Brownfield Neg - Magallon Perry-2

Brightfields Neg
Solvency Answers

No Solvency Capacity
Grid operators worry solar power takeover unimagineable.
JADHAV, May 18, 2011
(NILESH, Solar Energy Intermittency: Grid operators nightmare?, Solar Novus Today,
http://www.solarnovus.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2824:solar-
energy-intermittency-grid-operators-nightmare&catid=75:editors-blogs&Itemid=352, Aug 1,
12)MJG
However, grid operators worry when solar energy forms a significant portion of the generation
mix (say 10-30%). The concern is that such a scenario is unmanageable due to the fact that spinning
reserves and peak power generation capacity may not be sufficiently available. The conclusion
by some grid operators is that solar energy cannot really provide major share of electricity
generation, which could be bad news for grid-connected solar. This leads to the question of whether there is an upper limit on
grid-connected solar systems that is actually much smaller (e.g., <10%) than what many forecast today?

No Solvency Costs
Cant solve investment too expensive
GreenDIYenergy, 2010, Why is Solar Energy so Expensive? GreenDIYenergy,
http://www.egreendiyenergy.org/why-is-solar-energy-so-expensive/)
The fact is that the solar industry is not yet vast enough to create a market which can allow for
prices of solar panels and installation to drop. The more competition that is available, the
more these companies will compete against each other to attract buyers by lowering the prices. Solar
energy is still young, and as a result architects are timid about using these new solar technologies
on house designs. They may be timid becauase: They are unfamiliar with how to properly incorporate solar energy into
house designs that they have been doing for years. They are afraid of losing clients because solar energy adds to the overall project
cost. They are unsure of where to get the proper help and assistance to incorporate solar technology into their designs. Many
builders are about the bottom line, and the fact is that because solar energy is expensive, they dont
find it profitable for them to spend excessive architectural fees on designs and systems that
arent mainstream. Its a bit of a unfortunate loop, because this is a reason why solar energy is expensive, and because its
expensive this happens. Many people, especially in todays day in age, are all about the now. If people want
something, they do what they can to get it now. Unfortunately, the installation of solar panels is
an investment that may not necessarily see returns for the investor (homeowner or builder) until a
year, two years, or even five years after installation. There are a lot of short term concerns on peoples minds,
too many in fact that solar energy becomes just a nice thought in the back of peoples minds, and something to put off until later.
Many are waiting until solar energy is cheaper and economic, but it wont happen until people
start investing in it in the first place. I think the biggest reason why solar energy is so expensive, is because we dont
NEED it. Its a luxury right now, because we have many other energy sources so readily and cheaply available to us right now.
No Solvency Incentives 1NC
Even if plan provides incentives, companies will still only redevelop 1/3
of brownfield sites
Essoka 3 (Dumbe, Dr. of philosophy @ Drexel, Brownfields Revitalization
Projects:Displacement of the Dispossessed http://dspace.library.drexel.edu/handle/1860/206 )
Sites are categorized into three types: viable, threshold and nonviable. Viable sites are
already economically viable and the private market is taking steps to develop them.
Potential liability is low and the potential rate of return is high. Threshold sites are
marginally viable sites that cannot be developed without some public assistance. Nonviable
sites are tracts with a high potential for liability and/or a low economic advantagethey
require a substantial amount of public assistance

No Solvency Incentives 2NC/1NR
The problem of brownfields is too great to be solved by a single political
action
Kibel 98 (Paul Stanton, Adjunct Professor, Golden Gate University School of Law, Boston
College Environmental Affairs Law Review, 25 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 589, p. lexis)
The origins of suburban sprawl, toxic contamination, and inner-city decline are complex. Given
this complexity, there are no simple policy solutions to these problems. The scope and
interrelatedness of the issues do not lend themselves to tidy, reductionist answers. While there
may not be simple solutions, there are nonetheless specific and important policy steps that can be taken to improve the situation.
Particularly in the areas of metropolitan land governance and the remediation regulatory framework, there are policy options that
can and should be pursued. In the area of metropolitan land governance, there needs to be a
recognition that our municipal governments often lack the legal capacity to deal with the
problems facing our cities. n136 Jurisdiction over land regulation generally exists at the county
level, yet the problems of open space loss and inner-city disinvestment frequently operate on
a larger metropolitan scale. n137 As long as land-use planning, property taxes, and municipal
services are handled by county governments, different counties will lack either the means or
the incentive to deal with metropolitan-wide land-use problems. n138

No Solvency Grassroots Key 1NC
Government sponsored top-down solutions to the problems of
brownfields are doomed to failure due to their lack of focus on the
community
EPA 8 (6/6/08, NEJAC: Report on Public Dialogues - Key Issues in the Brownfields Debate
http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:n0_lvvakD98J:www.epa.gov/swerrims//ej/html-
doc/pub04.htm+Brownfields+racism+critical&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us)
"Urban revitalization" is very different from "urban redevelopment." The two concepts are
not synonymous and should not be confused with each other. Urban revitalization is a
bottom-up process. It proceeds from a community-based vision of its needs and
aspirations and seeks to build capacity, build partnerships, and mobilize resources to
make the vision a reality. Revitalization, as we define it, does not lead to displacement of
communities through gentrification that often results from redevelopment policies.
Governments must not simply view communities as an assortment of problems but also
as a collection of assets. Social scientists and practitioners have already compiled
methodologies to apply community planning models. There must be opportunities for
full articulation of the importance of public participation in Brownfields issue. While
public participation is cross-cutting in nature, its meaning is shaped within the context of
concrete issues. It is not merely a set of mechanical prescriptions but a process of
bottom-up engagement that is "living." With regards to Brownfields and the future of
urban America, Public Dialogue participants were emphatic that "without meaningful
community involvement, urban revitalization simply becomes urban redevelopment."
No Solvency Grassroots Key 2NC/1NR
Public role key
The role of the public sector is one of the most pressing issues in present American political
discourse. The question reveals itself in virtually all issues surrounding the Brownfields
debate, including the future of cities, urban sprawl, economic and environmental
sustainability, racial polarization and social equity, defense conversion, transportation, public
health, housing and residential patterns, energy conservation, materials reuse, pollution
prevention, urban agriculture, job creation and career development, education, and the link
between living in degraded physical environments, alienation, and destructive violence.
Grassroots movements are key to environmental justice
EPA 95 (Office of Environmental Justice, 9 Admin. L. J. Am. U. 623, Fall, p. 661, LN)

[*661] CHAIRMAN MOORE: I would like to congratulate BIG for the very good work that is being done. I also wanted to
reinforce several of the comments that have been made. Many times, what ends up happening is that, we confuse what
environmental justice is really all about. There are many groups with various concerns. The concept of the
environmental justice movement cannot be viewed through one focal point. With that in mind, I
would hope that you take under consideration that there needs to be grassroots participation and
grassroots people speaking on behalf of themselves, and not many organizations that
claim to speak for grassroots people or for the environmental justice movement.

No Solvency Liability 1NC
Decreasing liability wont solve investor reluctance on Brownfields
multiple warrants
Meyer, Van Landingham 00 (Peter B and H. Wade, Director, Center for Environmental
Policy and Management and Assoc. CEPM , Reclamation and Economic Regeneration of
Brownfields, August, http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:Z0iHkcWafUIJ:www
.eda.gov/PDF/meyer.pdf+%22Brownfield+Sites:+Causes,+Effects,+and+Solutions%22&hl=en&ct
=clnk&cd=3&gl=us)
The continued relatively tight brownfields capital market appears to be due to a number
of different factors: -brownfields are often in neighborhoods with many problems other than contamination,
including poor infrastructure or transportation access, crime, and related ills (23, 97, 120, 121); -for a variety of reasons, urban
land is often less in demand than suburban or exurban sites, even in the absence of the complicating
factor of possible past contamination (20, 23, 96); -federally financed highways and other infrastructure
development, along with tax policies and other public policies, have tended to subsidize development of previously rural and
suburban land for decades, placing all urban land, and especially brownfields, at a further
competitive disadvantage (65, 102); -most brownfield sites, even those only suspected of having contamination, are
given valuations by appraisers that may exaggerate risks or costs, and thus face reduced
access to debt capital from institutions with prescribed loan-to-value ratios designed to
limit the risk exposures they accept (30, 94, 104); and, -continued investor concerns about
project viability and stability of cash flow for loan servicing, whether or not accurate in the changing
investment climate, limit the willingness of lenders to fund, regardless of property valuations (11, 46, 56, 112).

No Solvency Liability 2NC/1NR

Liability is just one of three key reasons for lack of brownfield investment-the
Aff doesnt solve cost and time overruns, community acceptance or lender
conservatism
Meyer, Van Landingham 00 (Peter B and H. Wade, Director, Center for Environmental Policy and Management and
Assoc. CEPM , Reclamation and Economic Regeneration of Brownfields, August,
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:Z0iHkcWafUIJ:www
.eda.gov/PDF/meyer.pdf+%22Brownfield+Sites:+Causes,+Effects,+and+Solutions%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us)
While appraisers tend to discount excessively for stigma, they are correct in their perception that there are
exceptional risks associated with projects on sites that need to be remediated. Three major risks confront
investors in contaminated sites that are not present in other development projects: -possible cost (and time) overruns
in cleanup or containment operations; -possible liability claims arising from accidents or exposures to
contaminants in the past or during the cleanup; and, -future uncertainty about community acceptance of
the site redevelopment (leading to changes in marketability of the site, restrictions on
acceptable land uses, and possible additional cleanup requirements). While developers
appear to be increasingly willing to incur such risks, they tend to do so with other peoples
moneyand thus are constrained by appraiser and lender conservatism with respect to
brownfields (56, 81, 145).

No Solvency Liability SQ Solves 1NC
There are many measures that solve liability fears.
Sigurani 6 *Miral Alena, Assistant Attorney General, Brownfields: Converging Green,
Community, and Investment Concerns, AZ Attorney, Vol. 43, p. 38, December, l/n+
In addition, many private tools, such as environmental insurance policies and indemnification
provisions, have further reduced fears of potential liability. Some available types of
environmental insurance include: pollution legal liability insurance, remediation legal liability
insurance, defense coverage, remediation stop-loss insurance and contingent contractors
insurance. n29 Investors also may use indemnification provisions to shield themselves from
liability. Those provisions are private contractual mechanisms in which one party promises to
shield another from liability. n30

No Solvency Liability SQ Solves 2NC/1NR
Developers are comfortable with liability law, and incentives work
North and South Carolina prove.
Rodenberger 5 *Farah, Brownfields Programs and Tax Incentives are Stimulating the
Redvelopment of Brownfields Properties in North Carolina and South Carolina, Southeastern
Environmental Law Journal,
Southeastern Environmental Law Journal, Vol. 13, p. 119, Spring, l/n]
Private developers have benefited from well-defined liability protections, as well as an array
of financial incentives to evaluate and redevelop brownfields in North Carolina, South
Carolina, and across the country. n241 Since the enactment and reauthorization of the federal Taxpayer Relief Act,
n242 the federal government has offered tax incentives for eligible cleanup expenses to stimulate cleanups and redevelopments of
brownfields. n243 In North Carolina, tax incentives in the form of partial and graduated property exemptions for five years were
enacted in July 2001. n244 In South Carolina, more complicated corporate tax incentives were enacted
beginning in May 2002, such as tax credits, job tax credits, fees-in-lieu of property taxes, and
ad valorem tax exemptions. n245 The number of brownfields redevelopments has increased
dramatically since January 2002. n246 This increase indicates a growing comfort with
statutory protections from environmental liability, and proves that financial incentives may be
encouraging brownfields redevelopments in North Carolina and South Carolina.

No Solvency Tax Credits 1NC
Tax credits dont solve environmental justice fails in the most
depressed economic areas.
Green 4 (Emily A, Enviro Policy BS, 5 J.L. Socy 611, Winter, LN)
Michigan's Brownfield legislation assumes that private investors will view the tax increment
financing and small business tax credits as a [*612] prudent business investment. 250
This assumption may work for many areas, but not in the most depressed economic
areas. The success of incentives is particularly seen in areas where real estate is at a
premium and the economy is strong. It is in these areas that developers see little risk in their
investment. In some cases, municipal authorities report being passed over by developers, in which case the developer
absorbs the cost and passes it on to the consumer. 251 However, in most cases, the local authorities recruit developers. 252

No Solvency Generic
Implementation of Brightfields is too Unrealistic to be Successful
Riberio, 2007
(Lori *Harvard College; masters degree in environmental policy, MIT, developed the Brockton
Brightfields+ Waste to watts: A brightfield installation has the potential to bring renewed life
to a brownfield site, Refocus, Volume 8, Issue 2, MarchApril 2007, Pages 46-49,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471084607700501, DJ)
The fatal flaws of the DOE's program were a failure to provide sufficient technical and financial
resources for Brightfield cities to succeed, an inability to build local capacity required to
ensure success, and an unrealistic business model that promoted small assembly plants in the
midst of an industry trend towards increasingly large factories. However, to install a utility scale
brightfield on an environmentally challenging site is an extraordinarily complex project that
most municipalities are ill-equipped to perform, particularly given the numerous state and federal policy barriers.
A community must undertake the sophisticated process of securing legislative/regulatory
approval, and then financing, developing, operating and maintaining a small power plant to
complete this type of brightfields project. Environmental conditions may require additional site preparation prior to
brightfield installation. Also, policy that encourages brightfield projects is doomed to fail without the tools and resources for
successful implementation.

Brightfield program unrealistic - inadequate government resources and
capacity building dedicated to program implementation
Ribeiro, 06
Brightfields] "Does it Have to be So Complicated? Municipal Renewable Energy Projects in
Massachusetts," http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37677, DJ).
The US Department of Energy conceived the Brightfield program, which requires significant technological
innovation and sophistication at the local level, without providing sufficient resources.
Funding, technical assistance and capacity building resources provided were not
commensurate with the program goals. DOE announced a program at the outset of its initial
experiment without designing the experiment for learning. By establishing its program role as
a facilitator, DOE did not design the program with due consideration to the implementation
difficulties that would follow. Further, one of the DOE's core concepts for local job creation
was based on a flawed understanding of the solar photovoltaics industry it was trying to
support.
Brightfield projects likely to fail - complexity of joint action
Ribeiro, 06
Brightfields] "Does it Have to be So Complicated? Municipal Renewable Energy Projects in
Massachusetts," http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37677, DJ).
The implementation of the Brightfield project involved numerous institutional stakeholders at
the local, state and Federal levels, all with different roles, perspectives and levels of urgency.
There were too many decision clearances required to ensure project success; it was achieved
only through a confluence of key success factors. As the analysis will show, even with an
extremely high probability of success at each decision point, the odds were 2:1 that the
project should have failed.

Brightfields difficult to develop - lots of support structure requirements
Millennium Energy LLC, 01
(Technical and Economic Feasability Assessment of a Brightfield Photovoltaic Power Plant at
Miramar Landfill, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/30478.pdf, 8/4/12 ERW)
Independent of the system type selected (stationary fixed axis or tracking) it will require a mounting
support structure. Mounting structures are typically made of steel, and are designed to meet parameters allowing for 90
mph 3-second gust and 50 year design wind speeds. Installation of the mounting structure will require minor
excavation into the landfill cap. However, the base of the mounting structure only needs to be
buried approximately 2-4 feet below ground, which may be shallower than the final cap
depth. Prior to finalizing the PV plant site, the City should determine the cap depth at the specific site to ensure that the
mounting structure does not penetrate the landfill cap. Minimal disturbance to the existing landfill site would occur as a result of
site preparation and installation activities, and would be limited to minor grading and minor excavation associated with setting the
mounting structure. Landfill sites have limited options for development, primarilyMillennium Energy LLC 5 Brightfield Feasibility
Assessment February, 2001 NREL Task Ordering Agreement # KDC-0-30470-00 due to concerns of soil settlement. Since
settlement defines the very nature of landfills, further investigations should be undertaken to determine
impacts on the system and ongoing maintenance requirements. Alternatives to steel support structures include
modules that can be placed directly on the ground with a mat backing; however, significant
reduction of peak power output would be experienced with ground-placed modules (hence
diminishing project economics). In addition, there may be issues associated with dirt build up
from heavy rain and run off (further degrading module performance), and impacts on landfill
maintenance.
Effective solutions to brownfields must consist of BOTH cleanup and
pollution prevention
Likewise, pollution prevention must be integrated into all Brownfields projects as an
overarching principle. Brownfields projects can provide unique opportunities to apply
the pollution prevention concept in practical ways. Most Brownfields communities have
both cleanup and toxic release problems. Turning them into livable communities means that
both have to be addressed. For example, if you do cleanup without pollution prevention, the
same set of problems will reemerge. The community must be involved in developing pollution
prevention strategies because they often have the most practical and innovative ideas. Pollution prevention must be
integrated into all Brownfields projects as an overarching principle. Brownfields
projects can provide unique opportunities to apply the pollution prevention concept in
practical ways. Most Brownfields communities have both cleanup and toxic release
problems. Turning them into livable communities means that both have to be addressed.
For example, if you do cleanup without pollution prevention, the same set of problems
will reemerge. To date, the concept of pollution prevention has been noticeably absent
from the Brownfields dialogue. To avoid yet another generation of Brownfields,
pollution prevention must be aggressively introduced before plans for redevelopment
have become entrenched. Education about pollution prevention must take place at the
earliest stages
Development of brownfields is very expensive
Momber 6 (Major Amy L., Chief of Environmental Torts in the Environmental Litigation
Branch, Environmental Law and Litigation Division, Air Force Legal Operations Agency
http://web.lexis-
nexis.com/scholastic/document?_m=92503b1285bdb498d702653402a08fda&_docnum=1&wch
p=dGLbVlb-zSkVk&_md5=78b15cc1a5cd75355c33f6ca0949ea58)
The wide range of possible latent variations in site conditions, daunting complexity of
relevant environmental laws, ambiguity as to exposure for personal and property
damages, and inability to get enough information to sufficiently characterize a site
before work begins, may preclude an accurate appraisal of the actual liability risks
involved in a project and expose federal remediation contracting parties to staggering
unanticipated expenses. 46 Therefore, the government and remediation contractors cannot presume that
the anticipated cost of a cleanup is definite--even when preliminary precautions (i.e.,
assessments, [*73] inspections, investigations, studies, and designs) have been taken. 47 Rather, in some cases, unexpected
areas of contamination are not unearthed until the remedial action phase is well
underway. 48 Such a discovery can send once economically feasible projects well into the
"red." To understand why the government and government contractors take on these risky projects, it is useful to examine the
dynamics that motivate them.

Economy Answers
Green Economy Answers 1NC
Solar energy infeasible- raises energy costs
Institute for Energy, 12
(July 20, Solar Subsidies Make Electricity Bills More Expensive
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article48216, 8-4-12, acm)
Most importantly, Germanys solar subsidies have been expensive with little evidence to prove they
are worth the cost. Last year over 8 billion ($10.2 billion was paid out to German solar farm
operators and homeowners with solar panels, but only 3.3 of the countrys power supply was
generated by solar in the same time period. Two decades of highly-subsidized renewable energy have had a noticeable effect
on the countrys electricity prices. Currently, Germanys solar feed-in tariffs vary from $0.166 per kWh on the low end to $.0297 PKH
on the high end, which makes it $0.2315 per kWh on average. This represents a large portion on the price of residential electricity:
an average customer in Germany pays about $0.3523 per kWh or electricity used. Those who
believe that the Unites States should emulate Germanys model should consider the following: 35 cents per kWh
for electricity is three times as much as U.S. customers paid on average for electricity last year
(11.8 cents pKw). Germanys solar feed Germanys solar feed-in tariff alone is 41-152% greater than the US total residential
electricity rates. Germans also have the 2
nd
highest electricity prices in Europeoutdone only by wind-
dependent Denmarkand this situation will inevitably be made worse by the face that Germany has pledge to phase out nuclear
energy and become more reliant on renewable energy sources.

Green Economy Answers 2NC/1NR
Solar energy hurts economyexpensive and kills jobs
Aszkler, 11
(July 11, The Real Cost of Solar Enery,
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_real_cost_of_solar_energy.html#ixzz22dFHaXE
P, acm)
The economy of scale makes apparent the physical impossibility of solar harvesting. Using the
sun to provide 50% of America's electricity needs would necessarily cover tens of thousands of
square miles with solar panels and mirrors, with all of it costing tens of trillions of dollars. From
the study commissioned by the University of Juan Carlos and the Juan de Mariana Institute, since 2000 Spain spent
571,138 to create each "green job", including subsidies of more than 1 million per wind industry job. Two
thirds of jobs were in construction, fabrication and installation, one quarter in administrative
positions, marketing and projects engineering, and just one out of ten jobs has been created
at the more permanent level of actual operation and maintenance of the renewable sources of electricity.
The programs creating each green job also resulted in the destruction of 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the country for
every "green job" created. In the end the price of electricity paid by the consumer in Spain will have to be
increased 31% to be able to repay the historic debt generated by the deficit produced by the
subsidies to renewable. Once the panels are constructed, the cold, hard reality of solar energy's 33% efficiency shines as
hot as the midday sun. One can clearly see the massive government subsides required to keep solar
plants operating while never achieving anywhere near breakeven return on investment.
Environmentalists still proudly promote the green advantages of solar while glossing over the facts:

US Solar Energy not competitiveChina is ahead
Martin and Snyder, 12
(Christopher Martin and Jim Snyder, Jun 29, 2012, Abound Failure Revives Debate Over Obama
Solar Policies http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/abound-failure-revives-debate-
over-obama-solar-policies.html acm)
Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million loan guarantee in
2010, said yesterday it will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy next week. Abound said its thin-
film panels couldnt compete against Chinese products, the same reason cited by Solyndra LLC, which closed
its doors in August after receiving a $535 million guarantee from the same program. Half of the four solar
manufacturers that received loan guarantees have failed, supporting the argument that backing clean-
energy is a mistake, according to Representative Cliff Stearns. We know why they went bankrupt. We warned them they
would go bankrupt, Stearns, a Florida Republican, told reporters yesterday. The larger question is why the
administration was pursuing a green-energy policy in which companies are going bankrupt
and wasting taxpayer money. Stearns is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committees oversight panel that
has held hearings on the Energy Departments loan guarantee program. Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committees stimulus oversight panel that has investigated loan
guarantees to solar companies, said Abounds failure is further proof the Energy Department program was a mistake. It just adds to
the weight of how ridiculous this was, Jordan told reporters. Abound plans to file for bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware,
next week and will fire about 125 employees, according to a statement yesterday. The company, based in Loveland,
Colorado, borrowed about $70 million against its guarantee. U.S. taxpayers may lose $40 million to $60 million
on the loan after Abounds assets are sold and the bankruptcy proceeding closes, Damien LaVera, an Energy
Department spokesman, said in a statement. When the floor fell out on the price of solar panels, Abounds product was no longer
cost competitive,LaVera said. Abound stopped production in February to focus on reducing costs after a global oversupply and
increasing competition from China drove down the price of solar panels by half last year. Aggressive pricing actions
from Chinese solar-panel companies have made it very difficult for an early stage startup company like
Abound to scale in current market conditions, the company said in the statement.
Energy is really expensive, especially after brightfield development.
Millennium Energy LLC, 01
(Technical and Economic Feasability Assessment of a Brightfield Photovoltaic Power Plant at
Miramar Landfill, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/30478.pdf, 8/4/12 ERW)
In conducting these "base case" analyses, the net present value of the project benefits was
derived through the summation of the projected annual revenues from energy generated by
the plant over its expected thirty year life. These revenues were calculated based upon an
assumption that the value of the energy generated in the base year of operations was equal
to 16 cents/kWh (i.e., the commodity price of energy sold from the plant, or the cost of utility provided energy displaced
from the on-site PV plant, is equal to 16 cents per kWh). This value was calculated based on prevailing market
conditions in the San Diego region from January through December 2000. The SDG&E General
Service "A" rate tariff was used as a proxy for this assessment. This assumption for the value
of power generated is a conservative estimate based on a mix of high and low monthly
average energy prices during this period ranging from a low of under 10 cents/kWh to a high
of over 26 cents/kWh. It should be noted that as recently as January of 2001, average
monthly retail energy prices have reached nearly 30 cents/kWh. After the base year, a 3% per
year energy price escalator was included in the analysis to account for future energy price
increases and inflation. These annual revenues were then discounted by the appropriate
discount rate tied to the financing option, and then summed over the thirty-year period.

Solar energy hurts economyprograms fail, jobs lost
Garate, 12
(Jessica, June 28, 2012, Schott Solar shuts down; 250 lose jobs,
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/breaking_news/250-lose-jobs-as-schott-solar-closes 8-4-2012
acm)
Schott Solar never lived up to its promises of high-paying jobs, and now with the decline of the U.S. Solar
industry is shutting down its New Mexico plant. That means 250 people are going to be out of a job. Schott Solar
started telling their employees at the Albuquerque plant at Mesa del Sol Thursday afternoon. One part of their plant will
close Friday laying off 200 people. The rest of the operation will ramp down over the summer June 28, 2012with the
remaining 50 workers losing their jobs then. In January 2008 Schott announced its intentions to build a plant year. It opened its
doors in Albuquerque in May 2009 promising 1,500 jobs but at its peak only employed 350 Schott
makes solar panels and sells them mostly to businesses. Company officials say they chose New Mexico
because of the abundance of sunshine and the qualified workforce. The $130 million in incentives
didn't hurt either. Now three years later the company is closing. Schott did not release a statement
Thursday instead saying it will comment after all employees have been told about the closing. Over the last year, solar
operations have been shutting down across the United States unable to keep up with the
china and its lower-cost manufacturing processes.

Failed Solar programs cost taxpayers millions
Nikolewski, 12 Capital Reporter
(Rob, July 1, 2012 State out $16m in Schott closure
http://newmexico.watchdog.org/14413/state-out-16m-in-schott-solar-closure-its-infuriating-
susana-says/ 8-4-2012 acm)
Schott received millions from various government entities in New Mexico to relocate here. But while
Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque will receive some of the money back it gave Schott
Solar in Local Economic Development Act funding, its now been learned that none of the $16 million it received from
the state of New Mexico under the guidance of then-Gov. Bill Richardson will have to be returned. From KOB-TVs
Chris Ramirez: The County and City will get all or part of the funds back because they negotiated claw back provisions. And since
SCHOTT Solar did not meet its obligations, the governments are entitled to recoup the funds. However, KOB 4 On Your Side
uncovered a document that reads the State of New Mexico specifically requested that no performance claw backs be tied to their
contribution. That means while the City and County are entitled to get funds from SCHOTT Solar, the Bill Richardson Administration
negotiated a $16 million loss for the State. We showed the documents to current Governor Susana Martinez. The State did not want
(claw back provisions) under the Richardson Administration, Martinez said. They basically gave away taxpayer dollars with no
consequences. Its infuriating because they took tax dollars, state money and ran and we cant get any of it back.
The Richardson administration was a big backer of green energy development and had hopes for
creating a Solar Valley in New Mexico that could rival the Silicon Valley but many of the investments never got off
the ground
Jobs Answers 1NC
Green Jobs another excuse to regulate business and hurt economy
Quiroz-Martinez, Fall 2010
(Julie, Beyond Green Jobs, The Public Eye, Vol. 25, No. 3,
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v25n3/beyond-green-jobs.html, Aug 1, 2012)MJG
But organized opposition to green jobs does exist; in fact it thrives among conservative thought
leaders and business groups, who view any push for an environmentally sustainable economy
as simply an excuse to further regulate business. The influential Heritage Foundation, for one,
claims that a green economy is a contradiction in terms, an approach that will eliminate more
jobs than it would create. [4] Heritage also argues that green jobs are anti-free enterprise, propped
up by government subsidies. It even pokes fun at green jobs, asking, as Peter Brookes and J. D. Foster do on the Heritage website,
What could be greener than a rickshaw?

Jobs Answers 2NC/1NR
Studies prove job creation is a myth
Quiroz-Martinez, Fall 2010
(Julie, Beyond Green Jobs, The Public Eye, Vol. 25, No. 3,
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v25n3/beyond-green-jobs.html, Aug 1, 2012)
As part of their overall effort to influence public understanding and public policy regarding
pollution and climate, the Kochs have funded efforts to discredit green jobs ideas and
programs. According to the Greenpeace report, their dollars supported the widely publicized
Spanish study 2009 research by an economics professor from Madrid arguing that Spains policy commitment to
renewable energy development had cost the country 2.2 jobs for each clean-energy job
created. With initial support from the Koch-funded Institute for Energy Research, the study gained followers in key
venues such as a Heritage Foundation briefing in Washington, DC, and a Congressional
Western Caucus hearing, in which Phil Kerpen, the policy director of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP),
testified. While the Department of Energy and others have challenged the validity of the study [8], it continues to bounce on the
internet and in public debate
Solar energy destroys jobs
Alvarez; Merion Jara; Rallo Julian, 2009
(Gabriel, King Juan Carlos University Research director, Raquel Merino Jara, King Juan Carlos
University Researcher, Juan Ramn Rallo Julin, King Juan Carlos University Researcher, Study
of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable, King Juan Carlos University,
http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf, Aug 4, 12,
p.29)MJG
This result is important, since although solar energy may on paper appear to employ many workers
(essentially in the plants construction), the reality is that for the plant to work, it requires consumption of
great amounts of capital that would have instead created many more jobs in other parts of
the economy. Inversely, wind power, while still noxious in its economic impact when coercively introduced through state
intervention, wastes far fewer resources per megawatt of installed capacity and thus does not destroy as many jobs in the rest of
the economy.

Environmental Justice Answers

Environmental Justice Bad Frontline 1NC
1. The reductiveness and intersectionality of the environmental justice
movement cause it to deny the agency of distinct minority groups and
threaten their survival.
Yamamoto and Lyman 1 (Eric K, Hawaii Law School law prof., and Jen-L W, UC Berkeley
visiting law prof., University of Colorado Law Review, 72 U. Colo. L. Rev. 311, Spring, p. 311-313,
ln)
"Racial communities are not all created equal." 1 Yet, the established environmental
justice framework tends to treat racial minorities as interchangeable and to assume for
all communities of color that health and distribution of environmental burdens are main
concerns. For some racialized communities, 2 however, environmental justice is not only, or
even primarily, about immediate health concerns or burden distribution. Rather, for them, and
particularly for some indigenous peoples, environmental justice is mainly about cultural and
economic self-determination and belief systems that connect their history, spirituality, and
livelihood to the natural environment. 3 This article explores the meaning of "environmental justice," focusing
on race as it merges with the environment. The word "environment" triggers images of the physical surroundings - water, [*312]
trees, ecosystems. 4 Society tends to separate physical environment from social environment - the latter including people, culture,
and social structures. 5 But the "race" in "environmental racism" suggests that the physical and
the social are integrally connected. Indeed, understanding "our environment" is
impossible without understanding both its physical and social aspects, and their
interplay. 6 Much of the scholarly writing on environmental justice does not address
with adequate complexity or depth the interplay between the natural and the racial.
Rather, many articles make unexplored assumptions about racialized environments,
failing to inquire into distinct cultural and power differences among communities of
color and their relationships to "the environment." For instance, while some might describe
the siting of a waste disposal plan near an indigenous American community as
environmental racism, that community might say that the wrong is not racial
discrimination or unequal treatment; it is the denial of group sovereignty - the control
over land and resources for the cultural and spiritual well-being of a people. Alternatively,
the community might say that the siting is, on balance, desirable because it provides
needed jobs in the area and is an aspect of group economic survival.

2. The race-based politics of the environmental justice movement
reconstitutes racism and precludes unity.
Shellenberger 8 (Michael, environmental strategist, March/April, Utne Reader, Complete
Interview: The Temperature Transcends Race, p. 6, http://www.utne.com/2008-03-
01/Environment/Complete-Interview-The-Temperature-Transcends-Race.aspx)
Ever since we wrote Death of Environmentalism weve been in various debates about environmental justice. We decided to do
the chapter in part because so many people said, Well, environmental justice is the expansive environmentalism. And
we went and looked at it and read a huge amount and interviewed many dozens of people, and what you find is a movement
that looks at the intersection of race, class, and pollution, which actually makes that
movement smaller not larger. And frankly, you didnt ask it, but Ill say it anyway: We think that a race-based
politics is toxic, and completely outmoded, and that we should not be organizing as different races. Race is
itself a very dubious concept and construct. Were a single human race and well do far
better organizing across race lines than within them. If you look at where the
environmental justice movement has gotten into trouble, its where you find a lot of
infighting often between different races, different ethnic groups. It hasnt actually served to be
a unifying movement. To say race is itself a very dubious concept and construct is one thing, but to say that it doesnt
play a role in how communities suffer is another. Well of course. Of course theres racism. And of course there are
racial disparities, but thats different from organizing as Latinos or as African
Americans or as whites. I just dont believe that thats a positive expansive politics. Its important to
organize outside of racial and environmental categories. The fact that pollution is a
problem does not necessarily lead you to creating a pollution-based politics. And the fact
that racism is a problem does not mean that you should have a race-based politics. The
goal of the original civil rights movement was to put an end to race-based politics not to
reconstitute it.

3. Environmental justice advocates ignore the economic complexities of
life for indigenous peoples, threating their survival while transforming
them into environmental mascots.
ln)
The framework, however, at times also undercuts environmental justice struggles by
racial and indigenous communities because it tends to foster misassumptions about race,
culture, sovereignty, and the importance of distributive justice. Those misassumptions sometimes
lead environmental justice scholars and activists to miss what is of central importance to affected communities. The first
misassumption is that for all racialized groups in all situations, a hazard-free physical
environment is their main, if not only, concern. 47 Environmental justice advocates foster this notion by placing
emphasis on "high quality environments" 48 and the adverse health effects caused by exposure to air pollutants and hazardous
waste materials. [*321] Not all facility sitings that pose health risks, however, warrant full-scale
opposition by host communities. Some communities, on balance, are willing to tolerate
these facilities for the economic benefits they confer or in lieu of the cultural or social disruption that
might accompany large-scale remedial efforts. Other communities, struggling to deal with joblessness,
inadequate education, and housing discrimination, indeed with daily survival, prefer to
devote most of their limited time and political capital to those challenges. In these situations,
racial and indigenous communities may have pressing needs and long-range goals beyond the re-siting of polluting facilities. 49
For example, as Native communities endeavor to ameliorate conditions of poverty and social
dislocation by encouraging the economic development of tribal lands, some increasingly
find themselves in conflict with environmentalists, who are sometimes but not always environmental
justice advocates. In the mining industry, several Native American tribes are attempting to tap mineral resources on their
reservations. 50 Urged by the increased emphasis on economic self-determination in federal
Native American policy in the 1970s, the tribes formed the Council of Energy Resource
Tribes to deal [*322] with both the siting of new mines on Native American lands and the
environmental and the cultural problems that might result. 51 Those efforts met stiff opposition from
some environmental groups concerned mainly with land degradation and pollution. The environmentalists' seeming
lack of understanding of the economic and cultural complexity of the Native American
groups' decisions have led some Native Americans to express cynicism about
environmentalists who sometimes treat them as mascots for the environmental cause.

4. Environmental justice prevents communities from solving poverty
and public health.
Glasgow 5 (Joshua, Yale Law School JD candidate, Buffalo Environmental Law Journal, 13 Buff.
Envtl L.J. 69, Fall, ln)
Some environmental justice advocates oppose compensated siting proposals on moral grounds.
Robert Bullard has coined the term "environmental blackmail" to refer to such plans. 210 Vicki Been usefully classifies these
moral objections into four broad categories. 211 First, LULUs involve risks to health some argue should not be commodified. 212
This argument is generally unpersuasive. Society commonly allows individuals to take risks in
exchange for compensation. Many professions include a risk premium that provides
additional compensation for abnormally dangerous jobs. More importantly, it is not
clear that a community that accepts a LULU is actually increasing its total level of risk.
The increased income that a compensation package provides can decrease countervailing
risks associated with poverty. Compensation [*121] can pay for health-care costs or
better nutrition, the benefits of which may exceed the risks associated with a LULU. 213 Second, compensated siting
proposals may result in disproportionate siting. Poor communities may value the compensation a LULU
offers more than wealthier communities because of the declining marginal utility of
capital. Some environmental justice advocates find such an outcome inherently unjust.
214 If compensation mechanisms are carefully crafted to avoid disparities in bargaining power, such a disparity should be
recognized as an accurate gauge of community preferences. Siting a LULU in the community that values a compensation package
the most increases total utility in the same way any competitive market transaction does.
5. Policies protecting environmental justice only cause minorities to
suffer more by denying these groups job opportunities and further
suppressing them into racial stereotypes
Payne 00 (Henry
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_n5_v30/ai_21141903/print?tag=artBody;col1)
The EPA's policy and its application in Louisiana have enraged and confused governors, mayors, and
environmental officials across the nation. These officials see the administration's efforts not
as environmental justice but as a policy of environmental redlining that effectively
excludes minority areas from badly needed business investment. Chris Foreman, a political scientist
at the Brookings Institution and author of a forthcoming book on environmental justice, laments the administration's racial
politicization of the permitting process. "Environmental justice is not fundamentally racial," Foreman
says. "But Title VI invites race-based claims." He says accusations of environmental racism are
"dubious, but politically compelling. No one wants to be called a racist." In its zeal to apply Title
VI civil rights law to industrial emissions, Foreman contends, the administration has obscured the real health problem that
threatens communities like Romeville: poverty. State and local governments across the nation have felt
Louisiana s pain. Despite the national economic boom, black unemployment remains over 9 percent,
and local governments are scrambling to attract industries to state enterprise zones and
brownfields. In addition to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, local organizations and business groups throughout the country
have lined up to condemn the EPA's environmental redlining policy. City officials are lobbying the company to build the new
facility in one of the majority-black city's many brownfield sites. But as long as the EPA rule is in effect, says
Michigan environmental chief Harding, "G.M. will not build in Lansing. They'll buy farmland
somewhere instead. The loser won't be the company; the losers will be the workers and
cities." Says Steve Serkaian, media relations director for Lansing Mayor David Hollister: "What does this have to do with civil
rights? If these plants don't build in these communities, [residents] will suffer from
malnutrition, not pollution."Fifty-seven percent of the population living within five miles of Ford's truck assembly
plant in Dearborn, for example, is minority, as compared to 16 percent of the state's population. As a result, when Ford sought to
update its paint operations this year, local activists threatened it with an environmental racism complaint, delaying the company's
permit for four months. In the highly competitive auto marketplace, which measures new model development in months, Ford is
concerned that the EPA's policy could create a nightmare of red-tape delays. "It seems like the
EPA is setting up an almost endless adversarial process," Ford executive Tim O'Brien told The Detroit
News.

Environmental Justice Bad Native Americans 2NC/1NR

Extend Yamamoto and Lyman 1 the environmental justice movement
dehumanizes Native Americans by painting them as deeply and extremely connected
to the environment so that they may be used as mascots, while in reality Native
Americans struggle to survive and must occasionally allow environmental harm to
do so. When this occurs, environmental justice advocates backlash against the
Native Americans, representing a racism grounded in stereotypes of over-
expectation.
The framework of environmental justice disregards and threatens the
survival of Native Americans.
ln)
James Huffman also criticizes the traditional environmental justice framework, but from the perspective of
Native American economic development. He identifies three assumptions of modern environmental thought that work against
Native [*339] interests. 164 First, orthodox environmentalism assumes the existence of a
scientifically "correct" natural condition and thus tends toward oppressive command
and control methods. 165 The second assumption is that regulations must limit development and
growth. 166 Finally, in marked contrast to arguments that anthropocentrism in American environmentalism clashes with
Native cultural beliefs, Huffman asserts that American environmentalism assumes a "biocentric"
approach fundamentally opposed to economic development, even when necessary for
Native survival. 167 He criticizes environmental protection as a "luxury good" enjoyed by wealthier
societies 168 that promotes the idea that "the poverty and economic depression of the
reservations [is] not only inevitable but desired." 169 Huffman's critique is harsh: "Native
Americans, more than any other segment of American society, will suffer at the altar of
environmentalism worshipped in their name." 170 Commentator Conrad Huygen arrives at a similar
conclusion: "We have romanticized indigenous cultures in a manner that threatens to stifle
development on reservations and perpetuate the poverty that permeates them." 171 In more
measured terms, Tsosie agrees with Huffman's view that "national implementation of centralized policies
(whatever their origin and content) often disregards tribal sovereignty and the special interests of
indigenous peoples." 172

The environmental justice movement disenfranchises racial groups,
especially Native Americans.
visiting law prof., University of Colorado Law Review, 72 U. Colo. L. Rev. 311, Spring, p. 335, ln)
Some commentators on environmental racism treat the meaning of race with sophistication.
101 The established framework, however, tends to engender formal-race analysis and thus
to encourage writing about environmental racism without [*329] explanation of, or sometimes
even use of, the term, "race." 102 By not acknowledging race and racial context, these writings are limited. However
otherwise illuminating, they do not address: (1) racial groups' (or subgroups') differing
understandings of "the environment," and of "race" itself; (2) groups' differing spiritual,
cultural, and economic connections to the environment; and (3) the importance of the
environment to the groups' identities. By treating all racial groups alike, they fail to
provide analytical and organizational frameworks for understanding specific
environmental justice problems and for tailoring actual remedies to meet the needs and
goals of different racial communities. The writings tend to embody a one-size-fits-all approach, overlooking
distinct historical experiences of particular communities of color and their current cultural and economic concerns. 103 In doing
so, the writings sometimes ignore the distinct sovereignty-based claims of Native Americans.
104 For example, [*330] stories of waste disposal on Native American reservations recently
inspired a series of derisively titled news articles, "Dances with Garbage." 105 The
Campo Band in California decided to build a waste landfill on its reservation, sparking
vehement protest not from tribal members, but from non-Native local residents. 106 In New
Mexico, the Mescalero Apaches are negotiating with a private company to locate a monitored, retrievable storage nuclear waste
facility on their lands, inciting the wrath of non-Native neighbors. 107 These stories turn sideways traditional
environmentalist notions of Native Americans as the primitive foot soldiers in the war
against pollution. The disputes also destabilize the conventional wisdom of the
environmental justice movement that opposes as discriminatory the siting of the same
sort of waste disposal facilities that some Native tribes are cautiously inviting onto their
lands. 108 Viewed paternalistically, the question might be: Are the tribes acting against
their better judgment, imperiling both the environment and themselves? Viewed
critically, the question might be different: Are the tribes, after calculation, exercising
rights of self-determination [*331] in order to build an economic base to assure cultural
and political survival?

Environmental Justice Bad Poverty 2NC/1NR

Extend Glasgow 5 that environmental justice impairs efforts to solve poverty and
public health locally unwanted land uses rejected by environmental justice
activists often pose little health risk to communities, as in the case of a landfill.
However, they also usually provide jobs and revenue for a community, elevating
communities from poverty and increasing a communitys potential for public health
facilities.
Environmental justice abandons opportunity for solving poverty and
public health.
Evans 98 (Jill E, Samford U associate law prof., Challenging the Racism in Environmental
Racism: Redefining the Concept of Intent, Arizona Law Review, 40 Ariz. L. Rev. 1219, p. 1258-
1260, ln)
Economic critics of the "environmental racism" theory also argue that there are trade-offs at play in mitigating
siting disputes and point out that minority communities have in many instances
supported siting toxic facilities in their communities. 192 The possibility of jobs and other
perceived economic benefits induce city leaders in poorer communities suffering from
"rising unemployment, extreme poverty, a shrinking tax base, and a decaying business
infrastructure" 193 not only to welcome, but to actively encourage, the location of a toxic facility in
their community. 194 These communities become ripe for exploitation by polluting industries anxious to avoid a NIMBY
195 -triggered protest. Economic incentives and [*1259] monetary inducements pave the way for unopposed facility siting 196
because, as one commentator asserted, if many low income communities are to lift themselves out of
poverty, they must support the construction of job creating projects... Recycling plants, sewage
treatment plants, sewage sludge treatment units,...any many others are, ironically, environmentally both necessary and
controversial. It is past time to abandon the reflexive notion that every major construction is
an evil that must be fought. 197 A clear example of the impact of economic incentives is found in the Emelle
incinerator operated by Chemical Waste Management ("CWM"). The Emelle facility in Sumter County, Alabama is the nation's
largest hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility. 198 Sumter County is rural and poor, nearly 70% of the
population is black, 199 and 90% of the black residents lived in poverty at the time of siting. 200 According to WMX
Technologies, of which CWM is a subsidiary, the Emelle facility has brought substantial revenues into a county which, at 14.4%,
had one of the state's highest infant mortality rates. 201 Since the siting of the Emelle facility, the infant mortality rate dropped to
8.5%, lower than the state infant mortality rate of 11%. 202 Emelle employs 300 people on an annual payroll of $ 10 million, with
60% of the employees living in Sumter County. 203 The revenue brought in by the landfill, in addition to
providing employment, has been used to improve schools, build the local fire station and town
hall, as well as improve health care delivery. 204

The environmental justice movement prevents creation of energy plants
where they could boost health and create jobs.
Kaswan 3 (Alice, U San Francisco law prof., March, North Carolina Law Review, 81 N.C.L. Rev.
1031, March, p. 1058-1060, ln)
Moreover, many LULUs bring a mix of benefits and burdens. For some communities, the
benefits could outweigh the burdens, with the net result that an arguably "undesirable" land use becomes, overall,
a desirable land use. 219 Professor Blais reflects this possibility in her use of the term "environmentally sensitive land uses" rather
than "locally undesirable land uses," 220 and in referring to possible "differentials" in facility distribution patterns rather than
"disproportions." 221 The benefits could include direct services, such as medical care needed
within the community. 222 Many LULUs, both industrial and service-oriented, could bring
significant employment [*1080] opportunities to a community. 223 A significant enterprise could
improve an area's tax base. 224 Moreover, some communities are plagued by abandoned properties,
industrial and otherwise, that degrade the community environment. 225 A LULU might
be considered an improvement on the existing environment, notwithstanding certain undesirable
features. The movement to develop "brownfields" - former industrial properties - reflects the judgment that communities
could improve their lot by encouraging the development of new facilities on existing abandoned,
industrial properties. 226

Environmental justice targets facilities important for minority
employment.
1031, March, p. 1081, ln)
Professor Blais argues that poor or minority residents may choose to live close to environmentally
sensitive land uses due to the job opportunities and other benefits such uses provide. 480
By way of example, she describes how industrial development in Richmond, California, attracted residents
during the last century. 481 In the 1940s, war-based production, in particular, attracted southern African-
Americans seeking employment. 482 Although the Richmond example has been used by
environmental justice advocates "to provide evidence of the injustice of the existing
distribution of [*1137] environmentally sensitive land uses," 483 Professor Blais concludes that
"the fact that most of its residents are minorities appears to be directly attributable to
individual choices to seek employment in a highly industrialized area." 484

Environmental Justice Bad Racism 2NC/1NR

Extend Shellenberger 8 that environmental justice movements recreate racism by
focusing the movement on race, environmental justice advocates create infighting
between political groups that skewers the movement while simultaneously
encouraging new racism against the majority or between minorities.
Environmental justice is defined by perspectives of intrinsic whiteness
and elitism, creating an exclusionary silence in racial issues.
ln)
Critical race theory also facilitates interrogation of the often unexamined influences of whiteness on environmental law, policy,
and practice. According to Peter Manus, the environmental movement, from which environmental justice springs in
part, "is determined by the norms or perceptions of white mainstream America." 210 Manus
thus attributes the tension between environmentalism and other social justice
movements to environmentalism's "elitist roots, conceived of and implemented primarily
from a white, male, and mainstream perspective" and to its resulting "proclivity to
immerse itself in pure science, as opposed to human science, and to express itself in
command-and-control regulation, as opposed to consensus." 211 To what extent, if at all, is this true?
Critical race theory helps us grapple with this question by unpacking whiteness. In law, whiteness is the racial
referent - "inequality" means "not equal to white." Whiteness is the norm. 212 Yet whiteness
itself, until recently, has been largely unexplored. Critical race theorists and historians are now unraveling the often hidden
strands of white influence and privilege and the ways in which whiteness (as a norm and as a racial identity) dramatically, yet
quietly, shapes all racial relationships. 213 Joe Feagin observes the following about the influence of Anglo law, religion, and
language. [*348] From the 1700s to the present, ... immigrant assimilation has been seen as one-way, as conformity to the
Anglo-Protestant culture: "If there is anything in American life which can be described as an overall American culture ... it can
best be described ... as the middle-class cultural patterns of largely white Protestant, Anglo-Saxon origins." 214 White influence is
so pervasive that it often goes unnoticed. It is, according to Barbara Flagg, "transparent": In this society, the white
person has an everyday option not to think of herself in racial terms at all. In fact, whites
appear to pursue that option so habitually that it may be a defining characteristic of whiteness ... . I label the tendency
for whiteness to vanish from whites' self-perception the transparency phenomenon. 215
Integral to this transparency is "the very vocabulary we use to talk about
discrimination." 216 "Evil racist individuals" discriminate; by implication, all others do
not. This vocabulary hides "power systems and the privilege that is their natural
companion." 217 Critical race theory thus pushes environmental justice proponents to
examine the white racism (and sometimes the racism by other groups) that undergirds
the environmental problems affecting Native communities and communities of color. It
also challenges proponents to closely interrogate the influence of whiteness in environmental
law, policy, and practice, and its effect, in turn, on established approaches to environmental justice
controversies.
Environmental justice depoliticizes race to allow aversion of racial
issues.
What O'Neill identifies and what is missing from many other commentators' accounts is an express understanding of how race
and culture operate in contemporary U.S. communities. Racial categories are not biological realities.
Rather, they are socially constructed by culture, politics, history, and human interaction.
138 By perceiving race as fixed and objective - instead of socially constructed - the
established environmental justice framework tends to treat "race [as] a neutral,
apolitical term, divorced from social content" 139 and devoid of cultural meaning. This
further reflects the inclination of many courts and commentators to avoid facing race
through the "painful revelations that may be lurking in an examination of either racial
history or the current racial disparities of society." 140

The environmental justice movement cant solve racism it denies the
uniqueness and culture of individual identity groups.
Finally, the established framework tends to assume that all racial and indigenous groups,
and therefore racial and indigenous group needs, are the same. 62 In general, it assumes that in terms
of cultural needs and political-legal remedies, one size fits all. This simplifying assumption is rooted in the
longstanding perception of many disciplines that race is fixed and biologically
determined rather than socially constructed and that it is, therefore, largely devoid of cultural
content. It is also rooted in the related perception that skin color and hair type are the
reason for ill-treatment by some, but are otherwise irrelevant to social interactions - that
beyond biological distinctions, all people (and groups) are essentially the same. 63 A number of
courts and environmental justice scholars make this simplifying assumption about race and culture.

The Affs distributive environmental justice precludes deeper social
movements.
1031, March, p. 1058-1060, ln)
Writing in political philosophy, Professor Iris Marion Young has suggested a deeper critique of a focus on distributive justice.
Like Professor Foster, she argues that focusing on distributive justice could fail to address the deeper
social problems that cause disparities to arise 110 because it presupposes rather than
scrutinizes institutional structures and processes. 111 Ultimately, a primary focus on distribution could
implicitly support unjust institutions, since it takes [*1059] them as given. 112 Her concern is not just with the study of
discrimination, however, but the development of distributionally-based remedies. For example, affirmative action
efforts tend to focus on distributions: who gets employment or opportunities for higher
education. That focus fails to address such critical underlying structural issues as who
decides who is "qualified" for employment and why some have the means to attain these
qualifications while others do not. 113 A focus on distribution is ultimately depoliticizing,
Professor Young argues, because potential challenges to the existing systems of power and
control become rechanneled into distributive "solutions" that dissipate the thrust of
critical social movements. 114 Professor Young does not argue that distributive justice is irrelevant, 115 but she does
argue that issues of political and social justice should be the primary focus. Professor Young's
concern that a preoccupation with distributive justice could lead to a failure to question and
challenge unjust social and institutional structures is an important caution. If the environmental
justice movement were reduced to simply counting how many facilities end up here and
there, then critical aspects of the movement would indeed be lost. Many environmental justice
leaders are not simply challenging the number of facilities to which they are subject, but also the fairness of decision-making and
underlying power structures. 116 Challenging environmental decisions is one step in a broader engagement over the nature of
economic and political power. The goal of sustained challenge is a greater political voice - a voice that may transcend particular
disputes over particular facilities. 117 It is also important to identify the widespread inequities [*1060] that may lie behind
current land use distributions. Furthermore, addressing political and social processes will also likely improve distributive justice
given their role in causing disparities. Nonetheless, given the difficulty of devising effective remedies for many past and present
forms of political and social injustices, 118 and the real world consequences of distributional inequities, I argue that it is
appropriate for the movement to direct at least some of its efforts toward distribution-focused remedies.

Environmental Justice Bad Survival 2NC/1NR

Extend Yamamato and Lyman 1 that environmental justice threatens minority
survival because many minority groups, especially indigenous peoples, require the
plants and companies attacked by the environmental justice movement for jobs and
economic survival. The environmental justice movement both ignores the special
economic condition of these groups and ignores their perceptions of environmental
justice as a tool to regain their sovereignty rather than as a tool of
environmentalism.

Environmental Justice Bad Reductive 1NC
The reductiveness of environmental justice movements precludes a
broader effort to end social and racial injustice.
Shellenberger 8 (Michael, environmental strategist, March/April, Utne Reader, Complete
Interview: The Temperature Transcends Race, p. 1-2, http://www.utne.com/2008-03-
01/Environment/Complete-Interview-The-Temperature-Transcends-Race.aspx)
What started out as an effort to make environmentalism more expansive ended up making it
even more narrow. The challenges facing poor communities of color go way beyond air and
water pollution. They have far less access to healthy food; they have less health care security,
less child care security. Theyve got crappier schools. Theres more stress and
disempowerment. So to create a politics thats centrally focused on toxic contamination or
diesel bus pollution is reductive and speaks to a set of things that are very low priorities in
comparison to the much bigger factors driving health and life outcomes. Are you saying that low income communities,
particularly communities of color, dont bear a larger burden of environmental degradation? No. We say very clearly that poor
communities of color do bear a heavier burden in terms of pollution and environmental impact. The point that we
make is that what gets defined by environmental justice advocates as environmental impacts are
not the most serious factors determining health outcomes. In other words, smoking, diet, probably
even things like stress related to living in an environment thats high in violence and
insecurity. Those are much more powerful factors shaping life and health outcomes and an
expansive movement would deal with all of those problems simultaneously, not just with the ones that are
defined as environmental.

Environmental Justice Bad Reductive 2NC/1NR
Environmental justice fails to address the broad threats to minorities.
Utne Reader 8 (Environmental Justice for All, March/April,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030908G.shtml)
In their 2007 book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, authors Ted Nordhaus and
Michael Shellenberger take issue with this strategy (see "The Temperature Transcends Race"). They argue that some of the research
conducted in the name of environmental justice was too narrowly focused and that activists have
spent too much time looking for conspiracies of environmental racism and not enough time
looking at the multifaceted problems facing poor people and people of color. "Poor Americans
of all races, and poor Americans of color in particular, disproportionately suffer from social ills
of every kind," they write. "But toxic waste and air pollution are far from being the most serious
threats to their health and well-being. Moreover, the old narratives of intentional
discrimination fail to explain or address these disparities. Disproportionate environmental
health outcomes can no more be reduced to intentional discrimination than can
disproportionate economic and educational outcomes. They are due to a larger and more
complex set of historic, economic, and social causes."

Alt Cause Income
Alt cause - income is correlated with living in environmentally damaged
areas
Downey 5 (Liam, University of Colorado Faculty Associate in Population Program and CU
Population Center The Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Inequality in
Detroit, Social Forces, 83, 3, 8/1/12, 971-972) CMAP
For example, several environmental inequality studies have found environmental hazards to be
distributed equitably according to race in areas where they are distributed inequitably
according to income, despite the fact that minorities generally earn significantly less than
whites (Anderton et al. 1994a; Oakes, Anderton, and Anderson 1996; Yandle and Burton 1996). But if income is negatively associated
with environmental hazard presence and minorities earn less than whites, then minority
presence should be positively associated with hazard presence. That this is not always the
case suggests that racial status sometimes decreases minority representation in
environmentally hazardous neighborhoods below what we would expect based on income
alone. This raises interesting and important theoretical questions. Are there situations in which racial status separates minorities from socially undesirable goods such as
pollution? More specifically, can racism in one institutional arena (for example, the housing market) weaken racial inequality in another arena (the environment)? In order to
answer these questions, I use 1970, 1980, and 1990 data to track the flow of social groups and polluting manufacturing facilities through the Detroit metropolitan area, a region
where environmental racial inequality is relatively weak despite the fact that black/white income inequality and income-based environmental inequality are relatively strong. I
use census and manufacturing facility data to test four models of environmental inequality that make predictions about the determinants of manufacturing facility siting
decisions and the impact that manufacturing facility presence has on neighborhood demographics. Taken collectively, the models ask whether the distribution of blacks and
whites around polluting manufacturing facilities is the result of black/white income inequality, racist siting practices, or the biased operation of the housing market. As we shall
see, the distribution of blacks and whites around Detroit's polluting manufacturing facilities is
not the result of black/white income inequality or racist siting practices. Instead, it is largely
the product of residential segregation which, paradoxically, has reduced black proximity to
manufacturing facility pollution. Thus, it turns out that racial status and racism play an
important role in shaping environmental inequality in the Detroit metropolitan area, but they
operate indirectly through the housing market, and their effect has been to separate blacks
from manufacturing facility pollution. [End Page 972]

No Link 1NC
Brownfields are not Environmentally Racist- Power Plants Once Created
Advantages for Surrounding Areas
Bezdek & Wendling 2006
(Roger and Robert, 2006, [Bezdek is President of MISI, a Washington-based economic research
firm, was Research Director in the Energy Department and Senior Advisor for Fiscal
Management in the Treasury Department. Wendling is the vice-president of MISI, served as
Senior Economist at the US Department of Commerce, Program Manager at the US Department
of Energy] "The impacts of nuclear facilities on property values and other factors in the
surrounding communities," Int. J. Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, Vol. 1, No. 1,
http://www.misi-net.com/publications/IJNGEE-V1N1-06.pdf, DJ).
Clark et al. (1997) used a hedonic model and geographic information system techniques to estimate housing prices around two
nuclear power plants in California. Based on the evidence from the plants chosen, their findings did not support the
contention that negative imagery surrounding nuclear power plants or stored nuclear waste
has a significant detrimental influence on residential home prices in the immediate vicinity of
these facilities. In fact, they found that the opposite was the case; that is, housing located closer to the plants
commanded a premium in the market.

No Solvency 1NC
Cleaning up brownfields wont solve environmental justice action is
motivated to help corporations and increase commercial area
Stokes and Green 7 (Lance PhD CEO of ECI environmental consultants and engineers,
Kenneth Chief scientists for ECI) http://www.ejconference2008.org/images/Green_Stokes.pdf)
According to the U.S. conference of Mayors, the Northeast Midwest Institute and the Ferguson Group, EPA investments
since 1995 have leveraged some $8.2 Billion dollars in cleanup and redevelopment
monies. This is a 10:1 return on public investment. As a result of this investment, more than 8,000
properties have been environmentally assessed. Many of these properties have been
developed in to showcase commercial, retail, and upscale living facilities that generate
attractive profits for developers, property managers, bankers, financiers, attorneys,
investors, and other so called stakeholders, and of course excluding the disadvantaged
resident who once occupied the brownfield prior to revitalization.

No Solvency 2NC/1NR
Racism lies within the cleanup process itself the govt excludes African
American owned contracting companies from the brownfield cleanup
efforts
Within the environmental injustice of brownfield gentrification is another environmental
injustice, namely the exclusion of African American environmental companies from
access to the $800 Million to $1 Billion Dollars in brownfield site assessment funds. Although unable to find
publishable nationwide data on the extent of utilization of African American environmental firms as primes in EPA funded
projects, it is known, based on first hand experience, that no recipient of EPA Brownfield monies (in minimum
quantities of $250,000 per project) within the State of Michigan, including the City of Detroit, has used an African
American environmental firm as a prime contractor for brownfield environmental work.
The exclusion of African American environmental companies as prime contractors for
brownfield revitalization projects is directly connected to the continued disenfranchised
disadvantaged brownfield resident. This exclusion is a facilitator of brownfield
gentrification.
Clean up benefits corporations residents arent considered
environmental injustice will still exist post-cleanup

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPAs) Brownfield Program began in the early 1990s under the 104th Congress. In
early 2002, the dawn of a new era supposedly was born with the enactment of the Small Business Liability Relief and
Brownfields Revitalization Act, commonly referred to as the Brownfields Law. This law was supposedly designed
to provide the EPA with expanded authority and funding to help communities clean up
and reuse the hundreds of thousands of brownfields where blighted disadvantaged
neighborhoods were infected with unknown health and environmental risks. EPA
implemented these new provisions and provided the benefits directly to brownfield
stakeholders across the United States. Unfortunately ,in 2002, no one asked, Who precisely are the
stakeholders to whom the benefits are provided?. EPAs guidances simply do not
resolve the pervasive complex environmental justice concerns in a manner that is
mutually acceptable to all stakeholders. The term stakeholder is typically interpreted as an entity that has a
legitimate interest in a project or activity. Entities that may be identified as stakeholders might include: municipalities, counties,
state agencies, land/property developers, investors, bankers and financiers, environmental firms, and the disadvantaged
individuals who actually reside in the brownfield neighborhood. All of these inclusions have a legitimate
interest in the revitalization of the brownfield, and therefore all are included, except,
unfortunately for one: the disadvantaged individuals who actually reside in the
brownfield neighborhood, Do the disadvantaged individuals have a legitimate interest?
Of course, unfortunately, the disadvantaged individuals are the disenfranchised
individuals as well.

No Solvency 2NC/1NR

Brown-field clean up can never have an impact on environmental justice
motivation stemming from corporate goals and indifference towards the residence
make it impossible
Stokes and Green 7 (Lance PhD CEO of ECI environmental consultants and engineers, Kenneth
Chief scientists for ECI) http://www.ejconference2008.org/images/Green_Stokes.pdf)

So what is the current state of environmental justice? Twenty five years of change and
things remain the same. We have success stories of areas that once were toxic waste
dumps and now are transformed into the high rent district. Multitudes of dollars have been and still
are poured into the economy in search of change, and we are actually able to see a visible physical change in property quality,
building structures, landscape, etc and also in demographics. Yes, things change for some, but remain the
same for others, and specifically remain the same for the disadvantaged brownfields
residents. Disadvantaged brownfield residents are not the ones living in the now
transformed residential areas with comfortable amenities of pools and jogging tracks. The jobs created are
not jobs to provide employment for the disadvantaged. What about the distribution of community
benefits? The EPA has invested millions of dollars in restoring, refurbishing, excavating contaminated soils, treating ground
water, and implementing in situ innovative remediation technologies and methodologies to clean up some thousands of properties
that represent thousands and thousands of acres of property in the United States. With all of this, the benefits are still
distributed in the same fashion, with the disadvantaged just out of reach. As is similar to being
in a deceitful card game when one is continually dealt the same losing hand. One may wonder, wow, is this magic?... is this fate?
No, it is merely slight of hand. This same old slight of hand keeps disadvantaged people at an
economically depressed level. The deceit to purport that the disadvantaged well be
elevated in the pursuit to acquire funds for brownfield revitalization is disgusting.

No Solvency EPA
EPA Programs Fail to Improve Environmental Justice Issues
EPA, 04
(Environmental Protection Agency, March 1, "EPA Needs to Consistently
Implement the Intent of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice,"
http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2004/20040301-2004-P-00007.pdf, DJ).

EPA has made limited progress in its attempt to integrate environmental justice into the fabric
of its core mission. The Agency has not developed or established: a clear vision for
environmental justice integration; a comprehensive strategic plan; values, goals, and
performance expectations for environmental justice; or policy and guidance that identifies
and addresses communities that are minority, low-income, and disproportionately impacted.
Additionally, the Agency has made the decision not to identify the intended beneficiaries of the
Executive Order, thus making it problematic to carry out the intent of the order. Further, the
Agency has de-emphasized the focus on minority and low-income populations through the
Administrators reaffirmation of environmental justice and other Agency actions. As a result,
progress in integrating environmental justice into its programs has been slow. Actions to date
have consisted of a wide array of approaches and, consequently, inconsistent application of
the environmental justice concepts across EPA.
Loose EPA standards leave brownfield sites contaminated, developed
sites pose a greater risk to children
Felten 6 (Jennifer, Former President of the Ventura County Escrow Association, BROWNFIELD
REDEVELOPMENT 1995-2005: AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SUCCESS STORY?, Real Property,
Probate and Trust Journal. Chicago: Winter 2006. Vol. 40, Iss. 4; pg. 679, 26 pgs, proquest)

However, because Brownfield site remediation usually requires less stringent cleanup than
other EPA programs17 significant amounts of contamination may be left on the
properties.18 Converting these sites into parks, greenspaces, and schools-sites primarily
used by children-raises concerns that the health of those least able to protect themselves
will be adversely affected.19 Even using these sites for industrial purposes leads to health
concerns because of the fear that they will produce new contaminants and turn into
abandoned Brownfields later.20 However, because many state Brownfield programs exclude highly contaminated
sites, Brownfield redevelopment occurs primarily at sites where a less complete cleanup is necessary.

No Impact Affects Everyone
Environmental justice not just bad for minorities
Ash, 2010 (Michael, University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Economics and Political
Economy Research Institute, Is Environmental Justice Good for White Folks?,
http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2010-05.pdf, Michael Ash, July,2010)

This paper examines spatial variations in exposure to toxic air pollution from industrial facilities in urban areas of the United States,
using geographic microdata from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys RiskScreening Environmental Indicators project. We
find that average exposure in an urban area is positively correlated with the extent of racial and ethnic disparity in the distribution of
the exposure burden. This correlation could arise from causal linkages in either or both directions: the ability to displace pollution
onto minorities may lower the effective cost of pollution for industrial firms; and higher average pollution burdens may induce
whites to invest more political capital in efforts to influence firms siting decisions Furthermore, we find that in
urban areas with higher minority pollutionexposure discrepancies, average exposures
tend to be higher for all population subgroups, including whites. In other words,
improvements in environmental justice in the United States could benefit not only
minorities but also whites.. If the correlation between average burdens and the extent of
disparities is sufficiently strong, it is possible that all groups including whites would face lower total
exposure burdens in urban areas with lower disparities. In other words, environmental justice could be
good for white folks, too. Our results provide strong support for this conclusion. We find
that in CBSAs with higher minority discrepancies, defined as the difference between
the minority share of exposure burdens and the minority share of population, average
exposures tend to be higher not only for minorities but for whites, too.

Pollution effects Caucasian areas more

Spatial mismatch theory highlights the manner in which industrial investment patterns since
World War II have differentially affected black and white workers. According to spatial mismatch
theorists, industrial flight from the urban core to the suburbs and rural areas after World War II
hurt black workers more than white workers because residential segregation prevented blacks
from leaving the central city, creating a spatial mismatch between the location of black
neighborhoods and the location of manufacturing jobs, and because blacks relied more heavily on
manufacturing employment than did whites (Darden et al. 1987; Farley, Danziger, and Holzer 2000; Frey 1984, 1987; Ilhanfeldt and
Sjoquist 1998; Kain 1968; Kasarda 1995; Massey and Denton 1993; Mouw 2000; Sugrue 1996; Wilson 1987). But if residential
segregation and industrial flight have created a spatial mismatch between the location of
black neighborhoods and the location of manufacturing jobs, it stands to reason that these
factors have also created a spatial mismatch between black neighborhoods and
manufacturing facility pollution. Thus, if spatial mismatch theory is correct, we would expect the association
between neighborhood racial composition and manufacturing facility pollution levels to be
weak, nonexistent, or biased against whites, an expectation that clearly contradicts that put forth by
environmental inequality researchers.

Data Flawed
Environmental racism studies use a bad methodology

First, because researchers have been preoccupied with determining the predictive power of
race and income at a single point in time, they have devoted little attention to studying the
historical processes that have given rise to environmental inequality (exceptions include Krieg 1995;
Oakes, Anderton, and Anderson 1996; Pastor, Sadd and Hipp 2001). Second, hypotheses about the determinants
of environmental inequality have not been organized into coherent models that can be formally tested. Third,
environmental justice research is not theoretically grounded. For example, although many environmental
inequality researchers study manufacturing facility pollution, few, if any, discuss deindustrialization or class
conflict, factors that are likely to play an important role in shaping environmental inequality.
Similarly, few links have been made between environmental inequality research, the declining significance of race debate, and
spatial mismatch theory, despite the fact that the debate on the declining significance of race focuses closely on the relative
importance of race and income in explaining racial inequality and the fact that spatial mismatch theory hypothesizes a spatial
disjuncture between manufacturing facilities and poor, urban black neighborhoods.

Turn Gentrification 1NC
1. The disadvantaged are used as tools to spur clean up of brownfields
then they are relocated

Disadvantaged Communities have not and do not use brownfield tools and resources as a
spark to redevelop blighted areas or create opportunities or give hope for the benefit of their
disadvantaged residents. Although communities with large segments of disadvantaged
residents may use the disadvantaged residents in the brownfield as a tool to leverage
resources and assistance to spur revitalization, brownfield redevelopment is not about
disadvantaged individuals. Brownfield redevelopment is not disadvantaged-people-
development. Disadvantaged individuals only serve initially as a tool in a communitys
acquisition of brownfield redevelopment funds. Perhaps the appropriate term for this
environmental injustice is brownfield gentrification, defined as the taking of properties in
run-down urban neighborhoods by affluent people, thus increasing property values but
displacing less affluent residents and owners of small businesses.

2. They put the cart before the horse addressing environmental
injustice doesnt solve racism it has to be the other way around

The lack of environmental justice is the result of racism. Racism is so ingrained in our society,
it is similar to staphylococcus aureus (staph) which prevails without control, in all of our health facilities through out this country. Irrespective of
scientific and medical echnological advances, staph continues to increase at logarithmic rates. Similarly, racism, in spite of our
extensive education, knowledge and so called social advances, also increases at logarithmic
rates. Why the analogy of racism to staph? Simply because racism is an infectious social disease that lurks within
our society and is as deadly and as evasive as staph. In 2007 we believe our society to be smarter
and far more intelligent that it has ever been; yet the racism exists and persists. Racism isnt something
that is logical. It is totally illogical and fed by ignorance. Yet it prevails. In order to effectively discard a problem, we must
first acknowledge the cause. To treat the symptoms is not enough. In order to resolve the
problem of environmental injustice, we must address the cause, and the cause is racism point of
fact. And how is that resolved? We have no idea. However, until racism is resolved, the implementation of
environmental justice in the United States will not be actualized.

Turn Gentrification 2NC/1NR

( ) Extend the first Stokes and Green 7 minorities living in brownfields are used as tools to get
funding that results in higher property values, policies arent actually directed at helping them:
this means two things
The well-being of the minorities are not considered in the cleanup process, the only people who
benefit from it are the future residents of the improved brownfield site
Minorities are displaced and discriminated against in the process of cleanup, exacerbating the
very racism the cleanup is supposed to be solving.

( ) Extend the second Stokes and Green 7 Environmental injustice is caused by the racism
ingrained into our society. Plan only threats the symptoms of the problem. This environmental
racism can never be solved until racism as a whole is solved.

They cant solve our turn. Racism lies within the cleanup process itself
the govt excludes African American owned contracting companies from
the brownfield cleanup efforts

Within the environmental injustice of brownfield gentrification is another environmental
injustice, namely the exclusion of African American environmental companies from access to
the $800 Million to $1 Billion Dollars in brownfield site assessment funds. Although unable to find publishable
nationwide data on the extent of utilization of African American environmental firms as primes in EPA funded projects, it is known,
based on first hand experience, that no recipient of EPA Brownfield monies (in minimum quantities of $250,000 per
project) within the State of Michigan, including the City of Detroit, has used an African American environmental
firm as a prime contractor for brownfield environmental work. The exclusion of African
American environmental companies as prime contractors for brownfield revitalization
projects is directly connected to the continued disenfranchised disadvantaged brownfield
resident. This exclusion is a facilitator of brownfield gentrification.
Brownfield Redevelopment Reinforces Social Stratification turns the
aff
Fisher, 2011
(Benjamin Harrison, [Master of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State
University]"Brownfields redevelopment and gentrification: A socio-economic evaluation of the
EPA Brownfields Pilot Program," Graduate Thesis and Dissertations Paper, 2011,
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3040&context=etd, DJ).

Although the EPA-BPP was deemed a success by local governments who saw their once
dilapidated urban areas become prosperous again, the EPA was concerned with some
unintended consequences of the EPA-BPP. One of those concerns was that the EPA-BPP 2
unintentionally contributed to the phenomena of gentrification (EPA 2009a). Through
investment in the redevelopment of urban areas, the EPA was concerned that low-income and
minority residents were not benefiting from the enhanced environmental conditions but
were instead being displaced by higher-income residents. Various researchers have investigated the
relationship between clean-up and redevelopment of contaminated sites and gentrification, but by using a relatively short-time
frame analysis (10 years) (Eckerd 2010; Essoka 2010; and Pearsall 2010). Clean up and redevelopment of brownfields is a slow
process and on average takes approximately 5 years for a brownfield to be assessed, cleaned up and redeveloped (U.S. Conference
of Mayors 2008). Thus, it would seem that a longer time frame analysis would better capture the outcomes of brownfield
redevelopment. The EPAs concern of gentrification that may have been caused by the EPA-BPP is the focus of this study.
Through the use of a 19 year time-frame analysis, this study is intended to examine possible relationship between brownfield
redevelopment and gentrification.

Attemps to improve brownfield contaminated neighborhoods displaces
people and strips them of their identity
Rowan and Fridgen 3 (Brownfields and Environmental Justice: The Threats and Challenges
of Contamination George T. Rowan, Cynthia Fridgen)

Brownfields and environmental injustice have become words that, many times, appear in the same
sentence. When one thinks of environmental injustice, the vision is one of toxic waste, air
pollution, urban sprawl, low-quality schools, and disenfranchised persons. At the same time, redevelopment efforts do
not appear to be proactive when addressing problems of displaced residents and also with providing options to
neighborhoods that are affected by environmental injustice issues. The affected areas (communities of concern) are the focus of
the following remarks. It is not the environment that is being treated unjustly, although within a certain frame of reference this is
true; rather, it is the families living within these degraded environments that suffer unjust treatment.
Even efforts to remediate and redevelop these areas often expand the injustices, due to
issues of displacement of families from their homes to better housing and cleaner
environments. Better housing, such as the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago, Illinois, and other
government high-rise housing, has stripped families of their identities and their relationships
in the name of improved living conditions.
Cleaning up brownfields does nothing to benefit the people it just
results in relocation to other brownfields

The term brownfield revitalization/redevelopment is defined by EPA as, the reuse, refurbishment, or expansion of real property
which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances. There is nothing in that
definition that addresses disadvantaged people. Across the U.S, developers grab up
abandoned urban mills, factories, landfills, gas stations and quarries and, using
government money, replace those eye soars with condominiums, town houses, and single
family homes. These areas are in prime locations close to jobs, entertainment, mass transportation, etc and because of these
amenities, consumers are willing to pay top dollar to live on land once barely, if not at all, fit for habitation. Disadvantaged
residents, who once occupied the brownfield prior to revitalization/redevelopment, are
seldom the individuals who occupy it after the revitalization/redevelopment. After the
tool is used successfully, there is little use for it, so it is cast away. These few of many similar
examples are provided only to point out that the disadvantaged/disenfranchised have little say in their
fate with respect to the brownfield in which they once resided. Once the community
stakeholders acquire their requested brownfield redevelopment funds, the
disadvantaged residents now become a burden. A disadvantaged community is so
labeled as long as a certain percentage of their citizenry are disadvantaged
individuals. Prior to the brownfield revitalization, there are disadvantaged individuals useful for the
municipality/county/brownfield redevelopment authority to qualify for their revitalization funds. Subsequent to the
brownfield revitalization, these disadvantaged/disenfranchised individuals must be dealt
with and are typically pushed out of the picture.

Govt intervention just result in the relocation of the disadvantaged
after brownfield cleanup

Nevertheless, it is the lack of education, lack of financial resources, and lack of sound mental
capacity that defines an individual as disadvantaged and marked by poverty, injustice
and without investment. Lack of education and resources, along with political
intervention, result in disadvantaged people being disenfranchised and being located in
or near contaminated areas in the first place. These same factors are responsible for the
majority of disadvantaged people being pushed out of an area, once
revitalization/redevelopment is accomplished.

Election DA
Links 1NC

Solar tax breaks are not popular Solyndra.
Cardwell, Diane, 2012, Jan. 26, Energy Tax Breaks Proposed, Despite Waning Support
for Subsidies, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/business/energy-environment/clean-
energy-projects-face-waning-subsidies.html?pagewanted=all
But the lobbying by the wind and sol ar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm
for alternative-energy subsidies in Washington. Overall concerns about the deficit are making
lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business in general. And taxpayer
losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar modules that
defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular.

Links 2NC/1NR
Plan would cause backlash support is diminishing
Pew Research Center, 11
(November 10, Partisan Divide Over Alternative Energy Widens, http://www.people-
press.org/2011/11/10/partisan-divide-over-alternative-energy-widens/1/, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
Public support for increased federal funding on research into alternative energy technology, including solar
technology, has decreased substantially since the early months of the Obama administration,
with nearly all the decline coming from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Support is diminishing - Solyndra
Cart, LA Times Staff Writer, 12
(Julie, April 26, Public split over elimination of U.S. energy subsidies, poll finds,
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/26/local/la-me-enviro-poll-20120426, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
The Yale-George Mason University poll being released Thursday found that 76% of Americans support regulating carbon dioxide as a
greenhouse gas pollutant and that two-thirds believe the U.S. should pursue policies to reduce its carbon footprint. Support
for federal funding of renewable energy appears to be slipping , perhaps in response to the
bankruptcy of the solar manufacturing company Solyndra, which had received federal loan
guarantees.

Pollution DA
Link 1NC

Process of Manufacturing Causes Pollution on 3 levels
Good company, 03 (Oregon,
www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/.../solar_panel_lifecycle.pdf, 8/4/12) CMAP
The main life-cycle environmental negative impacts of silicon solar panels come from the
production phase and include: (1) the energy consumed during panel production and the
emissions associated with that energy generation; (2) water consumption, which is cleaned
and returned to the watershed; and (3) some hazardous by- products which are released to
the air or recycled and reused in further production processes. All air emissions are routed to pollution
control equipment and covered under a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) air permit. All wastewater is treated and
monitored prior to discharge under a DEQ water permit. The positive impact during the panel use or energy generation phase is the
emissions-free energy that displaces carbon intensive energy generation from sources such as coal and natural gas. The positive
impacts of that displacement far outweigh the negative impacts of the production phase of the life cycle of silicon solar panels.

Warming DA
Link 1NC
Solar energy causes massive warming emits highly virulent
greenhouse gasses
Zehner. University of California Berkeley Visiting Scholar, 12
(Ozzie, June 04, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets Of Clean Energy, http://thegwpf.org/the-
climate-record/5880-green-illusions-the-dirty-secrets-of-clean-energy-.html, d/a 8-2-12, ads)
Hexafluoroethane has a global warming potential that is 12,000 times higher than CO2 ,
according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is 100 percent manufactured by
humans, and survives 10,000 years once released into the atmosphere. Nitrogen trifluoride is
17,000 times more virulent than CO2, and SF6, the most treacherous greenhouse gas, is over
23,000 times more threatening. The solar photovoltaic industry is one of the fastest-
growing emitters of these gases, which are now measurably accumulating within the earth's
atmosphere according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A NOAA study shows that
atmospheric concentrations of SF6 have been rising exponentially. A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical
Research Letters documents that atmospheric NF3 levels have been rising 11 percent per year. " If photovoltaic
production grows, so will the associated side effects ," claims Zehner. "Even worse, there's no evidence that
solar cells offset fossil fuel use in the American context." Zehner explains that alternative energy subsidies keep retail electricity
costs incrementally lower, which then spurs demand. "It's a boomerang effect," remarks Zehner. "The harder we throw alternative
energy into the electrical grid, the harder demand comes back to hit us on the head. Historically, we've filled that demand by
building more fossil fuel plants, not fewer." Instead, Zehner advocates shifting to energy taxes and other conservation measures.
He claims that even some of the most expensive options for dealing with CO2 would become cost competitive long before today's
solar cell technologies. "If limiting CO2 is our goal, we might be better off directing our time and
resources to those options first; solar cells seem a wasteful and pricey strategy," says Zehner. "It is
hard to conceive of a justification for extracting taxes from the working class to fund installations of Stone Age photovoltaic
technologies high in the gold-rimmed suburbs of Arizona and California."

Link 2NC/1NR
Solar causes NF3 increases that causes extreme warming
Conniff, Guggenheim Fellow, 08
(Richard, National Magazine Award-winning writer, has written for Yale e360 about carbon
offsets and clean coal, November 13, The Greenhouse Gas That Nobody Knew,
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2085, d/a 8-2-12, ads)
When industry began using NF3 in high-tech manufacturing, it was hailed as a way to fight
global warming. But new research shows that this gas has 17,000 times the warming potential
of carbon dioxide and is rapidly increasing in the atmosphere and that's turning an environmental
success story into a public relations disaster. Hypothetical question: Youre heartsick about global warming, so
youve just paid $25,000 to put a solar system on the roof of your home. How do you respond to news that it was manufactured
with a chemical that is 17,000 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming? It may sound like somebodys idea
of a bad joke. But last month, a study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported that nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), with a
global warming potential of 17,000, is now present in the atmosphere at four times the expected level and rapidly rising. Use of
NF3 is currently booming, for products from computer chips and flats-screen LCDs to thin-film solar
photovoltaics , an economical and increasingly popular solar power format. Moreover, the Kyoto Protocol,
which limits a half-dozen greenhouse gases, does not cover NF3. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now
lists it among five major new greenhouse gases likely to be included in the next phase of global warming regulation, after 2012. And
while that may be reassuring, it also suggests the complicated character of the global warming problem.
NF3 stays in the atmosphere for over 500 years
Conniff, Guggenheim Fellow, 08
(Richard, National Magazine Award-winning writer, has written for Yale e360 about carbon
offsets and clean coal, November 13, The Greenhouse Gas That Nobody Knew,
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2085, d/a 8-2-12, ads)
To tear apart that layer of crud and clean the vacuum chamber, manufacturers were using
powerful fluorinated greenhouse gases. The usual choice, hexafluorethane, or C2F6 sounds better
at first than NF3. In global warming terms, its only about 12, 000 times worse than carbon
dioxide . But C2F6 is difficult to break down, and roughly 60 percent of what goes into the vacuum
chamber ends up in the atmosphere . With NF3, estimates suggested that under optimal conditions, roughly 98
percent of what goes into the vacuum chamber is destroyed there. So when the semiconductor industry announced a voluntary
partnership with the EPA to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 10 percent from 1995 levels between 1999 and 2010, NF3 became
the replacement technology of choice. Makers of flat-screen displays soon announced a similar program. In 2002, the EPA gave a
Climate Protection Award to the largest NF3 producer, Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Chemicals Inc., for its work in reducing
emissions. Then last summer, a paper calling NF3 the greenhouse gas missing from Kyoto attracted widespread press attention.
Co-authors Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu of the University of California at Irvine noted that NF3 is one of the most
potent greenhouse gases known and persists in the atmosphere for 550 years.

States CP Solvency
States CP Solvency Financial Incentives
States can implement financial incentives and energy standards
California proves
Gipe, Wind Industry Analyst, 07
(Paul, December 5, Are Feed-in Tariffs a Possibility in California?,
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/12/are-feed-in-tariffs-a-
possibility-in-california-50748, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
In a dramatic about face from previous policy, the California Energy Commission is expected today to
recommend that the state adopt feed-in tariffs to spur renewable energy development. The
recommendation is contained within the Energy Commission's 2007 Integrated Energy Policy
Report. The Energy Commission is expected to approve the report December 5 at its regularly-scheduled meeting. The 300-
page report concludes in part that the state's current programs have failed to deliver
significant amounts of new renewable generation and California will not meet its renewable
energy objectives unless corrective action is taken soon. Feed-in tariffs are widely used in Europe, notably in
Germany, France, and Spain. Renewable sources of energy now supply nearly 12% of Germany's electricity, much of which was
installed as a result of the country's groundbreaking Renewable Energy Sources Act or feed-in law. Under the German program,
renewable energy producers are paid a fixed-price for feeding their electricity into the grid. This has led to a boom in the
construction of wind turbines, rooftop solar systems and on-farm biogas plants. Feed-in tariffs "turn homes, farms,
and businesses into entrepreneurs who will accelerate our path to clean energy," says Terry
Tamminen about the Energy Commission's recommendation. Tamminen is a former Secretary of the
California Environmental Protection Agency and was the Chief Policy Advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Energy
Commission's policy reversal follows the poor results from several years of unfulfilled
expectations for renewable energy development in California. California's Renewable
Portfolio Standard , the state's current program intended to develop renewable energy, was passed as SB 1078 in
2002 and set a target of 20% renewables by 2017. Though thousands of megawatts of new renewable generation
have been contracted in the five years since the program was launched, only 242 megawatts (MW) has actually been built.
States solve solar development tax incentives
Broehl, RenewableEnergyAccess.com Editor, 05
(Jesse, May 10, Washington State Passes Progressive Renewable Energy Legislation,
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2005/05/washington-state-passes-
progressive-renewable-energy-legislation-28478, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
With Gov. Christine Gregoire's recent signature, what is being called the most progressive renewable energy
legislation ever passed in a U.S. state is now a reality. The two new laws reflect a fresh policy
approach to promoting renewable energy at the state level and already have the full attention
of industry manufacturers who expect the measures to kick-start a new regional market in the U.S. The two bills --
SB 5101 and SB 5111 -- steamrolled their way through the state's legislature earlier this spring,
winning overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers interested in creating a thriving market for renewable
energy that would specifically foster new high-tech manufacturing in the state. The first bill , SB 5101, is
responsible for driving strong market demand for small renewable energy projects, especially
solar photovoltaic (PV) energy . The law establishes a renewable energy "feed-in" production
incentive, the first such application of this approach in a U.S. state. Homes and businesses with solar PV
and wind power systems would earn a credit of 15 cents per kWh of electricity generated by their renewable energy systems up to
$2000 annually -- roughly tailored to the yearly market output of a typical 3.5 kW PV system. In addition to the feed-in credit, the
bill is progressive because it combines economic multipliers to increase the system owner's credit if
the project's components are manufactured in Washington. This can raise the 15 cent per kWh credit up to as
much as 54 cents and this rate would be available for a fixed 10 year period beginning July 1, 2005.
With the first bill taking care of the demand side of the equation, the second bill would take
care of the supply side by nurturing new, high-tech manufacturing of renewable energy
components. SB 5111 will provide tax breaks for renewable energy businesses that currently reside
in the state or choose to relocate there. And the bill goes above that to offer higher tax breaks to
companies that locate themselves in economically depressed areas.

States CP Solvency Restrictions
States can remove restrictions and increase incentives
States Advancing Solar, A Clean Energy Group Initiative, 08
(April 8, Rules, Regulations and Policies, http://www.statesadvancingsolar.org/policies/policy-
and-regulations/solar-access-laws, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
California provides perhaps the most comprehensive set of state laws designed to encourage
solar access and prevent restrictions on solar energy systems . These laws address municipal
restrictions, residential landscaping, and homeowner association restrictions. Californias solar
access laws appear in the states Civil, Government, Health and Safety, and Public Resources
Codes. Californias Civil Code (714) ensures that solar easements may be created to ensure
that proper sunlight is available to those who operate solar energy systems, including passive solar
design. The Civil Code also states that no covenant or restriction contained in any document
pertaining to the sale of property can contain language that explicitly prohibits or restricts
the installation or use of a solar energy system.

States CP Solvency Brownfields
States can clean up brownfields Washington proves
Washington State Department of Ecology, 07
(ISIS Web Reporting, https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/tcpwebreporting/, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
The Toxics Cleanup Program works to clean up contaminated properties throughout the
state. The program uses the Integrated Site Information System (ISIS) to prioritize its work
and track progress in cleaning up contaminated sites. The ISIS Web reporting portal provides a selection of
standard reports and the ability to quickly and easily retrieve a subset of data for a particular area of interest. Major portions
of the ISIS system have been re-developed while others (such as the Underground Storage Tank or UST area)
still remain to be worked on. Five reports have been re-designed and retrieve data from the 'new ISIS' database. Another
report (Leaking Underground Storage Tanks site list) will be re-done soon. Two reports remain to be re-designed as
we re-develop the UST system module.
Brownfield jurisdiction is local States can enact changes
Mallach et al, National Housing Institute Senior Fellow, 05
(Alan, Lisa Mueller Levy, Director of Technical Assistance for the National Vacant Properties
Campaign, Joseph Schilling, Metropoltan Institute at Virginia Tech Professor in Practice, June,
Cleveland at the Crossroads,
http://preview.usmayors.org/brownfields/library/cleveland0605.pdf, d/a 8-4-12, ads)
No uniform policy or consistent definition of a vacant or abandoned property exists. The
National Vacant Properties Campaign (NVPC) considers vacant properties to include a wide range of
residential, commercial, and industrial buildings and vacant lots that exhibit one or both of the following traits: the site poses a
threat to public safety (meeting the definition of a public nuisance), or the owners or managers neglect the fundamental duties of
property ownership (e.g.., they fail to pay taxes or utility bills, default on mortgages, or carry liens against the property). Vacant
properties can include abandoned, boarded-up buildings; unused lots that attract trash and debris; vacant or under-performing
commercial properties known as greyfields (such as under-leased shopping malls and strip commercial properties); and
neglected industrial properties with environmental contamination known as brownfields. The
NVPC also monitors deteriorating single-family homes, apartments with significant housing code violations, and housing that
remains vacant for long periods of time, as these are indicators of future vacancy and abandonment. State laws and
uniform building codes further refine what constitutes an abandoned building, but these vary from
jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Often these structures have been unoccupied for over a year, are beyond repair, and pose serious danger
to public safety. How Cleveland confronts the challenge of vacant properties during the next five years will have a dramatic impact
on the future of the city and its neighborhoods. Cleveland stands at the proverbial crossroads that compel
immediate action. The citys current vacant property crisis is not due to lack of effort by local stakeholders. Indeed, over the
past few decades, Cleveland has taken many steps to address these problems and rebuild the
citys fabric. Clevelands strong network of CDCs and the close working relationship between
city government and the CDC community are the envy of many larger, economically more
powerful cities. The citys land-bank program, first established in 1976, has received national acclaim
as a pioneering effort to reuse vacant land productively. The results of these efforts are visible
across the city in new housing developments and shopping centers, and in revitalized
neighborhoods with rising market values.

Capitalism K
Capitalism K Link 1NC

Brightfields and clean technology spurs continual capitalism and
corporate investment.
Swartz, Jon, 2011, 5/26, award-winning technology columnist and Pulitzer Prize nominee,
covers Silicon Valley trends and social networking, Big companies aggressively jump into clean
tech, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-25-green-tech-investing_n.htm
A few years ago, investing in green technology companies in Silicon Valley was as de rigueur as vertical social-media sites.
Those sites went away, but money continues to pour into clean-tech ventures as world
events dictate a serious look at alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and electric cars.
"It's not alternative: We think of it as mainstream," says Alan Salzman, CEO of
VantagePoint Capital Partners, an investor in electric-car maker Tesla Motors, which went public last
year, and BrightSource Energy, slated for an IPO in 2011. It's hard to put a price tag on the potential market for clean
technologies. Several venture capitalists interviewed say it could be hundreds of billions of
dollars if not more when adding up various slices, such as wind (estimated $60 billion) and solar ($20
billion to $30 billion). There is little doubt what VCs think: They poured $4.9 billion into domestic start-ups last year, up
40% from 2009, says market researcher Cleantech Group. The numbers suggest "strong long-term VC
interest," says Sheeraz Haji, an analyst at Cleantech Group who notes that an increase in the average
size of deals shows a "continued bias towards later-stage deals." Clean tech is as
hot as the rest of the tech industry. Start-ups are raking in record amounts of
investments. Large, established companies such as Intel are pursuing partnerships with
up-and-coming companies. Promising start-ups are being snapped up as acquisitions. Initial public offerings
are sprouting like vegetables. In other words, expect the momentum to continue.

Capitalism K Link 2NC/1NR

Redesigning energy production is not sufficient to avoid extinction of
the planet. The capitalist system/class make competition and
exploitation inevitable
Harris, Jerry, Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, Oct-Dec, 2010,
Going Green to Stay in the Black: Transnational Capitalism and Renewable Energy, Race & Class,
Vol. 52 #2, http://netglobalcapitalism.wordpress.com/articles/going-green-to-stay-in-the-black-
transnational-capitalism-and-renewable-energy/
Marxists environmentalists (53) make the point that capitalism can never fundamentally solve the environmental crisis because it is
inherently a system of unending growth and accumulation. As subjectively appealing this argument is for the left, I believe its
misplaced in the sense of what capitalism can and cannot do. By environmentally redesigning production,
energy, transportation, architecture and agriculture, capitalism can maintain a market for goods that
reduces inputs and energy. It may not be able to accomplish this for all commodities, but enough to significantly
lessen its abuse of our planet. If accomplished the cataclysmic clash between capitalism and
nature may be postponed for a significant amount of time. But whether or not the capitalist class has the
political will to carrying out these transformations is another question. Judging by its failures
in Kyoto, Copenhagen and elsewhere capitalism may lose any shred of political legitimacy long
before it can act in a qualitatively transformative manner. To be sure, there are socially responsible
corporations, scientists and economists who understand the full nature of the challenge ahead. As Kevin Parker, global head of
Deutsche Bank Asset Management said, the cost of inaction is the extinction of the human race. Period. (54)
But significant restraints exists. With short-term focus among neo-liberal speculators, feeble efforts of
neo-Keynesian reformers and sabotage by fossil fuel lobbyists the capitalist system may be
unable to respond within the limits of ecological time. Chained to the constraints of its
economic dogma, important sectors of the capitalist class are unable to react with long-term
planning and the investments needed to build a sustainable economy. A few example tell the story. Out
of a total of 2,810 climate change lobbyists in Washington, only 138 support renewable energy. (55) And from the total of $250-$300
billion in global energy subsidies, $200 billion go to fossil fuels and only $16 billion for renewables. (56) Its clear that neither the
neo-liberal nor neo-Keynesian wing of the transnational capitalist class can meet the challenge. What needs to emerge is a new
green hegemonic bloc providing political leadership with a dominant culture and ideology. Such a change is possible, but even so
green capitalism faces another set of historic problems. What the transnational capitalist class cannot change
is its need for profits and power won through competitive combat. Therefore, movements
towards monopolization, economic rationality and the exploitation of labor cannot be
resolved within the parameters of green capitalism. There will be a continuing drive to defeat
or acquire competing corporations resulting in bankruptcy and unemployment. Constant
pressure to lower costs resulting in lower wages, less benefits and sweatshop conditions
wherever possible. And the need to externalize costs resulting in greater burdens on
governments and citizens. As Marx pointed out, revolutions occur when the relations of production hold back the
necessary development of society, not the inability of capitalism to revolutionize technology. Therefore, the contradiction between
labor and capital is still key. Green capitalism may very well have the ability to develop the
appropriate technology, but not the means to fully realize its social organization.


Expansion of solar energy cannot escape the capitalist hegemonic
framework.
Harris, Jerry, Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, Oct-Dec, 2010, Going Green to Stay in the
Black: Transnational Capitalism and Renewable Energy, Race & Class, Vol. 52 #2,
http://netglobalcapitalism.wordpress.com/articles/going-green-to-stay-in-the-black-
Conclusion The global pattern in solar energy is similar to that of wind,
characterized by transnational corporations who have foreign direct
investments and assembly lines wherever a significant market exist. In both solar
and wind there is a combination of some of the most powerful and well
established TNCs and new corporations more exclusively focused on
renewables. While government support is important there is no nationally exclusive policy, tax breaks and stimulus
are offered to all active TNCs regardless of origin. The only exception is China, but as these corporations build a solid
economic base they too have started to expand abroad. It should be no surprise that a pattern of
global accumulation has emerged so early. Transnational capital is hegemonic
worldwide so any new industry and significant technology will develop within
this framework. This brings forth a number of questions about the viability of green capitalism and alternative
paths of development.

Capitalism is at the core of solar technology development. Corporations
use environmental destruction as an opportunity for growth. The
impact is continual environmental crises and endless corporate growth.
Harris, Jerry, Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, Oct-Dec, 2010, Going Green to Stay in the Black:
Transnational Capitalism and Renewable Energy, Race & Class, Vol. 52 #2,
Is the future of capitalism green? And will the country that leads in green technology dominate the global economy? That is
certainly the outlook of important sectors of the capitalist class, both among long established corporations as well as new
entrepreneurs. But the green economy, particularly the energy sector, is already taking a
globalized path of development under the control of the transnational capitalist class (TCC).
While innovative corporations may emerge as dominant players, it will be as transnational
corporations (TNS), not as national champions of nation-states. In the U.S. the green revolution is promoted as the way to
maintain world economic supremacy. In President Obamas state of the union speech he said, the nation that leads the clean-
energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy, and America must be that nation. (1) Environmentalist Hunter
Lovins calls on the U.S. to lead the world in green innovation because theyll rule the world, economically, politically, and probably
militarily. (2) Thomas Friedman wraps green technology in red, white and blue calling it the new currency of power. Its all
about national powerwhat could be more patriotic, capitalistic and geostrategic than
that? (3). But these dreams of national greatest are already outdated. Green energy can indeed extend the life of
capitalism, but not within the confines of nation-centric logic and power. Major wind and solar
corporations already operate on a global scale, with innovations and research ongoing in
Europe, India, Japan, China and the U.S. Furthermore, the scale of the environmental crisis is beyond any one country to solve. It
calls for a global response and advanced sectors of the TCC understand these world dimensions. The environmental crisis
actually offers an opportunity for capitalism to begin a new cycle of accumulation. A way to
end the repeating failures of financial speculation with a renewal of productive capital. As Muller
and Passadakis explain, the point about the ecological crisisis that it is neither solved nor ignored
in a green capitalist regime, but rather placed at the heart of its growth strategy.(4) By creating
new systems of energy, transportation, architectural design and reengineering productive processes, capitalism can greatly reduce
its abuse of the environment. This would free capital from environmentally harmful industries for new areas of investment and
create profitable opportunities in dynamic new markets. Such a strategic shift will not only solve the current
crisis but legitimize a new political regime and lay the foundation for a hegemonic bloc with a
global social base. Nonetheless, this transformation will not solve the contradiction between
capital and labor, and the TCC may lack the political resolve to move fast and far enough to
avoid major environmental disasters. But if the transformation does occur over the coming decades, it may solve the
most pressing problems between finite environmental resources and the need of capitalism to grow and profit. With global warming
widely accepted as an existential crisis capitalists have seized upon alternative and sustainable energy as a major transformative
technology. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called for a worldwide Green New Deal that would be a wholesale
reconfiguration of global industry. (5) A study published by Scientific American argues for a $100 trillion dollar program, projecting
that 100 percent of the worlds energy, for all purposes, could be supplied by wind, water and solar resources by 2030. (6) That is
a fair amount of money, but Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency points out that, Each year without an
international agreement adds $500 billion to the costs estimated at $10 trillion annually of cleaning up the power sector to
help keep temperatures within a range that would avoid unstoppable climate changes. (7) Given the scale of the problem $100
trillion over 20 years sounds feasible. But dedicating $5 trillion a year from a world GDP of $54 trillion (2007) seems impossible
without a political revolution.Although still a very small part of energy consumption, wind and solar power are rapidly
expanding and total clean energy investments in 2008 were $155 billion and $145 billion in 2009. (8) Eventually renewable
energy may play an economic role similar to the digital, computer and telecommunications revolution of the past 30 years. These
technologies laid the basis for globalization and vastly expanded access to knowledge and
information. (9) Economically there was innovation, dynamic emerging corporations and new
cycles of accumulation. The technologies were also used by progressive activists across the
world for organizing and education. Just as the digital revolution spearheaded a new era of
capitalist globalization, so too can green technology open the door to the next era of growth
while promoting important progressive changes.While these possibilities exist, they will
develop within historic capitalist patterns that continually reassert themselves. Digital
technologies became centralized into a handful of transnational corporations, both old and
new, that today dominate the market and consume innovations through constant buy-outs.
That pattern is already appearing in the green energy field, except there will be no singular leading location such as Silicon Valley.
Solar and wind technologies are global and being consolidated by a small number of
competitive TNCs. This does not necessarily undercut their environmental benefits. But it does undercut the
democratic possibilities for a decentralized system of energy, and fails to solve the
problems between capital and labor. By examining the major wind and solar TNCs below, we can begin to uncover
the character of the new green economy.

Redesigning energy production is not sufficient to avoid extinction of
the planet. The capitalist system/class make competition and
exploitation inevitable.
Harris, Jerry, Network for Critical Studies of Global Capitalism, Oct-Dec, 2010, Going Green to Stay in the Black:
Transnational Capitalism and Renewable Energy, Race & Class, Vol. 52 #2,
Marxists environmentalists (53) make the point that capitalism can never fundamentally solve the environmental crisis
because it is inherently a system of unending growth and accumulation. As subjectively appealing this argument is for the
left, I believe its misplaced in the sense of what capitalism can and cannot do. By environmentally
redesigning production, energy, transportation, architecture and agriculture, capitalism
can maintain a market for goods that reduces inputs and energy. It may not be able to
accomplish this for all commodities, but enough to significantly lessen its abuse of our planet. If
accomplished the cataclysmic clash between capitalism and nature may be
postponed for a significant amount of time. But whether or not the capitalist class has the
political will to carrying out these transformations is another question.
Judging by its failures in Kyoto, Copenhagen and elsewhere capitalism may
lose any shred of political legitimacy long before it can act in a qualitatively
transformative manner. To be sure, there are socially responsible corporations, scientists and economists
who understand the full nature of the challenge ahead. As Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Bank Asset
Management said, the cost of inaction is the extinction of the human race. Period. (54)
But significant restraints exists. With short-term focus among neo-liberal speculators,
feeble efforts of neo-Keynesian reformers and sabotage by fossil fuel
lobbyists the capitalist system may be unable to respond within the limits of
ecological time. Chained to the constraints of its economic dogma, important
sectors of the capitalist class are unable to react with long-term planning and
the investments needed to build a sustainable economy. A few example tell the story. Out
of a total of 2,810 climate change lobbyists in Washington, only 138 support renewable energy. (55) And from the total of
$250-$300 billion in global energy subsidies, $200 billion go to fossil fuels and only $16 billion for renewables. (56) Its
clear that neither the neo-liberal nor neo-Keynesian wing of the transnational capitalist class can meet the challenge.
What needs to emerge is a new green hegemonic bloc providing political leadership with a dominant culture and ideology.
Such a change is possible, but even so green capitalism faces another set of historic problems. What the
transnational capitalist class cannot change is its need for profits and power
won through competitive combat. Therefore, movements towards
monopolization, economic rationality and the exploitation of labor cannot be
resolved within the parameters of green capitalism. There will be a continuing
drive to defeat or acquire competing corporations resulting in bankruptcy and
unemployment. Constant pressure to lower costs resulting in lower wages,
less benefits and sweatshop conditions wherever possible. And the need to
externalize costs resulting in greater burdens on governments and citizens. As
Marx pointed out, revolutions occur when the relations of production hold back the necessary development of society, not
the inability of capitalism to revolutionize technology. Therefore, the contradiction between labor and capital is still key.
Green capitalism may very well have the ability to develop the appropriate
technology, but not the means to fully realize its social organization.

Environmental crisis is at the core of capitalist growththe impact is
continual destruction.
Mueller, Tadzio, & Passadakis, Alexis, 2009, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation & Attac
Germanys coordinating council, German climate action camp, Critical Currents, Green
capitalism and the climate: Its economic growth, stupid!,
http://www.dhf.uu.se/pdffiler/cc6/cc6_web_art8.pdf
And finally there are the multiple ecological crises that are currently affl icting the
globe in different ways. While the most discursively visible of these is no doubt the climate crisis, we are at
the same time facing a drastic reduction in biodiversity; desertification; a fresh-water crisis; overfi shing; the destruction of
forests, and several more: together, they constitute a biocrisis, a crisis of human life (bios) on this planet. While each of
these has its relatively autonomous immediate causes, in the fi nal analysis they are all the result of an
antagonism between the requirements of human survival in stable eco-social
systems and the requirements of capital accumulation or, more succinctly,
between capitals need for infinite growth and our collective survival on a finite
planet. Crisitunity? New Deal, antagonism and green capitalism Of all the crises named above, there is something
special about the last, the biocrisis. Far from threatening to destroy capitalism, it in fact contains the promise of solving all
the other major crises in one fell swoop. Recall that in a capitalist economy, crises are not
necessarily negative. The Austrian economist Schumpeter thought of crises as unleashing the
force of capitals creative destruction, a kind of radical diet that would purge
the unproductive and the unprofi table and make way, after running its course,
for a leaner and meaner economy to emerge at the other end. More importantly, nor is
antagonism necessarily a problem it is, in fact, precisely what is at the core
of capitalisms dynamism, of its infamous ability to profane all that is holy and
melt all that is solid into air. The core of the Fordist-Keynesian New Deal, which contributed significantly to
the at least temporary resolution of the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s, lay in the fact that the antagonism
between capital and labour was neither solved nor ignored, but internalised as the driving force of capitalist
development.

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