01.htm)
Despite a history of arbitrary arrests, torture, unfair trials and harsh punishments such as flogging
and beheading, Saudi Arabia has never been held to the same human rights standards that
Washington and its allies apply to China, Myanmar, Sudan and other nations accused of
widespread repression, the human rights group said.
"The country's strategic position and vast oil resources have led governments and businesses
around the world to subordinate human rights to economic and strategic interests," the group said
in a 19-page report.
In addition to an annual report detailing the human rights situation in most of the world's
countries, Amnesty International issues one detailed report each year focusing on a single
country. This year the organization focused on Saudi Arabia. And it coupled its report with a call
for a grass-roots campaign to protest Saudi abuses.
"The U.N. Commission on Human Rights has, over the years, publicly expressed concern about
the human rights situation in a wide range of countries in all regions of the world, but it has
never publicly addressed the serious human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," the report said.
Answer To: Terrorism DA
The US war on terrorism is an attempt to control oil resources, but it has produced more
terrorism than stability
Tabb, Professor of political science and economics at Queens College, 2007 ( William,
Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan. http://www.monthlyreview.org/0107tabb.htm)
Even for those as optimistic as Maugeri, the question of who controls the oil cannot be
irrelevant. The U.S. state through threat, intimidation, and violence wants its ham fist on
the spigot, allowing it to blackmail other countries. U.S. imperialism has exerted control
over the Global South through the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO. During the Cold
War it used the threat of communist Russia and China to keep Europe and Japan under its
"leadership." It is now attempting to use terrorism in the same way, not altogether
successfully as it is turning out since its invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq
have failed to produce stable governments. Its actions have produced more terrorists and
alienated most of the world. Seeking control over oil for leverage does not seem a far
fetched stratagem for the oil soaked Bush-Cheney administration.
Answer To: Heg Good DA
Non-Unique: The oil industry proves US heg is low now
Tabb, Professor of Political science and economics at Queens College, 2007, (William,
Monthly Review, “Resource Wars”, Jan. http://www.monthlyreview.org/0107tabb.htm)
The most effective resistance to this imperialist pattern now is coming from Latin America
where Hugo Chávez has been repeatedly elected and won referenda because he has stood
up to the United States and used his country's oil revenues to raise living standards of the
poor of his nation. In April 2006, Petroleos de Venezuela increased its stake in major
projects to 60 percent from 40 percent as well as increasing its royalty cut. In Bolivia Evo
Morales nationalized the energy industry, causing the United States to express disapproval
regarding Morales's "weak commitment to democracy" (echoing its charge against
Chávez). However, Bolivia's first elected indigenous president, according to the leading
polling organization in the country, enjoyed an 80 percent approval rating in the spring of
2006 while George W. Bush's approval rating was at 33 percent among his country's
citizens. Like Chávez who had suffered at least one coup attempt, Morales has to confront
a military whose officers, trained at the School of the Americas, are not, as the press
delicately put it, "a natural ally of Mr. Morales." Such developments in Latin America and
similar manifestations of petro-nationalism elsewhere along with the general decline in
U.S. prestige and authority in the world have led Thomas Friedman to suggest we are now
in the post-post-cold war era in which, "U.S. power is being checked from every
corner."11 The major enemies of the United States somehow seemed to be oil producers, a
group of countries that given the current high energy prices cannot be easily intimidated
through economic sanctions or political pressure.
Dependence on foreign oil causes economic and security risks


Answer To: Growth Bad
OIL IS THE PRIMARY CATALYST FOR RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006, (Peter, A Thousand Barrels A
Second, The Coming Oil Break Point and The Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World,p.216)

Answers To: Malthus DA
Ehrlich is wrong about resource depletion because of population.
across the UK, 2006.
Long lives are a reason to celebrate – not a harm

Green revolutionary technology solves the crunch.

Letting people die is not the solution to the Malthusian crisis


Answer To: Enviro Movements DA
It is impossible to please the entire environmental community.

Answer To: Politics – Enviro not a relevant issue
Environmentalism is dead insofar as people only have a shallow value for nature-technical
solutions can’t solve.
Before discussing the literature on social norms and their connection to the debate around
environmental values, it is interesting to note the evidence that exists about the current
strength of environmental values. According to polling data, public concern about the
environment varies significantly over time and across countries. 33 For example, there was
a strong wave of public concern about the environment in the United States and Canada in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the basic structure of environmental legislation and
administrative institutions was put in place. 34 Environmental concern in the United States
as expressed in polls has varied since then. While some argue that there has been a
generally high level of support for environmental issues in the United Stares, 35 in their
controversial essay The Death of Environmentalism, Shellenberger and Nordhaus claim
that, "for a vast majority of Americans, the environment never makes it into their top ten
list of things to worry about." 36 In Canada, environmental support has varied with
economic concerns. For example, a second wave of environmental concern occurred in
Canada at the end of the 1980s followed by a decline in interest in the 1990s as economic
issues again became the focus of public. More recently, there was a brief resurgence of
environmental concern in 2001. 37 [*415] One interpretation of this data is that everyone
has a latent "environmental protection" norm--an abstract norm that need only be activated
in order for individuals to take action that does not harm the environment. 38 This norm,
however, appears closely connected to individual welfare (human health and well-being)
39 and therefore may not extend to many of the non-anthropocentric ecosystem issues that
underlie climate change. Moreover, even where polls show public support for the
environment, individuals do not appear to be willing to spend very much to address
environmental issues unless they perceive the change to affect them directly and that they
will notice a change in their lives. 40 This result seems to hold across the United States,
Canada, and the EU. 41 As a result, concern of the general public appears to be "wide" but
"shallow." 42 This apparently low level of public support for environmental issues has led
environmentalists to call for a shift in environmental values, increasing their importance
for the general public. Schellenberger and Nordhaus go so far as to claim that
"environmentalism is dead" in its current form. 43 They argue that instead of focusing on
technical solutions, there is a need to try to build public values around issues like the
environment. It does seem clear that a shift in environmental norms would be immensely
[*416] helpful in addressing climate change given the shallow nature of existing values.
However, what is less clear is the role government policy and law can and should play in
this shift. The next Part examines the social norms literature .and how it relates to these
issues around the feasibility of the creation of new environmental values.
Credit for the plan won’t go to status quo politicians – takes too long for energy policies to
be acknowledged by the public
Tertzakian, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation,2006,(Peter, A Thousand Barrels A
Second, The Coming Oil Break Point and The Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World,p.183-184)

Answers To: Politics – Political Capital
Popular policies require no political capital because there is no fight in Congress

Answers To: ANWR
Closing the SUV loophole and increasing CAFÉ standards would save more oil than
drilling in ANWR
Both closing the light-truck loophole and overall stronger CAFE standards would
save oil significantly faster than it could be extracted from the Arctic Refuge (figure
12). Closing the lighttruck loophole would save three times more oil in 2020 than the
Arctic Refuge could produce, and stronger CAFE standards across the board would
save 11 times more oil in that year. The irony of this comparison is that the amount of oil
available from the Arctic Refuge is much too small to affect world oil prices and is thus
unlikely to produce any consumer savings. Further, while reducing automotive fuel use
lowers emissions of greenhouse gases, toxics, and smog-forming pollutants, drilling in the
Arctic would increase these emissions. The sound alternative— both for the environment
and for consumers—is to tap into the intelligence and skills of the automakers and
encourage them to produce vehicles that won’t thirst for so much oil. This future is
possible.
Answer To: Util.
The only escape to consequentialism absurdity is to assign an absolute value to human life
that prevents the sacrifice of some for the greater good.
Joseph Raz, 1998 (The Morality of Freedom, p. 276)
Perhaps we should make a fresh start by considering some of the sources for moral disquiet with
consequentialism. One is disquiet about the comparability assumption on the ground that it leads to
absurdities such as the approval of the murder of an innocent healthy person in order to obtain ice-cream.
The value of one cone of ice-cream to one person will not justify murder, nor would the value of two
cones for two people. But the more people there are the more value is secured by getting one cone for
each of them. Consequentialist logic, so the argument goes, is committed to the view that at some point it
will be justifiable, indeed required, to commit murder if that is the only way to get the ice-cream. The
only escape route is to assign the life of an innocent person absolute weight, so that it will never be
outweighed by any number of refreshing cones of ice-cream. Since similar chains of reasoning will lead
one to assign infinite weight to grievous bodily harm, rape, the betrayal of friends and of one's country (if
it is morally decent), and to much else, this escape route is equally unpalatable (to the consequentialist). It
denies the possibility of trade-offs between any of those. The result is equivalent to abandoning
consequentialism in all but name.
Util is a framework that sacrifices the lives of a few people for the non-essential happiness
of the majority. No person would choose util if they knew they would be the one sacrificed.
Samuel Scheffler, 1994 (The Rejection of Consequentialism: A Philosophical Investigation of the
Considerations Underlying Rival Moral Conceptions, p. 11)
In A Theory of Justice, Rawls argues that the far-reaching utilitarian willingness to 'balance satisfactions
and dissatisfactions between different individuals' 9 can be seen as 'the consequence of extending to
society the principle of choice for one man, and then, to make this extension work, conflating all persons
into one through the imaginative acts of the impartial sympathetic spectator'. 10 In view of this conflation,
Rawls maintains, '[u]tilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons'. 11 Elaborating,
he argues that people in the hypothetical choice situation he calls 'the original position' would reject
utilitarian principles of justice because those principles would require the sacrifice of some people's life
prospects in order to increase the non-essential satisfactions of other people whenever that would serve to
maximize total aggregate satisfaction, and because public recognition of such principles would prevent
many individuals from satisfying their rational interest in securing their self-respect. In other words,
utilitarianism would not be chosen by people who knew, as the parties in Rawls's original position do, that
they each had some rational plan of life, plus a serious long-term interest in carrying out that plan. For as
separate individuals with separate systems of ends, such people would have no comparably serious
interest in maximizing total aggregate satisfaction per se. And so they would be unwilling to accept the
sacrifice of some people's life prospects simply in order to increase that sum. Hence, Rawls says, 'if we
assume that . . . the plurality of distinct persons with separate systems of ends is an essential feature of
human societies, we should not expect the principles of social choice to be utilitarian'.
****Answers To: Theory****

Answers To: Incentives T
Fuel efficiency aff’s are incentives via penalty. This is the same as the cap and trade approach.
Specter, Staff Writer for the New Yorker, 2008 (Michael, “Big foot; in measuring carbon
emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science” The New Yorker, pg 44, February 25)
How do we alter human behavior significantly enough to limit global warming? Personal
choices, no matter how virtuous, cannot do enough. It will also take laws and money. For
decades, American utilities built tall smokestacks, hoping to keep the pollutants they
emitted away from people who lived nearby. As emissions are forced into the atmosphere,
however, they react with water molecules and then are often blown great distances by
prevailing winds, which in the United States tend to move from west to east. Those emissions
—principally sulfur dioxide produced by coal-burning power plants—are the primary source of acid rain, and
by the nineteen-seventies it had become clear that they were causing grave damage to the environment, and
to the health of many Americans. Adirondack Park, in upstate New York, suffered more than anywhere else:
hundreds of streams, ponds, and lakes there became so acidic that they could no longer support plant life or
fish. Members of Congress tried repeatedly to introduce legislation to reduce sulfur-dioxide levels, but the
Reagan Administration (as well as many elected officials, both Democratic and Republican, from regions
where sulfur-rich coal is mined) opposed any controls, fearing that they would harm the economy. When
the cost of polluting is negligible, so are the incentives to reducing emissions. “We had a
complete disaster on our hands,” Richard Sandor told me recently, when I met with him at his office at the
Chicago Climate Exchange. Sandor, a dapper sixty-six-year-old man in a tan cable-knit cardigan and
round, horn-rimmed glasses, is the exchange’s chairman and C.E.O. In most respects, the exchange operates
like any other market. Instead of pork-belly futures or gold, however, CCX members buy and sell the right to
pollute. Each makes a voluntary (but legally binding) commitment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
—including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—and hydrofluorocarbons. Four hundred
corporations now belong to the exchange, including a growing percentage of America’s largest
manufacturers. The members agree to reduce their emissions by a certain amount every year, a
system commonly known as cap and trade. A baseline target, or cap, is established, and companies
whose emissions fall below that cap receive allowances, which they can sell (or save to use later).
Companies whose emissions exceed the limit are essentially fined and forced to buy credits to
compensate for their excess.
CAFÉ standards are market incentives for US automakers
Phillips, J.D., University of Michigan Law, 1996 (Eric, “WORLD
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: THE CAFE CASE,” Michigan Journal of
International Law, 17 Mich. J. Int’l L 827, Spring 1996)
The CAFE portion of the panel decision presents a mixed bag to environmentalists
and traders. It certainly does not lay to rest fears about [*863] the conflict between GATT
obligations and environmental law. The panel found that significant parts of the CAFE law
- a fundamentally important environmental law - violated the GATT. Amending the law to
bring it into compliance with the GATT would raise a series of problems both politically
and substantively. Political support would wane because it would place U.S. companies in
an even worse position with regard to its international competitors. The urgency that
existed about the energy crisis has vanished. Though many are concerned about global
warming, many others do not believe it poses a sufficient threat to justify the cost of the
CAFE law. The most important goal of the law would also be compromised if the law
were amended to comply with the GATT, as U.S. automakers' incentive to develop
energy efficient technology would be severely weakened. Market incentives indicate
that U.S. automakers would meet the standards by selling small imported cars.
At the same time, the panel report offers support to those who believe that
environmental protection can coexist with the GATT/WTO system. In particular, the
panel's indication that the fleet averaging provisions might qualify under the exception
under Article XX(g) of the GATT is encouraging. No panel has ever found that the
exceptions in the GATT could sustain an environmental law. To the extent that these
exceptions will provide a meaningful way to build flexibility into the system to allow
environmental protection, the CAFE case is promising.
CAFÉ standards function as a pollution charge incentive

Menz, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, 2002 (Frederic,
“Mobile source pollution control in the United States and China”,
http://www.cicero.uio.no/media/1781.pdf, April)
The situation could be improved if users of mobile sources were given incentives to
control emissions since they are ultimately responsible for discharges from vehicles. A
more user-oriented approach to controlling emissions from motor vehicles would provide
incentives to individual motorists to reduce discharges and encourage the development of
more environmentally-friendly products and processes. The incentives could take the
form of pollution charges based on vehicle emissions (actual or estimated) or
subsidies to purchase more fuel-efficient and less-polluting automobiles. Fuel taxes
should also be differentiated to encourage the use of alternative fuels. While basing
pollution charges on actual emissions would be ideal, a second-best policy would combine
fuel taxes differentiated by pollution characteristics with vehicle taxes reflecting emissions
characteristics.12
Closing the SUV loophole provides encouragement for electric cars
Clark L. Rev. 669)
Closing the SUV tax loophole would restore section 280F to its original purpose of preventing
abuse of the cost recovery system by limiting how much businesses may deduct for expensive
luxury vehicles. Closing the loophole would also be consistent with Congress's policy choice to
encourage businesses to purchase environmentally friendly vehicles such as electric cars, as
manifested in the Code in the form of tripled deduction limits for such vehicles. Additionally,
closing the loophole would help alleviate budget crises by putting more tax dollars into federal
and state coffers. Motivated by both fiscal and environmental concerns, a few state legislators
have already pushed for closure of the SUV tax loophole at the state level. Although
unsuccessful, these efforts nonetheless demonstrated the need for direct Congressional action.
Thus, it is time for Congress to step forward to close the SUV tax loophole at its source, ending
the abusive deduction practices made possible by an outdated definition and a change in
consumer preferences for trendy, luxury vehicles.
Answer To: Topicality Incentives = Taxes or Subsidies

We need to commit ourselves to environment in an act of altruism that would solve our
individual relationships with the environment.
Alternatively, since the "warm glow" model provides no account of or scope for moral reasoning, other
models of behavior have been built around the assumption that people want to see themselves as socially
responsible. They make decisions in part based on external factors (such as costs and benefits), but also in
part on their self-image, which results from comparing their actual actions with a "morally ideal" action. 6
This self-perception explanation of the divergence between choice and preference is closely related to the
theory that individuals may be following a norm or rule at least in part because of feelings of guilt when it
is not followed and pride when it is followed. Such a theory also fits within the rational choice
framework. These feelings of guilt or pride may be viewed as a "tax or subsidy" on action--making it
more or less costly (in a broad sense) to take particular actions. Such an approach remains largely self-
interested, because the action is based on the impact on the welfare of the individual. Finally, and most
controversially from the perspective of the rational choice framework, the divergence between choice and
preference may occur because of a self-imposed requirement that is neither self-interested nor self-
centered. Sen refers to such self-imposed requirements as "commitments" and contrasts them with
"sympathy." Sympathy arises when an individual's welfare is affected by the welfare of others.
Commitment, on the other hand, involves "breaking the tight link between individual welfare [*420]
(with or without sympathy) and the choice of action (e.g. acting to help remove some misery even though
one personally does not suffer from it)."
Incentives = Subsidies T
The plan would be a government subsidy- it’s the government offering information in the
form of a law that educates about the environmental impact of the SUV.
So far these concerns about relying on subsidies to address climate change have been
discussed assuming individuals have perfect information and rationality such that they can
correctly choose options according to their costs and benefits. Governments may also use
subsidies to offset informational constraints or problems of "bounded rationality." 96
Individuals make choices which they believe satisfy existing second order preferences,
such as for environmental protection or inter-generational equity. But because they do not
have sufficient information about these choices (such as about the impact or level of the
GHG emissions from their actions), individuals' choices may in fact be at odds with these
second order preferences. 97 Similarly, individuals have difficulty dealing with low
probability outcomes and tend to disregard them in making decisions. For example,
individuals may not be able properly to evaluate the very low probability of a catastrophic
climate shift (as opposed to a gradual one) resulting from a build-up of GHGs in the
atmosphere. 98 Government may have a role where individuals make such mistakes. It
could provide information to overcome the informational constraint (such as on the actual
environmental impact of a particular choice like buying an SUV), though possibly not the
difficulties related to bounded rationality: if individuals cannot process the information,
more information is not helpful. 99 Government could also attempt to use law to reduce the
impact of bounded rationality by, for example, setting default rules that allow choice but
aid in fostering a welfare-enhancing choice or allowing cooling off periods for individuals
to re-think potentially rash decisions.
Answers To: Alternative Energy T
Energy efficiency is an alternative energy
Cook, Project Management Use for Developing Alternative Energy Sources 2008 (“Alternative
Energy Sources, Such as Solar Energy and Oil Sands, to Replace Oil & Other Fossil Fuels, and
to Fight Global Warming”, June 1st , http://vanrcook.tripod.com/alternative_energy_sources.htm)
Alternative energy sources discussed in this web site include solar energy, oil sands,
ethanol, biodiesel, wind energy, coal mine methane, geothermal energy, nuclear energy,
hybrid cars, LNG, GTL, hydrogen fuel cells, and compressed natural gas. Also included
are energy efficiency improvements which I count as alternative energy sources.
These energy efficiencies are too important to leave out.
Alternative energy is anything that is perpetually renewable which includes energy

efficiency
Cook, Project Management Use for Developing Alternative Energy Sources 2008
(Van,“Alternative Energy Sources, Such as Solar Energy and Oil Sands, to Replace Oil & Other
Fossil Fuels, and to Fight Global Warming”, June 1st
http://vanrcook.tripod.com/alternative_energy_sources.htm)
These are the alternative energy sources that are perpetually renewable. Solar energy,
wind power, ethanol, biodiesel, etc. Once developed, these energy sources will supply a
near infinite supply of energy........but, in the meantime, we have to have the less exotic
energy sources of categories 1 and 2. Otherwise, civilization, as we know it, will be badly
hurt.
In accordance with the above definition of alternative energy source, I have included
improved energy efficiency as a source. Efficiency improvements could be very
important in meeting the energy shortage as the improvements were back in the 70's,
80's and 90's during the past energy crises.
Alternative energy is anything that replaces crude oil, natural gas or coal.
Cook, Project Management Use for Developing Alternative Energy Sources 2008 (Van,
“Alternative Energy Sources, Such as Solar Energy and Oil Sands, to Replace Oil & Other Fossil
Fuels, and to Fight Global Warming”, June 1st ,
http://vanrcook.tripod.com/alternative_energy_sources.htm)
For the purpose of this web page, alternative energy sources are defined as any energy
source (and certain non-energy applications) that can replace or reduce the use of
conventional crude oil, natural gas, and coal. This is a broad definition but it is helpful in
avoiding concentrating on only pristine alternative energy sources, e.g., solar energy, wind
energy, tidal energy, biomass, etc. We are not going to solve the energy crisis with just
solar energy and windmills. Not quickly, anyway!
Answers To: Framework
The classroom is part of the political economy. Social activism uses education to stretch the
moral imagination of students.
Figueroa, Philosopher of science and technology, 2002.
(Robert, “The Environmental Justice Reader”, p. 326)
The negs framework rewrites citizenship as a private act which ignores the history of marginalized
groups who have been summarily dismissed. Our framework requires public accountability that
recognizes the competition and choice in debate are the product of unevenly distributed resources
and influence.
For many conservatives, the utopian possibility of cultural democracy has become dangerous at
the current historical conjuncture for a number of reasons. Most important, cultural democracy
encourages a language of critique for understanding and transforming those relations that trap
people in networks of hierarchy and exploitation. That is, it provides normative referents for
recognizing and assessing competing political vocabularies, the visions of the future they
presuppose, and the social identities and practices they produce and legitimate. Clearly, such a
position poses a challenge to right-wing educators whose celebration of choice and the logic of
the market place often abstracts freedom from equality and the imperatives of citizenship from
its historical grounding in the public institutions of modern society.
In fact, many conservatives have been quite aggressive in rewriting the discourse of citizenship
not as the practice of social responsibility but as a privatized act of altruism, self-help, or
philanthropy. It is crucial to recognize that within this language of privatization, the disquieting,
disrupting, interrupting difficulties of sexism, crime, youth unemployment, AIDS, and other
social problems, and how they bear down on schools and subordinated groups, are either ignored
or summarily dismissed as individual problems caused, in part, by the people who are victimized
by them. This position accentuates individual character flaws and behavioral impediments to
economic and social mobility to elide the political and economic conditions that produce the
context of victimization and the systemic pressures and limits that must be addressed to
overcome it. By focusing on the privatized language of individual character, conservatives erase
the moral and political obligation of individuals, groups, and institutions to recognize their
complicity in creating the racial problems that multicultural critics have addressed. In this
scenario, we end up with a vision of leadership in which individuals act in comparative isolation
and without any sense of public accountability. This is why many right-wing educators praise
the virtues of the competition and choice but rarely talk about how money and power,
when unevenly distributed, influence "whether people have the means or the capacity" to
make or act on choices that inform their daily lives.
We should role play the government. This is the basis for peace.
Rawls, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, 1999 [John, The Law of Peoples, pg 54]
Similarly, the ideal of the public reason of free and equal peoples is realized, or satisfied,
whenever chief executives and legislators, and other government officials, as well as
candidates for public office, act from and follow the principles of the Law of Peoples and
explain to other peoples their reason for pursuing or revising a people's foreign policy and
affairs of state that involve other societies. As for private citizens, we say, as before, that
ideally citizens are to think of themselves as if they were executives and legislators and ask
themselves what foreign policy supported by what considerations they would think it most
reasonable to advance, Once again, when firm and widespread, the disposition of citizens
to view themselves as ideal executives and legislators, and to repudiate government
officials and candidates for public office who violate the public reason of free and equal
peoples, is part of the political and social basis of peace and understanding among peoples.
The role of bureaucracy denies everybody political freedom. A strict policy maker
interpretation of debate means we will have freedom of speech, but no effective voice.
Coventry University, 2005 (April, Direct Action and Democracy, p. 53)

Answer To: EPA Spending Trade-off
Non-unique: Status quo policies move toward reduction of EPA budget now.

Fuel Efficiency Aff Minus Pics - Nielson

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Gonzaga Debate Institute 2008 1

[Nielson/Ward/Brockway] Fuel Efficiency Aff

Thus, our plan:

Contention 2, 3, & 4 is the same as the Fuel Efficiency 1AC.

In addition to appropriate transmissions, plug-in hybrids also need high-power electric

5. The government is morally obligated to provide incentives for electric vehicles

Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn recently told the Bild newspaper in

Interest in alternative-technology vehicles is tremendous right now, largely because of

The move to electric cars is inevitable within 10 years

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THE FEDERAL GOVERNENT NEEDS TO PROVIDE TAX INCENTIVES FOR SMART

FREEDOM ACT SHOULD PASS – ELECTRICITRICIUTY IS CLEANER, CHEAPER,

Plug-in’s will reduce greenhouse gases and conventional pollution

III. WHY HYBRIDS?

Plug-in’s massively slash greenhouse gases

Air quality and electric cars go hand and hand

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Plug-in hybrids can triple fuel mileage

PHEV’s get 55 to 120 mpg

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Electric cars are the best option for the future

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****Fuel Efficiency/CAFÉ Aff****

Thus Our Plan:

1. US OIL DEPENDENCY IS OVERWHELMINGLY ROOTED IN AUTOMOBILES

2. Terrorism threats the very survival of civilization itself.

2. The standard must be 75 mpg by 2030 to meet greenhouse targets

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Government sponsored efficiency standards improve products – more stringent standards

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INDIVIDUALS MUST CONSUME LESS VIA FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES

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Fuel efficiency regulations make conservation appealing

No effort to control greenhouse-gas emissions or to lower the carbon footprint—of an

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Detroit could make a 40mpg SUV

Thus, Our Plan:

1. SUV’s emblematic of a narcissistic consumption that privileges fantasies of technological power

2. A technological approach to the world forces a conceptualization of things as

Contention 4: Insecure & Loving It

5. Vote aff to prioritize human suffering over energy issues

Hip-Hop is a vehicle to find you find and learn to interrogate it.

A vehicle’s rollover safety is a combination of its rollover propensity, restraint performance

SUVs murder light cars on the road

In two-vehicle collisions, compatibility refers to the degree to which each vehicle

Fatalities in SUVs have doubled

The reduction in light-vehicle occupant fatalities is a result of a number of factors,

We are an autocentric society

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Assimilation is marked symbolically in transportation. The SUV represents the pinnacle of

SUV’S AREN’T EFFICIENT WE MUST DRIVE LIGHTER VEHICLES

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SUV loophole costs an additional $20 billion in gas costs

SUV’s have poor fuel efficiency

WEIGHT DETERMINES CONSUMPTION- THE MAGIC BULLET IS LIGHT

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Hip-Hop as a pedagogy develops independent thinkers and learners competitive on a

Turn- Repetition isn’t commodification – it’s a type of social resistance

Fuel Efficiency/CAFÉ Aff

General Oil Harms