Final Wild Lab Aff 1 [1]

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 1 / 145 ] Indigenous 1AC............. 1AC...................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .. ............................3 ................... .........3 Indigenous 1AC............. 1AC...................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .. ............................4 ................... .........4 Indigenous 1AC............. 1AC...................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .. ............................5 ................... .........5 Indigenous 1AC .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .............. ..... ............................7 ................... .........7 Indigenous 1AC .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .............. ..... ............................8 ................... .........8 Indigenous 1AC............. 1AC...................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .. ............................9 ................... .........9 Indigenous 1AC .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ............ ... ............................10 ................ ............10 Indigenous 1AC............. 1AC...................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ......... ............................12 ................ ............12 Wind 1AC.............. 1AC........................ ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ .. ......14 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......16 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......17 Wind 1AC.............. 1AC........................ ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ .. ......18 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......20 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......22 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......24 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......26 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......28 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......29 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......30 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......31 Wind 1AC ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......33 Inherency-No Inherency-No Tribal PTCs....... PTCs................. ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................ ....... ......................34 ................. .....34 Inherency-Energy Inherency-Energy Relationship Relationship Destructive .................. ........................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................. ........ ...................35 ................. ..35 Inherency-Energy Inherency-Energy Relationship Relationship Destructive .................. ........................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................. ........ ...................37 ................. ..37 Solvency-Federal Solvency-Federal Action Key.......... Key................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................ ...... ......38 Solvency-PTC Solvency-PTC Access Key.......... Key.................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ .. ................................39 .................. ..............39 Solvency-PTC Solvency-PTC Access Key.......... Key.................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ .. ................................41 .................. ..............41 Solvency-Say Yes............... es......................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ............ ... ...........43 Solvency-Say Yes............... es......................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ............ ... ...........45 Solvency-T Solvency-Technical Assistance Key......... Key................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ............... ...... .........................46 ................. ........46 Solvency-Financial Solvency-Financial Incentives Key ................... ............................ ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............... ..... .........................47 ................ .........47 Solvency-Rosebud Solvency-Rosebud Project......... Project.................. .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................. ........ 49 Solvency-A Solvency-AT: Native wind not that huge............... huge........................ ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................. ........ ............................50 ................ ............50 Solvency-AT: Solvency-AT: Natives don’t have resources................................ resources............... ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................... ... ..51 Indigenous Advantage-Wi Advantage-Wind nd Leads to Self-Sustainabil Self-Sustainability/Soverei ity/Sovereignty gnty .................. ........................... ................... ................... ........... .. .............53 Indigenous Advantage-Wi Advantage-Wind nd Leads to Self-Sustainabil Self-Sustainability/Soverei ity/Sovereignty gnty .................. ........................... ................... ................... ........... .. .............55 Indigenous Advantage-Wi Advantage-Wind nd Leads to Economic Development........... Development.................... ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ............... ...... 56 Indigenous Advantage-Wi Advantage-Wind nd Leads to Economic Development........... Development.................... ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ............... ...... 58 Indigenous Advantage-Wi Advantage-Wind nd Sustains Tribal Culture ................... ............................. ................... .................. ................... ................... ............... ...... ................59 Indigenous Advantage-Impacts.... Advantage-Impacts............. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. .................. ......... .......................60 .................. .....60 Indigenous Advantage-Impacts Advantage-Impacts ................... ............................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .. .......................62 .................. .....62 Indigenous Advantage-A Advantage-AT T: Business Abuses Indigenous Peoples......... Peoples.................. ................... ................... .................. ................. ........ ................63 Wind Advantage-T Advantage-Tribal Wind Solves Energy Crisis .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ............. ... ................................65 .................. ..............65 Wind Advantage-Wind Advantage-Wind Eases Dependence on Coal .................. ........................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... .......... ......66 Wind Advantage-Wind Advantage-Wind Cleaner Than Fossil Fuels Fuels .................. ............................ ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ......... .........68 Wind Advantage-A Advantage-AT: No Demand for Wind Power........ Power.................. ................... .................. ................... ................... ................. ........ ..............................70 .................. ............70 Wind Advantage-T Advantage-Tribal Involvement Solves Global Warming Warming ................... ............................. ................... ................. .......................... .............................72 ...........72 Wind Advantage-Coal Advantage-Coal Bad for the Environment........... Environment.................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ............. .... ......73 Wind Advantage-Coal Advantage-Coal Bad for the Environment........... Environment.................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ............. .... ......75 Wind Advantage-Shift Advantage-Shift to Alternative Alternative Energy Inevitable.......... Inevitable................... ................... ................... ................... ................... .............. ..... ......................76 ................. .....76 Wind Advantage-AT: Advantage-AT: Wind Turbines Kill Birds............................... Birds.............. .................................. ................................. ................................. ................. ......... .... .......... .......... .....77 77 Wind Advantage-AT: Advantage-AT: Wind Turbines Kill Bats ................................ ................ ................................. .................................. ................................. .................. .......... ..... .......... .......79 ..79 Water Water Advantage-Nuclear Advantage-Nuclear Power Depletes Depletes Water Resources Resources .................. ............................ ................... ................... ................. ....... ...................80 ................. ..80 Water Advantage-Coal Advantage-Coa l Power Pollutes Tribal Water ................................. ................ ................................. ................................. .................................. ...................... ..... .81 Water Water Advantage-Nuclear Advantage-Nuclear Power Pollutes Tribal Water ................... ............................. ................... .................. ................. ........ ............................82 ................. ...........82

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 2 / 145 ] Water Water Advantage-Nuclear Advantage-Nuclear Power Pollutes Tribal Water ................... ............................. ................... .................. ................. ........ ............................84 ................. ...........84 Water Water Advantage-Methane Advantage-Methane Energy Pollutes Tribal Water...... Water............... ................... ................... ................... ................... .............. ..... ........................86 ................... .....86 Water Water Advantage-W Advantage-Water ater Shortages Hurt Economy/Agriculture.... Economy/Agriculture............. ................... ................... ................... ................... .......................... ......................87 .....87 Successionism Add On................. On.......................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ........... .. ..............................88 ................... ...........88 Successionism Add On................. On.......................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ........... .. ..............................89 ................... ...........89 Successionism Add On-Global War Impact..................... Impact.............................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ................. ........ ...........................91 ................... ........91 Successionism Add On-Genocide Impact............... Impact......................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ........... .....92 T ribal Knowledge Add On................. On........................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ........... .........93 T ribal Knowledge Add On................. On........................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ........... .........94 Tribal Tribal Knowledge Add On-Link/Impact Extensions............ Extensions..................... ................... ................... .................. ................... .............. .... .............................95 ................. ............95 Economy Add On................ On.......................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... .......... .............97 Acid Rain Add On.................. On........................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ............ ... .........98 AT: Agent Counterplans.......... Counterplans................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................ ...... ......................99 ................. .....99 AT: States Counterplan ................... ............................. ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ............... ..... .....................100 ................... ..100 AT: PICs............... PICs........................ ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ............. .... .....101 AT: PIC Out of “P “Permanent”. ermanent”.......... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ................ ....... ................................102 .................. ..............102 AT: Consult Tribal Nations Counterplan .................. ........................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... .............. .... ..................103 AT: Give Back the Land Counterplan .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ ......104 AT: Give Back the Land Counterplan .................. ............................ ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............ ......106 AT: Nuclear War Impacts............ Impacts...................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... .............. .... ........107 AT: Nuclear Extinction Impacts.............. Impacts....................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ............... ..... ........................108 ................. .......108 AT: Elections-Indigenous Elections-Indigenous Vote Key......... Key.................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ............... ..... .........................109 ................. ........109 AT: AT: Elections-AT: Elections-AT: Indigenous Vote Key......................................... Key........................ ................................. ................................. .................................. ........................ ....... ......... ..... ......110 ..110 AT: Elections-Sovereignty Elections-Sovereignty Key Issue for Indigenous Vote................. ote.......................... ................... ................... .................. ............ ... .......................111 .................. .....111 AT: Elections-Obama Supports Plan.............. Plan....................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................ ...... .................112 AT: Elections-McCain Elections-McCain Supports the Plan ................... ............................ .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ............... ...... ...............114 AT: Elections-Public Elections-Public Supports the Plan .................. ............................ ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .............. ..... ..................115 AT: AT: Bush Good-Turn Good-Turn Bipartisanship Bipartisansh ip .................................. ................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ........................... .......... ...116 ...11 6 AT: AT: Bush Good-Turn Good-Turn Democrats .................................. ................. ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ........................ ........ .......... ..... .....117 117 AT: AT: Bush Good-Turn Good-Turn Public Popularity ................................ ................ ................................. .................................. ................................. ............................ ............ ......... .... ......... ......119 ..119 AT: AT: Bush Good-Farming Lobby Turn ............................... ............... ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. .......................... ......... .....120 .... .120 AT: AT: Bush Good-NCAI Lobby Turn ................................ ............... ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................ ................ ...121 ...12 1 AT: AT: Bush Good-AT Good-AT: Plan is a Flip Flop.......................... Flop......... .................................. ................................. ................................. .................................. .............................. ............. .....123 ..... 123 ................... ............................ ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................ ....... .........123 AT: AT: Bush Bad-Turn Bad-Turn Political Capital ................................. ................ .................................. ................................. ................................. ............................ ........... .......... ..... ......... ......... .....124 124 AT: AT: Bush Bad-Turn Bad-Turn GOP Base ................................ ............... .................................. ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. .................. ......125 .... ..125 AT: AT: Bush Bad-Turn Bad-Turn Flip Flop ............................... ............... ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ........................... .......... ......... ..... ......... .......126 ..126 AT: AT: Bush Bad-AT: Bad-AT: Plan Bipartisan ................................ ................ ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. .................. 127 AT: Spending Disadvantage........ Disadvantage.................. ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ............... ...... ................128 AT: AT: Tourism Disadvantage................. Disadvantag e.................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ....................... ....... ...129 ...12 9 AT: Kritiks-General ................... ............................ .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. .................. ......... ................130 AT: Kritiks-General ................... ............................ .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. .................. ......... ................131 AT: Capitalism Kritik .................. ........................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... ................. ........ ......133 AT: AT: Leftist Kritiks (1/2)........................ (1/2)....... ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. .......................... .......... 134 AT: AT: Realism (1/2)...................... (1/2)..... .................................. ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. .................. ..137 AT: AT: Realism (2/2)...................... (2/2)..... .................................. ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. .................. ..139 AT: AT: Topicality-Incentives opicality-In centives ................................ ............... ................................. ................................. .................................. ................................. ................................. ........................... .......... ....140 ....14 0 AT: AT: Topicality-Alternative opicality-Alternat ive Energy............................. Energy............ .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ................... ....141 ....14 1 ................... ............................ ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... .................. ................... ................... ................... ................... .................. ................ ....... .........141 AT: AT: Topicality-‘in the United States’...................... States’..... .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ........................ ....... .142 AT: AT: Topicality-‘in the United States’...................... States’..... .................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ................................. ........................ ....... .144 AT: AT: Topicality-‘in the United States’ We Meet Evidence ............................................... ............................... ................................. ............................ ........... .......145 ..... ..145

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 3 / 145 ]

Indigenous 1AC CONTENTION ONE IS THE STATUS STATUS QUO: First note that the government's current alternative energy policy blatantly excludes Tribal nations-funding and grants issued to other groups are off-limits to indigenous peoples, creating active DISINCENTIVES against the development of wind energy on Tribal land. Rob Capriccioso; Staff writer, April 11, 2008. Indian Country Today, “Tribes look for federal wind energy incentives”. July 8, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417026. WASHINGTON - As growing numbers of tribes pursue wind energy projects, tribal energy advocates are cautiously hoping that new developments in Congress could eventually lead to tax credits and incentives to aid tribal economies. economies. ''We're ''We're not really really holding our breath breath for Congress Congress to step in with funding,'' said said Bruce Renville, a wind energy planner with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. ''But certainly, grants or other incentives would be helpful.'' In recent recent weeks, weeks, Sen. John John Thune, R-S.D., co-sponsored the the bipartisan bipartisan Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, which would extend the renewable energy production tax credit for one year. The current production tax credit incentive of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour is scheduled to expire in December. Thune's proposed production tax credit would only benefit entities that already have profits from wind energy production, but the legislation also includes bond funding that tribes could apply for to help establish wind wind energy energy projects. projects. Thune and other wind energy proponents in the Senate Senate say they want to extend the production tax credit so that wind energy developers have certainty when it comes to future projects. Whether their mission includes certainty for tribal entities remains to be seen. Few, if any, tribes have been able to take advantage of the production tax credits offered to date because many tribes that have been able to create wind energy projects have relied relied on non-Native developers to help them get projects off the ground. Under current current law, tribes tribes are are not entitled to the tax credits credits provided provided to non-Native non-Native developers developers for renewable energy productio production n because tribes have a tax-exempt status. Tribal energy experts say it's important for tribes to be reaching out to Congress regarding regarding the tax-exempt issue, since it likely discourages non-Native developers from wanting to work with tribes. Thune's office seems amenable. ''As a general matter, we know tribes are very supportive of wind energy,'' said Jon Lauck, a senior adviser to Thune. ''They know this is an area that could jump-start their economies, economies, and we'd like to help them.'' Recent Recent legislative legislative developments have also also made it challenging for tribes to obtain federal wind energy energy seed funding. In 2007, Thune proposed the Wind Energy Development Act, which included $2.25 billion in funding for Clean Renewable Renewable Energy Bonds that tribes could have used to fund pilot wind energy programs. programs. Under Thune's plan, 20 percent of this bonding would have been specifically specifically set aside for tribes; however, the set-aside did not make it into the current version of the wind energy tax credit legislation, and it was not in the energy bill that passed last December. Some tribal energy advocates believe supporting support ing new legislation that promotes Clean Renewable Renewable Energy Bonds may be the best hope for tribes that want to receive federal funding to begin wind energy development. Thune's current legislation legislation proposes $400 million in funding for the bonds, which energy experts say tribes tribes should should be eligible to apply for via the IRS. ''Seed monies monies would be helpful,'' helpful,'' Renville Renville said. said. ''But we haven't factored factored those into our current current projects.'' projects.'' As the Senate Senate and House consider consider extensions of the renewable energy tax credit, the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, which represents 10 tribes, is pushing for legislation that would support tribal wind projects. Officials with the group note that none of the federal incentives currently in place involving wind energy were designed expressly for tribes, which they say is ironic since tribes are the only group that the federal government has an explicit trust responsibility responsibility to assist in economic development. ''The federal renewable renewable energy incentives, incentives, as designed, are problematic problematic for tribes, in that they are both insufficient and inappropriate as drivers of tribal development as presently configured,'' the group noted in a recent policy paper. ''The presently formulated federal incentives have actually worked as disincentives in the unique context of tribal renewable energy development.''

Specifically, Specifically, Tribal Tribal nations are excluded from receiving Production Tax Tax Credits, the vital government incentives used to develop wind power. power.

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 4 / 145 ] utilities,20* 06*, *Tribal Joint Venture Intertribal Council on Utility Policy , regulatory board for utilities,20* Production Tax Credit, http://intertriba http://intertribalcoup.org/poli lcoup.org/policy/index.html cy/index.html,] ,] Current federal renewable energy incentives serve to underwrite the producti ve development of a variety of renewable energy resources. Federal incentives, such as the Production Tax Credit (PTC), the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI), and the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), have all been designed to meet the needs of a variety of entities(for-profit entities(for-profit developers, municipal municipal utilities, cooperatives, and other non-profit non-profi t public power entities). But these incentives were not designed expressly for Tribes, Tribes, ironically the only group that the federal government has an explicit trust responsibility to assist in economic development*.*While Tribes have been recently included in the eligibility of several of these renewable energy incentive programs (usually (usual ly as an afterthought), afterthoug ht), none have been designed or adapted to meet their unique situation, situatio n, as governments government s with abundant trust assets, but with with limited practical access to long-term financing, and with limited control over their membership as a rate base for competitive commercial development on or off their reservations.

Indigenous 1AC And, Tribal Tribal nations bear the brunt of U.S. energy production-the current relationship is characterized by dumping coal-fired plants on tribal lands, threatening global climate change and cultural extinction. Bryan Morlock 2008 (Honor the Earth, "Coal is Done: Let's Move to the Next Millennium", http://www.honorearth.org/media/pdfs/whatsnew/BS2_Flyer3.08.pdf ) Native communities continue to bear the brunt of energy production in America from both a pollution and financial perspective. perspective. Native communities spend up to one-fifth of their income (households and/or tribal revenue) on energy, yet very few tribes either have conservation mechanisms or their own energy production systems. In addition, mines and power plants are frequently sited near or on Native land, meaning that pollution disproportionately disproportionately impacts Native communities. Now is the time to recognize this destructive pattern of energy injustice and stop the construction of additional coal power plants like Big Stone II, near the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota reservation. Coal fired power plants have the highest output of carbon dioxide per unit of electricity of any fossil fuel. The burning of coal emits 60 hazardous air pollutants including mercury, mercury, arsenic and carbon dioxide and the region’s power plants are about the dirtiest in the country. Nearby power plants in the Dakotas burn lignite coal, the lowest ranked type of coal for energy value. They might as well be burning dirt. The region is home to 10% of the biggest carbon dioxide emitters in the country, and all but two plants in North Dakota rank in the top fifty mercury polluters per electricity produced. Mercury drops into lakes and land, poisoning the fish and water and then the people. When it comes to carbon, Big Stone II is projected to produce about 4.7 million tons of CO2 each year,3 the equivalent of putting 700,000 more cars on the road. We’re already surrounded by coal plants that dirty our air; it doesn’t make sense to add more pollution and more sickness. Each year America burns burns 1 billion tons of coal, emitting 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the main culprit in the global climate crisis. Climate change seriously threatens Native Native communities’ ways of life with changing weather patterns, melting ice and the spread of new disease. The average temperature of North and South Dakota are projected to increase almost 4 degrees in the next fifty to seventy-five seventy-five years and the consequences of this climate change will include drought, highly destructive wind and rain storms, hail and climate unpredictability, a detrimental loss in commercial crops, and the rise of a number of vector borne diseases. Climate change will affect our jobs, our health, and our children’s health. It will alter our way of life and our traditions. We have a responsibility responsibility to take action to protect the earth and the seventh generation to come.


Indigenous 1AC And, this policy of ignoring indigenous sovereignty, sovereignty, while using Tribal lands as dumping sites for our nation’s nation’s energy waste waste characterizes the existing existing relationship of oppression. This is the root cause of all wars today – foreign excursions are extensions of racial assaults at home. Street 2004 (Paul, Author, “Those Who Deny the Crimes of the Past Reflections Reflections on American Racist Atrocity Denial, 17762004”, March 11, accessed online p. L/N) DMZ It is especially especially important to appreciate appreciate the significance of the vicious, often explicitly genocidal "homeland" assaults on native-Americans, which set foundational racist and national-narcissist national-narcissist patterns for subsequent U.S. global glob al butchery , disproportionately disproport ionately directed at non-European non-Europ ean people of color. co lor. The deletion of the real story of the so-called so -called "battle of Washita" Washita" from the official Seventh Cavalry history given to the perpetrators of the No Gun Ri massacre is revealing. Denial about Washita and Sand Creek (and so on) encouraged US savagery at Wounded Knee, the denial of which encouraged US savagery in the Philippines, the denial of which encouraged US savagery in Korea, the denial of which encouraged US savagery in Vietnam, the denial of which (and all before) has recently encouraged US savagery in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's a vicious circle of recurrent recurrent violence, well known to mental health practitioners who deal with countless victims of domestic violence living in the dark shadows of the imperial homeland's crippling, stunted, and indeed itself occupied social and political order. Power-mad US forces deploying the latest genocidal war tools, some suggestively named after native tribes that white North American "pioneers" "pioneers" tried to wipe off the face of the earth (ie, "Apache," "Blackhawk," "Blackhawk," and "Comanche" helicopters) are walking walking in bloody footsteps that trace back across centuries, oceans, forests and plains to the leveled villages, shattered corpses, and stolen resources of those who Roosevelt acknowledged as America's "original inhabitants." Racist imperial carnage and its denial , like charity, begin beg in at home . Those who deny den y the crimes of the t he past are likely to repeat their offenses of fenses in the future fut ure as long as they retain the means and motive to do so.

And, this mindset has been used time and time again to justify the worst atrocities in human history-the drive to save humanity through the extermination of a particular group perpetuates the genocidal illusion used to justify the Holocaust, dooming us all to planetary extinction. Santos, Santos, social theorist, the director of the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, 2003 “Collective Suicide?” Bad Subjects Issue 63, April, http://eserver.org/bs/63/santos.html . Original in Portuguese, Translation by Jean Burrows According to Franz Hinkelammert, the West has repeatedly been under the illusion that it should try to save humanity by destroying part of it. This is a salvific and sacrificial sacrificial destruction, committed in the name of the need to radically materialize all the possibilities opened up by a given social and political reality over which it is supposed to have total power. This is how it was in colonialism, with the genocide of indigenous peoples, and the African slaves. This is how it was in the period of imperialist imperialist struggles, which caused millions of deaths in two world wars and many other colonial wars. This is how it was under Stalinism, with the Gulag, and under Nazism, with the Holocaust. And now today, this is how it is in neoliberalism, neoliberalism, with the collective sacrifice of the periphery and even the semiperiphery of the world system. With the war against Iraq, it is fitting to ask whether what is in progress progress is a new genocidal and sacrificial illusion, and what its scope might be. It is above all appropriate to ask if the new illusion will not herald the radicalization and the ultimate perversion of the Western illusion: destroying destroying all of humanity in the illusion of saving it. Sacrificial genocide arises from a totalitarian illusion manifested in the belief that there are no alternatives to the present-day reality, reality, and that the problems and difficulties confronting it arise from failing to take its logic of development to ultimate consequences. If there is unemployment, hunger and death in the Third World, this is not the result of market failures; instead, it is the outcome of market laws not having been fully applied. If there is terrorism, this is not due to the violence of the conditions that generate it; it is due, rather, to the fact that total violence has not been employed to physically eradicate all terrorists and potential terrorists.

This political logic is based on the supposition of total power and knowledge, and on the radical rejection of alternatives; alternatives; it is ultra-conservative ultra-conservative in that it aims to reproduce reproduce infinitely the status quo. Inherent to it is the notion of the end of history. During the last hundred years, the West has experienced three versions of this logic, and, therefore, seen three versions of the end of history: Stalinism, with its logic of insuperable efficiency of the plan; Nazism, with its logic of racial superiority; and neoliberalism, with its logic of insuperable efficiency of the market. The first two periods involved the destruction of democracy. The last one trivializes democracy, disarming it in the face of social actors sufficiently powerful to be able to privatize the state and international institutions in their favor. I have described this situation as a combination of political democracy and social fascism. One current manifestation of this

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 6 / 145 ] combination resides in the fact that intensely strong public opinion, worldwide, against the war is found to be incapable of halting the war machine set in motion by supposedly democratic rulers.

At all these moments, a death drive, a catastrophic heroism, predominates, predominates, the idea of a looming collective suicide, only preventable by the massive destruction of the other. Paradoxically, the broader the definition of the other and the efficacy of its destruction, the more likely collective suicide becomes. In its sacrificial genocide version, neoliberalism is a mixture of market radicalization, neoconservatism neoconservatism and Christian fundamentalism. Its death drive takes a number of forms, from the idea of "discardable "discardable populations", referring referring to citizens of the Third World not capable of being exploited as workers and consumers, to the concept of "collateral damage", damage", to refer to the deaths, as a result of war, of thousands of innocent civilians. The last, catastrophic heroism, is quite clear on two facts: according to reliable calculations by the Non-Governmental Organization MEDACT, in London, between 48 and 260 thousand civilians will die during the war and in the three months after (this is without there being civil war or a nuclear attack); the war will cost 100 billion dollars, enough to pay the health costs of the world's poorest countries for four years. Is it possible to fight this death drive? We must bear in mind that, historically, sacrificial destruction has always been linked to the economic pillage of natural resources and the labor force, to the imperial design of radically changing the terms of economic, social, political and cultural exchanges in the face of falling efficiency rates postulated by the maximalist

It is as though hegemonic powers, powers , both when they are on the rise and when they are in decline, repeatedly go through times of primitive accumulation, legitimizing legitimizing the most shameful violence in the name of futures where, by definition, there is no room for what must be destroyed. In today's version, the period of primitive accumulation consists of combining neoliberal economic globalization with the globalization of war. The machine of democracy and liberty turns into a machine of horror and destruction. logic of the totalitarian illusion in operation.


Indigenous 1AC THUS THE PLAN: The United States federal government should authorize permanent Tribal eligibility for Production Tax Tax Credits and provide p rovide technical assistance to Tribal nations for the purpose of developing wind powered energy.


Indigenous 1AC CONTENTION TWO IS SOLVENCY SOLVENCY::

With PTCs and technical assistance, Tribal Tribal nations can meet half the nation’s electricity needs with wind power, power, while establishing self-sufficiency-Rosebud project proves. Rahimi Shadi , staff writer, 3/24 (2008, Indian Country Today, "Tribes push for change in federal policy for wind development", http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416864) Energy experts say the swift, steady Dakota winds in the northern Great Plains could theoretically meet the nation's entire electrical needs with clean, renewable power. But federal legislation has been thwarting a greener energy future led by tribes. Because tribes are tax-exempt, they are not entitled to the tax credits provided to non-Native developers for renewable energy production. And if an outside company wants to team up with a tribe, the federal government government will not allow allow a full tax credit. credit. That is ''basically stopping'' tribal ownership of wind turbines, says Tom Boucher, president of NativeEnergy, a Vermont-based company that helps build renewable energy projects. Current legislation ''encourages outside developers not to partner with tribes because they will be penalized,'' said Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, which represents 10 tribes. Now, as the Senate and House are considering considerin g extensions extensions of the renewable energy tax credit, which expires this December, the Intertribal COUP is pushing for legislation in favor of tribal ownership. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., D-S.D., has introduced introduced a companion bill bill in the Senate that would would allow tribes to be principal owners of renewable energy projects projects and would provide their non-Native partners with a full tax credit, Gough said. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has introduced a similar bill in the House, he said. Outside capital is essential to making tribally owned wind turbine projects a reality, said Boucher, whose company helped the Rosebud Rosebud Sioux build a wind wind turbine with the help help of federal grants and and loans. Intertribal COUP's push, supported by the National Congress of American Indians, comes at an opportune time - just as the Bush administration is is attempting to portray an image image of good environmental environmental stewardship. stewardship. ''America is in the lead lead when it comes to energy independence. We're in the lead when it comes to new technologies. We're in the lead when it comes to global climate change,'' President President Bush said in a speech at the t he Washington International Internatio nal Renewable Energy Conference March 5. Developing Developin g countries and the United States are being pushed to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, and Bush has been alluding to wind energy and other renewable renewable power sources sources in his speeches. speeches. ''America has to change change its habits. It has to get off oil,'' oil,'' Bush said at the conference to delegates from more than 120 countries, adding that the concentration of greenhouse greenhouse gases is increasing increasing from from the burning fossil fuels, fuels, leading to global global climate change. change. In the western western United States, a majority of the utility-scale energy is generated generated by the burning of fossil fuels, which fills the air with sulfur, nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas linked to climate change, which environmental experts say is contributing to droughts in the Rockies and across the northern Plains, leading leading to the slow ruin of ranching ranching and farming economies. economies. By contrast, wind wind power can generate generate clean electricity on a large, utility scale. And in the northern Plains, Gough said, wind projects can also create sustainable sustainabl e tribal economies. ''We're looking at reservations that have limited resources and boundaries; boundari es; some tribes have been involved in coal mining in the Southwest, but their water and coal resources resources have gone to meet other people's needs needs and are not sustainable.'' sustainable.'' Intertribal COUP, COUP, which owns a major stake stake in NativeEnergy, represents 10 tribes in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota - where the power blowing mostly unharnessed through reservations like Fort Berthold in North Dakota is more than 17,000 times greater than what is being utilized by the tribe's 65 kilowatt wind turbine, according to Tex Hall, former chairman of the Mandan, Mandan, Hidatsa and and Arikara Nation. Wind energy energy is able to be produced produced at a fixed, fixed, nonescalating cost for up to 30 years, experts say. The wind potential of the Dakotas has earned the region the moniker: ''The Saudi Arabia of wind.'' Tribes in the region have been eager to follow in the footsteps of the Rosebud Sioux, Sioux, who unveiled the first first wind power turbine turbine on Indian land five years ago. Studies show the average wind speed on the Rosebud reservation reservation is 18 miles per hour (enough to supply 2.4 million kilowatthours of electricity in a year). The $1.2 million Rosebud pilot project has been held up as a model for other tribes. But the cost of wind wind turbines has only been been rising in the past several several years, years, Boucher said. said. His company and Intertribal COUP are hoping that their efforts on Capitol Hill will pay off, allowing tribes to partner with outside investors investors while maintaining maintaining majority majority ownership ownership of wind turbine projects. Someday soon, tribes can become major suppliers of green power to the federal government, the largest consumer of energy

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 9 / 145 ] in the world, and other markets markets across across the country, country, Gough said. Until then, a change in in the federal tax credit credit is the first step, he said.

Indigenous 1AC Specifically, Specifically, penalties to Production Tax Credits are a disincentive for companies to invest in indigenous energy, and this was only furthered by the House’s slashing of indigenous energy funding – allowing open PTC access acces s is key because it’s the critical component to wind energy production. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ A number of national energy policy issues could support native renewable energy development, particularly particularly wind energy development. Tribes need to have equal access to the federal renewable energy incentives. In the Great Plains, we are running into a variety of overriding policy issues, as well as local nuts-and-bolts concerns in the practical application of wind development on Tribal lands. As a member of Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (COUP), we have proposed several specific policy directions and actions by the executive executive and legislative branches that will do a great deal to assist Tribes in the development of wind energy. I will address these issues in three areas, which are equally important: First, it is essential to continue funding the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grants program for renewable renewable energy projects because they provide funding for planning, feasibility, and development of real projects. The DOE and the Wind Powering America program have initiated a meaningful outreach to Tribes through the Native American Wind Interest Groups and technical assistance partnerships. partnerships. This is a great model that demonstrates the trust responsibility responsibility of the U.S. Government to the Tribal Nations. Second, Congress must authorize the Tribal eligibility for the Production Tax Credit (PTC) that drives all wind projects in this country. Tribes are now penalized in that they cannot attract the private investor to develop partnerships for projects on Tribal lands. Indians are the only people with a "trust relationship" with the federal government. Our treaties require the federal government to assist us in developing our reservation economies. But all renewable energy incentives incentives go to tax-paying developers via the PTC or to states or subdivisions of state through the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI). Indians are the only group excluded from any of the federal renewable energy incentives, yet we are the only ones with a legal obligation — our treaties — for federal assistance! Currently, because Tribes are not taxed entities (a status we secured from the United States in return for our giving them most of this continent), any developer that teams up with a Tribe Tribe in a joint venture for wind development is penalized by only being able to use a portion of the t he available PTCs, PTCs, which are apportioned under federal law by the percentage of ownership in the production facility. So if a tribe has any ownership in a project on Tribal lands, our partner must forego any incentives represented by our ownership. The PTC is t he main driver for wind development in this country, but this federal incentive incentive policy steers investment investment capital away from Indian lands. lands. Intertribal COUP once proposed a Tribal energy production incentive to correct this federal oversight. Wryly called a

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 10 / 145 ] "TEPI", it gently reminded Congress that it had an obligation to provide an equal playing field for Indian energy development.

And, development of wind energy can further tribal sovereignty, sovereignty, but federal technical assistance is key to level the playing field to allow incentives to work in the first place. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ Wind is an incredible untapped energy resource that could go a long way toward making this country energy independent. It has been said that an ocean of energy crosses the Great Plains every day. Tribes here have many thousands of megawatts of potential wind power blowing across our reservation lands. Tribes in the Great Plains could look to the wind as a constant source of renewable renewable energy to help meet our own local energy needs in a way that protects our air, water, and land. Tribes are interested in protecting their sovereignty and providing for their reservation communities. Tribally owned wind projects can provide an opportunity to generate power locally in a clean way that meets our needs in an affordable way, now and for the future. Wind power can provide several sources of revenue to the tribe, through the sale of energy, the sale of green tags, and the use of production incentives. incentives. But to realize this potential, tribes need technical assistance from the federal government to assess our resources and site projects. We need to level the economic playing field so that tribes can use the production incentives available available to off-reservation off-reservation development. Tribes need access to the federal grid to bring our value-added electricity to market throughout our region and beyond. Wind is part of our culture. Most of the Great Plains Tribes have distinct names and stories about the winds that recognize the different personalities and characteristics characteristics of the winds coming from the four directions. Today, our persistent winds represent a fabulous opportunity for all people on the Great Plains to generate clean, reliable electricity without digging up our lands or polluting our air or water.

Indigenous 1AC Tribal nations will say yes-there is support in the indigenous communities to develop and use wind energy. Thomas L. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Earl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Environmental Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous Studies) Sustainable Energy Solutions, “The Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American American Lands in the West” accessed accessed July 8, 2008, BC Tribal lands in the West have great potential for the development and delivery of electricity generated from wind and other renewable resources. Many tribes are interested in generating, selling, and using such electricity. electricity. Substantial barriers exist, however, to the full implementation of tribal opportunities for development of renewable energy resources. Of particular importance to rural residents is the fundamental need for basic or reliable electric service. As tribes seek ways to provide greater electrification, electrification, electricity that is generated and distributed from renewable resources could be one of the best alternatives to consider. The following list is a selection of activities from which tribes in the WRAP region and their collaborators may participate when developing renewable energy resources. They are presented here to inform potential collaborators about some of the activities in which tribes may need to participate if developing renewable resources. For a collaborator working with a tribe, it is important to realize that tribal choices concerning development will

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 11 / 145 ] likely occur in the context of their overall goal of maintaining and strengthening their cultural, social, economic, and political integrity, integrity, not just as a business opportunity. Tribal-state-federal Tribal-state-federal relations must also be considered in their legal, economic, and cultural contexts when exploring the development and delivery of electric energy across political boundaries.

Also, the development of Tribal wind can begin to decentralize the existing power structure, serving to reestablish representative democracy and tribal sovereignty by shifting away from hazardous coal and nuclear plants forced onto Tribal Tribal land. Winona LaDuke , Executive Director of Honor the Earth and Green Party vice presidential candidate in 2000, 2007 (Winter, Yes!, "Local Energy, Local Power", http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1553 ) Indeed, it is a time of change, brought on by rising oil prices and crumbling infrastructure. infrastructure. Native peoples have an eye to the horizon, where wind turbines, solar panels, panels, and a movement for local control of energy are rising. This is a movement, not about technologies and gadgetry, but about what the future should look like. Will it be centralized, with the necessities of life coming from far away, or will it have local food and local energy? This is about a movement which is found in the winds that sweep the reservations and ranches of the Great Plains, in the sun that bakes the Southwest, and in the grasses and grains of the prairies. All of these resources lend themselves to locally controlled power production. In the United States, we are missing the canoe. Centralized power production based on fossil fuel and nuclear resources has centralized political power, disconnected communities from responsibility and control over energy, and created a vast, wasteful system. Renewable energy, which has the opposite effect, is the fastest growing energy source in the world. And according to Exxon, energy is the biggest business in the world. So tackling this issue has some large implications. At the very least, the United States is missing major economic opportunities. When the Rosebud Sioux wanted to build a wind generator, they had to import turbine parts from Denmark, and that's a long way away. When George Bush can say in his State of the Union address that the United States is addicted to oil, it's time to admit that we are energy junkies. The United States, with only 5 percent of the world's population, consumes one third of the world's energy. In just the past 70 years, the world has burned 97 percent of all the oil ever used. We have allowed our addictions to overtake our common sense and a good portion of our decency. We live in a country with the largest disparity of wealth between rich and poor of any industrialized industrialized nation. As the price of energy rises, the poor are pushed farther out on the margins. Renewable Renewable energy is a way to reverse that trend. We need to recover democracy, and one key element is democratizing power production. Alternative energy represents represents an amazing social and political reconstruction opportunity, one that has the potential for peace, justice, equity, and some recovery of our national dignity. Distributed power production, matched with efficiency, is the key. According to the Department of Energy, we squander up to two-thirds of our present present fossil-fuel electricity as waste; we lose immense amounts in inefficient production, heating, and transportation systems. We must reduce our consumption, then create distributed energy systems, where local households and businesses can produce power and sell extra into the grid. Relatively Relatively small-scale and dispersed wind, solar, or even biomass generation provides the possibility for production at the tribal or local level without involving big money and big corporations. That, in turn, allows for a large measure measure of local accountability and control—pretty control—pretty much the definition of democracy—and an appreciation for where we are and where we need to go. Some of the largest wind projects in the country are in Minnesota, where the Plains come to the edge of the Great Woods and the winds sweep across across the southern part of the state. Funding for Minnesota's renewable energy programs is largely the result of a hardfought battle in the Minnesota legislature over a nuclear waste dump adjacent to the Prairie Island Dakota reservation. reservation. The tribe's concern over the health effects of nuclear waste next to their community led to state legislation requiring a significant investment in renewable renewable energy, which spear–headed wind development.


Indigenous 1AC The development of wind energy on tribal lands is key to establishing self-sustainability, self-sustainability, providing for a higher quality of life. The T he plan is the necessary affirmation of tribal sovereignty, sovereignty, reorienting existing energy relationship. POWELL, 2006 (Department of anthropology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Dana Powell Powell Technologies of Existence: The indigenous environmental justice movement Accessed online http://ideas. http://ideas.repec.or repec.org/a/pal/deve g/a/pal/develp/v49y2006i3p125-132.html lp/v49y2006i3p125-132.html July 8, 2008) The project is also situated within the context of environmental environmental and political debates on energy development around the state of South Dakota, where plans are underway to develop 2000MW of coal-fired power by the end of 2010 (LaDuke, 2004). The wind turbine is moving to centre stage as a potential solution to many of movement’s primary concerns: climate and ecological change, natural resource resource conflicts, cultural preservation, globalization, and tribal sovereignty. Twenty years earlier and1100miles south, Hopi engineers, activists, and tribal leaders began to install solar p hotovoltaic panels on rooftops of residential residential homes, bringing electricity to families who had been living off the grid,without electricity Projects Projects on the Hopi and Navajo reservations reservations have proliferated over the past two decades, with the Hopi solar business NativeSun and engineer DebbyTewa leading theway. In recent years, these projects have connected with the emerging wind power projects in the Plains region, through the work of the national Native NGOs, HTE, and the IEN, and have become central to these groups’ common visions and overlapping strategies of environmental justice and sustainable development development on tribal lands. In the last two years, these two national networks have collaborated with grassroots environmental and cultural protection organizations to install additional technologies on Newe Segobia, or Western Shoshone territory, on the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation, and on the Navajo reservation. These installations have become intermeshed intermeshed with ongoing indigenous environmental justice campaigns focused on conflicts centring primarily on aspects of energy production, such as the recent conflicts over the proposed mining of the sacred Zuni Salt Lake; the proposed federal nuclear waste storage sites on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation and at Yucca Mountain, Nevada; and uranium mining on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. In several of these cases, the environmental justice activists are challenging tribal governments' contracts with regional utilities and/or federal agencies. Without a long digression into the history and politics of natural resource use and development on reservation reservation lands, suffice to say it is not always but is often a site of intense internal debate and conflict for tribes themselves. The significance of the relatively relatively recent emergence of wind and solar technologies as tribal development projects is that tribes are increasingly connecting into this network of renewable energy activism as a means of economic growth, ecological protection, and cultural preservation. preservation. Seemingly an oxymoron – to preserve preserve 'tradition' with the use of hightech machines – advocates of wind and solar power emphasize that cultural preservation preservation is itself about flexible practices, practices, change, and honouring worldviews in which the modernist distinction between nature and culture is nonsensical. In other words, when some of the most important cultural resources are the land itself (i.e., mountains for ceremonies, waters for fishing, soils for growing indigenous foods), to protect nature is also to protect culture. As Bruno Latour has also argued, this natures-cultures epistemology is also ontology – a different way of knowing, inhabiting and engaging the world ( Latour, 1993, 1993, 2005 2005). ). Wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels are articulating with this worldview, and at the same time articulating with many tribes' desires to move beyond fossil fuel extraction as a primary means of economic development, and towards natural resource resource practices that are more 'sustainable'. The wind and the sun introduce new elements of common property to be harnessed for alternative development projects and increased increased decentralization and ownership over the means of power production. This recent emergence of renewable energy technologies technologies on reservations inspires analysis of natural resource conflicts to move beyond models of resistance in understanding controversies controversies and social struggles over resource management and energy production to seeing the ways in which concepts such as ‘sustainability’ ‘sustainability’ are being resignified through the introduction of what I argue are imaginative technologies of existence. I stress existence over resistance not to obscure the contestations of federal, tribal, and utility consortium proposals for natural resource resource development, which have been importantly detailed elsewhere elsewhere (Gedicks, 2001), but to emphasize the creative, imaginative work of the movement in envisioning and enacting alternative ways for tribes to self-sustainand self-sustainand grow healthy economies, ecologies, cultures, and bodies in an integrated manner. There are other technologies of existence engaging particular, situated natural resource resource conflicts within the movement: recovery of customary foods and harvesting practices, coalition-building coalition-building around water rights and resources, restoration restoration of salmon and sturgeon

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 13 / 145 ] populations, and projects involving information and film media as a means of preserving preserving and producing the 'natural' resource of culture itself. This constellation of resources – energy, food, water, and culture – are of central concern to the IEJM and creating sustainable methods of generating each advances the 'good life' towards which the movement's work strives. In this sense, wind and solar projects on reservations are not technologies of existence to ‘make live’ in the biopolitical sense of a population’s ensured biological survival and micro-practices of regulation, but technologies that articulate with desire, history, localization, imagination, and being in a way in which the meaning of ‘existence’ exceeds exceeds a definition of continued biological survival or reproduction. These technologies are are about a particular quality of existence that speaks to the late Latin root of the word, existentia, which comes from the earlier Latin exsistere, meaning ‘come into being,’ itself a combination of ex_ ‘out’ þ sistere ‘take a stand’ (O.A.D., 2001). Thus, when ‘existence’ recovers the notions of coming into being, externality, externality, and taking a stand, what it means to live and to grow is inherently active and perhaps even risky. Sustainability, then, in the context of the IEJM, is a bold existence and set of practices informed by a particular history of struggle and oriented towards a future of well-being, in which the economic, the ecological, and the cultural are interdependent and mutually constitutive.


Wind 1AC CONTENTION ONE IS THE STATUS STATUS QUO: First note that the government's current alternative energy policy blatantly excludes Tribal nations-funding and grants issued to other groups are off-limits to indigenous peoples, creating active DISINCENTIVES against the development of wind energy on Tribal land. Rob Capriccioso; Staff writer, April 11, 2008. Indian Country Today, “Tribes look for federal wind energy incentives”. July 8, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417026. WASHINGTON - As growing numbers of tribes pursue wind energy projects, tribal energy advocates are cautiously hoping that new developments in Congress could eventually lead to tax credits and incentives to aid tribal economies. economies. ''We're ''We're not really really holding our breath breath for Congress Congress to step in with funding,'' said said Bruce Renville, a wind energy planner with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. ''But certainly, grants or other incentives would be helpful.'' In recent recent weeks, weeks, Sen. John John Thune, R-S.D., co-sponsored the the bipartisan bipartisan Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, which would extend the renewable energy production tax credit for one year. The current production tax credit incentive of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour is scheduled to expire in December. Thune's proposed production tax credit would only benefit entities that already have profits from wind energy production, but the legislation also includes bond funding that tribes could apply for to help establish wind wind energy energy projects. projects. Thune and other wind energy proponents in the Senate Senate say they want to extend the production tax credit so that wind energy developers have certainty when it comes to future projects. Whether their mission includes certainty for tribal entities remains to be seen. Few, if any, tribes have been able to take advantage of the production tax credits offered to date because many tribes that have been able to create wind energy projects have relied relied on non-Native developers to help them get projects off the ground. Under current current law, tribes tribes are are not entitled to the tax credits credits provided provided to non-Native non-Native developers developers for renewable energy productio production n because tribes have a tax-exempt status. Tribal energy experts say it's important for tribes to be reaching out to Congress regarding regarding the tax-exempt issue, since it likely discourages non-Native developers from wanting to work with tribes. Thune's office seems amenable. ''As a general matter, we know tribes are very supportive of wind energy,'' said Jon Lauck, a senior adviser to Thune. ''They know this is an area that could jump-start their economies, economies, and we'd like to help them.'' Recent Recent legislative legislative developments have also also made it challenging for tribes to obtain federal wind energy energy seed funding. In 2007, Thune proposed the Wind Energy Development Act, which included $2.25 billion in funding for Clean Renewable Renewable Energy Bonds that tribes could have used to fund pilot wind energy programs. programs. Under Thune's plan, 20 percent of this bonding would have been specifically specifically set aside for tribes; however, the set-aside did not make it into the current version of the wind energy tax credit legislation, and it was not in the energy bill that passed last December. Some tribal energy advocates believe supporting support ing new legislation that promotes Clean Renewable Renewable Energy Bonds may be the best hope for tribes that want to receive federal funding to begin wind energy development. Thune's current legislation legislation proposes $400 million in funding for the bonds, which energy experts say tribes tribes should should be eligible to apply for via the IRS. ''Seed monies monies would be helpful,'' helpful,'' Renville Renville said. said. ''But we haven't factored factored those into our current current projects.'' projects.'' As the Senate Senate and House consider consider extensions of the renewable energy tax credit, the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, which represents 10 tribes, is pushing for legislation that would support tribal wind projects. Officials with the group note that none of the federal incentives currently in place involving wind energy were designed expressly for tribes, which they say is ironic since tribes are the only group that the federal government has an explicit trust responsibility responsibility to assist in economic development. ''The federal renewable renewable energy incentives, incentives, as designed, are problematic problematic for tribes, in that they are both insufficient and inappropriate as drivers of tribal development as presently configured,'' the group noted in a recent policy paper. ''The presently formulated federal incentives have actually worked as disincentives in the unique context of tribal renewable energy development.''

Specifically, Specifically, Tribal Tribal nations are excluded from receiving Production Tax Tax Credits, the vital government incentives used to develop wind power. power.

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 15 / 145 ] utilities,20* 06*, *Tribal Joint Venture Intertribal Council on Utility Policy , regulatory board for utilities,20* Production Tax Credit, http://intertriba http://intertribalcoup.org/poli lcoup.org/policy/index.html cy/index.html,] ,] Current federal renewable energy incentives serve to underwrite the producti ve development of a variety of renewable energy resources. Federal incentives, such as the Production Tax Credit (PTC), the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI), and the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), have all been designed to meet the needs of a variety of entities(for-profit entities(for-profit developers, municipal municipal utilities, cooperatives, and other non-profit non-profi t public power entities). But these incentives were not designed expressly for Tribes, Tribes, ironically the only group that the federal government has an explicit trust responsibility to assist in economic development*.*While Tribes have been recently included in the eligibility of several of these renewable energy incentive programs (usually (usual ly as an afterthought), afterthoug ht), none have been designed or adapted to meet their unique situation, situatio n, as governments government s with abundant trust assets, but with with limited practical access to long-term financing, and with limited control over their membership as a rate base for competitive commercial development on or off their reservations.


Wind 1AC THUS THE PLAN: The United States federal government should authorize Tribal Tribal eligibility for Production Tax Tax Credits and provide technical assistance to Tribal nations for the purpose of developing wind powered energy.


Wind 1AC CONTENTION TWO IS SOLVENCY SOLVENCY::

With PTCs and technical assistance, Tribal Tribal nations can meet half the nation’s electricity needs with wind power, power, while establishing self-sufficiency-Rosebud project proves. Rahimi Shadi , staff writer, 3/24 (2008, Indian Country Today, "Tribes push for change in federal policy for wind development", http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416864) Energy experts say the swift, steady Dakota winds in the northern Great Plains could theoretically meet the nation's entire electrical needs with clean, renewable power. But federal legislation has been thwarting a greener energy future led by tribes. Because tribes are tax-exempt, they are not entitled to the tax credits provided to non-Native developers for renewable energy production. And if an outside company wants to team up with a tribe, the federal government government will not allow allow a full tax credit. credit. That is ''basically stopping'' tribal ownership of wind turbines, says Tom Boucher, president of NativeEnergy, a Vermont-based company that helps build renewable energy projects. Current legislation ''encourages outside developers not to partner with tribes because they will be penalized,'' said Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, which represents 10 tribes. Now, as the Senate and House are considering considerin g extensions extensions of the renewable energy tax credit, which expires this December, the Intertribal COUP is pushing for legislation in favor of tribal ownership. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., D-S.D., has introduced introduced a companion bill bill in the Senate that would would allow tribes to be principal owners of renewable energy projects projects and would provide their non-Native partners with a full tax credit, Gough said. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has introduced a similar bill in the House, he said. Outside capital is essential to making tribally owned wind turbine projects a reality, said Boucher, whose company helped the Rosebud Rosebud Sioux build a wind wind turbine with the help help of federal grants and and loans. Intertribal COUP's push, supported by the National Congress of American Indians, comes at an opportune time - just as the Bush administration is is attempting to portray an image image of good environmental environmental stewardship. stewardship. ''America is in the lead lead when it comes to energy independence. We're in the lead when it comes to new technologies. We're in the lead when it comes to global climate change,'' President President Bush said in a speech at the t he Washington International Internatio nal Renewable Energy Conference March 5. Developing Developin g countries and the United States are being pushed to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, and Bush has been alluding to wind energy and other renewable renewable power sources sources in his speeches. speeches. ''America has to change change its habits. It has to get off oil,'' oil,'' Bush said at the conference to delegates from more than 120 countries, adding that the concentration of greenhouse greenhouse gases is increasing increasing from from the burning fossil fuels, fuels, leading to global global climate change. change. In the western western United States, a majority of the utility-scale energy is generated generated by the burning of fossil fuels, which fills the air with sulfur, nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas linked to climate change, which environmental experts say is contributing to droughts in the Rockies and across the northern Plains, leading leading to the slow ruin of ranching ranching and farming economies. economies. By contrast, wind wind power can generate generate clean electricity on a large, utility scale. And in the northern Plains, Gough said, wind projects can also create sustainable sustainabl e tribal economies. ''We're looking at reservations that have limited resources and boundaries; boundari es; some tribes have been involved in coal mining in the Southwest, but their water and coal resources resources have gone to meet other people's needs needs and are not sustainable.'' sustainable.'' Intertribal COUP, COUP, which owns a major stake stake in NativeEnergy, represents 10 tribes in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota - where the power blowing mostly unharnessed through reservations like Fort Berthold in North Dakota is more than 17,000 times greater than what is being utilized by the tribe's 65 kilowatt wind turbine, according to Tex Hall, former chairman of the Mandan, Mandan, Hidatsa and and Arikara Nation. Wind energy energy is able to be produced produced at a fixed, fixed, nonescalating cost for up to 30 years, experts say. The wind potential of the Dakotas has earned the region the moniker: ''The Saudi Arabia of wind.'' Tribes in the region have been eager to follow in the footsteps of the Rosebud Sioux, Sioux, who unveiled the first first wind power turbine turbine on Indian land five years ago. Studies show the average wind speed on the Rosebud reservation reservation is 18 miles per hour (enough to supply 2.4 million kilowatthours of electricity in a year). The $1.2 million Rosebud pilot project has been held up as a model for other tribes. But the cost of wind wind turbines has only been been rising in the past several several years, years, Boucher said. said. His company and Intertribal COUP are hoping that their efforts on Capitol Hill will pay off, allowing tribes to partner with outside investors investors while maintaining maintaining majority majority ownership ownership of wind turbine projects. Someday soon, tribes can become major suppliers of green power to the federal government, the largest consumer of energy

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 18 / 145 ] in the world, and other markets markets across across the country, country, Gough said. Until then, a change in in the federal tax credit credit is the first step, he said.

Wind 1AC Specifically, Specifically, penalties to Production Tax Credits are a disincentive for companies to invest in indigenous energy, and this was only furthered by the House’s slashing of indigenous energy funding – allowing open PTC access acces s is key because it’s the critical component to wind energy production. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ A number of national energy policy issues could support native renewable energy development, particularly particularly wind energy development. Tribes need to have equal access to the federal renewable energy incentives. In the Great Plains, we are running into a variety of overriding policy issues, as well as local nuts-and-bolts concerns in the practical application of wind development on Tribal lands. As a member of Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (COUP), we have proposed several specific policy directions and actions by the executive executive and legislative branches that will do a great deal to assist Tribes in the development of wind energy. I will address these issues in three areas, which are equally important: First, it is essential to continue funding the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grants program for renewable renewable energy projects because they provide funding for planning, feasibility, and development of real projects. The DOE and the Wind Powering America program have initiated a meaningful outreach to Tribes through the Native American Wind Interest Groups and technical assistance partnerships. partnerships. This is a great model that demonstrates the trust responsibility responsibility of the U.S. Government to the Tribal Nations. Second, Congress must authorize the Tribal eligibility for the Production Tax Credit (PTC) that drives all wind projects in this country. Tribes are now penalized in that they cannot attract the private investor to develop partnerships for projects on Tribal lands. Indians are the only people with a "trust relationship" with the federal government. Our treaties require the federal government to assist us in developing our reservation economies. But all renewable energy incentives incentives go to tax-paying developers via the PTC or to states or subdivisions of state through the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI). Indians are the only group excluded from any of the federal renewable energy incentives, yet we are the only ones with a legal obligation — our treaties — for federal assistance! Currently, because Tribes are not taxed entities (a status we secured from the United States in return for our giving them most of this continent), any developer that teams up with a Tribe Tribe in a joint venture for wind development is penalized by only being able to use a portion of the t he available PTCs, PTCs, which are apportioned under federal law by the percentage of ownership in the production facility. So if a tribe has any ownership in a project on Tribal lands, our partner must forego any incentives represented by our ownership. The PTC is t he main driver for wind development in this country, but this federal incentive incentive policy steers investment investment capital away from Indian lands. lands. Intertribal COUP once proposed a Tribal energy production incentive to correct this federal oversight. Wryly called a

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 19 / 145 ] "TEPI", it gently reminded Congress that it had an obligation to provide an equal playing field for Indian energy development.

And, development of wind energy can further tribal sovereignty, sovereignty, but federal technical assistance is key to level the playing field to allow incentives to work in the first place. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ Wind is an incredible untapped energy resource that could go a long way toward making this country energy independent. It has been said that an ocean of energy crosses the Great Plains every day. Tribes here have many thousands of megawatts of potential wind power blowing across our reservation lands. Tribes in the Great Plains could look to the wind as a constant source of renewable renewable energy to help meet our own local energy needs in a way that protects our air, water, and land. Tribes are interested in protecting their sovereignty and providing for their reservation communities. Tribally owned wind projects can provide an opportunity to generate power locally in a clean way that meets our needs in an affordable way, now and for the future. Wind power can provide several sources of revenue to the tribe, through the sale of energy, the sale of green tags, and the use of production incentives. incentives. But to realize this potential, tribes need technical assistance from the federal government to assess our resources and site projects. We need to level the economic playing field so that tribes can use the production incentives available available to off-reservation off-reservation development. Tribes need access to the federal grid to bring our value-added electricity to market throughout our region and beyond. Wind is part of our culture. Most of the Great Plains Tribes have distinct names and stories about the winds that recognize the different personalities and characteristics characteristics of the winds coming from the four directions. Today, our persistent winds represent a fabulous opportunity for all people on the Great Plains to generate clean, reliable electricity without digging up our lands or polluting our air or water.


Wind 1AC ADVANTAGE ONE IS WIND: First note that Three Biggest feedbacks are all positive and guarantee rapid warming greater than ever anticipated- newest research proves New Scientist 7-24-04 THE graph flashed up on the screen for only a few seconds, but it set alarm bells ringing. Had I read it right? The occasion was a workshop on climate change at the UK's Met Office in Exeter. If carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubled from its pre-industrial level, the graph suggested, global warming would rise far above the widely accepted prediction of between 1.5 and 4.5 degreesC. The real warming could be as high as 10 degreesC . Surely some mistake? Too Too much wine at lunch? But no. This was for real. Till now, climate modellers' forecasts of future warming have resembled the famous bell curve, with the most likely result of doubling CO2 being a temperature increase of about 3 degreesC, and with declining probabilities on either side for a narrow range of higher and lower temperature rises . But not in this case. The graph , shown by James Murphy of the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction, had a long "tail" at the higher end, reaching up to 6, 8 and even 10 degreesC. Temperature rises of this much would have serious implications . CO2 is expected to reach double its pre-industrial levels within a century if we carry on burning coal and oil in what economists call a "business-as-usual" "business-as -usual" scenario. Nobody has seriously tried to work out what this extra warming would mean for the planet or human society. But it would certainly not mean business as usual. First, a health warning. Murphy was not making a firm prediction of climatic Armageddon. But nor was this a Hollywood movie full of Nor was impossible science. The high temperatures on the display, he said, "may not be the most likely, but cannot be discounted". Murphy alone with his tail. He showed a projection by David Stainforth from the University of Oxford that suggested a possible skewed distributions will start turning up in the warming of 12 degreesC or more. This new generation of scarily skewed

journals soon. They arise because modellers have for the first time systematically checked their models for uncertainties and discovered discovered that they t hey have an Achilles' heel: clouds . While clouds have always been regarded as one of the biggest uncertainties in calculations of global warming, they are turning out to be far more of a wild card than anyone imagined. reduce how cloudy the planet is, or significantly change the type of The fear is that global warming will either reduce clouds in the sky, and their influence of the planet's radiation budget. This could amplify global warming more than so far anticipated. Being mostly of an age to remember 1970s Joni Mitchell songs, the climate scientists say they have "looked at clouds from both sides now", and they don't like what they see. Later this month, many of the researchers at the Exeter workshop will sit down again in Paris to begin work on the UN's fourth global assessment of climate change, which will be published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. The sessions will discuss how sensitive the climate system is to infusions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. If the evidence presented at the Exeter meeting holds true, the UN will have to ratchet up its

predictions of global warming, and in particular warn that their worst-case scenarios scenarios have just not been worstcase enough. The climate's sensitivity to warming depends critically on feedbacks that may amplify or damp down the initial warming. If you double the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, the direct greenhouse effect is only about 1 degreesC. Not much to worry about. But climate scientists expect the warming to trigger a series of feedbacks, of which the three biggest, at least in the next few decades, will be from ice, water vapour and clouds . Take ice. As the world warms, snow and ice from polar caps and mountain glaciers melts and is replaced by open water, bare rock, tundra and forests. As this happens, the surface of the Earth becomes darker and absorbs more radiation from the sun. This positive feedback is already evident in much of the Arctic, where warming in recent decades has happened faster than elsewhere. But it will also warm up the global atmosphere. Water vapor, like CO2, is a potent greenhouse gas. Without it our planet would freeze. But what will happen to water vapour as the world warms is not as clear-cut as with ice. A warmer surface will certainly cause more water to evaporate. And, though some sceptics disagree, this will probably increase the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. That again will amplify warming . In the standard climate models extra water vapour in the air will at least double the direct warming effect of CO2 . Add the impacts of water vapour and ice together and we are close to climate scientists' scientist s' central prediction -- a warming of about 3 degreesC for a doubling of CO2. But it's when we come to the third feedback water vapour in the air eventually eventually mechanism that things get really sticky. sticky. Clouds are clearly linked to water vapour. A lot of water forms clouds. During their short lives, clouds produce both positive and negative feedbacks. We all know that during the day, they can keep us cool by reflecting the sun's harsh rays. And at night they keep us warm, acting like a blanket that traps heat rising from the ground. But which of these effects wins out depends a lot on the height at which the clouds form, their depth, colour and density. Researchers still know surprisingly little about how many and what sort of clouds are up there. Last year, for instance, it emerged that there may be vastly more heat-trapping cirrus clouds in the upper atmosphere than anyone had thought. Some studies suggest that, taken globally, the cooling and warming effects of clouds may largely cancel each other out. But nobody is sure. And small changes in either the area of cloud cover or the types of clouds that form could change things radically. So for modellers of our future climate there are two issues. Will global warming change clouds? And will the changes produce positive or negative feedback on the climate? A first guess would suggest that extra evaporation and water vapour in the atmosphere will make more clouds. But it may not be so simple.

Higher evaporation rates rates in the heat of a greenhouse day may "burn off" clouds without them ever producing rain . Equally, clouds may "rain out" more quickly, leaving clearer skies rather than cloudier ones. The fear is that clearer skies will

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 21 / 145 ] amplify, rather than damp down global warming. And there is growing evidence that this clear-skies effect could already be under way. way. One of the foremost experts on clouds and climate, Bruce Wielicki of NASA's Langley Research Center, has found that there are fewer clouds these days in the tropics. tropics. Since the mid-1980s, he says, the rising and descending motions of air that cover the entire tropics, for example in the Hadley circulation cells , appeared to increase in strength. The result was faster formation of storm clouds in areas where the air rises -- what meteorologists call the inter-tropical convergence zone -- but with the clouds raining out more New research showing a decrease in "earthshine", the sunlight quickly, which left the rest of the tropics drier and less cloudy. reflected from the Earth onto the moon, is still controversial , but seems to confirm both that the Earth's cloud cover is falling and that the reflectivity reflectivity of clouds plays a vital role in controlling the planet's radiation budget , says Peter Cox, head of climate chemistry at the Met Office. Wielicki is still cautious about what is behind the clearer tropical tropical skies, but many see them as strong evidence of global warming this matters a great gr eat deal because an estimated others . And two-thirds of global water-vapour feedback, and probably an equal proportion of the cloud feedback, take place in the tropics. So, clearer tropical skies could bring a major positive feedback to global warming. Even if global warming is not the cause of clearer tropical skies, Wielicki says his findings show that we are being complacent if we think clouds are an unchanging feature of the world. Not only are they highly variable but their potential effects on climate are poorly understood. The extent to which clouds control the planetary thermostat may be between two and four times greater than previously thought , he says. Most disturbing, he says, is that "climate models used to forecast the effect of global warming have so far failed to pick up on this".


Wind 1AC And, Even minor developments in wind technology can end dependence on the coal-fired plants that are the largest contributors to CO2 emissions. AWEA 8 American Wind Energy Association. Accessed 6/25/8. http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_environment.html. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause acid rain. Acid rain harms forests and the wildlife they support. Many lakes in the U.S. Northeast have become biologically dead because of this form of pollution. Acid rain also corrodes buildings and economic infrastructure such as bridges. Nitrogen oxides (which are released by otherwise clean-burning clean-burning natural gas) are also a primary component of smog. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is a global warming pollutant --its buildup in the atmosphere contributes contributes to global warming by trapping the sun's rays on the earth as in a greenhouse. greenhouse. The U.S., with 5% of the world's population, emits 23% of the world's CO 2. The build-up of global warming pollution is not only causing a gradual rise in average temperatures, but also seems to be increasing fluctuations in weather patterns and causing more frequent and severe droughts and floods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned in July, 2003, that extreme weather events appear to be increasing increasing in number n umber due to climate change. Particulate Particulate matter is of growing concern because of its impacts on health. Its presence in the air along with other pollutants has contributed to make asthma one of the fastest growing childhood ailments in industrial and developing countries alike, and it has also recently been linked to lung cancer. Similarly, urban smog has been linked to low birth weight, premature births, stillbirths and infant deaths. In the United States, the research has documented ill effects on infants even in cities with modern pollution controls. Toxic heavy metals accumulate in the environment and up the biological food chain. A number of states have banned or limited the eating of fish from fresh-water lakes because because of concerns about mercury, a toxic heavy metal, accumulating in their tissue. Development of just 10% of the wind potential in the 10 windiest U.S. states would provide more than enough energy to displace emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants and eliminate the nation's major source of acid rain; reduce total U.S. emissions of CO2 by almost a third; and help contain the spread of asthma and other respiratory diseases aggravated or caused by air pollution in this country. If wind energy were to provide 20% of the nation's electricity -- a very realistic realistic and achievable goal with the current technology -- it could displace more than a third of the emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Specifically, Tribal nations could meet all of the nation’s energy needs with wind power, wiping out coal-fired plants and related pollution. Winona LaDuke , Executive Director of Honor the Earth and Green Party vice presidential candidate in 2000, 2003 (Summer, Yes!, "Tribes Find Power in Wind", http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=611 ) Northern Great Great Plains tribes have come up with an ambitious energy plan that could provide huge amounts of clean energy to North America: tribal wind power. “We believe the wind is wakan, a holy or great power. Our grandmothers and grandfathers have always talked about it, and we recognize that,” explains Pat Spears, a Lower Brule tribal member who is the president of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, or Intertribal COUP. On May 1, the first tribally owned wind generator was dedicated on t he Rosebud Reservation. Reservation. That turbine is a model project, and Intertribal COUP hopes it will set the stage for a broad wind generating plan for the tribes in the Great Plains region, bringing at least 3,000 megawatts of power to market in the next decade. This ambitious goal is but a fraction of the over 300 gigawatts of wind power potential found on the Great Plains Indian reservations, equal to almost half of all present US installed electrical capacity. The wind power potential on just the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations alone could meet the Kyoto targets for all of North America. Presently, wind energy is the fastest growing energy source in the country and the world. New plans are sprouting up everywhere, everywhere, and by and large, those consist of utilities buying wind rights from landholders who have windy lands, and giving those individuals a percentage of the royalties, about 2 or 3 percent, with the rest of the profit going to the utility. utility. Because the only costs for wind turbines are putting them up and some maintenance—but nothing for fuel—the profit margin can be high. That's what Intertribal COUP wants to keep in Indian country. The reservations could provide some of the most cost-efficient wind power in the world, while cutting pollution downwind. “We have learned with watersheds, that you don't pollute upstream from where you get your drinking water,” says Rosebud Tribal Utility Commission Attorney Bob Gough. The tribes have extended this idea to the “windshed,” a term coined by Inter-tribal COUP to talk about why anyone east of the Great Plains might like to see a bit more wind power and a bit less coal burned. For Great

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 23 / 145 ] Plains tribes, a clean energy windshed means sustainable homeland economic development (SHED) built upon wind energy. On the White Earth Reservation, like many other Ojibwe reservations, pollution from coalfired power plants and incinerators upwind from tribal lands pollutes local waters and reduces the amount of fish that can safely be consumed. That's a huge problem for tribal fishing cultures. cultures.


Wind 1AC The impact debate is over, over, GCM’s underestimate warming’s effects which include international water wars, ethnic conflicts, and agricultural collapse. Dr. Dr. Kennedy, who we guarantee will be the most qualified source on the issue, 6-24-04 started his distinguished career as a neurobiologist. He then served as Commissioner of the FDA and then for 12 years as President of Stanford University. Today, he conducts his research through the Institute for International Studies, focusing on transboundary environmental problems, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and editor in chief of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Kennedy%2Epd http://ww w.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Kennedy%2Epd f Let me begin with the science underlying what we now understand about climate change. Last week, as David mentioned, I helped organize a symposium at AAAS and a briefing session for policy and press people here on climate science. We had ten of the most distinguished climate scientists scientists in the United States, led off by Sherry Rowland, the Nobel Laureate in chemistry . And the purpose was to make a careful assessment of the science and be pretty candid about what we know for sure of what we think may be true and what is merely a plausible but unproven possibility. So here is a short summary of what I think the consensus is on each of those categories. First, what we know. know. General circulation models, climate models that take into account variations in the Sun's energy, volcanic events, other events that are important in managing the Earth's greenhouse, application of those models to the past thousand years explained fluctuations in average global temperature very well indeed, up until the last hundred years. Over the last hundred years, they failed miserably unless you add into the models' calculations the addition of the greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons--that chlorofluorocarbons--that are the results of human economic activity. That's why the average temp erature of the globe has increased by just about a Fahrenheit degree over the past

century, accompanied by a rise in sea level somewhere between 10 and 20 centimeters. The primary causative agent is carbon dioxide, dioxide , which in pre-industrial times was about 280 parts per million by volume, and now is at 380 and rising steadily as we continue business as usual.I think since someone mentioned Kyoto and all of its symbolism, there is a certain respect in which Kyoto is a dual failure. It was a failure both because the initial targets were inadequate to take us out of this problem; and, second, because they were unattainable by many of the participating nations. Thus, Kyoto and Kyoto's failure failure to date has left us without any basis for meeting the goals of the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. And lest we all forget, the United States is not only a signatory but a party to that agreement, and under that agreement we are committed to limit atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases to avoid--and I quote from the framework--"dangerous framework--"dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." Well, why, a dozen years later, is there some doubt about the dangers of this interference? The carbon dioxide we add t o the atmosphere will stay there. Its average residence time in the atmosphere is a century . There's no disagreement about whether average global temperature will

continue to rise. It will. The scientific dispute is about how much and why the disagreement about how much. It's reassuring about those general circulation models that when they're applied to past climate in backcasting efforts, like the instance I described at the beginning, they give a reasonably accurate prediction of climate history. Perhaps more interesting, they regularly regularly somewhat understate the magnitude of the real climate change; that is, nature regularly turns out to be a little harsher than the models suggest. So as we project into the future, it would be wise to look at the outside rather than the low side of where they might take us. And where they might take us first, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and also to an evaluation by the National Academies following President Bush's request that it undertake undertake such an evaluation, the increase in average global temperature by the end of this century will reach between 1.5 and 5.8 degrees Centigrade, not Fahrenheit. Fahrenheit. Well, Well, that's a big range, and so obviously one must ask why the range. These models, like most, contain some uncertainties. Some of these are scientific: how increased cloud cover is going to affect the projections. Some clouds cool the climate by reflecting sunlight from above. Some warm it by trapping heat that is leaving from below. Another uncertainty is how changes in the Earth's reflectiveness, its albedo, may come about due to melting ice and how that might accelerate heating. So these various feedbacks feedbacks impose a set of uncertainties of their own. Others are economic and social. We don't know how national policies and international agreements agreements that we undertake undertake between now and the end of the century might serve to constrain the amount of greenhouse gases that we're adding. So these uncertainties--probably uncertainties--probably about half of them due to differences or unpredicted feedbacks feedbacks in the models themselves, and the rest to social and economic unknowns-have provided arguments for those who would prefer to postpone economically difficult choicesfor controlling and mitigating our emissions. But it's important that even at the very lowest estimates there will be substantial changes in the nature of human life on the only planet we currently occupy occupy. The rather modest impacts of the past century have already produced profound profound changes in regional climate dynamics, and we need to be conscious of those. Substantial i ce sheet melting and retreat is taking place on both the Arctic and on the west Antarctic ice sheet. In the Arctic, where climate warming has been extreme, sea ice has sharply diminished and rivers become ice-free much earlier. Low-latitude mountain glaciers, investigated in a very adventurous way by my colleague Lonnie Thompson at Ohio State, are shrinking. The famous snow-capped summit of Kilimanjaro, by the way, will be bare within 15 years, converting hundreds of old African safari shots into priceless historic treasures. Biological cycles are experiencing the effects of warming, with upward extensions in the range of Alpine flora and advances in the time of flowering or first instances of bird breeding, by an average of five day per decade. The models have all predicted more frequent and severe weather events, and we have had heat waves in the upper Midwest and Paris, accelerated beach erosion on coasts all over the world, and disastrous floods and landslides in Central America. Well, that's now, considerable effects

models tell us unambiguously is that the climate system is headed for further disruption . Now, the standard scenario foresees a slow ramp of global warming, and our projections are based on taking that out essentially indefinitely. But there's another possibility, and the past climate tells us to watch out for it because the past climate is riddled with sudden events that models applied retrospectively and much to worry about. But, of course, we're more interested in the future. What the

failed to predict well. One possible alternative, especially in the North Atlantic, invokes a change in the basic ocean circulation gyre that brings warm water from equatorial regions up through the Gulf Stream, crosses eastward in the North, and the possibility is that as melt water from glaciers or added precipitation dilutes that water in the course of its trip across the North Atlantic, it will now fail to sink, and the return current that must match the upward current of the warm water in the Gulf Stream would be blocked. Well, Well, that scenario, elaborately extended, is the basis for that movie that Eileen told you about, which you should see only for amusement. Beyond the silliness does lie a prospect that is worth taking fairly seriously, and that is that a gradual change in average global temperature may intercept the threshold for some nonlinear dynamic process triggering triggering abrupt

change in a direction that we can't now accurately predict predict . The bottom line from this concern, it seems to me, is, of course, there is uncertainty. The uncertainty comes because we are engaged in a large-scale, uncontrolled experiment on the only planet we have. I want to turn briefly to some impacts that what we know about climate is likely to have on other important global problems. Jim Woolsey is going to talk about security, and I will mention only one aspect of that because it happens to have something to do with how I got interested in the climate problem in the first place. I didn't know very much about climate until the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict asked a group of us at Stanford to look at environmental change and its possible impacts on regional security in the world. One of the things that we looked at was what might happen in places like the delta of the Ganges and

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 25 / 145 ] Brahmaputra Rivers, where storm surges now regularly displace large numbers of people and where huge numbers of people, 15 million or so, live within the first meter or two of normal sea level . Some combination of sea level rise and storm surge from more extreme weather events is likely to produce much larger displacements . We know they will have to go somewhere. In the past, they have fled in much smaller numbers to Bengal, where friendly relationships have not followed. The

security problems arising from a massive influx of a traditionally hostile population combined with an almost certainly high level of cholera infection does not present a very optimistic picture. Water is a desperately important resource resource in most parts of the world. Drought is often followed by famine or emigration. Here in the United States, warmer winters threaten mountain snowpacks and will soon demand a revision of interstate and even international water allocation agreements. Maritime rivers are already undertaking management steps to deal with saline intrusions due to sea level rise or storm surges. In Great Britain, the barrier that protects London from occasional flooding of the Thames estuary is now being used six t imes a year compared to less t han once a year in the 1980s. I could mention a couple of others. Agriculture obviously obviously is one of the most vital of human activities. The regional distribution of global warming impacts might provide some temporary help to some kinds of temperate zone agriculture. But surely in the tropics, where the people are poorest and

least able to adapt, and where many food crops are near the limit of their physiological tolerance for temperature, temperature, the consequence of even a modest warming event could be far more serious . So my point is that climate change is not a problem that can be isolated and talked about as though it were all alone. Instead, it's likely to interact with most of the other problems humans face all over the world.


Wind 1AC And, Runaway Warming Kills Billions Lester W. Milbrath is director of the Research Program in Environment and Society at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a professor emeritus of political science and and sociologyThe Futurist. Washington: May/Jun 19 94. Vol. Vol. 28, Iss. 3; pg. 26 As this scenario plays out, it is improbable that the climate system will not change at all or that it will gradually change to a new pattern and settle down, as is assumed in most current economic thinking. The most-probable climate scenario is for even more chaos . Many meteorologists and climatologists already perceive the climate system as chaotic. If humans increasingly perturb that system, we could expect it to become even more chaotic. But how chaotic will it become, what kinds of chaos might we expect, and how long will it last? No one knows the answers to those questions. From chaos theory, we do suspect that systems which become extremely chaotic may collapse or shift to a new pattern--one that may or may not be stable. The climatic catastrophes of recent years do suggest one possible scenario of climate behavior. Frequent, unexpected climatic disasters may be interspersed into "normal" climate patterns. The resulting loss of life and property could reduce the human propensity to multiply and to increase economic throughput. Experiencing these losses may lead people to lose faith in the premise of continuity. This will retard economic growth despite the desperate efforts of governments to promote promote it. Another scenario suggests that there could be an extended period, perhaps a decade or two, when there is oscillation-type chaos in the climate system . Plants will be

especially vulnerable vulnerable to oscillating chaos, since they are injured or die when climate is too hot or too cold, too dry or too wet. And since plants make food for all other creatures, plant dieback would lead to severe declines in agricultural production . Farm animals and wildlife would die in large numbers. Many humans also would starve. Several years of climatic oscillation could kill billions of people. The loss of the premise of continuity would also precipitate collapse of world financial markets. That collapse would lead to sharp declines in commodity markets, world trade, factory output, retail sales, research and development, tax income for governments, and education. Such nonessential activities as tourism, travel, hotel occupancy, restaurants, entertainment, and fashion would be severely affected. Billions of unemployed people would drastically reduce their consumption, and modern society's vaunted economic system would collapse like a house of cards.

And, Food shortages lead to World War III William Calvin, theoretical neurophysiologist at the University of Washington, Atlantic Monthly, January, The Great Climate Flip-Flop, Vol 281, No. 1, 19 98, p. 47-64 The population-crash scenario is surely the most appalling. Plummeting crop yields would cause some powerful countries to try to take over their neighbors or distant lands -- if only because their armies , unpaid and lacking food, would go marauding, both at home and across the borders. The better-organized countries would attempt to use their armies, before they fell apart entirely , to take over countries with significant remaining resources, driving out or starving their inhabitants if not using modern weapons to accomplish the same end: eliminating competitors for the remaining food. This would be a worldwide problem -- and could lead to a Third World War -- but Europe's vulnerability is particularly easy to analyze. The last abrupt cooling, the Younger Dryas, drastically altered Europe's climate as far east as Ukraine. Present-day Europe has more than 650 million people. It has excellent soils, and largely grows its own food. It could no longer do so if it lost the extra warming from the North Atlantic.

Also, Species loss risks extinction Paul Warner , American University, Dept of International Politics and Foreign Policy, August, Politics and Life Sciences, 19 94, p 177 Massive extinction of species is dangerous, then, because one cannot predict which species are expendable to the system as a whole. As Philip Hoose remarks, "Plants and animals cannot tell us what they mean to each other." One can never be sure which species holds up fundamental biological relationships relationships in the planetary ecosystem. And, because removing species is an irreversible act, it may be too late to save the system after the extinction of key plants or animals. According to the U.S. National Research Council, " The ramifications of an ecological change of this magnitude [vast

extinction of species] are so far reaching that no one on earth will escape them." Trifling with the "lives" of species is like playing Russian roulette, with our collective future as the stakes .

And, Climate induced water conflicts go nuclear Weiner , Prof. At Princeton, The Next 100 Years p. 270 19 90 If we do not destroy ourselves with the A-bomb and the H-bomb, then we may destroy ourselves with the C-bomb, the Change Bomb. And in a world as interlinked as ours , one explosion may lead to the other . Already in the Middle East , from North Africa to the Persian Gulf and from the Nile to the Euphrates, tensions over dwindling water supplies and rising populations are reaching what many experts describe as a flashpoint . A climate shift in that single battle-scarred battle-scarred nexus might trigger international tensions that will unleash some of the 60,000 nuclear warheads the world has stockpiled since Trinity.



Wind 1AC Finally, Finally, Wind energy is the best alternative to fossil fuels and can offset its environmental and social harms Shoock 2007 [JD Candidate, Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 12 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 1011, WIND: HOW A TWO-TIERED NATIONAL NATIONAL RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD, STANDARD, A SYSTEM BENEFITS FUND, AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL RESHAPE AMERICAN ENERGY INVESTMENT INVESTMENT AND REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL EXTERNALITIES, lexis] Environmentally, the externality costs of air pollution, acid rain, and global warming are also significant. n88 For instance, according to one set of estimates , the "annual marginal cost of air pollution and acid deposition" is between $ 10.39 and $ 11.02 per short ton of coal; for climate change, the marginal cost is between $ 0 and $ 4.50 per million [*1022] approximate "social costs of coal as a percentage of Btu. n89 Absent any consideration of climate change, the approximate private costs range from about 40% to 275%." n90 The range for natural gas is 12% to 95%, 112% to 123% for petroleum, and 14% to 17% for nuclear. n91 Another set of estimates emphasizes that " coal is by far the most under-priced energy resource, " n92 and that at a price of $ 30 per ton would carry with it external external costs of almost $ 160 without including climate change risks which would bring costs to $ 190 per ton . n93 While monetizing the total social and environmental costs to society of fossil fuel use is an inexact science, the causal link between polluting fuels and resulting externalities is undeniable. n94 Despite arguments and economic models that show wide-ranging and heavy social costs to fossil fuel burning, and in particular coal consumption , unless and until the industries themselves are compelled to account for these costs, investment will remain high in traditional energy sources. n95 Alternatives , still too underdeveloped as a whole to compete with the infrastructure n96 and reliability of fossil fuels , n97 will need time [*1023] and money to make up the difference. n98 With technological advances in turbine design reducing the levelized cost of output, n99 and not reliant on fossil fuel burning like biomass power, n100 wind energy has the best chance of all truly clean energy sources to make the most immediate and long-lasting impact on the electricity electricity market . n101


Wind 1AC ADVANTAGE TWO IS WATER: First note that the U.S. is facing massive water shortages across the country-putting us on the brink of a resource crisis BRIAN SKOLOFF Associated Press Writer, 2007. ABC News, “Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage”, July 9, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3781555. An epic drought in Georgia threatens threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record record lows. And in the West, West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. year. The low water level at Lake Allatoona in Emerson, Ga., is shown Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007. Almost a third of the Southeast is covered by an "exceptiona "exceptional" l" drought, the worst drought category. category. (John Bazemore/ AP Photo ) Across America, the picture picture is critically clear the nation's nation's freshwater supplies supplies can no longer quench its thirst. The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess. excess.

Unfortunately, Unfortunately, coal-fired power plants use tremendous amounts of water, water, contributing to nation-wide water shortages. McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Coal-fired power plants also require huge amounts of water for cooling and other purpo ses. An average 500 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant uses more than 25 gallons of water for each kilowatt hour produced, which translates transl ates to 300 million mill ion gallons of o f water per day or 12 million m illion gallons gallon s of water per hour ho ur. In the U.S., electric power plants account for 48 percent of total water withdrawals every year—an astounding 195 billion gallons of water every day. Coal-fired power plants use so much water that some have had to limit their operations because of water shortages, while other new plants have faced opposition due to local concerns about water use.


Wind 1AC And, nuclear power plants devastate water supplies-they use massive amounts of water to operate, and pollute the water they don’t use. This will lead to catastrophic water shortages and conflict. Dr. Jim Green and Dr. Sue Wareham , PhD nuclear campaigner and MAPW advocate, 2007 (October 28, Science Alert, "Nuclear Power and Water Scarcity", http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/2007291016508.html) Some problems associated with nuclear power are are much discussed – such as its connection to the proliferation proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Less well known is the fact that nuclear power is the most water-hungry water-hungry of all energy sources, with a single reactor consuming 35-65 million litres of water each day. Water scarcity is already a serious problem for Australia's power-generation industry, largely because of our heavy reliance on water-guzzling coal-fired plants. Current problems in Australia's power industry resulting from water shortages include: expensive long-distance water haulage to some power plants as local supplies dwindle; reduced electrical electrical generating capacity and output at some coal and hydro plants; higher and more volatile electricity prices; increased risks of blackouts; and intensified competition for water between power plants, agriculture, industries, industries, and environmental environmental flows. Introducing nuclear power would exacerbate those problems. A December 2006 report by the Commonwealth Department of Parliamentary Parliamentary Services notes that the water requirements requirements for a nuclear power station are 20-83 per cent higher than for other power stations. Moreover, those calculations calculations do not include water consumption by uranium mines. The Roxby Downs mine in South Australia uses 35 million litres of water each day, with plans to increase this to 150 million litres each day. Mine operator BHP Billiton does not pay one cent for this water despite recording a record $17 billion profit in 2006-07. Water outflows from nuclear power plants can damage the local environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states: "When nuclear power plants remove water from a lake or river for steam production and cooling, fish and other aquatic life can be affected. Water pollutants, such as heavy metals and salts, build up in the water used in the nuclear power plant systems. These water pollutants, as well as the higher temperature of the water discharged from the power plant, can negatively affect water quality and aquatic life." A report by the U.S. Nuclear Information and Resource Resource Service details the destruction of delicate marine ecosystems and large numbers of animals, including endangered endangered species, by nuclear power plants. Most of the damage is done by water inflow pipes, while expulsion expulsion of warm water causes further damage. Another documented problem is 'cold stunning' - fish acclimatise to warm water but die when the reactor is taken off-line and warm water is no longer expelled. In New Jersey, local fishermen estimated that 4,000 fish died from cold stunning when a reactor was shut down. Nuclear reactors in numerous European countries have been periodically taken off-line or operated at reduced output in recent years because of water shortages driven by climate change, drought and heat waves. Nuclear utilities have also sought and secured exemptions from operating conditions in order to discharge overheated water. The water consumption of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency and conservation measures is negligible compared to nuclear or coal. Operating a 2,400 Watt fan heater for one hour consumes 0.01 litres of water if wind is the energy source, 0.26 litres if solar is the energy source, 4.5 litres if coal is the energy source, or 5.5 litres if nuclear power is the energy source. Tim Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year, notes that hastening the uptake of renewable renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal 'hot rocks' will help ease the water crisis as well as reducing greenhouse gas emiss ions - a win-win outcome. outcom e. Globally, there is another compelling reason to ensure that decisions on water allocation - includi ng its use in energy production productio n - are made wisely and equitably. equitably. Limited access to water is already contributing cont ributing to armed conflicts ('water wars') in a number of places around the globe. UN Secretary-General Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently recently noted that shortages of food and water in sub-Saharan Africa were a precursor to the current tragic violence in Darfur. The problem goes "far beyond Darfur", he warned, as many other places are now suffering water shortages.


Wind 1AC And, the current reliance on hydropower, hydropower, coal-fired, and nuclear power plants is devastating the nation’s water supply and contributing to drought conditions-only a shift to tribal wind can preserve the nations’ water reservoirs. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ In the West, we have seen more than four years of drought. Most of the utility-scale ener energy gy generated in the West is from burning fossil fuels, a non-renewable energy source. Today, the world uses so much fossil fuel that we see the impacts on the price we pay at the gas pump, on the quality of our air (even in rural America), and as the scientists tell us and as Indian people have seen first hand, on our larger regional regional and global climate. Carbon dioxide is a prime greenhouse gas that is associated with the long-term weather changes we are now experiencing. Our current energy policies contribute to the drought conditions that reduce the snowpack in the Rockies Rockies where the Missouri River starts and throughout the northern plains. Our cheap electricity may contribute significantly to the ruin of our ranching and farming economies through the prolonged drought associated with climate change and increased weather extremes and variability. With less hydropower due to the low water levels, the current federal policy is to buy and burn more fossil fuels, creating more greenhouse gases and filling the sky with sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon gases. Our current coal, gas, and nuclear generators also consume a tremendous amount of precious water through steam generators and power plant cooling systems. In the face of this, wind power projects on the Great Plains can generate electricity on a large, utility scale without consuming water in the process. People may even pay an extra premium for wind power if it can help to preserve our regional water supply. Tribal wind projects could replace diminished hydropower in the federal grid system while building up sustainable Tribal homeland economies. The continuation of the drought conditions, climate change, and the necessary emissions reductions reductions will only result in an increase in the cost of power from fossil fuel sources such as coal. Wind energy can be produced at a fixed, non-escalating cost for up to 30 years. No other source of power can claim that. The Tribes can save the federal government money, generate Tribal revenue and jobs, and increase the flexibility and improve management of the Missouri River.

And, these poor management techniques are creating massive mass ive water shortages that will devastate the multiple parts of the U.S. economy and the entire agricultural sector. sector. Keith Schneider, regular contributor to the NYT, 7/9 (2008, Corporate Social Responsibility News, "U.S. Faces Era of Water Scarcity", http://www.csrwire.com/News/12592.html) Just as diminishing supplies of oil and natural gas are wrenching wrenching the economy and producing changes in lifestyles built on the principle of plenty, states and communities across the country are confronting another significant impediment to the American way of life: increased increased competition for scarce water.Scientists water.Scientists and resource specialists say freshwater scarcity, even in unexpected places, threatens farm productivity, limits growth, increases business expenses, and drains local treasuries.In May, for example, Brockton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, inaugurated a brand-new, $60 million reverse osmosis desalinization plant to supply a portion of its drinking water. The Atlantic coast city, which receives four feet of rain annually, was nevertheless so short of freshwater freshwater that it was converting brackish water into water people actually could drink.Builders drink.Builders in the Southeast are confronting limits to planting gardens and lawns for new houses as a result of local water restrictions restrictions prompted by a continuing drought. The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir reservoir beneath the Great Plains, is steadily being depleted. California experienced experienced the driest spring on record this year.And scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego forecast that within 13 years Lake Mead and Lake Powell along the Colorado River, the two largest reservoirs reservoirs in the southwest United States, could become "dead pool” mud puddles."The whole picture is not pretty, and I don’t think that anyone has looked at the subject with the point of view of what's sustainable," said Tim Barnett, a research research marine geophysicist at Scripps and co-author of the the study. "We don't have anybody thinking long range, at the big picture that would put the clamps on large-scale development."Era of Water Scarcity" I truly believe we're moving into an era of water scarcity throughout the United States States," ," said Peter Gleick, science advisor to Circle of Blue and

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 32 / 145 ] president president of the Pacific Institute, a think tank specializing in water issues based in Oakland, California. "That by itself is going to force us to adopt more efficient management techniques."The U.S. Drought Monitor, Monitor, a weekly online report produced by the Department of Agriculture Agriculture and the National Oceanographic Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Administration, shows that severe drought still grips much of the American Southeast, is spreading east from California across the Rocky Mountains, and has also settled in the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma and Colorado.While Colorado.While agriculture in the Colorado Basin faces shortages, farmers to the east in the high plains - tapping the Ogallala Aquifer - have progressively seen their wells dry up. The aquifer is the largest in the United States and sees a depletion rate of some 12 billion cubic meters a year, a quantity equivalent to 18 times the annual flow of the Colorado River. River. Since pumping started in the 1940s, Ogallala water levels have dropped by more than 100 feet (30 meters) in some areas.In an interview with Circle Circle of Blue, Kevin Dennehey, program coordinator for the Ground-Water Resources Program at the U.S. Geological Survey, said, "The problem with the aquifer is that it’'s a limited resource. There is not an unlimited supply, so the recharge is much less than the withdrawals."The prognosis for farmers, whose irrigation accounts for 94 percent of the groundwater use on the high plains, does not look optimistic. In the future, irrigation may not be possible at all as the levels continue to drop past the well intakes of farmers. More likely, before the pumping stops, the cost of drilling and maintaining deeper wells wells may exceed the value of what can be grown, severely limiting the farmland's value. "There is no other water available," said Dennehey.


Wind 1AC And, the agricultural sector is the key to the entire economy Jeff Nunley, executive director of South Texas Cotton and Grain Association, 2007 (Farm (Farm Policy Facts, "A "A Safety Net for All Americans", http://www.farmpolicyfacts.org/mm_safety_net_for_americans.cfm) “We provide an underpinning for our entire agriculture sector which represents 20% of our GDP. We contribute to the balance of foreign trade. Agriculture exports are a significant factor in lowering our trade deficit. This helps support the value of our currency, currency, which increases our consumers’ buying power for imported goods and improves our standard of living.” “Stable food prices stabilize the entire economy. Without a farm program, food prices would still probably average around 10%. However, because food prices would be much more volatile from one year to the next, it would be difficult for consumers to know exactly how much to budget. One year, food costs might be 25% of disposable income and the next they could be 5%. In the years when food costs were high, consumers would curtail other spending to ensure they meet their primary need of food. The entire economy would feel the shocks of volatile food prices. People People at the lowest end of the economic ladder would suffer most from sudden spikes in food prices.”

The impact is extinction T. E. Bearden, LTC, U.S. Army (Retired), the President and Chief Executive Officer, CTEC, Inc., a Fellow Emeritus of Alpha Foundation's Institute of Advanced Study (AIAS) and a Director of the Association of Distinguished American Scientists, 2000 History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain certain to be released. As an example, example, suppose a starving North Korea Korea {[7]} launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South Korea, including U.S. forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response. Or suppose a desperate China— whose long-range nuclear missiles (some) can reach the United States—attacks Taiwan. In addition to immediate responses, responses, the mutual treaties involved in such scenarios will quickly draw other nations into the conflict, escalating it significantly. Strategic nuclear studies have shown for decades that, under such extreme stress conditions, once a few nukes are launched, adversaries adversaries and potential adversaries are then compelled to launch on perception perception of preparations by one's adversary adversar y. The real legacy of the MAD concept is this side of the MAD coin that is almost never discussed. Without effective effective defense, the only chance a nation has to survive at all is to launch immediate full-bore pre-emptive strikes and try to take out its perceived foes as rapidly and massively as possible. As the studies showed, rapid escalation to full WMD exchange occurs. Today, a great percent of the WMD arsenals that will be unleashed, are already on site within t he United States itself {[8]}. The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades.


Inherency-No Tribal PTCs Lack of accessibility due to lack of production tax credits puts natives at a disadvantage in the wind industry Lyderson, 2008 (Kari Lydersen writes for the Washington Post out of the Midwest bureau and just published a book, Out of the Sea and Into the Fire: Latin American-US American-US Immigration in the Global Age. “Windpower” Colorlines published 3/01/08 accessed online via Elibrary) Tribes Tribes are also at a disadvantage in competing compet ing with non-tribal non-t ribal entities to sell power back to t o the grid. Tribes Tribes can't take advantage advant age of tax-credit incentives in centives for fo r clean energy , since as sovereign nations nat ions they don't do n't pay taxes. A non-tribal non-trib al entity can offer of fer a utility lower low er prices for its energy e nergy, since it is subsidi zed by the federal federa l government in the form of tax breaks. Legislation Legislation currently pending in the House (H.R. 1954) would allow tribes to partner with a private entity so that the project could take advantage of clean-power tax breaks, and Gough said similar legislation may soon be introduced in the Senate. Tribes can be compensated for creating clean energy without selling it back to the grid through the sale of green tags, or carbon offset credits. Intertribal COUP has spearheaded a program to pair tribes with cities such as Aspen, Boulder, Denver and Seattle that have committed to meet Kyoto greenhouse greenhouse gas reduction goals through a nonprofit organization organization called "NativeWind." Tribes with wind and solar power projects could sell carbon-offset credits to these municipalities. municipalities. However, some critics argue carbon offsets are a red herring in the fight to reduce global warming, since they allow a company, municipality or other entity to claim they are reducing their carbon footprint without actually reducing emissions.


Inherency-Energy Relationship Destructive US approach to Tribal lands in regard to energy is extremely negative Casas-Cortés et al 2008 (María Isabel Isabel Casas-Cortés Casas-Cortés University of North Carolina, Carolina, Chapel Chapel Hill Michal Osterweil Osterweil University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Dana E. Powell University of North Carolina, Carolina, Chapel Hill Blurring Boundaries: Recognizing Recognizing Knowledge-Practices Knowledge-Practices in the Study of Social Movements Anthropological Quarterly Quarterly 81.1 (2008) 1758 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/a http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/anthropologica nthropological_quarterly/v0 l_quarterly/v081/81.1cortes.html 81/81.1cortes.html)) Thus "energy justice" as articulated by movement activists (LaDuke (LaDuke 1999, 2005)10 presents presents a political analysis of the chain of energy production and policy in several ways. As a concept, it also posits an alternative alternative knowledge of the impacts of resource resource extraction on particular Native communities. At the same time, it influences scientific investigation on the viability of renewable energy technologies, technologies, such as wind and solar power, on Native territories. Finally, Finally, it lays claim to the highly contentious field of knowledge surrounding energy policies, technologies, and economic "development" projects for tribes and First Nations. "Energy Justice" advocates (Native and non-Native) presented presented empirical research on uranium extraction on Navajo lands for plutonium production by U.S. military and nuclear industries. They also shared knowledge of coal extraction and refineries in places such as the Fort Berthold reservation in South Dakota and Ponca land in Oklahoma—communities that are soot-soaked and asthma-ridden from decades of pollution. They discussed the two current federal proposals for storage of high-level nuclear waste, one on Skull Valley Goshute land in southern Utah and the other on Western Shoshone land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Outlining the controversies surrounding the Yucca Mountain site in particular, activists articulated their critiques of federal and tribal energy development with scientific discourses of geography, geology and physics, as well as with a cosmology of ancestors, spirits and animate ecologies, which are as intrinsic and authoritative in their politics of nature as soil samples or other material data. In this way, "energy justice" emerges from a commingling of epistemological epistemological practices: "Western" and "natural" science and technology, economics, Native epistemologies and the lived experiences of members in these impacted communities.

Harsh US policy toward tribal lands and its people destroy the lively hood of indigenous people, destroying culture. Udel 2007 (Lisa J. Udel, Revising Revising Strategies The Intersection of Literature Literature and Activism in Contemporary Native Women's Women's Writing Accessed July 9, 2008 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/s http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/studies_in_amer tudies_in_american_indian_l ican_indian_literatur iteratures/v019/19.2udel.h es/v019/19.2udel.html) tml)

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 36 / 145 ] The question of Indian survival in contemporary America runs throughout the work of these three authors. In All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, LaDuke details the work occupying current grassroots Native environmentalist groups. LaDuke structures All Our Relations in ten chapters, each identifying a specific tribe and an environmental/political environmental/political problem, problem, along with the group's organized efforts to address it. The chapters provide a detailed map of the area under discussion with Indian place names as well as the Anglo place names and a narration of historical events leading up to the current current crisis and, in some cases, recent Native victories. LaDuke [End Page 66] profiles the Seminoles, the Northern Cheyennes, and the effect of nuclear waste on Western Shoshone land, as well as her own work with the White Earth Reservation Land Recovery Project and current use of solar energy among the Hopis, as examples of political issues confronting contemporary Native Americans. Americans. One of the central concerns of Native survival for LaDuke, then, is the material conditions of reservation life. She notes that all reservations reservations are plagued by "ethnostress," "ethnostress," which LaDuke describes as "what you feel when you wake up in the morning and you are still Indian, and you still have to deal with stuff about being Indian—poverty, racism, death, the government, and stripmining," the conditions that arise from being Indian in a country that opposes the political, cultural, cultural, and religious religious aspects of that identity (90). One of the primary environmental environmental problems facing Na Native tive groups today is the use of reservation lands as nuclear waste dumps. 2 In addition to the pollution of indigenous land bases, the expropriation of land and its resources remains another issue of deep concern to Native groups. Such use of Native lands has obvious repercussions on the health of its residents as well as their autonomy over cultural, political, and spiritual matters. LaDuke, like many Native activists, articulates an ecoculturalist ideology when she points to a symbiotic relationship between indigenous people and the environment. They link t heir systems of cultural organization to a specific place that contains and imparts memories of their history and identity.


Inherency-Energy Relationship Destructive The US-T US-Tribal Energy relationship is currently plagued by atrocities Navajo Congressional Testimony March 30, 2008 (Released March 30, 2008. TEstimoney of Navajo president to congress members. http://www.navajo.org/News%20Releases/George%20Hardeen/Mar08/Navajos%20won't%20allow%20uranium %20mining,%20President% %20mining,%20President%20tells%20sub 20tells%20subcommittee,%20for% committee,%20for%20March%20 20March%2030.pdf 30.pdf accessed July 9, 2008 President President Shirley said that as the Cold War War raged more than 50 years ago, the United States government began a massive effort to mine and process uranium ore for use in the country’s nuclear weapons programs. programs. Much of that uranium was mined on or near Navajo lands by Navajo hands. “Today, the legacy of uranium mining continues to devastate both the people and the land,” he said. “The workers, their families, families, and their neighbors suffer increased incidences incidences of cancers and other medical disorders caused by their exposure to uranium. Fathers Fathers and sons who went to work in the mines and the processing processing facilities brought uranium dust into their homes to unknowingly expose their families to radiation.” “The mines, many simply abandoned, have left open open scars in the ground with leaking radioactive waste. The companies that processed the uranium ore dumped their waste in open – and in some cases unauthorized – pits, exposing both the soil and the water to radiation.”


Solvency-Federal Action Key Specifically, Specifically, federal assistance is necessary as both a funding source and technical assistance. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ The U.S. Department of Energy held its first Tribal energy summit in conjunction with the NCAI Executive Meeting in Washington, DC, this past February. This is an important first step to building a closer relationship between the administration and Tribes. We need the DOE to request funding for a variety of Indian energy initiatives, especially especially in the field of renewables, in which over the past ten years the DOE has never once requested appropriations at the levels authorized by Congress. Tribes also need direct assistance for weatherization weatherization so that our overall energy usage can be more efficient and our application of renewable energy can be more cost-effective. The Wind Powering America has done an excellent excellent job of bringing program information to Native Americans throughout the country, to Indian Tribes and to Native Alaskans and Hawaiians. With limited funding compared to those available for state programs, the WPA Native American Initiative has helped build Tribal capacity through the anemometer loan program and through the WEATS program, to which our Tribe has sent several representatives for training in wind energy applications. Tribes could use more technical assistance in working through the interconnection interconnection issues to be able to connect utility-scale wind energy to the federal grids. We need to find a way to integrate the tremendous wind resources throughout the West into the federal hydropower grid system, which was originally built to deliver renewable renewable energy throughout the region. With the drought conditions likely to continue, lower water levels for the foreseeable future, and increasing hydropower costs, now is the time to bring significant Tribal wind power into the mix for long-term savings over the annual retail purchases purchases of supplemental power at retail rates. At Ft. Berthold, for example, we have sacrificed much of our reservation homeland for Lake Sakakawea behind the Garrison Dam, which is capable of producing over 500 megawatts of hydropower. If we could integrate about 100 megawatts of wind power with this hydropower, hydropower, we could build a significant Tribal Tribal economy based on clean energy generation.


Solvency-PTC Access Key Tribal nation access to PTCs is critical to wind development and displacing coal-fired plants. Pat Spears and Bob Gough, president and secretary of the Intertribal COUP, 2008 (May/June, Solar Today, "Drawing on the Sacred Winds", http://www.solartoday.org/2008/may_june08/sacred_winds.htm ) The Rosebud tribe’s wind project was a landmark for tribal wind development, overcoming legal and business barriers that had discouraged utility-scale renewable renewable energy development interconnected to the integrated regional grid system of federal and private operators. It paved the way for other Intertribal COUP tribes to install utility-scale turbines. These include 65-kW turbines commissioned on the Fort Berthold Reservation Reservation in North Dakota in 2005 and at the KILI Radio Station on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in May, along with the multimegawatt project planned at Rosebud. Yet these turbine installations are but the first stage of the Intertribal COUP’s wind-development wind-development plan. The Council vision is to tap the immense wind power potential on tribal lands, integrating two-dozen projects in six states with the federal hydroelectric hydroelectric generation and transmission grid. Tens of thousands of tribal members on 20 reservations would benefit directly from new, sustainable jobs and from the power and health benefits of local clean energy. Our initial goal is for eight to 12 distributed projects totaling several hundred megawatts. Tribal ownership in large-scale projects will require a sharable production tax credit (PTC), so that tribes can maintain equity in reservation-based wind projects without losing the federal PTC incentives that help to lower the cost of power from wind projects. Under present law, in a project where a tribe is an equity partner, the tribe gets the tax credits in proportion to its ownership interest but cannot use them as a government without a federal income tax liability. This situation penalizes private capital seeking to partner with tribes on reservation reservation projects and raises the cost of power into markets that assume the supplier’s capture of the full PTC. Two bills before Congress (HR 1954 and S2520) provide such a remedy for tribal joint ventures, where the goal is not only to build wind turbines on reservations, reservations, but also to position tribes as full business partners. Large tribal wind projects distributed across six northern Great Plains states could relieve some of the Missouri River’s hydropower burden. By displacing a portion of polluting coal on the grid with clean wind power, we’ll conserve water that would be consumed for steam and cooling and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. For the tribes, the renewing winds will sustain both the people and their lands with local jobs, clean electricity, community-building community-building revenues and healthy air and water.

PTCs are critical to ensure the development of wind energy. The New York Times, April 30, 2008. The New York Times, “Dumb as We Wanna Be”. July 8, 2008. Lexi Nexis. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage -- gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars -- and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage -- new, renewable energy technologies. technolo gies. We We are doing just the opposite. Are you sitting down? Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage encoura ge investment investmen t in wind energy e nergy. The bickering bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies. These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again -- which often happens -- investments investment s in wind and solar would still be profitable. That's how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete compete without without subsidies. subsidies. The Democrats Democrats wanted the wind wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Mr. Bush -- showing not one iota of leadership -- refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, Ours, at best, run two years. years. ''It's a disaster,'' disaster,'' says Michael Polsky, Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. ''Wind is a very capital-intensive capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take 'Congressional 'Congressional risk.' They say if you don't get the [ production tax credit] credit] we will will not lend you you the money to buy more more turbines turbines and build projects.'' projects.'' It is also alarming, says Rhone

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 40 / 145 ] Resch, Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point ''where ' 'where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics'' that it would turn its back on the next great global industry -- clean power --- ''but that's exactly what what is happening.'' If the wind wind and solar credits credits expire, expire, said Resch, Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won't be made.

PTCs are necessary for the continuation of wind power. power. The New York Times, May 5, 2008 The New York York Times, “Big Oil's Friends in the Senate”. July 8, 2008. Lexis Nexis Listen to almost any politician, President President Bush included, and you'll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies that will ease dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital tax credits to expire that are crucial to the future of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. These credits are necessary to attract new investment in renewable sources until they become competitive with cheaper, dirtier fuels like coal. When t he credits disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, year, so so action action now is important. important. Though there there is plenty plenty of blame to go around, Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy burden. The House approved, as part of last year's energy bill, a multiyear extension of the credits, while insisting insisting -- under its pay-as-you-go rules -- that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies (though rolling in profits) screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along.


Solvency-PTC Access Key Empirically, Production Tax Credits are the key incentive to develop wind energy. Anita Huslin; Washington Post Staff Writer, April 14, 2008 The Washington Post, “Energy Boost; Solar and Wind Businesses Powered by Tax Breaks”, July 8, 2008. Lexis Nexis For Tony Clifford, president of Standard Solar, the threats of climate change and high energy prices have been great for business. His Gaithersburg firm, which installs solar panels for homes, has tripled its revenue in the past year and raised raised new funds for expansion. expansion. Last week, week, he got another piece piece of good news. The Senate agreed to extend solar and wind energy tax breaks as part of a housing bill that is likely likely to win approval in the House. An elimination of the tax incentives would have been a blow to Clifford's business, forcing him to cut his staff of 20 and and tell subcontractors he no longer needed needed them. them. "We just raised raised $3.5 $3.5 million in new capital with the expectation that the incentives were going to get extended," Clifford Clifford said. "If the [federal tax breaks] do not happen, happen, that's going going to be a significant significant disincentive disincentive for a lot of venture capital." Although the solar business is booming across the United States, federal tax incentives remain key to fueling the industry's continued growth, utilities and solar firms say. Solar energy is still more expensive than more conventional sources, such as coal or natural gas, and is likely likely to remain so for a few years. But solar costs are coming down while coal and gas plant construction costs are going up, and the solar industry says the eight-year extension of tax breaks in the Senate legislation would help create a cleaner, more reliable source of energy. For 31 years, the federal government has subsidized new wind and solar projects. A tax break that provides up to 30 cents on every dollar it costs to build solar facilities and one for operating wind turbines are set to expire this year. The Senate last week voted to renew them. Now, proponents are pressing the House, which passed a stand-alone stand-alo ne tax package with similar extensions, to do the same. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) (D-Wash.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) sponsored the renewable energy tax incentives as an amendment to a housing bill last week. The measure provides up to $500 for consumers to install energy-efficient energy-efficient products in their homes and extends a production tax credit for electricity produced from wind, solar and other renewable sources. Businesses that manufacture manufacture and install solar or photovoltaic fuel cells would get a 30 percent investment tax credit. "We are not only providing providing certainty certainty to these these industries, industries, infusing money into our our economy, but creating high-paying, high-paying, long-term jobs to help Americans get through these tough economic times," Cantwell said. This makes bankers, solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers, and contractors contracto rs happy. happy. Without the subsidies, they say, companies would start putting projects projects on hold, freezing freezing contractors out of the new work and companies and governments out of ways to buy more clean technology. technology. Indeed, in February, Arizona Public Service Co. announced its intention to build a 280 megawatt solar installation using parabolic mirrors mirrors to concentrate heat and steam turbines to generate electricity. But the plant needs regulatory approval and isn't expected to come online until 2011. Don Robinson, Robinson, the utility's senior vice president of planning and administration, said the plant plant will be built only if the the federal tax incentives incentives are extended. extended. The alternativealternativeenergy industry has learned not to take the tax credits for granted. The wind industry, for instance, has had its production tax credits lapse three three times -- in 1999, 2001 and 2003. According to the American Wind Energy Association, new installed wind capacity declined 93, 73 and 77 percent, respectively.

The production tax credit is the most effective incentive Fresh Energy 7 1/2/7. http://www.fresh-energy.org/media_center/news_releases/2007-01-02_PTC.htm . “This study concludes that the single most important federal incentive to invest in wind is the Congressional Congressional Production Tax Credit. We concur,” said Dee Long, former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and retiring Transportation Policy Program Director at Fresh Energy. “It remains part of the Congress’ tangible commitment commitm ent to renewable energy in the region region and nation.” The release of the study coincides with action in th the closing hours of the 109 Congress to grant a one-year extension for the program, which had been scheduled to expire expire on December 31, 2007. The credit will will now run through December December 31, 2008. The action provides continuity for significant growth and investment for wind energy in the region, lending stability to the renewable energy sector, which has suffered since its adoption from numerous short-term extensions. Legislators Legislators from the Midwest Region Region were critical to the passage of the extension. Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, Grassley, author of the Wind Incentives Act of 1992 , which first established the production tax credit,

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 42 / 145 ] said, “Investors need certainty about tax policy before putting their money into a wind energy or biomass project. The tax extension gives them certainty for another year.”


Solvency-Say Solvency- Say Yes Yes Federal funding will be accepted-broad support and sufficient infrastructural support within the communities. Thomas L. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Earl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Environmental Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous Studies) Sustainable Energy Solutions, “The Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American Lands in the West” accessed accessed July 8, 2008, BC/EB It has been established that many tribes in the West are interested in developing their renewable and wind energy resources. The question that naturally arises next concerns the availability of wind resources on Native American lands. Wind energy resource maps from the national wind resource assessment of the United States, created in 1986 for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, are documented in the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States . (5) Wind maps based on this data and overlaid with tribal boundaries and transmission lines were created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to assist tribes in evaluating their potential for wind energy development. Wind resource maps similar to the one shown in Figure 2 are presented for each of the 13 states in the WRAP region in Reference (6) (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming), along with resource maps for solar, biomass and geothermal energy. There are 237 tribes in the WRAP region. Based upon NREL wind energy resource maps, there are about 60 reservations in the WRAP region that have a class-5 wind resource (excellent) or better. Many of these reservations reservations with the wind resource have sufficient land to develop the wind resource, resource, and some are in proximity proximity to existing transmission lines

Indigenous peoples will say yes-75% of tribes want to begin alternative energy programs and 83% of tribes are interested in selling electricity on the market. Western Regional Air Partnership Partnership Air Pollution Prevention Forum Forum 2003 Northern Arizona University, “Generating Electricity from Renewable Resources in Indian Country: Recommendations Recommendatio ns to Tribal Tribal Leaders from the Western Regional Regional Air Partnership” July 8, 2008 BC Below is a list summarizing some of the general general conclusions that can be drawn from ITEP’s assessment: assessment: No central office or agency is in charge of tribal energy issues, such as a utility authority (75% of reporting tribes). • No access to data about about tribal electrical electrical energy consumption consumption is available available (75%), although although most (67%) do know how to acquire acquire this information. • There is no awareness awareness of laws or regulations regulations that influence influence energy supplies delivered delivered to the tribe, or government programs programs to promote the use of renewable renewable energy (75%). • Tribes Tribes are interested in using renewable energy systems (75%), especially if the cost of energy is competitive with current energy supplies. It is interesting to note, however, that tribal interest in renewable energy derives primarily from a desire for better or more reliable service, rural electrification, and economic development (but not necessarily necessarily from a desire for improving air quality). Also, some tribes in urban settings with access to reliable utility electricity expressed no interest in renewable energy development. developme nt. • There is an interest in selling electricity on the deregulated electric market (83%). • Tribes Tribes are interested in various types of assistance in planning and implementing renewable renewable energy projects (58%)

Tribal peoples want wind power programs and will work with the federal government. Laundry list of reasons. Thomas L. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Earl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Environmental Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous Studies) Sustainable Energy Solutions, “The Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American Lands in the West” accessed accessed July 8, 2008, BC/EB

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 44 / 145 ] The tribes contacted in the ITEP assessment were selected to represent a diversity of tribal perspectives, perspectives, based upon geographic distribution, population, land size, urban versus rural location, experience experience with renewable energy, and level of existing energy infrastructure. While these data are not definitive and may not be representative representative of all 237 tribes within the 13-state WRAP region, region, they do suggest some valuable insights. A few pertinent results from the tribal surveys are listed below: __ For three-quarters of the tribes polled, no central office or agency is in charge of tribal energy issues, such as a utility authority. __ Three-quarters of the tribes are interested in using renewable energy systems, especially if the cost of energy is competitive with current current energy supplies. __ Over 80% of the tribes indicated an interest in selling electricity on the deregulated deregulated electric market. Through comments associated with the assessments, it was apparent that the particular opportunities available and the barriers facing each tribe’s development of renewable energy were as individual and unique as the tribes themselves. Many of the tribes were concerned about cultural issues (such as sacred sites), environmental issues (not damming a river), political issues (intra- and inter-tribal politics and external relations relations with states), and economics (the cost of energy). In general, tribes were quite interested interested in the potential opportunities for economic development offered by developing renewable renewable energy resources, as well as the ability to gain energy independence. Furthermore, tribes in rural settings were more interested interested in developing renewable renewable resources compared to tribes located in urban settings.


Solvency-Say Solvency- Say Yes Yes Tribes Will Say Yes Thomas L. L. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Earl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Environmental Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous Studies) Sustainable Energy Solutions, “The Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American Lands in the West” accessed accessed July 8, 2008, BC Many Native American tribes are interested in developing renewable energy resources. Of the 237 tribes in the WRAP region, about 60 have an excellent wind resource (Class 5 or better). The Regional Haze Rule provides a potential impetus for tribes with air quality programs and visibility concerns to consider renewable energy development. Beyond that, however, tribal development of wind and renewable energy provides provides a potential for economic development and increased increased tribal sovereignty. In order to successfully develop their renewable resources, tribes may seek partners to help overcome some of the financial and technical barriers. For potential collaborators it is important to realize that partnering with tribes to develop their resources resources will likely need to occur in the context of their overall goal of maintaining and strengthening their cultural, social, economic, and political integrity, not just as a business opportunity. Furthermore, it is important to realize that among the tribes in the WRAP region, there is great diversity when considering their differing levels of energy and economic infrastructures, both physical and institutional.

Tribes want wind development for five reasons. Western Regional Air Partnership Air Pollutio Pollution n Prevention Prevention Forum 2003 Northern Arizona University, “Generating Electricity from Renewable Resources in Indian Country: Recommendations Recommendatio ns to Tribal Tribal Leaders from the Western Regional Regional Air Partnership” July 8, 2008 BC When asked about the type of renewable resources resources that tribes were engaged in developing, all of the electricity-generating electricity-generating technologies discussed in Appendix B (solar, wind, biomass, and hydroelectric) hydroelectric) received about equal consideration except for geothermal (it is the most scarce of the renewable resources). However, concerning electricity electricity generation and consumption, tribes indicated that they were most interested in energy efficiency or conservation programs (93%), wind energy (63%), or solar energy (63%). The top five reasons offered by tribes that were interested in developing renewable energy are listed below (the number in parentheses indicates the percentage of respondents who thought it was an important reason): oCompatible Compatibl e with natural environment (82%) oPotential to generate income for the tribe (70%) oPotential for employment employmen t (67%) oCompatible Compatibl e with culture of tribe (63%) oReduced dependence of tribe on outside providers (60%).


Solvency-Technical Assistance Key Open access to the federal grid is key to giving incentives to municipalities – without this, energy never leaves the ground. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ Finally, in my opinion the next most important need is to allow Tribes access to the federal transmission grid and the purchase of wind energy to meet existing power needs of cooperatives, municipal utilities, and other regional utilities. utilities. As to the nuts-and-bolts issues, we have learned the significance of using wind to meet offgrid applications versus interconnecting to the local and regional power grids. Off-grid applications require back-up power or storage systems. These systems can operate independently, although it can be more costly due to the back-up requirements, requirements, but it can be economic if it would actually cost more to run transmission lines to serve a remote load. Interconnecting to the local and regional grids that are owned and operated by non-Tribal utilities raises a host of issues, including jurisdiction, rights of way, demand charges, net metering, and others. When Tribes evolve from consumers of electricity to actual power generators, we are moving into a new territory that is already occupied by established interests interests who may not be so willing to let us participate on an equal footing. We can look for partnerships and for fair dealing with the contributions we can make to the nation's energy supply, but we will need to address many technical technical and policy obstacles along the way.


Solvency-Financial Solvency-Financial Incentives I ncentives Key Tribal wind development is critical to address issues iss ues of self-sufficiency and climate change, but federal funding is key. key. Pat Spears and Bob Gough, president and secretary of the Intertribal COUP, 2008 (May/June, Solar Today, "Drawing on the Sacred Winds", http://www.solartoday.org/2008/may_june08/sacred_winds.htm) For many tribal peoples, the winds are holy, bringing renewal, warmth and strength. And tribal lands are rich in wind. The wind energy potential on reservations nationwide exceeds exceeds 535 billion kilowatt-hours annually — enough to power more than 50 million homes annually. annually. Much of that resource is found on the northern Great Plains reservations. Indeed, the prairie winds and the Missouri River are inextricably tied to the culture and history of the Great Plains’ two-dozen tribes. Despite these gifts, the reservations never had the size or the moisture needed to sustain agricultural economies. Their richest bottomlands were flooded behind federal dams on the Missouri to generate electricity for everyone in the region except the tribes. But today, tribal leaders are drawing drawing on the winds to forge a renewable energy economy — and the next chapter in a tradition promoting self-reliance and harmony between humankind and nature. Since 1995, a coalition of Great Plains tribes known as the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (COUP) has worked to generate jobs and new revenue streams through tribal-owned wind energy projects. These utility-scale turbines are arrayed along federal transmission lines that carry hydroelectric hydroelectric power from the mainstem Missouri River dams. That allows the tribes to sell surplus power to the Western Area Power Administration where it’s especially needed. (WAPA markets and transmits electricity from federal hydroelectric power plants.) As persistent drought throughout the West has reduced federal hydropower production nearly 50 percent, WAPA has filled the shortfall with lignite coal-fired coal-fired electricity electricity — significantly increasing increasing greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions emissions near tribal tribal lands. Nationally, reservation reservation households are 10 times less likely to be electrified than other U.S. households. Those households that are electrified pay a higher portion of their incomes to power energy-inefficient energy-inefficient structures. structures. The COUP intertribal energy vision begins with making tribal housing more affordable and efficient through better design and retrofitting. The tribes can use energy audits, weatherization projects and local natural materials like straw bale and earthen plasters to create local jobs, save energy and money, and enhance the quality of life. But even with greater energy efficiency, small wind and solar projects are expensive, especially for tribal communities, where unemployment may be 50 percent.

Rosebud proves that Tribal Tribal wind can meet all of America’s energy needs, but federal assistance is key. Winona LaDuke , Executive Director of Honor the Earth and Green Party vice presidential candidate in 2000, 2007 (Winter, Yes!, "Local Energy, Local Power", http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1553 ) The wind does not stop blowing on the Sicangu Lakota reservation at Rosebud Rosebud in what is called South Dakota. This reservation is arguably arguably one of the most challenging places in the country to put up an alternative project. project. This community, home of Crazy Horse's people, has never had it easy, and over the years, their political and economic power has been waning. South Dakota politicians cut pieces off t he reservation, large large corporate pork producers eyed the lack of environmental environmental regulations and tried to move into the area, and geographic isolation meant that the community could easily become economic prey to the larger society. That is why the Rosebud Tribe's wind project—a 750-kilowatt turbine that sits behind the small tribal casino—is remarkable. Despite immense bureaucratic obstacles—the “white “white tape” so common on reservations—and reservations—and the absence of big political or financial champions, the Rosebud Tribal Utility Authority was born. Tribal advocates like Bob Gough, attorney for the Rosebud people and the heirs of Crazy Horse, and Tony Rogers, director of the Rosebud Tribal Tribal Utility Authority, found funding for the project, jumped through regulatory hoops, and found a market locally and on one of the Dakotas' many air force bases. The project, generating electricity for the past three years, is now the prototype for a larger 30 megawatt project planned for the reservation. The reality is that this region of North America has more wind power potential than almost anywhere in the world. Twenty-three Indian tribes have more than 300 gigawatts of wind generating potential. That's equal to over half of present U.S. installed electrical capacity. Those tribes live in some of the poorest counties in the country, yet the wind turbines they are putting up could power America—if they had more markets and access to power lines. Nationally, groups like the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy are working with tribal leaders to bring more wind-generated wind-generated power on line and to manage the growth of the next energy economy, a critical element of development strategy. Indian reservations may be the windiest places in the country, but

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 48 / 145 ] tribes are still struggling to develop the financial and technical resources resources and tribal infrastructure needed to realize the potential and to keep jobs and control in the community. As Bob Gough explains, explains, “In the business of renewable energy energy,, tribes are either going to be at the table or on the menu.” Who controls the next generation of power production will determine much about the success of the local, renewable renewable energy strategy.


Solvency-Rosebud Solvency-Rosebud Project Rosebud shows that Tribal Tribal wind farms can create self-sufficiency, federal funding is key. key. Pat Spears and Bob Gough, president and secretary of the Intertribal COUP, 2008 (May/June, Solar Today, "Drawing on the Sacred Winds", http://www.solartoday.org/2008/may_june08/sacred_winds.htm ) The Rosebud Sioux tribe of south-central South Dakota initiated the phased wind-development plan. Dedicated in 2003, Rosebud’s Rosebud’s initial utility-scale, 750-kilowatt (kW) turbine, t urbine, “Little Soldier,” is installed at the Rosebud Hotel and Casino, the tribe’s largest commercial development center. But to achieve the installation, the tribe had to overcome countless challenges, challenges, starting with financing. In 1999, Rosebud became the first tribe to receive a grant — covering half the turbine’s cost, about $500,000 — under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Tribal Renewable Energy Grants. Three years later, the tribe secured a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service to finance the balance. This project was originally conceived as a community wind project, designed to supply power to the tribe’s largest single energyconsuming facility. However, because the tribal development site, as an energy load, is controlled by a nontribal utility, the tribe faced the imposition of a $7 per kilowatt-month demand charge for using the 750kW wind turbine. This $5,250-permonth demand charge, for the utility to “stand by” to provide power when the wind doesn't blow, is on top of the cost for any needed “supplemental” energy, to be purchased by the utility on the open market. Because these demand charges and unknown supplemental energy costs eviscerate the economics of tribal renewable projects, the tribe decided instead to sell the bulk of the turbine's output as bundled “green power” to a local Air Force Base on a short-term contract. That established the precedent for tribes to be green power vendors to the U.S. government. The tribe sold off the remaining generation and environmental attributes of the turbine’s output into separate markets, markets, as “energy” to the local utility and as “green tags,” or carbon offsets, to marketer NativeEnergy (nativeenergy.com, of which COUP has a majority equity stake on behalf of its member tribes).

The Rosebud project shows that indigenous energy benefits the government with cheaper, more secure energy. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ The Rosebud Sioux Tribe's single 750-MW wind turbine project demonstrates that an Indian tribe can develop the capacity to plan, build, own, and operate a utility-scale wind project. It demonstrates the potential of becoming a self-sustaining source of electricity to meet Tribal loads at their casino and hotel. They have also broken the trail for commercial sale of Tribal green power to our federal treaty partners, the U.S. Government, by interconnecting through their local distribution system into the federal transmission grid (operated by WAPA) to supply renewable energy to the Ellsworth Air Force Base. The federal government is the largest consumer of energy in the world, making it a tremendous market. market. The federal grid system that was built to transmit renewable renewable hydropower from the dams like the one that has flooded our reservation at Ft. Berthold links all the reservations across the Plains. Indian tribes could become a major supplier of green power to federal facilities and other markets around the country. Rosebud has also demonstrated some novel methods for financing a tribally owned wind project through negotiating the first federal rural utilities service (RUS) loan for a Tribal renewable project and by participating in the upfront sale to NativeEnergy of the green tags to be generated over the life of the project separately from the sale of the energy. These are financing models for development that allow Tribes to own our projects and not merely lease our resources.


Solvency-AT: Native wind not that huge Even if you win that funding doesn’t lead to a massive breakout of wind energy, only a small amount is key to giving reservations energy independence. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ We have an unbelievable wind resource at Ft. Berthold. According to the wind potential resource maps produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, we have many thousands of times more power in the wind than the amount of energy we use on the reservation. reservation. Although we would never develop all of this resource, just a small fraction could become a foundation for sustainable economic development on the reservation, powering Tribal projects such as our planned gas refinery and for sale and export over the regional transmission grid.


Solvency-AT: Natives don’t have resources Current small projects show that tribes have necessary resources to expand energy. Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ Our Tribe has received an initial grant from DOE to develop a single turbine to provide power for our casino and hotel at Newtown, ND. We completed all the studies and broke ground late last year. We are currently completing final negotiations with regard to interconnection to meet Tribal load and perhaps sell off occasional surplus power for those times when the wind produces more energy that we can use directly. We are also engaged in a second round of feasibility studies that examine the wind development potential at other sites on the reservation. Our Tribe is a member of Intertribal COUP, and one of our Tribal members, Terry Fredericks, serves as its vice president. We are participating in the COUP environmental justice community revitalization demonstration project, which lays the road map for collaborative Tribal wind energy development. Ft. Berthold will site an initial 10-MW project as part of an 80-MW distributed generation intertribal project. project. A collaborative 80-MW project could attain an economy of scale that would make a local 10-MW project affordable. A 10-MW project at Ft. Berthold would, along with our WAPA hydropower allocation, help to meet most of our Tribal energy requirements. We could use this power directly at our planned refinery, providing even more local jobs and economic opportunities, and it would otherwise be absorbed in the local distribution system. This project would connect us to the grid for potential export and expansion. Wind, combined with some of our future gas production, could allow Ft. Berthold to provide power directly directly to the grid.

Despite past failures, Native Americans can establish effective wind power Mills, Masters Degree in Science from Berkley , 2006 (Andrew, Wind Energy in Indian Country:Turning to Wind for the Seventh Generation, accessed on 7/8/2008) Winds of change are blowing in Indian Country – and bringing with them a new source of sustainable jobs and revenue. Numerous tribes in the United States have pursued clean, renewable energy sources ranging from ancient design practices that use passive solar heating or passive cooling to modern, utility-scale wind turbines. While different tribes have unsuccessfully attempted to build wind projects in the past, recent developments in Indian wind energy projects demonstrate that wind energy projects projects on tribal land are not only possible, but provide an opportunity for participation in clean energy development.

Your Your claims that development won’t happen are wrong. Western Regional Air Partnership Partnership Air Pollution Prevention Forum Forum 2003 Northern Arizona University, “Generating Electricity from Renewable Resources in Indian Country: Recommendations Recommendatio ns to Tribal Tribal Leaders from the Western Regional Regional Air Partnership” July 8, 2008 BC Tribes interested in developing sources and use of renewable energy could benefit from considering the findings from these studies. Cornell and Kalt concluded concluded that many of the common explanations for lack of successful economic development on Indian reservations, reservations, while not necessarily necessarily wrong, are of unequal importance or are insignificant, misleading, or mistaken. mistaken. As an alternative, alternative, they offered what they t hey believe to be a more useful analytical framework that identifies the key ingredients of successful economic development, determines determines which are most important, and identifies which ones tribes actually can do something about. The key ingredients ingredients of development identified identified by Cornell and Kalt are are the following: • External factors: Political sovereignty, market opportunity, access to financial capital, and distance from markets • Internal assets: Natural resources, human capital, institutions institutio ns of governance, culture • Development strategy: Overall economic system, choice of development activities

Your Your empirical claims are false Western Regional Air Partnership Partnership Air Pollution Prevention Forum Forum 2003 Northern Arizona University, “Generating Electricity from Renewable Resources in Indian Country: Recommendations Recommendatio ns to Tribal Tribal Leaders from the Western Regional Regional Air Partnership” July 8, 2008 BC

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 52 / 145 ] Regardless Regardless of the effectiveness effectiveness of past treaties and negotiations, tribes entering into agreements for funding, land, or supply must honor the agreements agreements if they want to maximize stability. This does not mean clauses cannot be written into contracts allowing renegotiation renegotiation at some future time; rather, once a contract has been entered into, all future governments must honor that contract. This, of course, is a partial definition of selfdetermination: determination: the tribe is accountable for its own actions. With stable government and detailed analysis, the tribe will be able to develop a detailed plan for specific renewable energy projects. Rather than accepting BIA negotiated contracts, such as the Peabody Coal contract on Hopi and Navajo land which subsequently led to conflict and turmoil, the tribe itself should determine its best interest and negotiate from a position of stability and knowledge. When the negotiations are completed, it is in the best interest of the tribe that its future governments should honor those contracts.


Indigenous Advantage-Wind Leads to SelfSustainability/Sovereignty Sustainable energy sources for Tribal Tribal nations allows for preservation of sovereignty by breaking and reversing the biopolitical structure of violent and hazardous resource extraction. POWELL, 2006 (Department of anthropology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Dana Powell Powell Technologies of Existence: The indigenous environmental justice movement Accessed Accessed online http://ideas.r htt p://ideas.repec.org/a epec.org/a/pal/develp/v /pal/develp/v49y2006i3p125-132.html 49y2006i3p125-132.html July 8, 2008) Not completely unlike the Ecuadorian Pachakutik movement Walsh describes, the movement for ‘environmental ‘environmental justice’ in indigenous communities in the US is experimenting with alternative alternative strategies to restructure restructure the production of power to advance democracy and sovereignty sovereignty for indigenous communities. This essay addresses addresses the possible resignification resignification of development being produced by the practices and discourses of a particular indigenous movement in the US, which addresses addresses controversies over natural resource resource management on reservation lands. In particular, I consider the emergence of renewable energy projects within the movement as new modes of economic, ecological, ecological, and cultural development, countering the history of biopolitical regimes of natural resource extraction, which have marked indigenous experience in North America since Contact. I argue that these emerging technologies not only resist but also propose alternatives alternatives to the dominant models of energy production production in the US.

Energy independence through wind technology can advance tribal autonomy and guarantee sovereignty. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental EngineeringEarl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous StudiesThe Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American Lands in the West accessed online July 8, 2008 http://ses.nau. http://ses.nau.edu/pdf/Smith_A edu/pdf/Smith_AWEA.pdf WEA.pdf . One of the key recommendations of the GCVTC report was to assess the potential impact of increasing the use of renewable energy resources for the generation of electricity as a way to reduce pollution from fossilfueled power plants in the West, and thereby improve visibility. The WRAP has commissioned studies to assess the potential for the generation of electricity from renewable renewable energy resources. resources. One such study focused on the policy actions that States in the West could take in order to increase increase the generation of electricity from renewable resources.(2) A similar study focused on actions that Native American Tribes Tribes could take in order to increase electricity generation generat ion form renewable resources. resources. However, the tribal study had an expanded focus that considered considered not only policy actions, but also the available renewable renewable energy resources resources in Indian country, energy information required required in a TIP, tribal energy perspectives, and an analysis of the barriers and opportunities for tribal energy development. The resulting report from this study (“the Tribal Renewables Report”(3) Report”(3))) recommends policies and strategies for tribal leaders to consider in order to use renewable renewable energy resources resources not only to reduce pollution but also as a means to assert tribal sovereignty and autonomy and to spur economic development on tribal lands.

Only energy independence can establish cultural and political sovereignty. Bain et al 2004 (BAIN, BALLENTINE, DESOUZA, MAJURE, SMITH, AND TUREK. Authors of AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH JOURNAL 28:2 (2004) 67–79 “Navajo Electrification for Sustainable Development: The Potential Economic and Social Benefits” access July 8, 2008 http://aisc.metapress.com http://aisc.metapress.com/index/92G231485 /index/92G2314855771GHQ.pdf) 5771GHQ.pdf) Economic development, a process that involves every part of the social system, can help maintain tribal character. character. It is vital to formulate all development plans with an understanding of how they affect the overall societal makeup. Only when the tribe both has control of its resources resources and can sustain its identity as a distinct civilization does economic development make sense; otherwise, the tribe must choose between cultural

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 54 / 145 ] integrity and economic development. A common misconception involves the seeming conflict between maintaining a tribe’s cultural heritage and increasing economic activity on the reservation. reservation. However, a main purpose of this work is to show that cultivating the economy can confirm and develop the tribal culture. Maintaining the cultures and strengthening sovereign powers is a manifest imperative in Indian country. One way to achieve this goal is to develop tribal resources—in resources—in this case the sun’s rays—in a manner that respects the cultural context.

Wind power can allow tribal sustainability and sovereignty Toensing, 2008 (01-02-2008 Gale Courey Toensing staff WRITER Indian country today “ Green energy provides opportunities for tribes” accessed online July 8, 2008 via ELibrary) He lauded the nations that are already exploring their opportunities to develop wind, wind, geothermal, solar and biofuels, and for looking at the second and third generation technologies that are on the horizon, such as grass and oil crops, low-end hydro power, p ower, wave and tidal energies, energies , and the conversion of algae into energy. energy. "I think the opportunities not only for development of these renewable renewable energy sources on Native American lands, but also distribution of that energy is going to lead to job creation and job retention and support of social service networks," he said. "And, sovereignty being the bottom line, you control your own resources and you're in a much better position than leaving it out there for somebody else to make these decisions for you." Renewable sources are neither new nor unfamiliar to tribal communities; they are the elemental earth, fire, water and wind, wind, handed from the forefathers, according to Cassidy.


Indigenous Advantage-Wind Leads to SelfSustainability/Sovereignty Working with the government on wind development can allow tribal nations to strengthen their culture, political status and sovereignty. sovereignty. Acker et al 2002 (Thomas L. Acker, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William M. Auberle, Professor, Civil and Environmental EngineeringEarl P.N. Duque, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering William D. Jeffery, Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering David R. LaRoche, Program Director, Center for Sustainable Environments Virgil Masayesva, Director, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals Professionals Dean H. Smith, Associate Professor, Economics and Applied Indigenous StudiesThe Implications of the Regional Haze Rule on Renewable and Wind Energy Development on Native American Lands in the West accessed online July 8, 2008 http://ses.nau. http://ses.nau.edu/pdf/Smith_A edu/pdf/Smith_AWEA.pdf WEA.pdf . Many Native American tribes are interested in developing renewable energy resources. Of the 237 tribes in the WRAP region, about 60 have an excellent wind resource (Class 5 or better). The Regional Haze Rule provides a potential impetus for tribes with air quality programs and visibility concerns to consider renewable energy development. Beyond that, however, tribal development of wind and renewable energy provides provides a potential for economic development and increased tribal sovereignty. In order to successfully develop their renewable resources, tribes may seek partners to help overcome some of the financial and technical barriers. For potential collaborators it is important to realize that partnering with tribes to develop their resources will likely need to occur in the context of their overall goal of maintaining and strengthening their cultural, social, economic, and political integrity, not just as a business opportunity. Furthermore, it is important to realize that among the tribes in the WRAP region, there is great diversity when considering their differing levels of energy and economic infrastructures, both physical and institutional.


Indigenous Advantage-Wind Leads to Economic Development Tribal wind projects would help native economies Mills, Masters Degree in Science from Berkley , 2006 (Andrew, Wind Energy in Indian Country:Turning to Wind for the Seventh Generation, accessed on 7/8/2008) Development of natural resources, including energy sources like coal or renewable resources such as timber products, adds to the economic base. Wind energy can contribute to the economic base in a similar manner. If the power from the wind farm is sold to utilities in Arizona or California, for instance, then the income earned by local wind farm employees or land lease fees adds to the economic base of the Navajo economy.

Greater economic prosperity leads to tribal self-determination Mills, Mills, Masters Degree in Science from Berkley , 2006 (Andrew, Wind Energy in Indian Country:Turning to Wind for the Seventh Generation, accessed on 7/8/2008) One of the elements that linked tribal self-determination to increased economic development was that besides the tribes choosing their own future, they also began to take on leadership roles in projects on their land. Studies found that tribally managed projects transferred transferred skills and information to members, enhanced tribal employment, and lead to retention of expenditures expenditures in the tribal economy (Ambler 1990, 28). In general, conditions improve on tribal lands when their rights to self-government self-government are respected respected (Suagee 1998).

Energy development key to economic development Mills, Mills, Masters Degree in Science from Berkley , 2006 (Andrew, Wind Energy in Indian Country:Turning to Wind for the Seventh Generation, accessed on 7/8/2008) Energy development can play an important role in economic development by building capacity within tribes and by providing revenues revenues to tribal governments for economic development projects. Capacity Capacity is built within tribal governments by taking on responsibility of managing energy projects.

Wind Energy leads to economic development Mills, Masters Degree in Science from Berkley , 2006 (Andrew, Wind Energy in Indian Country:Turning to Wind for the Seventh Generation, accessed on 7/8/2008) Wind energy offers the same potential as energy development in boosting economic development through capacity building and self-determina self-determination. tion. For tribes that depend on energy revenues for their tribal programs, wind energy offers the potential to partially diversify diversify the source of revenues. revenues. In the short run, periods of energy resource price fluctuations can be stabilized with funds from wind projects. Of course in the long run, the value of wind energy depends on the cost of alternative energy prices. If the price of natural gas were to fall to a low level for an extended time, a tribe like the Navajo Nation would have royalties and taxes on gas reduced and the rent they could collect on selling electricity from a wind project would also be reduced.

Energy independence would allow indigenous populations to remove their population from poverty and unemployment. Burke and Sikkema 2007 (Burke, Kate, and Linda Sikkema. "Native American power: Native American tribes are tapping into alternative energy sources with great benefits to themselves and their neighbors." Kate Burke is NCSL's energy program manager and Linda Sikkema is director of NCSL's Institute for State Tribal Relations. Accessed online via Expanded academic ASAP July 8, 2008) One-third of the 2.4 million Native Americans living on or near tribal lands live in poverty. poverty. The unemployment rate is double the national average. There There are an estimated 18,000 Lilies in the Navajo Nation alone still living without electricity electric ity.. "Our hope is that if the tribes choose to develop these renewable energy resources," says DOE's Pierce, Pierce, "it could enable local economic development development and contribute to additional jobs." For some tribes, taking on renewable energy projects means helping members pay for, and in some cases acquire, power. If tribes can generate their own power, they can lower utility bills and bring power to more people. Energy projects also provide new jobs, and potential profits translate into additional assets for tribes. In some

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 57 / 145 ] cases not only do tribes benefit, but so do the areas near the reservation. A handful of tribes supply power to neighboring communities, which can be beneficial for t he tribes as well as the surrounding area. area.


Indigenous Advantage-Wind Leads to Economic Development Plan provides the means for self-sufficiency and economic growth Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network/International Indian Treaty Council, 2006, UN Commission on Sustainable Development Development 14 th Session, “Meeting Growing Needs for Energy Services through Increased Use of Renewable Energy July 8, 2008, http://www.sdissues.net/SDIN/uploads/CSD%2014%20IP%20Intervention%20%5BWIND%20RESOURCES%5D% 20Wednesday%20Afternoon%20Rm%204%20May%203%20(FINAL).doc Renewable energy generated on indigenous lands and territories can have significant public health, environment, economic, social and legal benefits for indigenous peoples. Mechanisms for the further development of locally-indigenous locally-indigenous controlled wind power and renewable renewable energy projects throughout the world would help address indigenous sustainable development goals. At this point, the cheapest source of renewable energy is wind power. Some things to reflect as lessons learned is these indigenous wind power projects must have meaningful and proactive consultation between the federal national government and the indigenous leadership and community as well as providing technical and financial assistance to the indigenous tribes. In the words of one of our indigenous woman leaders in the U.S., “Make wind, not war.” ”


Indigenous Advantage-Wind Sustains Tribal Culture ‘Soft alternatives’ solve this decimation of native culture by providing more eco-friendly solutions to our energy needs Suagee 1992 (Dean B., J.D. @ U. of North Carolina, “Self “Self-Determin -Determination ation for Indigenous Peoples at the Dawn of the Solar Age”, 25 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 671, Spring and Summer, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. L /N) DMZ This Article challenges readers to help make the principle of self-determination for indigenous peoples a reality. Part Part I presents an overview of the emerging international law of the rights of indigenous peoples and discusses the threat of cultural genocide. Part II presents a comparative law example of the status of indigenous peoples under the domestic law of the United States, where American Indian tribes n5 retain a [*675] substantial substanti al measure of their original sovereignty. sovereignty. Although the status of Indian tribes in the United States is less than ideal, a large number do continue to exist as politically distinct communities, and each tribe is intent on being treated as a permanent feature of our federal system. This continued and distinct existence teaches many lessons that are applicable in the international arena. In particular, Part II notes the recent trend in United States environmental law of authorizing Indian tribal governments to be treated as states and offers some comments on one federal grant program which is designed for the express express purpose of helping Indian tribes to preserve preserve their cultural heritage. The experience in the United States also provides numerous examples of tribes that have suffered severe cultural and social disruption because of the decimation of wildlife populations and other profound changes in the natural environment caused by t he dominant society so ciety.. Part III suggests that the international internation al recognition of rights righ ts will be a hollow success for indigenous peoples unless the industrialized industrialized societies also achieve a transition from environmentally environmentally destructive destruct ive to environmentally sustainable development. developm ent. In particular, Part III focuses on energy consumption both in the industrialized societies and in the less developed countries. This Article focuses on energy for one significant reason. reason. In many parts of today's world, the kinds of environmental damage that threaten the survival of indigenous peoples are driven by the ways in which the economic engines of the industrialized industrialized and industrializing industrial izing countries coun tries consume consum e energy. Over the past two t wo decades, we have learned new n ew ways to provide the kinds of services services and and benefits [*676] that in the past past we provided provided by consuming nonrenewable nonrenewable energy energy resources. resources. These new ways render the environmental environmental destruction and pollution of the old ways both unnecessary and unjustifiable. Part III presents an overview of the alternative energy development scenario, sometimes called the "soft energy path," which is based on energy efficiency and environm entally sustainable sustainab le solar and other renewable energy technologies. tech nologies. Taking Taking soft energy paths will not in itself itse lf solve the global environmental environmental crisis, but it is an essential part of the solution.

Wind allows for the preservation of indigenous culture Dana E Powell, Powell, Department of Anthropology at University North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2008, 2008, Palgrave McMillan, “Local/Global Encounters: Community Rights and Natural Resources,” Accessed July 8, 2008 BC The significance of the relatively relatively recent emergence of wind and solar technologies as tribal development projects is that tribes are increasingly connecting into this network of renewable energy activism as a means of economic growth, ecological protection, and cultural preservation. Seemingly an oxymoron – to preserve 'tradition' with the use of high-tech machines – advocates of wind and solar power emphasize that cultural preservation preservation is itself about flexible practices, change, and honouring worldviews in which the modernist distinction between nature and culture is nonsensical. In other words, when some of the most important cultural resources are the land itself (i.e., mountains for ceremonies, waters for fishing, soils for growing indigenous foods), to protect nature is also to protect culture. As Bruno Latour has also argued, this naturescultures epistemology epistemology is also ontology – a different way of knowing, inhabiting and engaging the world (Latour, 1993, 2005). Wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels are articulating with this worldview, and at the same time articulating with many tribes' desires to move beyond fossil fuel extraction as a primary means of economic development, and towards natural resource resource practices that are more 'sustainable'. The wind and the sun introduce new elements of common property to be harnessed harnessed for alternative alternative development projects and increased decentralization decentralization and ownership over the means of power production.


Indigenous Advantage-Impacts Global decolonization movements are critical to averting environmental collapse and extinction. Tinker 96 (George E., Iliff School of Technology, echnolo gy, “Defending Mother Earth: Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice, ed. Jace Weaver, p. 171-72) DMZ My suggestion that we take the recognition of indigenous sovereignty as a priority is an overreaching overreaching one that involves more than simply justice for indigenous communities around the world. Indeed, such a political move will necessitate a rethinking rethinking of consumption patterns in the North, and a shift in the economics of the North will cause a concomit co ncomitant ant shift also in the Two-th Two-thirds irds World of the South So uth. The relatively simple act of recognizing the sovereignty sovereignty of the Sioux Nation and returning returning to it all state-held lands in the Black Hills (for example, National Forest and National Park lands) would generate immediate international interest in the rights of the indigenous, tribal peoples in all state territories. In the United States alone it is estimated that Indian nations still have legitimate (moral and legal) claim to some two-thirds of the U.S. land mass. Ultimately, such an act as return of Native lands to Native control would have a significant ripple effect on other states around the world where indigenous peoples still have aboriginal land claims and suffer the ongoing results of conquest and displacement displacement in their own territories. American Indian cultures and values have much to contribute in the comprehensive reimagining reimagining of the Western Western value system that has resulted in our contemporary conte mporary ecojustice ecoju stice crisis . The main point poi nt that must be b e made is that there were and are cultures that th at take their natural environment seriously seriously and attempt to live in balance with the created whole around them in ways that help them not overstep environmental limits. Unlike the West’s West’s consistent experience of alienation from the natural world, these cultures of indigenous peoples consistently experienced experienced themselves as part of the that created whole, in relationship with everything everything else in the world. They saw and continue to see themselves as having responsibilities, just as every other creature has a particular role to play in maintaining the balance of creation creation as an ongoing process. This is ultimately the spiritual rationale for annual ceremonies like the Sun Dance or Green Corn Dance. As another example, Lakota peoples planted cottonwoods and willows at their campsites as they broke camp to move on, thus beginning the process of reclaiming the land humans had necessarily trampled through habitation and encampment. We now know that indigenous rainforest peoples peoples in what is today called the state of Brazil had a unique relationship to the forest in which they lived, moving away from a cleared area after farming it to a point of reduced return and allowing the clearing to be reclaimed as jungle. The group would then clear a new area and begin a new cycle of production. The whole process was relatively relatively sophisticated and functioned in harmony with the jungle itself. itself. So extensive was their movement that some scholars are now suggesting that there is actually very little of what might rightly be called virgin forest in what had been considered considered the “untamed” wilds of o f the rainforest. What I have described here is more than just a coincidence or, worse, some romanticized falsification of Native memory. Rather, I am insisting that there are peoples in the world who live with an acute and cultivated sense of their intimate participation in the natural world as part of an intricate whole. For indigenous peoples, this means that when they are presented with the concept of development, it is senseawareness is the result of self-conscious effort on the part less. Most significantly, one must realize that this awareness of the traditional American Indian national communities and is rooted in the first instance in the mythology and theology of the people. At its simplest, the worldview of American Indians can be expressed as Ward Churchill describes describes it: Human beings are free (indeed, encouraged) to develop their innate capabilities, but only in ways that do not infringe upon other elements – called “relations,” “relations,” in the fullest dialectical sense of the word – of nature. Any activity going beyond this is considered as “imbalanced,” a transgression, and is strictly prohibited. For example, example, engineering was and is permissible, but only insofar as it does not permanently alter the earth itself. Similarly, agriculture was widespread, but only within norms that did not supplant natural vegetation. Like the varieties of species in the world, each culture has contributed to make for the sustainability of the whole. Given the reality of eco-devastation threatening all of life today, the survival of American Indian cultures and cultural values may make the difference difference for the survival and sustainability for all the earth as we know it. What I have suggested implicitly is that the American Indian peoples may have something of values – something corrective to Western values and the modern world system – to offer o ffer to the world wo rld. The loss of these thes e gifts, the loss of o f the particularity particula rity of these peoples, p eoples, today tod ay

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 61 / 145 ] threatens the survivability survivability of us all. What I am most passionately arguing is that we must commit to the struggle for the just and moral survival of Indian peoples as peoples of the earth, and that this struggle is for the sake of the earth and for the t he sustaining of all life. It is now imperative that we change the modern value of acquisitiveness and the political systems and economics that consumption has generated. The key to making this massive value shift in the world system may lie in the international international recognition of indigenous political sovereignty and self-determination. Returning Native lands to the sovereign control of Native peoples around the world, beginning in the United States, is not simply just; the survival of all may depend on it.


Indigenous Advantage-Impacts Loss of indigenous cultures risks extinction. UN 1992 (United Nations Station of Sustainable Development, Development, Leaflet 10, accessed online www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/indileaflet10.doc ) DMZ It is widely accepted that biological diversity cannot be conserved without cultural diversity, that the longterm security of food and medicines depends on maintaining this intricate relationship. relationship. There is also a growing realization realization that cultural diversity is as important for the evolution of civilization as biodiversity is for biological evolution. The promotion of homogenous cultures poses a serious threat to human survival on both fronts. A workshop on “Drug Development, Development, Biological Diversity Diversity and Economic Growth,” convened convened by the National Cancer Institute of the US National Institutes of Health in 1991, concluded that “Traditional knowledge is as threatened and is as valuable as biological diversity. Both resources deserve respect and must be conserved”.


Indigenous Advantage-AT: Business Abuses Indigenous Peoples Trust doctrine solves – the government is 100% effective in vitalizing native economies. Failure of the government to intervene is what allows strip mining, uranium production and exploitation from capitalism Wood 1995 (Mary Christina, Assistant Prof. of Law @ U. of Oregon, “Protecting the Attributes of Native Sovereignty”, 1995 Utah L. Rev. 109, p. L/N) DMZ Many presume that the national Self-Determination policy will revitalize the reservation economies by supporting the autonomy of tribes to negotiate with large corporations for resource resource development. Still, it is useful to question whether the arrival of twentieth-century corporate America on the doorstep of Indian Country has indeed brought economic prosperity to the native nations. The answer must provide a backdrop to any trust analysis concerning the economic attribute of sovereignty. Some have persuasively argued that many modern Indian development schemes are designed to enrich non-Indian market market interests at the expense of native economic sustainability. The allegation is made forcefully by Ward Churchill and Winona LaDuke in an article describing the domestic "colonialism" still waged against tribes under the guise of promoting tribal economic development and sovereignty sovereignty.. n183 The authors analyze the historic transition of [*155] some native economies to industrial economies, focusing in large part on the role of anglo-style tribal governments formed under the Indian Reorganization Reorganization Act of 1934 ("IRA"). n184 Closely accountable to the BIA in their early years, the tribal councils often acceded readily to the development requests of the government, n185 and as the authors describe, operated as "classic vehicle[s] of necolonialism." n186 The authors suggest that on many reservations federal policies extinguished subsistence-based, self-sufficient self-sufficient native economies, n187 and established in their place a new socioeconomic structure primed for industrial exploitation: exploitation: a dependent Indian population desperate enough to meet the "cruder labor needs of industrialism," combined with tribal governments willing to negotiate the reservations' reservations' future through leasing contracts. n188 With these components, the industrial model gained a firm foothold in the Southwest, enabling mineral companies to reap vast quantities of reservation reservation resources. resources. n189 As the authors note, no te, the industrial experience devastated many [*156] tribes. n190 A repeating pattern of toxic contamination across many of the Southwest reservations n191 left large-scale environmental environmental damage that, t hat, for all practical purposes, often precluded any return to a subsistence, land-based economy. n192 The work force, trained for no other type of employment, was often left adrift. The health effects on Indian workers resulting from daily encounters with toxic elements were substantial and often lethal, resulting in an exploding demand for health and social services on the reservation. n193 Rarely were private interests held accountable for their environmental and economic damage. n194 The entire scenario-scenario-- depletion of raw natural resources, resources, use of reservation reservation populations for dangerous, unskilled work, and the unchecked unchecked proliferation of toxins into the surrounding surrounding ecosystem--does indeed suggest exploitation on a grand scale and calls into question whether the industrial paradigm is beneficial to tribes over the long term. n195 For many, however, even posing the question may be inappropriate. In the era of Self- Determination, Determination, no development occurs without tribal council approval, and there is a prevailing prevailing assumption that tribal councils approve only those projects that benefit the tribal economy without risking other important values. Secondguessing Secondguessing [*157] tribal council decisions, even in a broad policy context, may affront contemporary notions of tribal sovereignty. Although the concern is valid, nevertheless, nevertheless, the constraints faced by tribal councils in making economic decisions warrant inquiry, particularly in the context of trust analysis. The notion of tribal selfdetermination selfdetermination rests on a basic presumption that decisions are freely made throughout the full arena of tribal decision-making. At least in the economic realm this assumption ignores the constraints facing tribes in the modern economy. Many tribes lack the basic economic freedom which is the presumed hallmark of the United States' capitalist system of free enterprise. Impoverished and sometimes desperate for any source of income, some tribal councils will accept unfavorable--and unfavorable--and in some cases repugnant--corporate offers of development, regardless of the consequences to their society. society. n196 Many tribes entertain offers of strip mining, uranium production, and waste disposal despite the severe health, safety, environmental, social, social, and economic effects, simply because there is no other perceived alternative. alternative. n197 Lack of economic freedom is a familiar mark of exploitation, n198 yet it

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 64 / 145 ] persists [*158] in Indian Country behind a cheerful veil of tribal self-determinat self-determination. ion. n199 Because of severe economic dependency, tribes may find their options unreasonably, if not coercively, dictated by the preferences preferences of economically dominant non-Indian parties.


Wind AdvantageAd vantage-T Tribal Wind W ind Solves Solve s Energy Energ y Crisis Crisi s Tribal lands could meet the entire nation’s electricity needs with wind power-federal incentives are key. Rob Capriccioso 4/11 (2008, Indian Country Today, "Tribes look for federal wind energy incentives", http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/04/11/tribes-look-for-federal-wind-energy-incentives/ ) The wind energy setbacks in Congress have been especially disappointing to some tribes, since their lands often have some of the highest wind resource potential in the nation. Research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory indicates indicates that many of the windiest areas in the U.S. are located close to and on reservations. reservat ions. The laboratory has estimated that the total tribal wind generation potential is about 535 billion kwh per year, or 14 percent of the total U.S. electric generation in 2004. South Dakota alone is capable of producing 566 gigawatts of electrical power from wind, which is the equivalent of 52 percent of the nation’s electricity demand. Wind energy potential is also great in tribe-rich states including Montana, Minnesota and Wyoming. ”We have always known that we have some of the best wind energy resources in the country,” said Renville, and recent wind measurement assessments have confirmed that assumption. His tribe is currently preparing to find a partner to help them harness wind energy and ultimately sell it to electric companies. Renville expects that the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe will soon be in the position to install up to 50 wind turbines in an effort to diversify its economy. Thus far, the tribe has funded all of its wind energy efforts on its own.

Indigenous peoples and protected lands have enough wind to provide most of the nations energy. Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network/International Indian Treaty Council, 2006, UN Commission on Sustainable Development Development 14 th Session, “Meeting Growing Needs for Energy Services through Increased Use of Renewable Energy July 8, 2008, ”

http://www.sdissues.net/SDIN/uploads/CSD%2014%20IP%20Intervention%20%5BWIND%20RESOUR CES%5D%20Wednesday%20Afternoon%20Rm%204%2 CES%5D%20Wednesday%20A fternoon%20Rm%204%20May%203%20(FINAL).doc 0May%203%20(FINAL).doc Within the United States our Indigenous network is working with other ot her Indigenous organizations and tribes in pursuing alternative clean clean energy development as our contribution to address these critical issues of global warming that is caused by the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 75% of the electricity demand in the lower 48 th parallel of the U.S. could be produced by wind resources in a region we call the Great Plains, Plains, which is a rural area area of the U.S. The wind power potential for twelve of our Indigenous tribes in the Great Plains states of North and South Dakota alone, has the potential to exceed 250 gigawatts of power. Renewable energy development within the indigenous territories of both the U.S. and Canada can help our indigenous tribes in the development of sustainable homeland economies, as well as providing energy security to the country at large.

Tribal nations could generate enough wind power to eradicate all fossil fuel burning electricity. Awehali, 2006 (Brian Awehali June 5, 2006 Brian is LiP Founder and Editor-in-Chief http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featawehali_nativefutures.htm accessed July 7, 2008) Tribal lands also contain enormous amounts of alternative energy. “Wind blowing through Indian reservations in just four northern Great Great Plains states could support almost 200,000 megawatts of wind power,” Winona LaDuke told Indian Country Today in March 2005, “Tribal landholdings in the southwestern US…could generate enough power to eradicate all fossil fuel burning power plants in the US.” The questions to be answered now are: what sort of energy will Indian lands produce, who will make that decision, and who will end up benefiting from the production? According to Theresa Rosier, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, “increased “increased energy development in Indian and Alaska Native communities could help the Nation have more reliable homegrown energy supplies.” This, she says, is “consistent with the President’s National Energy Policy to secure America’s energy future. ”Rosier’s statement conveys quite a lot about how the government and the energy sector intend to market the growing shift away from dependence on foreign energy. The idea that “America’s energy future” should be linked to having “more reliable homegrown energy supplies” can be found in native energy-specific energy-specific legislation that has already passed into law. law. What this line of thinking fails to

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 66 / 145 ] take into account is that Native America is not the same as US America. The domestic “supplies” “supplies” in question belong to sovereign sovereign nations, not to the United States or its energy sector.

Wind Advantage-Wind Eases Dependence on Coal Wind energy decreases fossil fuel f uel consumption and solves emissions and environmental problems Zaidi 2007 [Kamaal, J.D. Candidate, University of Tulsa, 11 Alb. L. Envtl. Outlook 198, ARTICLE: WIND ENERGY AND ITS IMPACT ON FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PLANNING: POWERING RENEWABLE ENERGY IN CANADA AND ABROAD, lexis] The global wind energy industry is growing at a rapid pace. n204 From a purely economic perspective, producing wind energy helps reduce the high costs of electricity consumption. n205 Fossil fuels represent the traditional means of producing energy, but given the finiteness of this resource, resource, the high levels of pollution it produces, and the rapid rise in consumption costs from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, the advent of cheaper and more efficient wind energy tools like wind turbines are proving to be an attractive alternative . n206 While some forms of wind of wind energy are more costly to apply than [*232] conventional means (such as with offshore wind projects), the high demand for electricity consumption is causing conventional energy costs to rise at a rapid rate. n207 In contrast, wind energy costs

are declining due to the t he improved technological advancements advancements in producing more efficient wind energy production from wind turbine engines. n208 Governments, industries, and consumers are beginning to realize the potential of wind benefits associated with renewable energy extraction and application. n209 From an environmental perspective, the use of wind energy greatly greatly reduces the adverse effects of land and air pollution, while conserving local habitats by lessening the impact on wildlife. n210 It is thus important to examine some global approaches in applying wind energy as an important renewable alternative.

Wind energy could ease our dependence on coal-fired power for electricity. electricity. Aslam, writer for One World, 2006 (Abid, Problem: Foreign Foreign Oil, Answer: Blowing in the Wind?, accessed on 7/8/2008, http://us.oneworld.net/node/130133) In particular, ''wind energy is emerging as a centerpiece centerpiece of the new energy economy because it is abundant, inexpensive, inexpensive, inexhaustible, widely distributed, clean, clean, and climate-benign,'' climate-benign,'' meaning that it does not add to global warming, said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. Scientists blame global warming for increases in storms, floods, and droughts as well as the spread of tropical diseases in temperate zones. Last year, U.S. wind-generating capacity grew 36 percent to 9,149 megawatts. It could expand by another 50 percent this year, Brown said. According to Brown, a pioneer in his field, enough wind energy can be harnessed from three states--North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas--to satisfy national electricity needs. All at falling prices. The cost of wind-generated electricity electricity has fallen from 38 cents per kilowatt-hour in the early 1980s to 4-6 cents today, Brown said. Indeed, many consumers of 'green electricity'--wind energy, energy, for the most part--now pay less for their electricity than do customers using conventional power. power. ''When Austin Energy, the publicly owned utility in Austin, Texas, launched its GreenChoice program in 2000, customers opting for green electricity electricity paid a premium,'' said Brown. ''During the fall of 2005, climbing natural gas prices

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 67 / 145 ] pulled conventional electricity costs above those of wind-generated wind-generated electricity.'' electricity.'' ''This crossing of the cost lines in Austin and several other communities is a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy energy economy,'' he added. Austin Energy buys wind-generated wind-generated electricity under 10-year, fixed-price contracts and passes this stable price on to its GreenChoice subscribers, Brown explained. explained. Among customers signing up for the option were corporate majors Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, IBM, Samsung, and 3M. In the public sector, the Round Rock, Texas school district expects to save local taxpayers $2 million over 10 years by switching to green electricity, electricity, Brown said. Despite media coverage that has focused on opposition to large wind turbine installations in places like Cape Cod, he added, most locales have welcomed the technology and commercial wind farms have been set up in 30 states. He cited the example of upstate New York, where dairy farmers in Lewis County near Lake Ontario embraced the 195-turbine Maple Ridge Wind Farm--and the $5,000-$10,000 annual royalty offered offered for each of the turbines on their land, which they still could use for pasture or other productive purposes. ''Rural communities welcome wind farms because they provide income to farmers and ranchers, skilled jobs, cheap electricity, and additional tax revenue to upgrade schools and maintain roads,'' said Brown. Policymakers in Washington could aid the growth of renewable energy--and help America outgrow its oil dependence--by preserving or enhancing incentives such as the production tax credit, aimed at offsetting subsidies to fossil fuels and nuclear power, Brown said.

The US could decrease dependence on fossil f ossil fuels with wind power. power. China Daily, 2006 (“WIND, SOLAR SOL AR ENERGIES NOW A MA M ATCH FOR OIL AND COAL”, accessed on 7/8/2008, 7/ 8/2008, LexisNexis) LexisNexis ) Renewable resources currently provide more than 6 per cent of total US energy, but that figure could increase rapidly in the years ahead, according to a new report. Many of the new technologies that harness renewables are, or soon will be, economically competitive with fossil fuels. Dynamic growth rates are driving down costs and spurring rapid advances in technologies. The "American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security report, released by the Worldwatch Institute and the Centre for American Progress said since 2000, global wind energy generation has more than tripled; solar cell production has risen six-fold; production of fuel ethanol from crops have more than doubled; and bio-diesel production has expanded nearly four-fold. Annual global investment in "new" renewable energy has risen almost six-fold since 1995, with cumulative investment over this period nearly $180US billion. "With oil prices soaring, the security risks of petroleum dependence growing, and the environmental costs of today's f uels becoming more apparent, the country faces compelling reasons reasons to put these technologies to use on a larger scale," notes the report. Some of the findings include: The United States boasts some of the world's best renewable energy resources, resources, which have the potential to meet a rising share of the nation's energy demand. All but four US states now have incentives in place to promote renewable energy, while more than a dozen have enacted new renewable energy laws in the past few years, and four states strengthened their targets in 2005. California gets 31 per cent of its electricity from renewable resources; 12 per cent of this comes from non-hydro sources such as wind and geothermal energy. Texas now has the country's largest collection of wind generators. The United States led the world in wind energy installations in 2005. Despite strong public support and rapidly rising interest in renewable renewable technologies, the United States has not kept up with the rapid growth in the sector globally over the past decade. If the United States is to join the world leaders in renewable renewable energy among them Germany, Spain, and Japan it will need world-class energy policies based on a sustained and consistent policy framework at the local, state, and national levels.


Wind Advantage-Wind Cleaner Than Fossil Fuels Wind is the cleanest form of energy-doesn’t use fuel, emit CO2, or produce waste. Zaidi 2007 [Kamaal, J.D. Candidate, University of Tulsa, 11 Alb. L. Envtl. Outlook 198, ARTICLE: WIND ENERGY AND ITS IMPACT ON FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PLANNING: POWERING RENEWABLE ENERGY IN CANADA AND ABROAD, lexis] Wind energy is regarded as "green" technology because it produces no air pollutants or greenhouse gases, and thus has little impact on the environment. n47 Therefore , wind energy neither uses any source of fuel, nor produces toxic or radioactive waste . n48 Wind farms have had some impact on specific bird and [*208] bat populations. n49 However, as long as an appropriate site is located, the capture of wind energy also poses little threat to damaging surrounding ecosystems , including wildlife and fauna and flora. n50 Wind farming is popular among farmers because they can still grow crops and graze livestock on their land with little interference from wind turbines. n51 Using wind energy instead of conventional fossil fuels to power approximately 200 homes would leave around 900,000 kilograms of coal in the ground and reduce annual greenhouse emissions by 2,000 tonnes. n52 In the context of global environmental reforms like the Kyoto Protocol (The Protocol), harnessing renewable forms of energy such as wind becomes a crucial step in meeting broad objectives of sustainable resource resource development . n53 The Protocol was a global agreement ratified in 1997 by developed nations, in response to the increasing demands of renewable energy use and high rates of industrialized pollution. n54 The Protocol curbs greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and contributes to global climate change. [*209] While Canada signed the Protocol, Protocol, other industrialized countries, including many traditional energy producers, were skeptical of the threat posed by global warming. n55 Indeed, commentators debate the costs and benefits of the Protocol, and whether there is a dramatic shift in climate change. n56 Despite this, searching for renewable energy sources is a high priority for nations striving to change their methods of extracting and using natural resources, while achieving economic self-sufficiency and price controls on soaring energy costs. n57

Wind is the best clean alternative to fossil fuels. Wiesner 2007 [Jared, JD Candidate, William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, Winter, 31 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol'y Rev. 571, NOTE: A Grassroots Vehicle for Sustainable Energy: The Conservation Reserve Program & Renewable Energy, lexis] wind turbines provide an attractive form of energy because they are clean . n224 Unlike electrical energy produced from fossil fuels , energy produced by turbines comes from a naturally clean source. n225 Thus, the numerous undesirable undesirable emissions that accompany the use of fossil fuels can be avoided when a wind turbine is used instead . n226 On a political level, the use of wind of wind turbines as a source of electricity falls in line with this nation's From an environmental perspective,

recently enhanced energy policy goals. n227 Electrical energy from wind can be produced within the United States, States, and there is no doubt the United States State s has a plentiful supply of wind of wind.. n228 Wind is also renewable because it is derived from the sun

and thus unsusceptible to the problem of depletion that faces finite fuels.



Wind Advantage-AT: No Demand for Wind Power High demand for wind power now RACHEL LAYNE AND CHRISTOPHER MARTIN, Bloomberg News, March 13, 2008 The Gazette (Montreal), “Wind power sales soar”, July 8, 2008. Lexis Nexis General Electric Co. and Vestas Wind Systems AS, the world's two biggest wind-turbine makers, are reaping benefits from record orders orders by U.S. utilities racing to add generating capacity even as they face the loss of subsidies. GE, Vestas and Siemens AG stand to gain, although the extension of the production tax credit, due to expire in December, is stalled in the U.S. Congress. Four years ago, the last time the credit wasn't renewed, orders came came to a near standstill. standstill. Now, rising rising natural gas prices prices and state state greenhouse-emis greenhouse-emission sion laws are fuelling a surge in demand for wind power, which accounts for 30 per cent of new generating capacity and might boost GE's wind-turbine wind-turbine sales sales 25 per cent to $6 billion billion this year. year. Xcel Energy Energy Inc., the biggest U.S. provider of wind power, is buying 67 GE turbines for a Minnesota wind farm because the state requires requires it to get almost almost one-third one-third of its power from non-polluting sources. sources. That will help help GE reach reach operating operating income margins of 17 per cent on wind turbines based on this year's sales, as much as five percentage points greater than those of Danish competitor Vestas. Vestas. Wind is the fastest-growing unit at GE Energy, the world's biggest power-plant equipment maker. "Customers "Custome rs are giving billions of dollars of orders already because they're afraid afraid they're they're going to lose their spot in line," line," said said John Krenicki, Krenicki, who runs runs GE's energy energy division. GE posted more than $4.5 billion in wind-turbine sales last year, the most since it bought the business in 2002 for less than $300 million million from Enron Enron Corp. GE's total revenue last year year was $172.7 billion. billion. GE, which which became the biggest U.S. supplier last year with 45 per cent of the market, has announced $1.7 billion in orders since Feb. 28, including including its second second billion-dollar billion-dollar contract contract since November with with Invenergy Invenergy Wind LLC. Chicago-based Invenergy has developed wind farms for such companies as MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the utility owned by Warren Warren Buffett's Buffett' s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Operating profit margins at GE's wind unit, now "mid-single "mid-sing le digit," might widen to at least 10 per cent as more turbines are installed and service contracts signed, signed, said Nicole Parent, Parent, a Credit Suisse analyst. "In our universe, GE is the best way to play the alternative energy end market, particularly as it becomes a bigger portion of GE's total portfolio," Parent wrote in a Feb. 11 research research note. She predicts predicts the shares shares will will rise 23 per cent in the the next 12 months. months. GE Wind's profit profit margin margin will eventually be about $1 billion, vice-chairman vice-chairman John Rice told an investor conference last month. If it reaches that this year, when sales are are forecast to rise to $6 billion, the profit margin would be 17 per cent. Krenicki said global wind margins should improve two percentage points this year. Vestas said earnings margins this year before interest and tax will will be 10 to 12 per per cent. Since 2004, GE's wind-turbine wind-turbine production production has increased six-fold and sales have quadrupled. U.S. utilities last year added wind turbines producing an estimated 5,244 megawatts, a 45-per-cent increase, the American Wind Energy Association said. Installations this year might equal last year's record as companies rush to finish projects before the credit expires, expires, the Washington-based trade organization said.

Wind is an economically feasible option Runge and Tiffany 7 C. Ford (Professor of Economics and Law @ UMinn) and Douglas (Research fellow in econ @ UMinn). 1/1/7. “Re-Examining the Production Tax Credit for Wind Power: An Assessment of Policy Options. Online. Although wind is regarded by many as a minor energy source, it has provided power to people for thousands of years by filling sails, and was captured for power mills and waterworks many centuries ago, essentially by combining the idea of a sail with a rotating turbine. Faced Faced with growing costs for hydrocarbon-based hydrocarbon-based fuels and legal and waste-disposal problems for nuclear fuels, wind appears increasingly attractive. With total U.S. energy consumption projected to increase faster than production through 2025, leading to increases increases in net energy imports from 27 percent of total consumption in 2003 to 38 percent in 2025, the importance of domestic renewables, including wind, will grow.2 Apart from a growing dependence on foreign energy, CO2 emissions by the United States are projected to increase increase from 5,789 million metric tons (mmt) in 2003 to 8,062 mmt in 2025, an average annual increase increase of 1.5 percent.3 Wind power produces little or no CO2 or other emissions, representing a clean alternative to fossil fuels. Wind energy is therefore a potentially significant investment in both energy security and reduced dependence dependence on imported fuels, as well as a response to the environmental environmental damages and climate disruptions increasingly increasingly linked to fossil fuel consumption. In addition, wind energy can help promote rural development and employment. In states like

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 71 / 145 ] North Dakota, for example (which ranks 1st in development potential but 13th in state level production), each 1,000 megawatts of wind capacity is estimated to generate $1 billion in capital investment, $5.3 million in annual property taxes, taxes, and nearly 400 indirect and secondary jobs.


Wind AdvantageAd vantage-T Tribal Involvement I nvolvement Solves Global Warming Tribal involvement in is key to spurring action on global warming. Donnelly, Staff writer for the Boston Globe, June 17, 2007 (John, “Indians speak forcefully on climate US tribes join discourse on global warming”, accessed accessed on 7/7/2008, LexisNexis) "It's August color," he said of the tea-colored tea-colored river. river. "It's not normal." The Mohawk Indian, along with members of five other Native American tribes, was preparing for a sacred ceremony by the river to pray for "Earth Mother." Mother." He said the planet was reacting to the overwhelming overwhelming amount of pollution humans have produced that caused changes around the globe, even in the river at his doorstep. "Earth Mother is fighting back - not only from the four winds but also from underneath," he said. "Scientists call it global warming. We We call it Earth Mother getting angry." In recent months, some Native American leaders have spoken out more forcefully from New Hampshire to California about the danger of climate change from greenhouse gases, joining a growing national discourse on what to do about the warming planet. Scientists have documented documented climate change, but Native Americans speak of it in spiritual terms and remind others that t heir elders prophesized environmental environmental tragedy many generations ago. Those who study Native American culture believe their presence in the debate could be influential. They point to "The Crying Indian," one of the country's most influential publicservice TV ads. In the spot, actor Iron Eyes Cody, in a buckskin suit, paddles a canoe up a trash-strewn trash-strewn urban creek, then stands by a busy highway cluttered with litter. litter. The ad ends with a close-up of Cody, shedding a single tear after a passing motorist throws trash at his feet. The "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcement, which aired in the 1970s and can be seen on YouTube.com, helped usher in landmark environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. "Within the last six months, there's just been a loss of faith in the insistence [by some politicians] that global warming isn't happening, and that we have nothing to do with it," said Shepard Krech III, an anthropology and environmental studies professor at Brown University. Krech is the author of "The Ecological Indian," which examines the relationship between Native Americans and nature. Though many citizens will look for "a consensus in the scientific community" to convince them of climate change, Krech said, others will seek "perspectives from Indian society ... Native Americans have a rich tradition that springs from this belief they have always been close to the land, and always treated the land well." At a United Nations meeting last month, several Native American leaders spoke at a session called "Indigenous Perspectives Perspectives on Climate Change." Also in May, tribal representatives from Alaska and northern Canada - where pack ice has vanished earlier and earlier each spring - traveled to Washington to press their case. In California, Minnesota, New Mexico, and elsewhere, tribes have used some of their casino profits to start alternative or renewable energy projects, including biomass-fueled power plants. Here in the White Mountains, where Native Americans have become integrated in the broader society, some have questioned the impact of local development. Jan development. Jan Osgood, an Abenaki Indian who lives in Lincoln, N.H., and who attended the sacred ceremony on the Baker River, said she worries about several proposals that would clear acres of national forest on Loon Mountain for luxury homes. "It breaks my heart," she said. She approached Ted Sutton, Lincoln's town manager, about the project and gave him a book called "Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence," a collection of writings by North American Indians that detailed the history of the US government's unfulfilled unfulfilled promises to their tribes. The gift spurred their friendship, and an exchange exchange of ideas of how to ensure development does not ruin the mountains. After reading reading the book, Sutton said he agrees with the Native American philosophy of life: Use nature respectfully, never taking more than is needed. "American Natives have been telling us all along that this was going to happen to the earth," Sutton said. "They were telling us hundreds of years ago that what we were doing [to the environment] environment] would come back and haunt us. They have been proven right. But hopefully we've started to listen to them and move back to some better management of our lives."


Wind Advantage-Coal Bad for the Environment Coal is uniquely bad for the environment McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Long known as a major source of air pollution, coal-fired power plants are also major contributors to global warming, accounting for almost 40 percent of our nation’s carbon dioxide pollution (CO2), the global warming pollutant.3 But the truth is that the pollution created by generating electricity electricity from coal does not start or o r stop at the power plant. It stretches all the way from the coal mine to long after coal is burned and the electricity has been used in our homes ho mes and businesses. Mining and burning coal scars lungs, tears up the land, pollutes water, devastates communities, and makes global warming worse.

The natural landscape is destroyed by coal mining m ining McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Coal mining can cause irreparable harm to the natural landscape, both during mining and after. Trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area, destroying forests and wildlife habitat, encouraging soil erosion and floods, and stirring up dust pollution that can cause respiratory problems problems in local communities. In mountaintop removal mining, a coal company literally blasts apart apart the tops of mountains to reach thin seams of coal buried b uried below. below. Underground mining, including an intensive method known as longwall mining, leaves behind empty underground spaces which which can collapse and cause the land above to sink. Known as subsidence, this process can cause serious structural damage to homes, buildings, and roads when the land collapses beneath them.5 It can also lower the water table and change the flow of groundwater and streams.. streams..

Coal pollution uniquely affects minorities McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Many scientific studies have shown that communities of color are disproportionately exposed to harmful air pollution, including pollution from coal-fired power plants. Over half of the nation’s population lives in counties that have unhealthy levels of air pollution like soot and smog.64 Furthermore, Furthermore, one study found that 60 percent of Latinos and 50 percent of African- Americans live in areas that are failing two or more national air quality standards, as compared compared to only 33 percent of whites.65 One of the contributing factors may be that communities of color and low income communities tend to live in areas that are closer to harmful sources of pollution. African-Americans are more likely to live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant.66 AfricanAmericans and Latinos also tend to live closer to ot her sources of toxic pollution like waste waste sites and bus depots, which makes them more likely to develop health problems from air pollution.67 In addition to living closer to coal-fired power plants, African- Americans also have one of the highest rates of asthma among any cultural group, and are three times as likely as whites to die from asthma.68, 69 Numerous studies have shown that smog and soot pollution can trigger asthma attacks and increase the need for hospitalizations.70 hospitalizations.70

Coal plants produce mercury pollution McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 74 / 145 ] (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Additionally, coal-fired coal-fired power plants emit large quantities of toxic air pollutants such as chromium, lead, arsenic, hydrogen chloride, and mercury. In fact, they are one of the largest sources of man-made mercury pollution in the U.S.75 After mercury is released released in the exhaust, it enters the air and then rains down into our streams, lakes, and other waters where it poisons the fish and seafood that eventually make their way to our dinner tables.


Wind Advantage-Coal Bad for the Environment Mercury pollution uniquely harms Tribal Tribal lands McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) One group that may be at particular risk from mercury pollution exposure is American Indians, especially individuals who live on reservations reservations or in communities that depend on fish for subsistence. 83 Studies of the Seminoles, Chippewa, and other native groups show that American Indians tend to eat many more fish meals per year than average, putting them and their families at greater risk from mercury pollution.84 In addition to being a staple of the diet, fish and fishing among indigenous groups also may serve as part of a strong cultural identity, connecting the individuals with the land and the seasons. For instance, in Florida, Seminole Indians living near the Everglades continue to rely on fish as a major part of their traditional diet, even though studies have linked mercury pollution to the death of endangered Florida panthers and local bird populations. 85 Another example is in the Midwest, where Chippewa Indians depend heavily on fish for cultural identity, including during annual ritual ceremonies.86 Every year the seasonal break up of ice is celebrated through a communitywide feast of walleye fish that are caught during a big spearfishing event.87 event.87 Fish that is not eaten at the feast is often taken home and frozen for future meals.88 In both examples, testing testing has shown that people in these areas who eat a lot of fish have mercury levels well above the safe limit. One sample from the Chippewa indicated that 36 percent were at risk.


Wind Advantage-Shift to Alternative Energy Inevitable The shift away from oil to alternative energy inevitable-it’s a question of when, not if Woods, Staff Writer for the Times, July 6, 2008 (Richard, “How “How China’s thirst for oil can save the planet”, accessed on 7/8/2008, http://business.timesonline.c http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business o.uk/tol/business/industry_sector /industry_sectors/natural_r s/natural_resources/ esources/article4277055.e article4277055.ece) ce) These days even diehard petrolheads petrolheads know that in the long run there is no choice but to find an alternative to the black gold that has lubricated the world for more than a century. All sorts of initiatives for clean, green and renewable energy are being supercharged by oil prices that hit a new record last week of $146 a barrel – and may well go higher. Among mainstream analysts, predictions of the price reaching $200 are unexceptional. Last month Gazprom, the Russian oil giant, suggested it would hit $250 next year. The maverick energy guru Robert Hirsch, who forecast the present oil squeeze, has suggested the price could reach $500 a barrel within three to five years. Gas prices are also soaring and coal, tho ugh cheap and plentiful, is one of the worst emissions. sources of CO2 What is bad news for businesses and consumers, however, is good for investors in green energy. Vast sums of money are pouring into technologies that until relatively recently were the preserve of niche businesses and environmental campaigners. This year should see a record £73 billion or more invested in “clean technology” despite t he credit crunch, according to a report published last week by the consultants New Energy Finance for the United Nations.“The green energy gold rush is attracting legions of modern-day prospectors in all parts of the globe,” said Achim Steiner, head of the UN environment programme.

Increased oil prices make the shift to alternative energy inevitable. Business and Financial News on 2 June 2008 (“Transition to alternative energy is inevitable”, accessed on 7/8/2008, http://www.lifeisbusiness.com/article/347) Prompt rise in prices for oil has for the first time for long time created threat of sharp delay of rates of economic growth and has provoked increase in demand practically to all alternative energy sources. Moreover, some experts mark, that the current power policy of many countries can in long-term prospect very strongly affect the future of the Earth and even to alter in the further economic and geopolitical balance. Now the future depends on those decisions, which are accepted now. now. Authorities of the developed and developing countries should pay more attention to a problem of demand for oil as in the further it is impossible to exclude an opportunity of an energy crisis. Meantime, Meantime, on a background of sharp growth of demand for oil and mineral oil, the prices for this raw material have jumped up practically twice, and last week for the first time in history have overcome a mark 135 doll./barr. And, in market participants’ opinion, while demand for oil from developing countries (for example, China) will grow, it is not necessary to expect reductions of prices on this raw material. Already now the prices are on record-breaking high marks and not in the best way affect consumers. Already now demand for alternative energy is much higher than several years ago.


Wind AdvantageAd vantage-A AT: Wind Turbines Kill Birds B irds Most birds die of natural collisions—wind turbines kill virtually no birds. Over the past fifteen years, a number of reports have appeared in the popular press about wind turbines killing birds. Some writers have gone so far as to dub wind generators "raptor-matics" "raptor-matics" and "cuisinarts of the sky". Unfortunately, Unfortunately, some of these articles have been used as "evidence" to sto p the construction of a wind generator in someone's back yard. The reports of dead birds create a dilemma. Do wind generators really kill birds? If so, how serious is the problem? A confused public oftentimes does not know what to believe. Many people participate in the U.S.'s second largest past time, bird watching. Other's are truly concerned about the environment and what they perceive as yet another assault on our fragile ecosystem. Unwittingly, they rally behind the few ill-informed ill-informed obstructionists who have realized that the perception of bird mortality due to wind turbines is a hot button issue, with the power to bring construction to a halt. Birds live a tenuous existence. existence. There are any number of things that can cause their individual deaths or collective demise. For example, bird collisions with objects in nature are a rather common occurrence, and young birds are quite clumsy when it comes to landing on a perch after flight. As a result, result, about 30% of total first-year bird deaths are are attributed to natural collisions. collisions. By far, the largest causes causes of mortality among birds include loss of habitat due to human infringement, environmental environmental despoliation, and collisions with man-made objects. Since wind turbines fall into the last category, it is worthwhile to examine other human causes of avian deaths and compare these to mortality from wind turbines.

Birds dieing is non-unique-they crash into telecommunications towers. American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html //BC This is not news, as bird collisions with lighted television and radio towers have been documented for over 50 years. Some towers are responsible for very high episodic fatalities. fatalities. One television transmitter tower in Eau Claire, WI, was responsible responsible for the deaths of over 1,000 birds on each of 24 consecutive nights. A "record "record 30,000 birds were estimated killed on one night" at this same tower. 7 In Kansas, 10,000 birds were killed in one night by a telecommunications tower. 8 Numerous large large bird kills, while not as dramatic as the examples cited above, continue to occur across the country at telecommunication tower sites. The number of telecommunication towers in the U.S. currently exceeds 77,000, and this number could easily double by 2010. The rush to construction is being driven mainly by our use of cell phones, and to a lesser extent by the impending switch to digital television and radio. Current Current mortality estimates due to telecommunication towers are 40 to 50 million birds per year. 9 The proliferation of these towers in the near future will only exacerbate exacerbate this situation.

Non-unique—cats kill more birds than wind turbines. American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html //BC Cats, both feral and housecats, housecats, also take their toll on birds. A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report states that, "recent research suggests that rural free-ranging domestic cats in Wisconsin may be killing between 8 and 217 million birds each year. The most reasonable estimates indicate that 39 million birds are killed in the state each year."

Wind turbines kill .01% of birds. Even with an exponential increase in turbines the bird population wouldn’t be anymore threatened American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html //BC This report states that its intent is to "put avian mortality associated with windpower development development into perspective with other significant sources of avian collision mortality across the United States." 14 The NWCC reports that: "Based on current estimates, windplant related avian collision fatalities probably represent from 0.01% to 0.02% (i.e., 1 out of every 5,000 to 10,000) of the annual avian collision fatalities in the United

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 78 / 145 ] States."15 That is, commercial wind turbines cause the direct direct deaths of only 0.01% to 0.02% of all of the birds killed by collisions with man-made structures and activities in the U.S.


Wind AdvantageAd vantage-A AT: Wind Turbines Kill Bats B ats Wind turbines kill virtually no bats ever-statistics prove. American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html Bat populations are endangered by human activities in general. Disturbing or awakening hibernating bats disrupts their metabolism, often leading to starvation over winter. Pesticides in the insects that bats prey upon can accumulate in the fats that bats depend upon for overwintering or migration, resulting in massive bat die-offs. Finally, loss of habitat threatens bats similarly to the way that bird species are are endangered. endangered. But do wind turbines in particular threaten threaten bats? The interaction interaction of bats with wind turbines is, like many other behaviors that bats exhibit, not well understood. While there have been numerous studies centered around birds and wind turbines, relative few of these studies have included bats. The ones that have been done, however, suggest that wind turbines do not pose a significant threat to bat populations. One of these studies, "Synthesis and Comparison Comparison of Baseline Avian Avian and Bat Use, Raptor Nesting, and Mortality Information from Proposed and Existing Wind Developments," by WEST, Inc., released released December, 2002, concludes that "bat collision mortality during the breeding season is virtually non-existent, despite the fact that relatively relatively large numbers of bat b at species have been documented in close proximity to wind plants. These data suggest that wind plants do not currently impact resident resident breeding populations where they have been studied in the U.S."

Less than three bats die for every wind turbine-Y turbine-You can’t access your impact. American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.or http://www.awea.org/faq/sagril g/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.h lo/swbirds.html tml The Buffalo Ridge study concludes by putting a number on the bat mortality at from 2.45 to 3.21 bat fatalities per turbine, depending on location of the wind farm. The Kewaunee County report came up with similar results. Over the two-year span of that study, researchers documented 1.16 bat fatalities per turbine per year. year. Adjusting for possible sampling error could bring this number as high as 4.26 bat fatalities per turbine per year. Like the other studies, the Kewaunee County study found that the bulk of those killed by the wind turbines, over 90%, were migrating bats, not resident resident breeding populations.

Non-Unique-Bats crash into lighthouses tall buildings and towers. American Wind Energy Association 2003 “PUTTING “PUTTING WIND POWER'S EFFECT ON BIRDS IN PERSPECTIVE,” byline Mick Sagrillo July 8, 2008, http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html We do know that many bats, like birds, die due to collisions with "lighthouses, communications towers, tall buildings, power lines, and fences" (Buffalo Ridge report). But, as with birds, the number of fatalities due to wind turbines is extremely low compared to collisions with other man-made structures

You You can’t even fake an impact—there is no risk of population implications. Curry Kerlinger, consultant to the Wind Power Industry on Birds and Bats, 2008 “Bats and Power” accessed July 8, 2008, http://www.currykerlinger.com/bats.htm//BC Here's what we know about this issue: The numbers of bats involved are small at most wind plants, although in Minnesota and Wyoming moderate numbers numbers have been found. Many of the bats involved in collisions with wind turbines were were apparently migrating. migrating. About seven species of bats have been documented documented to collide with wind turbines. Bats involved are primarily primarily common, tree-dwelling bats with widespread widespread geographic distributions. distribu tions. Endangered or threatened species have not been involved. Population impacts seem unlikely. unlikely. Bat fatalities have not emerged emerged as a significant issue at wind plants plants in Europe. Migrating bats may turn turn off their “sonar” causing them to fly into towers. Small numbers of bats also collide with communication communication towers.


Water Advantage-Nuclear Power Depletes Water Resources Nuclear power plants deplete massive amounts of the nation’s water supply. James Kanter 2007 (May 20, International Herald Tribune, "Climate change puts nuclear energy into hot water", http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/africa/nuke.php?page=1) But there is a less well-known side of nuclear power: It requires great amounts of cool water to keep reactors operating at safe temperatures. That is worrying if the rivers and reservoirs which many power plants rely on for water are hot or depleted because of steadily rising air temperatures. temperatures. If temperatures temperatures soar above average this summer - let alone steadily increase in years to come, as many scientists predict - many nuclear plants could face a dilemma: Either cut output or break environmental rules, in either case hurting their reputation with customers and the public. Governments and the energy industry are just starting to grasp the vulnerabilities vulnerabilities of water-hungry water-hungry power plants. If the complications prove serious in countries where inland sources of water are growing scarce, where seafront nuclear stations are unwelcome or impractical and where alternative alternative cooling technologies are too expensive, it could take the bloom off of nuclear as a source of clean energy and leave it more unclear than ever where sizable new power supplies might come from. "We're going to have to solve the climate-change problem problem if we're going to have nuclear power, not the other way around," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Scientists. "As the climate warms up, nuclear power plants are less able to deliver," he said. France relies on nuclear power more than any other country and is held up by advocates of nuclear power as a model for how to generate enough cheap and reliable electricity to sell surpluses abroad while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. But global warming is exposing France to new risks. In countries like Australia, where the government is considering introducing nuclear power, and the United States, which gets about a fifth of its electricity from nuclear power, some officials and operators warn of similar pitfalls if plants are built in areas where there already are water shortages. Finding Finding enough water for nuclear plants "is front and center of everything we will do in the future," said Craig Nesbit, a spokesman at Exelon, a Chicago-based company operating the largest group of U.S. nuclear plants.


Water Advantage-Coal Power Pollutes Tribal Water Coal mining pollutes water McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Coal mining is frequently associated associated with water pollution, including acid mine drainage. One source of acid drainage is from gobs, or piles of waste coal and other rocks that are cast aside during mining.17 Another more common source of mine drainage is abandoned mines that fill with water that becomes acidic and mixes with heavy metals and minerals.18 When this toxic water leaks out, it combines com bines with groundwater and streams, causing water pollution and damaging soils. Acid mine drainage can harm plants, animals, and humans. For example, in Pennsylvania alone acid mine drainage has polluted more than 3,000 miles of streams and ground waters, which affects all four major river basins in the state.19 The toxic pollution has even led to places termed “no fish,” or streams where fish cannot survive because the water is so polluted. Acid mine drainage has also been a problem for the past two decades in western Maryland, where officials have documented 342leaks of toxic water and where a new discharge killed killed all of the fish in the Georges Creek in 2006.20 Coal preparation, or “washing,” is another source of water pollution. Coal preparation uses large quantities of water and chemicals to separate impurities from mined coal to make it easier to burn. Using anywhere from 20 to 40 gallons of water per ton of coal,21 coal washing separates out non-combustible components, which can be up to 50 percent of what is processed, and typically washes them away in a sludge known as slurry.22 Up to 90 million gallons of slurry are produced every year in the U.S.

Coal mining pollutes water McKeown, Master's degree in Anthropology and International Development from the George Washington University, 2007 (Alice, THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT COAL: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/coalreport.pdf )) Coal mining is frequently associated associated with water pollution, including acid mine drainage. One source of acid drainage is from gobs, or piles of waste coal and other rocks that are cast aside during mining.17 Another more common source of mine drainage is abandoned mines that fill with water that becomes acidic and mixes with heavy metals and minerals.18 When this toxic water leaks out, it combines com bines with groundwater and streams, causing water pollution and damaging soils. Acid mine drainage can harm plants, animals, and humans. For example, in Pennsylvania alone acid mine drainage has polluted more than 3,000 miles of streams and ground waters, which affects all four major river basins in the state.19 The toxic pollution has even led to places termed “no fish,” or streams where fish cannot survive because the water is so polluted. Acid mine drainage has also been a problem for the past two decades in western Maryland, where officials have documented 342leaks of toxic water and where a new discharge killed killed all of the fish in the Georges Creek in 2006.20 Coal preparation, or “washing,” is another source of water pollution. Coal preparation uses large quantities of water and chemicals to separate impurities from mined coal to make it easier to burn. Using anywhere from 20 to 40 gallons of water per ton of coal,21 coal washing separates out non-combustible components, which can be up to 50 percent of what is processed, and typically washes them away in a sludge known as slurry.22 Up to 90 million gallons of slurry are produced every year in the U.S.


Water Advantage-Nuclear Power Pollutes Tribal Water Uranium mining and nuclear power plants are polluting Tribal Tribal water reservoirs Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent, April 21, 21 , 2008. Indian Country Today, “Southwest tribes fight to halt new uranium mining”. July 9, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417110. A federal judge in early April blocked the British company Vane Minerals from continuing exploratory uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. The judgment was a victory for environmental environmental groups and for the 13 tribes that are affected by uranium mining in the western United States. But the renewed interest in an old mineral has tribal leaders on edge. At a congressional congression al field hearing in Flagstaff March 28, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. Jr. said Navajos ''do not want to sit by, ignorant of the effects of uranium mining, only to watch another generation generation of mothers and fathers fathers die.'' die.'' ''We are doing everything everything we can to speak out and do something about it,'' he continued. ''We do not want a new generation of babies born with birth defects. We will not allow our people to live with cancers and other disorders as faceless companies make profits only to declare bankruptcy and then walk away from the damage they have caused, regardless of the bond they have in place.'' Representatives from the Kaibab Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai and Hopi tribes also testified at the hearing, along with representatives from the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, local counties, counties , mining companies and the scientific community. community. The judge's ruling came as the result of a complaint against the Forest Service entered by the Sierra Club, the Grand Canyon Trust and the Center for Biologic Diversity. Diversity. The Southwest's Southwest 's recent uranium boom, caused by a worldwide interest in nuclearpowered alternatives alternatives to the dwindling supply of oil, has shot the price of uranium up to $136, from $10 in 1984, and lined the pockets of savvy investors and the treasuries treasuries of mining companies. companies. At least least five companies have recently applied for uranium mining permits in New Mexico, where the uranium reserves are estimated at 500 million pounds or more. more. Most of these reserves reserves are are on Navajo land. The nuclear nuclear power power fueled by uranium has been promoted by conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation as a clean and ''logical'' source of alternative alternative energy, and industry officials say the new mining activities could provide much needed needed income and jobs. But the Navajo and other tribes in the region are still struggling struggling from from the effects of the first uranium boom, from the 1950s to the 70s, when exposure brought brought cancer, birth defects and premature premature death to people who who worked worked in the mines as well as those who lived lived near them. Despite assurances by uranium mining companies that new mining techniques are safer than the ones used before, many tribal tribal leaders leaders are are not convinced. ''I've yet to see any kind of new technology that's that's safe that's going to protect the welfare of human beings and the t he environment.'' said Navajo tribal council member Amos Johnson. ''The legacy legacy of uranium mining has has left a devastating devastating impact impact on our people. people. We We have hundreds of abandoned mines where they've explored explored for uranium, and now some of those have been left open and have contaminated groundwater.'' groundwater.'' The Navajo Navajo have have attempted attempted to stop the surge in new uranium mining by by banning all all mining activities on their land in 2005. But an 1872 mining law has has made it easy for mining companies to stake their claims in the Southwest. The Forest Service has also used a process known as ''categorical exclusion,'' exclusion,'' introduced introduced by by the Bush administration, administration, to expedite expedite mining permits. permits. ''They will will probably resort to congressional congressional action to have indigenous sovereignty overruled, overruled, and we really hope that doesn't happen,'' happen,'' Johnson Johnson said. said. In March, March, Shirley Shirley addressed addressed a U.S. Senate committee to request request that the U.S. respect Navajo sovereignty and vowed to take ''any and all measures'' to prevent uranium mining on Navajo lands. Other Native nations have begun taking their own measures. measures. Last year, the All Indian Pueblo Council adopted a resolution against uranium mining in the Mount Taylor area of New Mexico, deploring the ''significant and irreparable cultural and religious damages that have resulted from the failure of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to consult with Acoma, the 19 Pueblos and other affected tribes'' prior prior to issuing mining mining permits. permits. Supai Waters, Waters, Keeper Keeper of the Secrets Secrets for the 650 Havasupai people who live inside the Grand Canyon, said Vane Minerals' exploratory mining near there had already resulted in ''high-grade ''high-grade splotches'' splotches'' that were visible in aerial aerial footage. Other mining mining activities activities have have invaded the the sacred sacred sites sites of many many of the region's region's tribes, tribes, including including the Hopi and the Paiutes, Paiutes, he said. said. The Havasupai are working to change their constitution to reflect stronger stronger language against uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, ''completely banning it - no mining, no extractions at all,'' Waters Waters said. He emphasized the importance of the region's Colorado River, which holds, in the oral tradition of many local tribes, not only sustenance but creation creation itself. itself. ''It is the sacred water that that gave birth birth to a lot of those tribes that live close close to it.'' Recent mining activities were already affecting the aquifers near the river, he said. ''We are unified to completely ban these detrimental developments that are going to be put on our sacred lands, all

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 83 / 145 ] the way from the west rim of the Grand Canyon to Blanding, Utah, to the Colorado River and Montezuma's ruins, to Prescott and Kingman, Arizona.''


Water Advantage-Nuclear Power Pollutes Tribal Water Uranium mining destroys Tribal water sources Rob Capriccioso, May 09, 2008 Indian Country Today, “A nuclear problem”. July 9, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417272. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given hope to a growing group of Natives from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Reservation in what's being called a classic ''David vs. Goliath'' battle for federal oversight involving a proposed expansion of a nearby uranium mine. mine. A three-judge three-judge panel from from the commission ruled in in late April that Native opponents to new developments on the Crow Butte Resources mine, located approximately 30 miles south of the reservation, reservation, raised valid arguments regarding regarding groundwater contamination and health issues. The panel called for oral arguments on the matter, as well as a hearing on o bjections to the foreign ownership of the mine, which is owned by the Canadian firm Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer. NRC's whopping whoppin g 130-page decision came as a result of Cameco's desire to expand expand the mine, which opened in 1991 and produces approximately 800,000 pounds of yellowcake uranium each year. Crowe Butte officials have been petitioning to renew their existing license, and have filed notices of intention to develop two new uranium mines. For several years, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe have monitored developments at the 2,100-acre Crow Butte site. Many have growing concerns that activities there are affecting the quality of water on their lands, perhaps even leading to higher cancer rates and increased health problems problems for children and elders. elders. ''The Nuclear Nuclear Regulatory Regulatory Commission has basically basically given us the right to fight for our rights,'' said Debra White Plume, director of Owe Aku/Bring Back the Way, Way, a nonprofit Lakota cultural group on Pine Ridge. She notes that raising funds to challenge Cameco has been difficult; lawyers have been working largely largely pro bono on behalf of opponents, but science experts have been costly to retain. NRC named Owe Aku and the Western Nebraska Resources Council, an environmental environment al advocacy group, as parties in the forthcoming hearings. Tribal leaders, including Chief Oliver Red Cloud and Chief Joe American Horse, have also made arguments against the proposed expansion, and the OST could eventually become a plaintiff in the case. Well-known Indian leaders, including Winona LaDuke, are supporting the efforts as well. well. Some opponents to the expansion believe that fractures fractures in underground rock allow the water water used in Cameco's mining process ultimately to end up mixing with water that people use for drinking and sanitation, thereby spreading contamination from one aquifer aquifer to others. others. Miners remove uranium by pumping water and bicarbonate into the ground; they then withdraw the solution and recover the mineral. Preliminary Preliminary scientific evidence suggests water near Pine Ridge contains contaminants associated with underground minerals and metals being disturbed, and more research is under way. way. ''It's ''It' s a desecration of Mother Earth,'' White Plume said. ''In the Lakota way of thought, water is sacred - it's our first tool, our first dwelling, our first medicine. It's a gift. Water Water is our relation, and it's our obligation to protect our relation.'' White Plume's argument might have legal footi ng under the ''Winters Doctrine,'' which serves to preserve Indian water rights. The OST also recently passed an ordinance declaring its land a nuclear-free zone, and leaders have promised to prosecute prosecute violators. ''Once you contaminate contaminate that groundwater groundwater,, you you cannot cannot recapture recapture that contamination,'' White Plume said. ''And we're going to live here - our future generations are going to live here here - and we are going to suffer the impacts of that contamination.'' contamination.'' Cameco officials insist their leach mining process is safe, noting that 100 to 200 feet of impermeable impermeable underground material separates aquifers near the Crow Butte mine from aquifers that are used to give water to people. They also say they closely monitor wells wells to detect and and fix any problems. problems. Regarding Regarding the NRC NRC ruling to further examine the expansion, Gord Struthers, a spokesman for Cameco, said the uranium company respects the regulatory process. ''We're ''We're committed committed to safe and sustainable sustainable operations,'' operations,'' he said. ''And we're following the process in good faith.'' Struthers added that that Cameco Cameco ''would ''would never never propose propose anything that wasn't wasn't entirely entirely safe and protective of people's health.'' After more scientific review, review, he expects there will be no question that the proposed expansion is safe. safe. But lawyers lawyers for the opponents to the expansion expansion think Cameco Cameco has has not being entirely forthcoming, and believe further NRC review will have dramatic consequences for the company. David Frankel, a lawyer representing the Western Nebraska Resources Council, said that there is no authority under federal law for a foreign-owned company, such as Cameco, to receive licenses to mine uranium in the U.S. ''It amounts to the illegal exportation of nuclear nuclear materials,'' materials,'' he he said, and added added that under the Atomic Energy Act, the government is authorized to regulate the transfer of nuclear materials under ''U.S. national interests.'' interests.'' ''It looks like our country's resources, resources, especially especially those in Indian country, country, are are being picked off by

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 85 / 145 ] foreign companies so that uranium can be sold on the market to the highest bidder,'' Frankel Frankel said. ''That's not so good for the U.S. because because it does pollute pollute our water, it does pollute our our environment.'' environment.'' If the Crow Butte mine is harming American Indians and others, others, it would be a violation violation of the law, law, according according to Frankel. rankel. ''This is an abusive situation. When people are wondering if they can safely go into sweat lodges, something is wrong.'' NRC officials said a decision on whether to permit the Crowe Butte mine expansion is still several months away. away.


Water Advantage-Methane Energy Pollutes Tribal Water Methane Mining sucks resources and destroys native water sources. Adrian Jawort, 2007 Indian Country Today, Today, “Northern Cheyenne lose at coalbed methane hearing”. July 9, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415785. Limited coalbed methane (CBM) development will be allowed in southeast Montana's Powder River Basin section bordering the Northern Cheyenne Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Reservation, according to a Sept. 11, 2 - 1 decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case stemming from 2005. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe Tribe had been against the encroaching encroaching development CBM mines surrounding the borders of their land, citing environmental environmental and cultural concerns. U.S. Judge Magistrate Richard Anderson said the Environmental Impact Statement had not analyzed the impact of coalbed methane mines sufficiently in 2005, and ordered ordered the Bureau of Land Management to prepare prepare a coalbed methane environmental environmental impact statement in April 2005. Anderson, however, said he'd permit the BLM to allow up to 500 wells while the new coalbed methane EIS was being prepared. Those wells were not allowed to be drilled pending the outcome of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe's Tribe's June 2005 emergency appeal. The coalbed methane EIS is expected to be completed by this winter, winter, according according to BLM spokesman Greg Albright. Chief Judge Judge Mary Schroeder felt the decision for CBM to be drilled drilled negated negated the National Environmental Policy Act. ''Allowing this this activity activity to take place before completion of the [EIS] is contrary to the core purpose of the NEPA, which is to ensure consideration of all alternatives before major government action is taken,'' Schroeder wrote. The Northern Cheyenne felt that perhaps due to heavy pressure to domestically develop natural resources, judgment was rushed for approval when the BLM hastily approved the drilling of areas next to the reservation without considering the cultural and environmental environmental implications that could could arise. arise. They also also feel there was no look into alternative alternative energy energy resources resources that that wouldn't include CBM, such such as perhaps wind, solar solar energy energy and and biofuels. biofuels. Northern Cheyenne Tribal President Eugene Little Coyote said, ''The tribe remains steadfast in its opinion that the National Environmental Policy Act process should be completed before any major federal action is taken. The tribe is confident that its position, as endorsed by the chief judge for the 9th Circuit in her dissenting opinion, will ultimately be upheld.'' As the coalbed coalbed methane mines throughout north-central Wyoming's Powder River Valley brought in natural gas energy for the United States and great profits to the state, CBM companies looked further north towards the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation Reservation in southeastern southeastern Montana for rights to drill that that could include incentives incentives for the tribe. ''The tribal council has a tough job in balancing balancing these these needs with BIA and IHS budget cuts and the tribe's long-standing tradition of protecting the environment and their sacred homeland,'' homeland,'' noted tribal member Dion Killsback, an associate of Holland & Knight LLP who serves on the Northern Cheyenne Tribe's general counsel. ''That is why the tribal council, in collaboration collaborat ion with the tribe's natural resource, environmental, cultural, legal and economic departments are currently developing a comprehensive comprehensiv e energy development developme nt policy to address all these concerns,'' concerns,' ' Killsback said. After a 2006 letter of intent from the Great Bear Corp. of Oklahoma proposed coalbed methane and regular coal mining, and was approved, it was then brought to the Northern Cheyenne tribal membership last November. They voted 941 - 365 against the development of coalbed methane, but approved an initiative that would develop coal reserves. Although the coal mining initiative was approved, Little Coyote stated in a press release that they would have a ''develop comprehensive comprehensive development policy'' in regards regards to its own mineral resources, and no official action has has even taken place for that yet. CBM mining mining is done by bringing underground underground reservoir reservoir water to the surface in order to depressurize it. Then methane is able to escape from the coal bed on which the water sits and settle in the underground air. air. The extraction extraction of underground water is a major issue for the tribe since it may affect their own underground springs that also supply local lakes with water, as is the disposing of salinated water into the Tongue River. According to a recent Montana State University study, there are three wells to extract water per 80 acres, and each well pulls out an average of 17,280 gallons of water per day. day. The court's court' s current decision left it unclear to all parties whether drilling would ensue, pending another possible appeal.


Water Advantage-Water Shortages Hurt Economy/Agriculture Water scarcity is one of the primary detriments to the U.S. economy-only significant policy changes can reverse the trend Keith Schneider, regular contributor to the NYT, 7/9 (2008, Corporate Social Responsibility News, "U.S. Faces Era of Water Scarcity", http://www.csrwire.com/News/12592.html) Freshwater scarcity is proving to be the new risk to local economies and regional development plans across the country. Just like the rising price of gasoline, the expanding number of home foreclosures, stagnant incomes, and several other stubborn 21st-century trends, water is imposing limits on how America grows."So the business-as-usual future is a bad one,” Gleick continued. "We know that in five years we'll be in trouble, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If there were more education and awareness about water issues, if we started to really think about the natural limits about where humans and ecosystems have to work together to deal with water, and if we were to start to think about efficient use of water, then we could reduce the severity of the problems enormously. enormously. I'm just not sure we’re going to."


Successionism Add On Even if Native Americans have never been truly sovereign, their legal system and domestic economic policies are their last vestiges of freedom – denying these ensures a decimation of their self-determination. D’Errico 1997 (Peter, U. of Mass Prof, Prof, “American “American Indian Sovereignty: Sovereign ty: Now you See it, Now you Don’t”, Humboldt State, accessed online July 8, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ According to the theory of sovereignty sovereignty in federal Indian law, "tribal" peoples have a lesser form of "sovereignty," "sovereignty," which is not really sovereignty at all, but dependence. In the words of Chief Justice John Marshall in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), American Indian societies, though they are "nations" in the general sense of the word, are not fully sovereign, but are "domestic, dependent nations." The shell game of American Indian sovereignty sovereignty -- the "now you see it, now you don't" quality -- started right at the beginning of federal Indian law. law. The foundation of federal Indian law is the assertion by the United States of a special kind of non-sovereign sovereignty sovereignty.. In 1973, the federal district court for the district of Montana stated the underlying principle in the case of United States v. Blackfeet Tribe , 364 F.Supp. 192. The facts were simple: The Blackfeet Business Council passed a resolution authorizing gambling on the reservation and the licensing of slot machines. An FBI agent seized four machines. The Blackfeet Tribal Court issued an order restraining all persons from removing the seized articles from the reservation. The FBI agent, after consultation with the United States Attorney, removed the machines from the reservation. A tribal judge then ordered ordered the U.S. Attorney to show cause why he should not be cited for contempt of the tribal court. The U.S. Attorney applied to federal court for an injunction to block the contempt citations. The Blackfeet Tribe Tribe argued that it is sovereign and that the jurisdiction of the tribal court flows directly from this sovereignty. The federal court said: No doubt the Indian tribes were at one time sovereign sovereign and even now the tribes are sometimes sometimes described as being sovereign. sovereign. The blunt fact, however, is that an Indian tribe is sovereign to the extent that the United States permits it to be sovereign -- neither more nor less. [364 F.Supp. at 194.] The court explained: While for many years the United States recognized recognized some elements of sovereignty sovereignty in the Indian tribes and dealt with them by treaty, Congress by Act of March 3, 1871 (16 Stat. 566, 25 U.S.C. s 71), prohibited the further recognition of Indian tribes as independent nations. Thereafter Thereafter the Indians and the Indian tribes were regulated by acts of Congress. The power of Congress to govern by statute rather than treaty has been sustained. United States v. Kagama , 118 U.S. 375, 6 S.Ct. 1109, 30 L.Ed. 228 (1886). That power is a plenary power ( Matter of Heff , 197 U.S. 488, 25 S.Ct. 506, 49 L.Ed. 848 (1905)) and in its exercise exercise Congress is supreme. United States v. Nice , 241 U.S. 591, 36 S.Ct. 696, 60 L.Ed. 1192 (1916). It follows that any tribal ordinance permitting permitting or purporting to permit what Congress forbids is void. ... It is beyond the power of the tribe to in any way regulate, limit, or restrict a federal law officer in the performance of his duties, and the tribe having no such power the tribal court can have none. [ Id .] .] The fundamental premise of "American Indian sovereignty" as defined in federal Indian law is that it is not sovereignty. Federal power truncates "tribal sovereignty" in myriad ways too numerous to list here. Federal Indian law is perhaps the most complex area of United States law (including tax laws). In civil and criminal law both, the range and scope of "tribal sovereignty" sovereignty" is fragmented into overlapping and contradictory rules premised on one foundation: the "plenary power" of the United States. That such "plenary power" is nowhere stated in the U.S. Constitution is no more than a small nuisance to the judges who have declared its existence. Administrative Administrative agencies and Congress alike grasp firmly to their judicially-created prerogatives of total power over their "wards," in whose "trust" they act act as they see fit. Federal Federal Indian law is the continuation of colonialism. colonialism. On the basis of a non-sovereign non-sovereign "tribal sovereignty," the United States has built an entire apparatus for dispossessing indigenous peoples of their lands, their social organizations, and their original powers of self-determination. self-determination. The concept of "American Indian sovereignty" is useful to the United States because it denies indigenous power in the name of indigenous sovereignty.


And ignoring calls by indigenous groups to self-determination makes secessionist conflicts inevitable, threatening world order. order. Kolodner 1994 (Eric, NYU School of Law, “The Future of the Right to Self-Determination”, Fall, 10 Conn. J.Int’l L. 153, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ Recently, Recently, however, some commentators have suggested that the international community should begin to resist movements for self-determination. This perspective derives from a misguided conception of selfdetermination determination and a short-sighted view on geo-political realities. Contrary to the assumption of these observers, self-determination is not coterminous with secession, and therefore, self-determination movements do not inherently produce international instability. In fact, since efforts to limit the self-determination movements of today often foment the conflict of tomorrow, recognizing legitimate claims for selfdetermination might ensure world stability. Rather than abandoning this important right, the international community must readjust its conception of self-determina self-determination tion to address address the changing needs of the post-Cold War world. It should emphasize the internal aspects of this right, which in many respects comport with principles of democratic governance that have recently assumed a primacy throughout the world. Additionally, by the international international community sup- [*167] porting movements for internal internal self-det self-determination, ermination, it can potentially avoid the disruption that often accompanies movements for external self-determination. self-determination. Because some peoples still suffer under neo-colonial oppression, oppression, however, the international community should not categorically reject movements for external self-determination. Only when principles of internal self-determinati self-determination on cannot satisfy the legitimate needs of an aggrieved people, should the international community support this people's right to external self-determination self-determination.. It should attach stringent conditions upon the legitimate exercise of this right, however. Only by limiting movements for external selfdetermination and recognizing legitimate movements for internal self-determination, can the international community simultaneously foster human rights, support democracy, and maintain world peace and stability.

Successionism Add On These movements go global Bartmann 1999 (Barry, Chair of the Dept. of PoliSci@ U of Prince Edward Islands, “Facing New Realites”, June 2-6, accessed online July 9, p. L/N) DMZ The resistance to secessionist movements for self-determination self-determination is rooted, in part, in the careful and delicate balance of power that characterised characterised the Cold War period. Such movements were seen to be inherently inherently destabilising, particularly particularly in an international system in which any political change was seen in terms of a zero sum game of gains and losses. There were were fears too that the success of such movements would open a Pandora's Pandora's Box of separatist separatist causes that would unravel the fragile unity of too many states. Indeed, this fear is not unjustified, particularly in Africa, where nation-building nation-building has been slow to support the brittle institutional structures of the inherited colonial states. It is not surprising that the Organisation of African Unity would so staunchly support the unequivocal terms of the principle of territorial integrity.

The impact is nuclear war Shehadi 1993 (Kamal, Research Assoc. @ IISS, “Ethnic Self-Determination and the Break-up of States”, p. 81-82/Netlibrary) DMZ This paper has argued that self-determination self-determination conflicts have direct adverse consequences on international international security. As they begin to tear nuclear states apart, the likelihood of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of individuals or groups willing to use them, or to trade them to others, will reach frightening levels. This likelihood increases if a conflict over self-determination escalates into a war between two nuclear states. The Russian Federation and Ukraine may fight over the Crimea and the Donbass area; and India and Pakistan may fight over Kashmir. Ethnic conflicts may also spread both within a state and from one state to the next. This can happen in countries where more than one ethnic self-determination conflict is brewing: Russia, India and Ethiopia, for example. The conflict may also spread by contagion from one country to another if t he state is

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 90 / 145 ] weak politically and militarily and cannot contain the conflict on its doorstep. Lastly, there is a real danger that regional conflicts will erupt over national minorities and borders. Self-determination Self-determination conflicts also have indirect consequences on international security. First, they undermine fundamental principles of international relations which are necessary - but not sufficient - for peace and stability, These principles are state sovereignty - but not in the archaic sense of absolute sovereignty - territorial territorial integrity and the inviolability inviolability of borders, and are being undermined while no conscious effort is made to find alternative rules of the game. Second, self-determination conflicts break some alliances and make others look obsolete, thereby exacerbating exacerbating regional security dilemmas and national insecurities. insecurities. States and substate communal groups constantly shift alliances to keep up with shifting strategic environments. environments. This danger is serious enough to have affected even an alliance as solid as the Atlantic alliance. It was observed, although maybe somewhat overstated, that 'les conflits de 1'ex-Yugoslavie menacent de detruire la relation de securite et de defense batie entre I'Amerique du Nord et I'Europeoccidentale'. Finally, Finally, ethnic conflicts, their proliferation and the inability to formulate a common response to them destroy whatever is left of the illusion of a 'new world order'.


Successionism Add On-Global War Impact This leads to endless seccssionist seccs sionist wars, ethnic cleansing, and great power conflicts. Fearon 1998 (James, Associate Prof. of Polisci @ U. of Chicago, “The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict”, p. 107108/Netlibrary) 108/Netlibrary) DMZ Continuing the analogy, the principle of national self-determination self-determination remains remains as powerful and problematic today as it was in the 1920s and 1930s. No one seriously questions the principle,2 principle,2 but in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe after communism, “self-determination” strongly pursued would seem to imply an endless succession of irredentist and secessionist wars, state repression repression of minorities, ethnic cleansing, enormous numbers of refugees and attendant problems, and perhaps fertile grounds for escalation to majormajorpower conflict. In the 1930s, according to some, Chamberlain and company’s acceptance of the principle of self-determination deeply influenced their initial response to Hitler’s expansionist program (Taylor 1961, 189). In responding to diverse ethnic conflicts and nationalisms to the East, the Western powers have been similarly torn between the desire for peace and stable borders on the one hand, and acceptance of the principle of selfselfdetermination on the other.3 Could this confusion foster ethnic wars and allow them to spread across borders in such a way as to ignite serious major power conflict?


Successionism Add On-Genocide Impact Successionism makes mass killing of the opposing group inevitable – this is how genocides start. Shehadi 1993 (Kamal, Research Assoc. @ ISSS, December, “Ethnic Self-Determination and the Break Up of States”, p. 73/NetLibrary) DMZ There are three main arguments levelled against border changes as a solution to protracted selfdetermination determination conflicts. The first objection is that border changes in one case, however desirable in ending the conflict, will have adverse consequences on other borders in the region and, possibly, elsewhere. This raises the scenario of self- determination conflicts spilling over into neighbouring states and challenging their borders as well. It is based on the assumption that t he future and legitimacy of one international border is tied to all others, that if one pillar goes, the whole edifice will crumble. This assumption is warranted only when demonstration and contagion effects are likely to operate. The demonstration effect means that a change in one border is likely to lead to changes in ot her borders. The success of one communal group in bringing about this change encourages others and facilitates facilitates further changes. The demonstration effect operates mostly within the same state, by demonstrating the weakness of the central authorities in dealing with communal groups. Only in such a situation will giving in to one communal group’s desire to secede encourage others. The concern for ‘contagion’ is more serious since new states are unlikely to be stable internally. The creation of independent Central Asian states, for example, has made it easier for conflict to spread from Central Asia to China. The Uighurs, among others, now find a more receptive environment from which to operate inside China than when these states were part of the Soviet Union. Contagion from Kosovo could also drag Macedonia into a civil war which opposes ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians. Except in these limited circumstances, circumstances, a change in borders is not likely to destabilise a whole region. Even in one of the unstable regions of the world, the Horn of Africa, Eritrean success in achieving self-determination has not caused other border changes or even made future ones more likely to succeed. Further more, when a new state is created, measures can be taken to protect it from the spill-over of neighbouring conflicts: the deployment of UN observers; the dispatch of CSCE missions; and international help in building an internal security force and developing democratic institutions (organisation and monitoring of elections, independent judiciary, representative representative bodies, and intermediate associations such as unions and political parties). The second objection is that opening up the possibility of border changes will revive dormant conflicts and ignite the use of force. This is based on the assumption that self- determination claims are made when there is an opportunity for the creation of a new state. However, this is seldom the case. Selfdetermination Selfdetermination conflicts take place mostly for internal reasons reasons and are driven primarily by internal considerations, not by international international ones. Force will be used irrespective of what is on the bargaining table, whether borders or political systems, because adversaries adversaries know that their bargaining power depends in large part on the military situation. The possibility of border changes, however, may also encourage genocides and mass transfers of populations as militias seek to create ethnically homogenous entities before they are recognised. To avoid this, the possibility of border changes should be linked explicitly explicitly to the behaviour of the combatants.


Tribal Knowledge Add On The development of wind energy on tribal land is the best way to further tribal knowledge, allowing for a preservation of culture and the environment. Dana E Powell, Department of Anthropology at University North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2008, Palgrave McMillan, “Local/Global Encounters: Community Rights and Natural Resources,” Accessed July 8, 2008 BC This trend, embedded in a broader network of environmental justice projects in Native America, is a move towards renewable renewable energy technologies on reservations: reservations: wind power and solar power in particular. While these projects engage wider energy markets, markets, global discourses on climate change and the 'end of oil', and funds from federal agencies, they also embody an alternative knowledge grounded in an historical, indigenous social movement in which economic justice for indigenous peoples is intimately intermeshed intermeshed with questions of ecological wellness and cultural preservation. As such, wind and solar technologies are being presented presented and implemented as alternative approaches approaches to dominant practices of economic development and carry with them a history of centuries of struggle, as well as the hope for a better future. These emerging practices of a social movement-driven movement-driven development agenda draw our attention to the cultural politics, meanings, histories, and conceptual contributions posited by unconventional development projects. As part of an emerging movement in support of localized wind and solar energy production on tribal lands, these projects are responses responses to the biopolitical operations of 20th century development projects. They respond to a long history of removal, regulation, knowledge production, and life-propagating techniques administered administered on reservation-based reservation-based peoples. The movement itself addresses controversies controversies in a way that interweaves the economic, the ecological, the cultural, and the embodied aspects of being and being well in the world; as a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) said to me: The movement is really about health and people dying ... people can't have an enjoyable life anymore. The work of the movement is never about the power plant itself, but about how all the EJ (environmental justice) justice) issues come together and link up to affect people's lives ... its about having a good life (B Shimek, 2004, personal communication). Such an analysis resonates with Arturo Arturo Escobar's emphasis on a framework of a 'political ecology of difference' difference' and the need to consider 'cultural distribution' conflicts in studies or other engagements with natural resource issues (Escobar (Escobar (2006) Introduction). Concerns Concerns of 'cultural distribution' have BCome crucial crucial work for the IEJM as it seeks to resignify resignify development as 'environmental justice' in the context of a particular history of illness and disease, environmental environmental contamination, poverty, and place-based worldviews. I argue that the way in which the IEJM has coalesced around these alternative development projects suggests that these projects are 'technologies of resistance' (Hess, 1995) to dominant forms of economic development, but also – and perhaps more significantly – imaginative technologies of existence , mediating a particular discourse of natural resource controversies, including values of a 'good life'. As such, renewable energy technologies are resignifying the politics of 'sustainability' through the movement's concept of 'environmental justice', which cuts across reductive interpretations interpretations of economy, ecology, and culture.


Tribal Knowledge Add On Sustainable agriculture is is only possible through embracing indigenous indigenous knowledge. This knowledge came from years of observational work with the environment instead of a test station of capitalist elites. These systems only appear ‘simple’ and ‘antiquated’ because of the lens in which we view environmental protection. Rajasekaran 93 (B., Center for Indigenous Knowledge for Agriculture and Rural Development @ Iowa State, “A framework for incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into agricultural agricultural research, extension, extension, and NGO’s for sustainable agricultural development”, Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 21, Technology and Social Changes Program @ Iowa State U., accessed online July 7, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society (Warren, (Warren, 1987). Indigenous knowledge is the systematic body of knowledge acquired by local people through the accumulation of experiences, informal informal experiments, and intimate understanding of the environment environment in a given culture (Rajasekaran, (Rajasekaran, 1993). According to Haverkort Haverkort (1991), indigenous knowledge is the actual knowledge of a given population that reflects the experiences based on traditions and includes more recent recent experiences experiences with modern technologies. Local people, including farmers, landless laborers, women, rural artisans, and cattle rearers, are the custodians of indigenous knowledge systems. Moreover, these people are well informed about their own situations, their resources, resources, what works and doesn't work, and how one change impacts other parts of their system (Butler and Waud, 1990). 1.2 Value of indigenous knowledge Indigenous knowledge is dynamic, changing through indigenous mechanisms of creativity and innovativeness as well as through contact with other local and international international knowledge systems (Warren, (Warren, 1991). These knowledge systems may appear simple to outsiders but they represent mechanisms to ensure minimal livelihoods for local people. Indigenous knowledge systems often are elaborate, and they are adapted to local cultural and environmental environmental conditions (Warren, (Warren, 1987). Indigenous knowledge systems are tuned to the needs of local people and the quality and quantity of available resources resources (Pretty (Pretty and Sandbrook, 1991). They pertain to various cultural norms, social roles, or physical conditions. Their efficiency lies in the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. According to Norgaard (1984, p. 7): Traditional knowledge has been viewed as part of a romantic past, as the major obstacle to development, as a necessary starting point, and as a critical component of a cultural alternative alternative to modernizat mo dernization. ion. Only very rarely, however, is traditional knowledge treated as knowledge per se in the mainstream of the agricultural and development and environmental management literature, literature, as knowledge that contributes to our understanding of agricultural agricultural production and the maintenance and use of environmental environmental systems. 1.3 Diversity of indigenous knowledge Indigenous knowledge systems are: adaptive skills of local people usually derived from many years of experience, that have often been communicated through "oral traditions" and learned through family members over generations (Thrupp, 1989), time-tested agricultural and natural resource resource management practices, which pave the way for sustainable agriculture (Venkatratnam, (Venkatratnam, 1990), strategies and techniques developed by local people to cope with the changes in the socio-cultural and environmental conditions, practices that are accumulated by farmers due to constant experimentation experimentation and innovation, trial-and-error trial-and-error problem-solving problem-solving approaches by groups of people with an objective to meet the challenges they face in their local environments (Roling (Roling and Engel, 1988), decision-making decision-making skills of local people that draw upon the resources they have at hand.


Tribal Knowledge Add On-Link/Impact Extensions The status quo is inhibited by the assumption of traditional subservience – we presume local solutions to the environment to ‘primitive’ and ‘behind the times’ – in reality, reality, these solutions are premised from generations of observational approaches to the environment. Ignoring the value of native solutions only perpetuates perpetuates further deterioration of the environment, and complete collapse of global food s upplies. Rajasekaran 93 (B., Center for Indigenous Knowledge for Agriculture and Rural Development @ Iowa State, “A framework for incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into agricultural agricultural research, extension, extension, and NGO’s for sustainable agricultural development”, Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 21, Technology and Social Changes Program @ Iowa State U., accessed online July 7, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ 2.7 Consequences of disregarding disregarding indigenous knowledge systems Undermining farmers' farmers' confidence in their traditional knowledge can lead them to become increasingly increasingly dependent on outside expertise (Richards, (Richards, 1985; Warren, 1990). Small-scale farmers are often portrayed as backward, obstinately conservative, resistant to change, lacking innovative ability, and even lazy (IFAP, 1990, p. 24). The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) enumerated certain reasons for such a perception: Lack of understanding of traditional agriculture agriculture which further leads to a communication gap between promoters and practitioners giving rise to myths; The accomplishments of farmers often are not recognized, recognized, because they are not recorded recorded in writing or made known; and Poor involvement of farmers and their organizations organizations in integrating, consolidating, and disseminating what is already known. One of the greatest consequences of the underutilization of indigenous knowledge systems, according to Atteh (1992, p. 20), is the: Loss and non-utilization of indigenous knowledge [which] results in the inefficient allocation of resources resources and manpower to inappropriate planning strategies which have done little to alleviate rural poverty. With little contact with rural people, planning experts and state functionaries have attempted to implement programs which do not meet the goals of rural people, or affect the structures and processes that perpetuate rural poverty. Human and natural resources in rural areas have remained inefficiently used or not used at all. There is little congruence between planning objectives and realities facing the rural people. Planners think they know what is good goo d for these `poor', `backward', `ignorant', and `primitive' people. 2.8 Need for a conceptual framework Despite continuous importance given to linkages between research-extension-farmer while developing, disseminating, and utilizing sustainable agricultural technologies, several socio-political and institutional factors act as constraints for such an effective linkage (Oritz et al., 1991). After a decade o f rhetoric about feedback of farmers' problems to extension workers and scientists, a large gap remains between the ideal and reality (Haugerud and Collinson, 1991). Kaimowitz (1992: 105) provided illustrations illustrations to support the above statement: Researchers Researchers perceived perceived extension agents and institutions to be ineffective and unclear about their mandate, making researchers reluctant to work with extension. When researchers did work with extension agents, they tended to look down on them and view them as little more than available menial labor, labor, an attitude strongly resented by the extension workers. workers. Keeping these potential constraints in conventional transfer of technology, a framework for incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into agricultural research research and extension has been developed with the following salient features: strengthening strengthening the capacities of regional research and extension organizations; building upon local people's knowledge that are acquired through various processes such as farmer-to-farmer communication, and farmer experimentation; identifying the need for extension scientist/ social scientist in an interdisciplinary regional research team; formation of a sustainable technology development consortium to bring farmers, researchers, NGOs, and extension workers together well ahead of the process of technology development; generating technological options rather than fixed technical packages packages (Chambers et al., 1989); working with the existing organization and management of research and public sector extension; bringing research-extension-farmer together at all stages is practically difficult considering the existing bureaucracies bureaucracies and spatial as well as academic distances among the personnel belonging to these organizations. Hence, utilizing the academic knowledge gained by some extension personnel (subject matter specialists) during the process of validating farmer experiments; outlining areas that research research and extension organizations need to concentrate on during the process of working with farmers. understanding that it is impractical to depend entirely on research stations for innovations considering the inadequate human resource capacity of the regional research system. Chambers

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 96 / 145 ] and Jiggins (1987, p.5) supported the need for such a framework: The transfer of technology (TOT) model fits badly with the needs and priorities of resource-poor farmers. Agricultural extension programs are still biased towards techniques and strategies which are capital-intensive. Resource-poor farmers (RPF) are scattered and are not able to make their needs and priorities readily known and felt. The TOT model cannot easily handle the complex interactions of RPF farming; links between crops, especially with intercropping intercropping and multiple tiers; agro-forestry and livestock-crop-tree complementaries; and the progressive adjustments required in the field in the face of seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations. fluctuations.


Economy Add On Wind energy creates jobs and economic growth. AWEA, National Trade Trade Association of the U.S wind energy industry,April industry,A pril 28, 2k8,accessed July 9, 2008, http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Supply_Chain_Workshop_29Apr08.html “I'm honored to welcome AWEA AWEA to our state,” said Iowa Governor Governor Chet Culver (D). “It is our responsibility responsibility to tap clean, renewable energy resources to spur investment and create new, green-collar jobs in Iowa. Communities across Iowa that have experienced real economic challenges, like Keokuk, Fort Madison and Newton, have recently seen a new rebirth by tapping into our booming wind industry. industry. While each of these cities is in the process of adding hundreds of new wind-generation manufacturing jobs, this is only the beginning of what is possible.”“Wind energy energy has not only helped power many parts of Iowa, but it has provided millions of dollars in economic activity to struggling commu nities,” added Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). “Wind is an affordable and inexhaustible source of domestically produced energy. We must mu st do everything possible to capture and grow this renewable source of energy all the way up the supply chain." AWEA expects expects about 600 attendees, making the workshop the trade group’s largest largest ever as well as the first aimed at expanding the industry’s “supply chain,” or range of component suppliers. “The U.S. wind power industry is a bright spot in our economy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. Swisher. “Every megawatt of installed wind power creates employment in manufacturing, construction and operations as well as jobs in advertising, office support, environmental environmental assessment assessment and other related professions. America’s America’s vast wind resources resources have barely been tapped, and we have only just begun to see wind’s potential to generate broad economic growth.”Encouraged growth.”Encouraged by the stability of the federal production tax credit (PTC), (PTC), U.S. wind industry manufacturing has surged from a very small base in 2005 to more than 100 facilities in 2007

PTCs are key to expansion of the U.S. economy. economy. AWEA, National Trade Association of the U.S wind energy industry,April 28, 2k8,accessed ,accessed July 9, 9 , 2008, http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Supply_Chain_Workshop_29Apr08.html America’s vast wind resources resources have barely been tapped, and we have only just begun to see wind’s potential to generate broad economic growth.”Encouraged by the stability of the federal production tax credit (PTC), U.S. wind industry manufacturing has surged from a very small base in 2005 to more than 100 facilities in 2007. In 2005, the average wind turbine contained contained less than 30% American-made components. components. Today, domestically manufactured manufactured content is approaching 50%. (A wind turbine is composed of some 8,000 components, ranging from towers and blades to gearboxes, gearboxes, generators, castings, ball bearings, and electronic electronic components.) New facilities were opened or announced last year in Arkansas, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, New York, York, Oklahoma, Sout South h Dakota, Texas Texas and Wisconsin. These facilities are expected to create more than 6,000 permanent, well-paying well-paying jobs. Many of the fastest-growing fastest-growing wind industry suppliers in the U.S. are slated to attend the workshop this week.“While the wind industry’s strong growth is encouraging, the PTC is in danger of lapsing at the end of this year,” said Swisher Swisher. “It is vitally important for Congress and the President President to quickly extend the PTC—the primary U.S. incentive for wind power—as part of a long-term policy for renewable energy to foster investment in wind installations, manufacturing manufacturing capacity and thousands of new jobs.”


Acid Rain Add On Coal-burning creates acid rain, creating positive feedback loops, and mas sive species loss. Patricia Glick, National Wildlife Association, 2001 (21: 482, Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, "The Toll From Coal”, http://bst.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/6/482) Burning coal to generate generate electricity electricity is the primary primary source of acid acid rain (and snow, sleet, sleet, and hail), which continues to contaminate our waters, denude our forests, and eat away at our building sand monuments . Coal-fired power plants emit nearly nearly two thirds of all U.S. emissions emissions of sulfur sulfur dioxide dioxide and are second only to motor vehicles as a source of nitrogen oxides. Once in the atmosphere, these two pollutants react with other chemicals to acidify our precipitation. Ironically, the deep South and Midwest, home to the largest number of coal-fired power plants, may escape some of the worst acid rain damage. Because emissions drift eastward on prevailing winds, much of the pollution falls in the eastern

Particularly vulnerable to acidification are aquatic ecosystem sand the many species that depend on them , including insects, amphibians, fish, birds, and mammals. In general, the higher the United States and Canada, taking a severe toll on ecosystems throughout the region.

level of acidity, the greater the number and type of species harmed. Crustaceans Crustaceans (such as clams and crayfish) and some insects (such as the may fly) tend to be the most sensitive to acidified water (MinisterofEnvironment,1998). Scientists in eastern Canada, for example, have found that the invertebrate food webs of acidic lakes are considerably less diverse than those with a normal pH and tend to be dominated by just a few species of insects. According to one study, several groups of flies—including flies—including may flies, caddis flies, damsel flies, and dragon flies, which are favored as food by waterfowl in Ontario—virtually disappear when lake waters reach reach a pH of 5.5 or below (McNichol, Bendell, & McAuley, 1987).

Acidification Acidification has also also affected affected important fisheries fisheries throughout North North America, America, particularly in waters where the pH has dropped below below 6.0. In1980, in one of the broadest studies studies of the consequences of acidification, acidification, scientists identified some 200 lakes in the Adirondack sand 200 in Ontario where all fish, including lake trout, wall eye, and small mouth bass, had vanished as a result of acidification of these habitats (Harvey, 1980). There has since

been little recovery. recovery. Lake acidity levels in the region remain high

and a few lakes have even become more acidified than they were in the early1980s, despite recent recent progress in in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions (National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, 1998). Many lakes in these regions are still devoid of fish life. In parts of New England, spikes in acidity during spring snow melts have caused fish kills of brook trout and rainbow trout, trout, as well as Atlantic salmon, a species that is particularly sensitive to low pH. In fact, acid-related fish kills are believed to have had had a significant and lasting effect on Atlantic Atlantic salmon stocks in several rivers (Brodeur, Ytrestoyl,

Acid rain has also resulted resulted in the destruction of key fish habitats. habitats.

Finstad, &McKinley, 1999; Irving, 1991; Shofield & Trojnar, Trojnar, 1980). Only half of Virginia’s mountain streams now support brook brook trout, down down from 82% a century century ago(Environmental Further to the south, Florida has the distinction of Environmental Network News, 1999). Further having the greatest number of acidic lakes of any any U.S. region due in part to acid rain (although many of the fish species commonly found in these lakes are are relatively tolerant of high acidity) (Schreiber, 1995). Although the East generally feels the brunt of acid precipitation, other regions have been affected as well. In Ontario, Minnesota, Michigan, and

acid rain has affected affected the quality of small lakes lakes and tributaries that feed feed into the Great Great Lakes. A number of species species that depend on the seaquatic seaquatic ecosystems ecosystems are highly highly sensitive to acidification. acidification. In Minnesota, for example, even mildly acidic waters have been shown to prevent small mouth bass from successfully reproducing reproducing (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 1999). Scientists have also found that temporary pools created by acidified spring runoff can be highly toxic to many amphibians. These spring ponds are favored breeding breeding grounds grounds for half of all all North American American frog species, especially toads and tree frogs, and about 30% of all salamander species (Pough&Wilson, 1977). Spotted and Jefferson salamanders are particularly sensitive to acidity and and cannot breed in waters waters with with a pH below 4.5, according to several studies (Freda, (Freda, Sadinski, &Dunson, 1991). Amphibians play an an important role in many ecosystems, and a decline in the numbers can have serious serious consequences for other species—including humans. For example, example, adult amphibians eat thousands of insects at night; without them, insect populations may explode. In addition, a decline in amphibians affects other wildlife that people, the amphibians can can provide a source of medicines to combat viral depends on the masa source of food. For people, and bacterial infections. They can also provide an important signal of environmental problems, given their permeable skin, soft eggs, and exposure to stresses on both land and water (Blaustein&Belden, (Blaustein&Be lden, 1998). Unfortunately, when insects, fish, and other species species disappear, so do the animals that that rely rely on them for food. For example, a decline in the quantity and quality of food Wisconsin,

supplies as a result of acidification has hindered reproduction among a number of water fowl by reducing the number of of off spring born and limiting their growth and survival (Graveland,1998). Populations of such species as black ducks and ring-necked ducks have dropped substantially in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada—important breeding areas hard hit by acid rain. And, studies have found that off- spring production among common mergansers on acidic lakes in Ontariois 88%lower than onless affected lakes in the region (McNichol et al., 1987). Common loon chicks are also known to starve to death if the nesting lake lacks enough fish, partly because their parents will not bring them fish from other lakes (Alvo,1988).Song birds are also affected by acid rain. Some warbler, swallow, fly catcher, and black bird species that feed on insects that that begin their life

Changes in aquatic ecosystems as a result of acid rain can can affect mammals as well, well, particularly particularly those that depend depend on aquatic aquatic species for food. For example, river otters in North America and Europe have have been shown to avoid acidic habitats or have reduced reproduction in such habitats because cycles in water have experienced a decline in nesting success when acidification has limited their food supply (Blancher & McNichol, 1988).

they are less able to find adequate supplies of fish, amphibians, and other sources of food (Mason & MacDonald, 1989; New York’s Wildlife Wildlife Resources, 1984). In addition to

acid precipitation creates a number of problems for forest ecosystems. ecosystems . It affects trees directly, through their foliage, and indirectly, by altering the chemistry of the soil in which they grow. grow. One of the most serious threats to foliage occurs when acid fog or mist blankets mountain top forests for a precipitation, can can interfere interfere with photosynthesis photosynthesis and period of time. Sulfuric acid, which is a component of acid precipitation, therefore increase trees’ vulnerability vulnerabili ty to climate fluctuations fluctuati ons and other stresses. In one study, researchers found harming lakes and streams, and the wild life that depends on them,

that increased sulfur content in the foliage of red spruce due to exposure to acid mist significantly increases the trees’ vulnerability to frost damage (Sheppard,1994). (Sheppard,1994) . Acidic compounds can also disrupt reproduction among wind-pollinated trees such as white birch and mountain paper birch by inhibiting the germination of pollen (Minister of Environment, 1998). As serious as the effects on

foliage maybe, the impact of acid rain on soil soil chemistry is particularly particularly devastating, devastating, and far more more persistent

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 99 / 145 ] than once believed. believed. Initial policies policies to address acid acid rain were were based on the assumption that there there were enough natural buffers such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium in soil to neutralize the acids (much as an antacid calms a queasy stomach). As a result, scientists believed that that most forests and other ecosystems ecosystems would quickly quickly recover recover with relatively moderate moderate reductions in in sulfur dioxide emissions emissions (which have have generally been considered considered the primary agent of acid acid rain, rain, for reasons described below). But, scientists have discovered discovered that that over time, acid rain has actually actually been causing causing these buffering agents to leach out out of the soil (Hubbard Brook Research Research Foundation, 1999). This

new evidence has has led scientists to conclude conclude that significantly significantly greater reductions reductions in sulfur dioxide dioxide emissions are necessary. necessary. Scientists are are also finding that nitrogen oxides are playing a growing role in the acid rain problem because many many ecosystems have become nitrogen “saturated.” “saturated.” A certain amount amount of nitrogen provides a source of nutrients for plants and plays plays an important role in nature—this nature—this is why nitrogen nitrogen oxides oxides have historically received less attention as a precursor to acid rain. Too much nitrogen, however, can be harmful. When an an ecosystem receives receives a greater influx of nitrogen compounds than it can use, the the surplus can contribute contribute to to acidification and subsequent subsequent mineral depletion much in the same way that that sulfur compounds do (Minister of Environment, 1998). Worse Worse yet, it appears that acid-caused mineral depletion may last for years, preventing ecosystems ecosystems from recovering recovering long after acid rain has diminished. At At t h e H u b b a r d B r o o k E x p e r i m e n t a l F o r e s t i n Woodstock, Woodstock, New Hampshire, Hampshire, researchers researchers have found that calcium levels in the soil are less than half what they were in the 1950s. Deprived of sufficient calcium and other nutrients, trees grow slower, their roots are weaker, and they are less resistant to disease and pests soil (Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, Foundation, 1999). The calcium deficiency affects species throughout the food chain, from insects that feed on trees, to birds that eat those insects. For some birds, such as the tree swallow, lack of calcium in their food supply can impede development of their eggs’ shells shells and lead to embryo death (Drent & Wildendorp, 1989).

AT: Agent Ag ent Counterplans Cou nterplans Perm – do both. All areas of the government are necessary for indigenous shifts to to be successful. Suagee 1992 (Dean B., J.D. @ U. of North Carolina, “Self “Self-Determin -Determination ation for Indigenous Peoples at the Dawn of the Solar Age”, 25 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 671, Spring and Summer, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. L /N) DMZ Part IV presents some observations observa tions on critical criti cal needs that must m ust be addressed if the th e vision of a softsoft -energy future is to become a reality; to meet these needs will require action at all levels of government, as well as action by international and nongovernmental organizations. organizations. As will be explained in the Article, American Indian governments in the United States are uniquely situated to help bring about the transition to a softenergy future . Part IV suggests a few of the ways way s in which Indian tribes could coul d use their governmental governm ental powers to help realize such a future.


AT: States Sta tes Counterplan Co unterplan States can’t solve-poor relations with Tribal Tribal nations, no jurisdiction, and lack of cohesive policy. Erich Steinman, Asst. Prof @ University of Washington, 2004 (Spring, Publius Oxford Journal, "American Federalism and Intergovernmental Innovation in State-Tribal Relations", http://publius.oxfordjourn http://publius.oxfordjournals.org/cgi als.org/cgi/reprint/ /reprint/34/2/95.pdf) 34/2/95.pdf) American Indian tribes tribe s and state governments have long been engaged in conflict over the control of Indian reservation reservation land and residents. residents. Most commonly, tribes have struggled to maintain the exclusive exclusive control they originally enjoyed at the time of each reservation's creation by the federal government. As one group of legal scholars observes, observe s, "One of the clearest and most persistent themes involving India n sovereignty has been the continuous continu ous struggle by the states to assert greater control over Indian reservations, either at the expense of the federal or tribal governments."1 governments."1 Similarly, others others note: "Exercises "Exercises of state power have continually come into conflict conflic t with tribal self-government. ... In case after case, states and municipal governments governm ents as subdivisions subdivisi ons of the states, have stretched to assert their governmental autho rity over Indians and their territor terri tory y."2 Because of state encroachmen encroac hments, ts, states have been understo unde rstood od as the "deadliest "dead liest enemies" enem ies" of tribes, as famously noted by the U.S. Supreme Supreme Court in 1886. Conflict between tribes and states states reflects the federalist division of powers regarding Indian affairs as declared in the United States Constitution. Since beginning treaty relations relations with the tribal nations of North America in the earliest years of the republic, the federal government governmen t has retained exclusive control over Indian affairs. 4 It also declared reservations as beyond the jurisdiction jurisdictio n of states, thus formally limiting state-government state-go vernment intrusions intrusion s into Indian Country even as tribal governments exercised less functional power over time. State-tribal animosity also reflects the anomalous anomalou s place of tribes in relation to contemporary conte mporary American governance go vernance. The status of tribes is not prescribed prescribed in the United States Constitution because tribes were originally originally conceptualized as outside the nation.5 As the country expanded geographically to include Indian reserves, federal policymakers policymakers have grappled with whether and how to incorporate tribes into American society and governance, even as they increasingly undercut tribal powers.6 Federal policies vacillating between poles of assimilation and separatism generated generat ed frequent confusion and left the nature of tribal status and authority on reservations muddled and contested contes ted throughout much of the twentieth twentiet h century. century.7 Aided by the supportive federal policy of Indian self-determination self-determinatio n announced in 1970, tribes subsequently subsequ ently asserted inherent sovereignty sovereignt y. Tribes initiated a growing range of governmental governmental functions and actively claimed control over reservation reservation lands as well as tribal members. Such actions challenged the th e "creeping jurisdiction" jurisdiction " states had been exercising exercising over reservation reservation land and residents, and elicited considerable legal and political resistance from state officials.

States have no jurisdiction to work with Tribal nations-only federal action solves. Federal Register 2000 (November 9, Federal Register Environmental Documents, "Executive Order 13175-Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments", http://www.epa.gov/fedreg/eo/eo13175.htm ) In formulating or implementing policies that have tribal implications, agencies agencies shall be guided by the following fundamental principles: (a) The United States has a unique legal relationship with Indian tribal governments as set forth in the Constitution of the United States, treaties, statutes, Executive Executive Orders, and court decisions. Since the formation of the Union, the United States has recognized Indian tribes as domestic dependent nations under its protection. The Federal Government has enacted numerous statutes and promulgated numerous regulations regulations that establish and define a trust relationship with Indian tribes. (b) Our Nation, under the law of the United States, in accordance with treaties, treaties, statutes, Executive Orders, and judicial decisions, has recognized the right of Indian tribes to self-government. self-government. As domestic dependent nations, Indian tribes exercise inherent sovereign powers over their members and territory. The United States continues to work with Indian tribes on a government-to-government government-to-government basis to address issues concerning concerning Indian tribal self-government, self-government, tribal trust resources, resources, and Indian tribal treaty and other rights. (c) The United States recognizes the right of Indian tribes to self-government and supports tribal sovereignty and selfdetermination.


AT: PICs The PIC operates by placing the concerns of human dignity below that of some s ome nit-picky whine that pales in comparison – this mindset makes colonial oppression inevitable. Churchill 2003 (Ward, Prof. of Ethnic Studies @ U. of Colorado, Boulder BA and MA in Comm @ Sangamon State, “On Justice of Roosting Chickens”, p. 8, accessed online Net Library) DMZ Turning to America’s vaunted “opposition,” we find record of not a single significant demonstration protesting the wholesale destruction of Iraqi children. On balance, U.S., “progressives” have devoted far more time and energy over the past decade to combating the imaginary health effects of “environmental tobacco smoke” and demanding installation of speed bumps in suburban neighborhoods—that is, to increasing their own comfort level—than to anything akin to a coherent response to the U.S. genocide in Iraq. The underlying mentality is symbolized quite well in the fact that, since they were released in the mid-1990s, Jean Baudrillard’s allegedly “radical” screed. The Gulf War Did Not Take Place , has outsold Ramsey Clark’s The Impact of Sanctions on Iraq , prominently subtitled The Children are Dying , by a margin of almost three to one. The theoretical trajectory entered entered into by much of the American left over the past quarter-century quarter-century exhibits a marked tendency to try and justify such evasion and squalid self-indulgence through the expedient of rejecting “hierarchy, in all its forms.” Since “hierarchy” may be taken to include “anything resembling an order of priorities,” we are faced thereby with the absurd contention that all issues are of equal importance (as in the mindless slogan, “There is no hierarchy to oppression”). From there, it becomes axiomatic that the “privileging” “privileging” of any issue over another-genocide, another-genocide, say, over fanny-pinching in the workplace—becomes not only evidence of “elitism,” but of “sexism,” and often “homophobia” to boot (as in the popular formulation holding that Third World antiimperialism antiimperialism is inherently nationalistic, nationalistic, and nationalism is inherently damaging to the rights of women and gays). Having thus foreclosed foreclosed upon all options for concrete engagement as mere “reproductions of the relations relation s of oppression,” the left has largely neutralized neut ralized itself , a matter reflected most mo st conspicuously in the applause it bestowed upon Homi K. Bhabha’s preposterous preposterous 1994 contention that writing,which he likens to “warfare,” should be considered the only valid revolutionary act. One might easily conclude that had the “opposition” not conjured up such “postmodernist discourse” on its own initiative, it would have been necessary for the status quo to have invented it. As it is, postmodernist theorists and their post-colonialist counterparts are finding berths at elite universities at a truly astounding rate. To be fair, it must be admitted that there remain appreciable appreciable segments of the left which do not no t subscribe to the sophistries imbedded in postmodernism’s “failure “failure of nerve.” Those who continue to assert the value of direct action, however, have for the most part so thoroughly constrained constrained themselves to the realm of symbolic/ritual protest as to render themselves self-nullifying. One is again hard-pressed to decipher whether this has been by default or design. While such comportment is all but invariably couched in the lofty—or sanctiomonious— terms of “principled pacifism,” the practice of proponents often suggests something far less noble.


AT: PIC Out of “Permanent” Inconsistencies in U.S. wind incentive policy from year to year are forcing companies to shift to Europe International Herald Tribune 2007 [November 8, U.S. winds morph into a European power play; EU firms are attracted to open space and generous subsidies for green energy, Peter Maloney, staff] All the biggest players in wind power are are focused on the United States. This year, Acciona Acciona bought the wind farm development rights of EcoEnergy of Elgin, Illinois, and Iberdrola bought CPV Wind Ventures of Silver Spring, Maryland. Iberdrola Iberdrola also added the wind development company PPM Energy of Portland, Portland, Oregon, to its business through its acquisition of a British company, ScottishPower, ScottishPower, in April, and in 2006 it bought Community Energy of Radnor, Radnor, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. BP, based in Britain, also also added to its green portfolio in 2006, buying two U.S. wind developers, Greenlight Energy and Orion Energy. In October, the German company E.On bought the North American wind farms farms of Airtricity of Dublin for $1.4 billion. ''In America you can put up a 200- or 300-megawatt wind park,'' Mexia said. ''You ''You can't do that in Europe'' because of the lack of open space for such large wind farms. There is also more potential for growth in the United States, where wind farms account for barely 1 percent of installed generating capacity. In some EU countries, that figure is as high as 10 percent. The biggest incentive, however, however, is not the strength and speed of the wind blowing across across some states, but a number of laws put in place in about half of the states to encourage the development of renewable energy. energy. At the national level, energy legislation calls for subsidies for wind power producers, in the form of a tax credit. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, 25 states now have laws that require utilities to obtain a certain amount of power from renewable renewable resources. resources. This puts the United States at the top of a ranking of countries by Ernst & Young Young on the best renewable energy markets. For many U.S. companies, however, the patchwork of laws and regulations adds up to a headache. headache. Things are much simpler in Europe. Europe. Spain, for instance, sets sets electric rates once a year, and many European Union countries have simple ''feed-in tariffs,'' under which producers are paid at fixed rates for electricity generated from renewable resources. But in the United States, ''regulation is a daily event,'' said Edward Tirello, a senior strategist at Berenson, a consulting firm. Until recently, Tirello said, many European energy companies were state-owned, and they still enjoy the legacy of their monopoly positions, including rich cash flows.

This lack of PTC permanence causes companies to jump ship, trashing U.S. competitiveness Brown and Escobar 2007 [Britt, energy industry lawyer, JD, MBA, Benjamin Escobar, MIT-trained chemical engineer and patent lawyer, 28 Energy L. J. 489, ARTICLE: WIND POWER: GENERATING ELECTRICITY AND LAWSUITS, lexis] This predictability has created a business environment in which technological development has excelled. excelled. With respect to wind energy technology, however, the United States has lagged largely because until relatively recently there there has been little demand, compared to other parts of t he world. This is starting to change as domestic demand for wind energy increases. increases. While domestic demand is growing, U.S. companies still need to secure foreign demand for their products and technology not only to expand their market and profits, but also to hedge against reduced domestic demand in the future, e.g., in the event Production Tax Credits are not renewed.

Competitiveness key to hege Zalmay Khalilzad, fellow at RAND, Spring 1995 [Washington Quarterly, “Losing the Moment? The United States and the World After the Cold War”] The United States is unlikely unlikely to preserve preserve its military and technological dominance if the U.S. economy declines seriously. In such an environment, the domestic economic and political base for global leadership would diminish and the United States would probably incrementally withdraw from the world, become inwardlooking, and abandon more and more of its external interests. As the United States weakened, weakened, others would try to fill the Vacuum. To sustain and improve its economic strength, the United States must maintain its technological lead in the economic realm. Its success will depend on the choices it makes. In the past, developments such as the agricultural and industrial revolutions produced fundamental changes positively affecting the relative position of those who were able to take advantage of them and negatively affecting

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 103 / 145 ] those who did not. Some argue that the world may be at the beginning of another such transformation, which will shift the sources of wealth and the relative position of classes and nations. If the United States fails to recognize the change and adapt its institutions, its relative position will necessarily worsen. To remain the preponderant world power, U.S. economic strength must be enhanced by further improvements in productivity, thus increasing increasing real per capita income; by strengthening strengthening education and training; and by generating and using superior science and technology.

Nuclear War Khalilzad, RAND Corporation, 1995 [Zalmay, “Losing “Losing the Moment?” The Washington Quarterly, Spring, l/n] Under the third option, the United States would seek to retain global leadership leadership and to preclude the rise of a global rival or a return return to multipolarity for the indefinite future. future. On balance, this is the best long-term long-term guiding principle and vision. Such a vision is desirable not as an end in itself, but because a world world in which the United States exercises leadership would have tremendous advantages. First, the global environment would be more open and more receptive receptive to American values -- democracy, democracy, free markets, markets, and the rule of law. Second, such a world would have a better chance of dealing dealing cooperatively with the world's major problems, problems, such as nuclear proliferation, proliferation , threats of regional hegemony by renegade states, and low-level conflicts. Finally, U.S. leadership would help preclude the rise of another hostile global rival, enabling the United States and the world to avoid avoid another global cold or hot war war and all all the attendant dangers, dangers, including a global nuclear exchange. exchange. U.S. leadership would therefore therefore be more conducive conducive to global stability than a bipolar or a multipolar balance of power system.

AT: Consult C onsult Tribal Nations Counterplan Counterpl an Consultation is normal means. Mel Martinez, Secretary of Indian Housing U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, 2001 (June 28, U.S. Dept. of HUD, "Government-to-Government Tribal Consultation Policy", http://www.hud.gov/offices http://www .hud.gov/offices/pih/ih/re /pih/ih/regs/govtogov_tcp.cfm gs/govtogov_tcp.cfm)) On April 29, 1994, a Presidential Memorandum was issued reaffirming reaffirming the federal government's commitment to operate within a government-to-gover government-to-government nment relationship with federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, and to advance self-governance for such tribes. The Presidential Memorandum directs each executive executive department and agency, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, to consult with tribal governments prior to taking actions that have substantial direct effects on federally federally recognized tribal governments. In order to ensure that the rights of sovereign tribal governments are fully respected, respected, all such consultations are to be open and candid so that tribal governments g overnments may evaluate for themselves the potential impact of relevant proposals. On May 14, 1998, the President issued Executive Order 13084, "Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments," which was revoked and superseded on November 6, 2000, by the identically titled Executive Executive Order 13175, which sets forth guidelines for all federal agencies to (1) establish regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with Indian tribal officials in the development of federal policies that have tribal implications; (2) strengthen the United States government-to-government government-to-gover nment relationships with Indian tribes; and (3) reduce the imposition of unfunded mandates upon Indian tribes.


AT: Give Back the Land Counterplan The negative can’t articulate why our envisioning of perfect self-sufficiency isn’t the type of impossible realism that Churchill says is key key to US off the rock. By embracing the notion that absolute self-sufficiency could happen with work, we can break the confluence between the state and native peoples, ultimately leading to a dissolution of this colonial state. Just because our starting point point is government action doesn’t mean we’re a false hope – tons of states have fallen behalf of their own actions before – we’re just following in kind. Churchill 96 (Ward, (Ward, Prof. Prof. of Ethnic Studies @ U. of Colorado, Boulder BA and MA in Communications from Sangamon State, “From a Native Son”, p. 520-530, p. NetLibrary) DMZ The question which inevitably arises with regard to indigenous land claims, especially in the United States, is whether they are “realistic.” The answer, of o f course is , “No, they aren’t.” Further, no form f orm of decolonization decolon ization has ever been realistic when viewed within the construct of a colonialist paradigm. It wasn’t realistic at the time to expect George Washington’s Washington’s rag-tag militia to defeat the British military during the American Revolution. Just ask the British. It wasn’t realistic, as the French could tell you, that the Vietnamese should be able to defeat U.S.-backed France France in 1954, or that the Algerians would shortly be able to follow in their footsteps. Surely, it wasn’t reasonable to predict that Fidel Castro’s pitiful handful of guerillas would overcome Batista’s regime regime in Cuba, another U.S. client, after only a few years in the mountains. And the Sandinistas, to be sure, had no prayer of attaining victory over Somoza 20 years later. Henry Kissinger, among others, knew that for a fact. The point is that in each case, in order to begin their struggles at all, anti-colonial fighters around the world have had to abandon orthodox realism in favor of what they knew to be right. To paraphrase Bendit, they accepted as their agenda, a redefinition of reality in terms deemed quite impossible within the conventional wisdom of their oppressors. And in each case, they succeeded in their immediate quest for liberation. The fact that all but one (Cuba) of the examples used subsequently subsequently turned out to hold colonizing pretensions pretensions of its own does not alter the truth of this—or alter the appropriateness of their efforts to decolonize themselves—in themselves—in the least. It simply means that decolonization has yet to run its course, that much remains to be done. The battles waged by native nations in North America to free themselves, themselves, and the lands upon which they depend for ongoing existence as discernible discernible peoples, from the grip of U.S. (and Canadian) internal colonialism colonialism are plainly part of this process of liberation. Given that their very survival depends upon their perseverance persevera nce in the face of all al l apparent odds , American Indians India ns have no real alternative alternativ e but to carry on. They must struggle, and where there is struggle here is always hope. Moreover, the unrealistic or “romantic” dimensions of our aspiration to quite literally dismantle the territorial corpus of the U.S. state begin to erode when one considers that federal domination of Native North America is utterly contingent upon maintenance of a perceived perceived confluence of interests interests between prevailing governmental/corporate governmental/corporate elites and common nonIndian citizens. Herein lies the prospect of long-term success. It is entirely possibly that the consensus of opinion concerning non-Indian “rights” “rights” to exploit the land and resources of indigenous nations can be eroded, and that large numbers of non-Indians will join in the struggle to decolonize Native North America. Few Few nonIndians wish to identify with or defend the naziesque characteristics of US history. To the contrary most seek to deny it in rather vociferous fashion. All things being equal, they are uncomfortable uncomfortable with many of the resulting attributes attributes of federal postures and actively oppose one or more of these, so long as such politics do not intrude into a certain range of closely guarded selfinterests. selfinterests. This is where the crunch comes in the t he realm of Indian rights issues. Most non-Indians (of all races and ethnicities, and both genders) have been indoctrinated to believe the officially contrived notion that, in the event “the Indians get their land back,” or even if the extent of present federal domination is relaxed, native people will do unto their occupiers exactly as has been done to them; mass dispossession and eviction of non-Indians, especially Euro-Americans Euro-Americans is expected to ensue. Hence even progressives who are most eloquently inclined to condemn US imperialism abroad and/or the functions of racism and sexism at home tend to deliver a blank stare or profess open “disinterest” “disinterest” when indigenous land rights are mentioned. Instead of attempting to come to grips with this most fundamental of all issues the more sophisticated among them seek to divert discussions into “higher priority” or “more important” topics like “issues of class and gender equality” in which “justice” becomes synonymous with a redistribution of power and loot deriving from the occupation of Native North America

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 105 / 145 ] even while occupation continues. Sometimes, Indians are even slated to receive receive “their fair share” in the division of spoils accruing from expropriation expropriation of their resources. resources. Always, such things are couched in terms of some “greater good” than decolonizing the .6 percent of the U.S. population which is indigenous. Some Marxist and environmentalist environmentalist groups have taken the argument so far as to deny that Indians possess any rights distinguishable from those of their conquerors. AIM leader Russell Means snapped the picture into sharp focus when he observed n 1987 that: so-called progressives progressives in the United States claiming that Indians are obligated to give up their rights because a much larger group of non-Indians “need” “need” their resources is exactly the same as Ronald Ronald Reagan and Elliot Abrams asserting that the rights of 250 million North Americans outweigh the rights of a couple million Nicaraguans (continues). Leaving aside the pronounced and pervasive hypocrisy permeating these positions, which add up to a phenomenon elsewhere described described as “settler state colonialism,” the fact is that the specter driving even most radical non-Indians into lockstep with the federal government on questions of native land rights is largely illusory. The alternative reality posed by native liberation struggles is actually much different: While government propagandists are are wont to trumpet—as they did during the Maine and Black Hills land disputes of the 1970s—that an Indian win would mean individual non-Indian property owners losing everything, the native position has always been the exact opposite. Overwhelmingly, Overwhelmingly, the lands sought for actual recovery recovery have been governmentally and corporately held. Eviction of small land owners has been pursued only in instances where they have banded together—as they have during certain of the Iroquois claims cases—to prevent Indians from recovering any land at all, and to otherwise deny native rights. Official sources contend this is inconsistent with the fact that all non-Indian title to any portion of North America could be called into question. Once “the dike is breached,” they argue, argue, it’s just a matter of time before “everybody has to start swimming back to Europe, or Africa or wherever.” Although there is considerable technical accuracy to admissions that all non-Indian title to North America is illegitimate, Indians have by and large indicated they would be content to honor the cession agreements entered into by their ancestors, even though the United States has long since defaulted. This would leave somewhere close to two-thirds of the continental United States in non-Indian hands, with the real rather than pretended


AT: Give Back the Land Counterplan consent of native people. The remaining one-third, the areas areas delineated in Map II to which the United States never acquired title at all would be recovered recovered by its rightful owners. The government holds that even at that there is no longer sufficient land available for unceded lands, or their equivalent, to be returned. In fact, the government itself still directly controls more than one-third of the to tal U.S. land area, about 770 million acres. Each of the states also “owns” large tracts, totaling about 78 million acres. It is thus quite possible— and always has been—for all native claims to be met in full without the loss to non-Indians of a single acre of privately held land. When it is considered that 250 million-odd acres of the “privately” held total are now in the hands of major corporate entities, the real dimension of the “threat” to small land holders (or more accurately, lack of it) stands revealed. revealed. Government spokespersons spokespersons have pointed out that the disposition of public lands does not always conform to treaty areas. While this is true, it in no way precludes some process of negotiated land exchange exchange wherein the boundaries of indigenous nations are redrawn redrawn by mutual consent to an exact, or at least a much closer conformity. All that is needed is an honest, open, and binding forum—such as a new bilateral treaty treaty process—with which to proceed. In fact, numerous native peoples have, for a long time, repeatedly and in a variety of ways, expressed a desire to participate in just such a process. Nonetheless, it is argued, there will still be at least some non-Indians “trapped” within such restored areas. Actually, they would not be trapped at all. The federally imposed genetic criteria of “Indian –ness” discussed elsewhere elsewhere in this book notwithstanding, indigenous indigenous nations have the same rights as any other to define citizenry by allegiance (naturalization) (naturalization) rather than by race. Non-Indians could apply for citizenship, or for some form of landed alien status which would allow them to retain their property property until they die. In the event they could not reconcile themselves to living under any jurisdiction other than that of the United States, they would obviously have the right to leace, and they should have the right to compensation from their own government (which got them into the mess in the first place). Finally, Finally, and one suspects this is the real crux of things from the government/corporate perspective, perspective, any such restoration of land and attendant sovereign sovereign prerogatives prerogatives to native nations would result in a truly massive loss of “domestic” resources to the United States, thereby impairing the country’s economic and military capacities (see “Radioactive Colonialism” essay for details). For everyone who queued up to wave flags and tie on yellow ribbons during the United States’ recent imperial adventure in the Persian Gulf, this prospect may induce a certain psychic trauma. But, for progressives progressives at least, it should be precisely the point. When you think about these issues in this way, the great mass of non-Indians in North America really have much to gain and almost nothing to lose, from the success of native people in struggles to reclaim the land which is rightfully ours. The tangible diminishment of US material power which is integral to our victories in this sphere stands to pave the way for realization of most other agendas agen das from anti-imperialism anti-imperi alism to environmentalism, environment alism, from African American liberation liberatio n to feminism , from gay rights to the ending of class privilege – pursued by progressive on this continent. Conversely, succeeding with any or even all of these other agendas would still represent an inherently oppressive situation in their realization is contingent upon an ongoing occupation of Native North America without the consent of Indian people. Any North American revolution which failed to free indigenous territory from nonIndian domination would be simply a continuation of colonialism in another form. Regardless Regardless of the angle from which you view the matter, the liberation of Native North America, liberation of the land first and foremost, is the th e key to fundamental fundament al and positive positiv e social changes of o f many other sorts so rts. One thing they the y say, leads to another. anot her. The question has always been, of course, which “thing” “t hing” is to the t he first in the sequence sequ ence. A preliminary preliminary formulation for those serious about achieving radical change in the United States might be “First “First Priority to First Americans” Put another way this would mean, “US out of Indian Country.” Inevitably, the logic leads to what we’ve all been so desperately seeking: The United States – at least what we’ve come to know it – out of North America altogether. From there it can be permanently banished from the planet. In its stead, surely we can join hands to create something new and infinitely better. That’s our vision of “impossible realism.” Isn’t it time we all worked on attaining it?


AT: Nuclear Nuclear War Impacts Impacts Representations of nuclear war as a distinct, future event mask the reality of ongoing violence toward the periphery, reconstructing political space as homogenous. Kato 1993 (Masahide, Prof. of Polisci @ U. of Hawaii, “Nuclear Globalism: Globalism : Traversing Rockets, Satellites, and Nuclear War via the Strategic Gaze”, Alterantives, accessed online p. NetLibrary) DMZ


AT: Nuclear Extinction Impacts By presenting nuclear extinction as the single most important impact, the aff naturalizes and legitimizes the on-going colonization of the indigenous periphery. Kato 1993 (Masahide, Prof. of Polisci @ U. of Hawaii, “Nuclear Globalism: Globalism : Traversing Rockets, Satellites, and Nuclear War via the Strategic Gaze”, Alterantives, accessed online p. NetLibrary) DMZ By representing representing the possible extinction as the single most important problematic of nuclear catastrophe (posing it as either a threat or a symbolic void), nuclear criticism disqualifies the entire history of nuclear violence, the th e "real" of nuclear catastrophe cat astrophe as a contin continuous uous and repetitive repetiti ve process. The "real" of nuclear nucl ear war is designated by nuclear critics as a "rehearsal" (Derrik De Kerkbove) or "preparation" (Firth) for what they reserve as the authentic catastrophe. The history of nuclear violence offers, at best, a reality effect to the imagery of "extinction." Schell summarized the discursive position of nuclear critics very succinctly, by stating that nuclear catastrophe should not be conceptualized "in the context of direct slaughter of hundreds of millions people by the local effects." Thus the elimination of the history of nuclear violence by nuclear critics stems from the process of discursive "delocalization" "delocalization" of nuclear violence. Their primary focus is not local catastrophe, but bu t delocalized, unlocatable, unlo catable, "global" "glo bal" catastrophe . The elevation of the discursive disc ursive vantage point poin t deployed in nuclear criticism through which extinction is conceptualized parallels that of the point of the strategic gaze: nuclear criticism raises the notion of nuclear catastrophe catastrophe to the "absolute" point from which the fiction of "extinction" "ext inction" is configured con figured. Herein, the configuration configurati on of the globe and the conceptualizati conc eptualization on of "extinction" reveal reveal their interconnection via the "absolutization" of the strategic gaze. In the t he same way as the fiction of the totality of the earth is constructed, the fiction of extinction is derived from the figure perceived through the strategic gaze. In other words, the image of the globe, in the final instance, is nothing more than a figure on which the notion of o f extinction is being constructed cons tructed . Schell, for instance, instance , repeatedly encountered difficulty in locating the subject involved in the conceptualization of extinction, which in turn testifies to its figural origin: "who will suffer this loss, which we somehow regard as supreme? We, the living, will not suffer it; we will be dead. Nor will the unborn shed any tears over their lost chance to exist; to do so they would have to exist already."


AT: Elections-Indigenous Vote Key Indigenous vote key to swing states – proven by 2004 election and population booms. MacPherson 2004 (Karen, Post-Gazette National Bureau, “American Indians Flex Political Muscle”, 2-1, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ The estimated 1.5 million American Indian voters nationwide is a tiny fraction of the more than 100 million U.S. registered registered voters, but the concentration of American Indians in three states with Democratic presidential presidential contests on Tuesday -- Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma -- gives them a chance to demonstrate their growing political clout. Recognizing Recognizing the opportunity to both showcase and boost their political strength this year, tribal leaders recently launched "Native Vote 2004'' in an effort to persuade more American Indians to vote while keeping them apprised of the latest campaign developments. The National Congress of American Indians has pledged to mobilize one million American Indian voters this fall in eight states with significant American Indian populations: Alaska, Arizona, California, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. While American Indians traditionally have tended to vote for Democratic candidates, that is changing. Support for candidates generally tends to be more "issue based'' than partisan, said national congress Executive Director Jacqueline Johnson. "Although we still have a strong Democratic voice in Indian Country, there is a growing Republican constituency." Politicians of both parties have readily responded to the burgeoning political power of American Indian voters, as well as the increasingly large campaign contributions from tribes newly enriched by casino and gaming receipts.


AT: Elections-AT: Indigenous Vote Key Native election clout checked by reservation ID problems. MacPherson 2004 (Karen, Post-Gazette National Bureau, “American Indians Flex Political Muscle”, 2-1, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ Even today, however, American Indians face obstacles in vo ting, Johnson said. National congress officials are working to ensure that voters can use tribal membership cards, as opposed to a driver's license, as proof of residency. That can be problematic because some tribal cards don't have picture IDs. In addition, some addresses on tribal cards aren't precise because accurate addresses are not needed many reservations, Johnson said. "Everybody knows that Aunt Sally lives in the blue house around the corner. corner. But that can become an issue for voting. We're trying to work these things out.''


AT: Elections-Sovereignty Key Issue for Indigenous Vote Support of internal sovereignty rights is a hot button issue for Indigenous groups. MacPherson 2004 (Karen, Post-Gazette National Bureau, “American Indians Flex Political Muscle”, 2-1, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ American Indians flexed flexed their political muscle again in 2002, when incumbent Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., beat back a tough Republican Republican challenger. Johnson won by 524 votes, and many political experts believe his support from American Indian voters made the difference. difference. In this year's election, American Indians again are aiming to make a political difference, said national congress President Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota. Among the key issues are a push to solidify tribal sovereignty, sovereignty, better funding for Indian health care and education, and an equitable solution to the decade-old fight over tribal funds held in trust by the federal government. "In November, we will stand up in force to support those Republican, Republican, Democratic and Independent leaders who have honored this nation's commitments to tribes, and to send home those leaders who have disregarded us,'' Hall said.


AT: Elections-Obama Supports Plan Obama supports wind development energy-McCain voted against a critical wind energy bill Rob Capriccioso, May 23, 2008. Indian Country Today. “Comparing the candidates on wind energy”. July, 9, 2008. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417367. WASHINGTON - For once, American Indians want to hear more hot air from politicians. Or, rather, any air at all - when it comes to political support for wind and other alternative forms of energy. energy. Tribal leaders in South Dakota - which will hold both its Democratic and Republican presidential primaries June 3 - are paying especially close attention. Research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory indicates that South Dakota alone is capable of producing 566 gigawatts of electrical power from wind: the equivalent of 52 percent of the nation's electricity electricity demand. Officials with NREL NREL also say that many of the windiest windiest areas areas in the U.S. are located close to and on reservations. reservations. The laboratory has estimated that the total tribal wind generation potential is about 535 billion kilowatt-hours per year, or 14 percent of the total U.S. electric generation in 2004. At the same time, time, a new Energy Energy Department Department report report released released in May indicates that wind wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030 - about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors. Wind energy energy currently accounts for only about 1 percent of the t he nation's electricity, although the industry has been growing steadily. steadily. Energy experts say that as many as 75,000 new wind turbines will need to be built on U.S. grounds to meet the 20 percent goal. Some tribes tribes are are already already beginning beginning to use their lands to harness wind energy and, in turn, are making some money by selling their energy credits to power companies. For tribes that wish to trade carbon credits for the energy they harness, no federally supported support ed system is currently in place. Indian Country Today now takes a look at renewable energy and cap-and-trade platforms platforms of each of the three presidential presidential candidates in an effort to help tribes compare and contrast their views. Sen. Hillary Clinton, Democrat -- ''What I want to do is not only look at existent, known forms of renewable renewable energy and how we can move more quickly to commercial application and distribution for solar, wind, and geothermal, but also look at other forms of biofuel and biodiesel,'' Clinton said in a statement May 16. ''You ''You know, let's take a look at the internal combustion engine. Let's figure out if there are some new ideas out there that would play to America's strengths as we move toward less of a dependence dependen ce on foreign oil and more homegrown energy.'' energy.'' -- Calls for obtaining 25 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable energy by 2025. Proposes a $50 billion, 10-year fund that would invest in renewables and other alternative alternative energy sources. -- Supports Supports a cap-and-trade cap-and-trade system system to cut U.S. emissions 80 percent percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Would auction off 100 percent of emission credits, credits, making polluters pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases. Is a co-sponsor of the strongest climate bill in the Senate, the Boxer Boxer-Sanders -Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. For more specifics, visit www.hillaryclinton.co www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy. m/issues/energy. Sen. Barack Barack Obama, Obama, Democrat Democrat -- ''As president, president, I'll work to solve this this energy energy crisis crisis once and for all,'' Obama Obama said in a statement released released May 11. ''We'll invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in establishing a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs - and those are jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. We'll invest in in clean energies like solar, wind and biodiesel.'' -- Calls Calls for getting 25 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable energy energy by 2025. Calls for 30 percent of the federal government's electricity to come from from renewables renewables by 2020. -- Supports a cap-and-trade cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. emissions 80 percent percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Would auction off 100 percent of emission credits, credits, making polluters pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases. Is a co-sponsor of the strongest climate bill in the Senate, the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. For more specifics, visit www www.barackobama.co .barackobama.com/issues/ene m/issues/energy rgy.. Sen. John McCain, Republican -- ''Wind power is one of many alternative energy sources that are changing our economy for the better,'' McCain said at a press conference conference May 12. ''And one day they will change our economy forever.'' -- Supports Support s renewable energy development, developme nt, but has not offered specific targets. -Didn't vote for a 2005 bill that would have included the largest expansion of financial incentives to produce clean wind energy. energy. -- Supports Support s a cap-and-trade cap-and-tr ade system to cut U.S. emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Would give away many emission credits at the start of his plan instead of making polluting entities pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases; gases; although, down the line he would phase in auctions of such credits. Would Would allow domestic and international international offsets as a form of compliance.

Obama favors investment into alternative energy sources including wind.


Koffler 7/8 2008 (Daniel Koffler is a Clarendon scholar and graduate student in philosophy at the University of Oxford. Accessed online July 9, 2008, The case for nuclear power, Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/08/nuclearpower.energy In keeping with the frenetic, rhetorical ping-pong that has marked virtually every moment of this young general election, Barack Obama gave a big energy policy speech in Las Vegas last month to counter the big energy speech John McCain gave just prior to it. Obama proposed a substantial federal investment in alternative energy sources, including wind power, power, solar power and biofuels, and he promised to hike fuel efficiency standards standards for cars and trucks (though he didn't say by how much). He has already proposed proposed a capand-trade scheme with auctions for emissions permits, which are key to making any such scheme work. (John McCain's version of cap-and-trade does not include auctions.)

McCain is a liar, although he may say he likes alternative energy, but his voting record could not disagree more Market Watch, 7/9 2008 (DNC -- McCain Watch: John McCain's Strategy on Jobs and Energy: Say One Thing, Do Another, 07/09/08, Accessed Accessed online July 10, 2008 http://www.marketw http://www.marketwatch.com/news/ atch.com/news/story/dnc---story/dnc---mccain-watch-john/story.aspx?guid=%7BC46FEE7C-D54F-44C4-A8E1-CC45AFD81AD6%7D&dist=hppr) When McCain visits an energy company today in Pittsburgh, the doubletalk will no doubt continue. Though he has been talking about supporting alternative alternative energy on the t he campaign trail, no amount of campaign rhetoric can bury McCain's voting record on the issue. McCain has opposed o pposed incentives for renewable energy and green jobs repeatedly during his time in Congress, in favor of giveaways for big oil. From jobs to the economy to alternative alternative energy, John McCain's say one thing do another approach to campaigning is not the kind of real solutions the American people are looking for.


AT: Elections-McCain Supports the Plan McCain Favors an increase in alternative energies, including wind power Roth, 7/17 2008 END OFFSHORE DRILLING BAN, McCAIN URGES / GOP candidate in Houston today to mend fences with oil industry; BENNETT ROTH. RICHARD S. DUNHAM; WASHINGTON BUREAU STAFF, ASSOCIATED PRESS Houston Chronicle Chronicle 06-17-2008 accessed accessed online online Via ELibrary July July 10, 2008) 2008) "We must embark on a national mission to end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gases through the development d evelopment of o f alternate energy sources so urces," the Arizona Arizon a senator said in Arli Arlington, ngton, Va., before departing for Texas. McCain will provide details of his proposal in a major energy- policy address today at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston. The Houston Chronicle Chronicle has learned that his speech will describe a goal of energy self-sufficiency through a combination of aggressive dome stic production and increased use of alternati alte rnative ve energy energ y sources. sourc es. The presumed GOP presidential nominee will try to appeal to oil- state interests by pushing for more offshore drilling in states that approve such production. But he also will portray himself as an environmentally environmentally friendly Republican favoring significant increases increases in the development of such alternati alte rnative ve energy sources as wind and nuclear power.


AT: Elections-Public Supports the Plan The public overwhelmingly supports the plan AWEA 2008 [American Wind Energy Association, Americans Overwhelmingly Support Federal Incentives for Renewable Energy: Zogby Poll, January 22, http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/poll_renewable_energy_012208.html] By a 7-1 margin, Americans agree that the federal government should extend incentives incentives that encourage greater use of renewable energy technologies, according to a national poll released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). 2007 was a record-breaking year for renewable electricity generation in the United States, States, with almost 6,000 megawatts (MW) of new renewable renewable energy coming on line, infusing some $20 billion in new investment into the economy. But the federal production tax credit (PTC) and tax incentives incentives for other renewable energy sources are now in danger of lapsing at the end of this year. The survey research firm Zogby International surveyed Americans on existing federal incentives incentives for renewable energy, in a poll commissioned by AWEA. The survey found that 85% of Americans agree with the statement, statement, “The federal government should continue existing incentives incentives to encourage greater use of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power.” power.” Just 12% disagree. “The results confirm that Americans, by an overwhelming majority, want their government to support renewable energy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. Swisher. “In 2007, tax incentives incentives for renewable energy created created tens of thousands of jobs for Americans. We call upon Congress to help sustain this remarkable growth by extending these incentives.” incentives.”

The public loves the plan Incentives to Spur Growth of CarbonEarth Times 2008 [April 25, Eight of 10 Americans Support Federal Incentives Free Energy Technology, http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/eight-of-10-americanssupport,367788.shtml] Nearly 80 percent of Americans endorse the use of federal financial incentives incentives to help promote development of carbon-free energy technologies, including new nuclear power plants, according to a new national survey of 1,000 adults. The survey shows that 79 percent of Americans Americans approve of providing providing tax credits "as an incentive to companies to build solar, wind and advanced-design nuclear power plants." Only 20 percent do not n ot approve. The number of Americans "strongly approving" approving" of tax credits exceeded exceeded the number of Americans "strongly disapproving" by the same four-to-one margin (37 percent vs. 9 percent). Support was nearly identical when Americans were asked about providing federal loan guarantees to companies that build solar, wind, wind, advanced-design nuclear power plants "or other energy technology that reduces greenhouse greenhouse gases to jump-start investment in these critical energy facilities." Seventy-seven Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed approve, while only 22 percent do not approve.


AT: Bush Good-Turn Bipartisanship PTCs for wind have bipartisan support in the Senate Energy Bulletin 2008 (May 7, "Bipartisan effort to continue renewable energy tax credits", http://www.energybulletin.net/node/43856) “That was the impetus behind this effort to get things moving on the House side. The Senate has led on this issue with a bipartisan bill and an overwhelming bipartisan vote in support of extending these important incentives for clean, domestic renewable energy production. production. I hope the House will agree to quickly follow suit. I am glad to be so quickly joined in this bipartisan effort with 34 colleagues.” The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 would provide for the limited continuation of clean energy production incentives and incentives to improve energy efficiency that would otherwise lapse under current tax law. The continuation will prevent a downturn in clean and renewable energy sectors, create jobs, save people and businesses money, and over time reduce energy costs. It is estimated that consumers could save up to $500 on their taxes if they install energy efficient products in their homes that can also help them reduce their heating and cooling costs by 20 percent. Specifically, Specifically, the bill would extend critical tax incentives such as, the production tax credit for electricity produced from renewable sources like wind, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal; and the 30 percent investment credit for businesses that install solar or fuel cell equipment.


AT: Bush Good-Turn Democrats Democrats support wind power Democratic National Committee, 2005 (Idaho Taking the Lead in Wind Energy, accessed on 7/10/2008, http://www.democrats. http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/10/id org/a/2006/10/idaho_taking_th.php) aho_taking_th.php) Democrats have been on the forefront in pushing for energy independence. independence. In Idaho, Americans want clean and safe energy. Wind and other renewable sources meet what appears to be a growing desire among Idahoans for green energy. A public outcry over emissions was a factor in the defeat of Sempra Corp.'s proposed coal-fired coal-fired plant in the Magic Valley Valley this spring, and wind was the energy source of choice in a 2005 Boise State University study of energy policy issues. Idaho has taken a leading role in the power of the wind. Wind power is an emerging technology that doesn't burn a single fuel. Wind farms are built primarily in rural areas, bringing jobs and tax revenues with them. Wind can also be a source of income for local ranchers and farmers on whose land wind turbines are erected. erected. Depending on the amount of power produced, they typically receive receive $4,000 to $7,000 per year per turbine. The turbines' effect on crops and livestock is minimal. Wind power is one of many technologies that Democrats want to invest in to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. From more fuel efficient cars to wind power to cleaner gas, Democrats have taken the lead in cutting our addiction to oil. Idahoans have shown that they are ready to take a lead in energy independence by their support for wind power and can be taken as a model for other states in the use of this emerging technology.

Democrats support Indigenous programs Democratic National Committee, 2008 (Native Americans and the Democratic Party , accessed on 7/10/2008 http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/08/native_american.php) Over the past six years, Americans have witnessed a systematic deterioration and near dismantling of Native American programs by the Republican Congress and the Bush Administration. From Head Start to healthcare, from law enforcement to small business; funding for key Native American programs has not kept up with the needs of Indian Country or fulfilled the trust responsibility responsibility of the federal government to tribal governments and urban Indians. Tribal governments are working hard to find creative ways to maintain programs that are key to the well-being and growth of their communities, but they need help. The present Republican Republican Administration Administration and Congress have created an environment that undermines Indian Country’s forward progress. progress. Democrats promote economic self-sufficiency self-sufficiency for Indian tribes and work to ensure that Native Americans have access to the best schools, health care and housing. The Democratic Party Party supports tribal sovereignty and wants to work with Native Americans to empower their communities to take action. The Democratic Party has worked to establish a place at the table for Native Americans and now wishes to secure for them a place on the ticket. We are are working with Native people to expand the roles they play in the state and national party organizations, and we fully support Native participation in the electoral process, not just as voters but as candidates. The Democratic Party Party fully supports Native Americans participation participation in the electoral process. Native American values are those of the Democratic Party: taking care of those who need a helping hand and giving a voice to those who have not had representation. representation. In this regard, the Party Party is mindful of the disproportionate disproportionate number of Native men and women who have answered our nation's call to arms in times of conflict and how their service and sacrifice supported the common good. The Party remains committed to giving voice to those who have so clearly earned it and to giving a helping hand to those who wish to speak to the future of their children and of our Nation. It is only right! Politically, Native Americans Americans are an increasingly increasingly important swing vote in many states. The Democratic Party Party recognizes the power of the Native vote. The DNC has hired Native American coordinators in key states and held several campaign worker training sessions for Native Americans. Now is the time for Native Americans to say “Enough is Enough.” Elect Democrats to office who care about Native American issues and who support tribal sovereignty. Native Americans have the power to influence the outcome of key races this November. The Democratic Party and Native Americans will work together to register register new Native American voters and get those voters to the polls

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 118 / 145 ] on Election Day. A Democratic Congress will fully fund Native American programs, support tribal sovereignty and fulfill the federal government’s responsibility responsibility to provide equal access to education, healthcar healthcare, e, jobs, housing and economic development.


AT: Bush Good-Turn Public Popularity The public overwhelmingly supports the plan AWEA 2008 [American Wind Energy Association, Americans Overwhelmingly Support Federal Incentives for Renewable Energy: Zogby Poll, January 22, http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/poll_renewable_energy_012208.html] By a 7-1 margin, Americans agree that the federal government should extend incentives incentives that encourage greater use of renewable energy technologies, according to a national poll released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). 2007 was a record-breaking year for renewable electricity generation in the United States, States, with almost 6,000 megawatts (MW) of new renewable renewable energy coming on line, infusing some $20 billion in new investment into the economy. But the federal production tax credit (PTC) and tax incentives incentives for other renewable energy sources are now in danger of lapsing at the end of this year. The survey research firm Zogby International surveyed Americans on existing federal incentives incentives for renewable energy, in a poll commissioned by AWEA. The survey found that 85% of Americans agree with the statement, statement, “The federal government should continue existing incentives incentives to encourage greater use of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power.” power.” Just 12% disagree. “The results confirm that Americans, by an overwhelming majority, want their government to support renewable energy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. Swisher. “In 2007, tax incentives incentives for renewable energy created created tens of thousands of jobs for Americans. We call upon Congress to help sustain this remarkable growth by extending these incentives.” incentives.”

The public loves the plan Earth Times 2008 [April 25, Eight of 10 Americans Support Federal Incentives Incentives to Spur Growth of CarbonFree Energy Technology, http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/eight-of-10-americanssupport,367788.shtml] Nearly 80 percent of Americans endorse the use of federal financial incentives incentives to help promote development of carbon-free energy technologies, including new nuclear power plants, according to a new national survey of 1,000 adults. The survey shows that 79 percent of Americans Americans approve of providing providing tax credits "as an incentive to companies to build solar, wind and advanced-design nuclear power plants." Only 20 percent do not n ot approve. The number of Americans "strongly approving" approving" of tax credits exceeded exceeded the number of Americans "strongly disapproving" by the same four-to-one margin (37 percent vs. 9 percent). Support was nearly identical when Americans were asked about providing federal loan guarantees to companies that build solar, wind, wind, advanced-design nuclear power plants "or other energy technology that reduces greenhouse greenhouse gases to jump-start investment in these critical energy facilities." Seventy-seven Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed approve, while only 22 percent do not approve.


AT: Bush Good-Farming Lobby Turn Wind energy is becoming incerasingly popular in the farming lobby Farmer’s Guardian 2007 (“Wind Power picking up in the US”, The Farmer’s Guardian, Lexis-Nexis, August 31, 2007) MORE American farmers are saying yes to energy companies that want to install new wind turbines on their land. More than an estimated $65 billion will be invested in added wind capacity in the US from 2007 to 2015, according to a study by Emerging Energy Research, Research, a consulting firm. It expects the US to rank number one in the world in cumulative installed wind capacity, with a 19per cent share of the global wind market market by the end of 2015 201 5. In 2005, the United Un ited States State s installed more new wind energy e nergy capacity than t han any other country co untry in the world.

The farming lobby wields an enormous amount of political clout in Congress, controlling key Senators’ votes Mike Dorning and Andrew Martin, staff writers, 2006 (6/4, Chicago Tribune, "Farm lobby's power has deep roots", http://www.floridafarmers.org/news/articles/Farmlobby'spowerhasdeeproots.htm) So Washington sends subsidy payments to farmers. Farmers reward the politicians with votes and money. Farm groups and agribusinesses lubricate the system with campaign contributions and lobbying jobs.With elections less than six months away, the 20 members of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Forestry Committee already have collected more than $7.1 million in campaign contributions from the farm sector while their 46 House counterparts have received received $2.9 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.Combest is far from the only person to pass through the capital's revolving farm door. The House Agriculture Committee's former top-ranking Democrat, Charles Stenholm of Texas, lobbies on behalf of agriculture interests too. In all, at least 19 congressional aides who worked on the 2002 farm bill have taken jobs as agriculture lobbyists or with commodity groups or farm organizations.What's more, more, members of Congress and staff can count on being treated to junkets: Big Sugar plays host at mountain resorts, and the cotton industry in Las Vegas Vegas and New Orleans.Although Orleans.Although the health-care health-care industry and trial lawyers spend far more than Big Farm to influence Washington, the farm lobby is distinguished by a well-organized grass-roots network of organizations that extends throughout rural America. In the capital, farmers are represented by a core group of long-serving lobbyists who regularly regularly band together, setting aside divergent interests interests to keep the dollars flowing to farm programs.And this lobby can draw on public sympathy for a stereotype of a quaint family farm.The political structure also works in its favor. The Senate's equal representation gives voters in sparsely populated rural states extra political weight.


AT: Bush Good-NCAI Lobby Turn NCAI has an interest in Indigenous Energy – plan popular Hall 2004 (Tex, (Tex, President of the National Congress of American Indians, “Native American Interview: Tex Hall, National Congress of American Indians”, US Department of Energy, accessed accessed online June 22, 2008, p. http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/filter_detail.asp?itemid=678 ) DMZ As the oldest and longest-standing Indian organization, NCAI plays an important role in helping to shape national executive executive and legislative policies that promote the interests interests of American Indians and Alaskan Natives. We bring an important voice with regard to the concerns and aspirations of native peoples from across the country.

NIGA supports the plan too NIGA, Updated 2008 (National Indian Gaming Association, "All About NIGA", http://www.indiangaming.org/info/about.shtml) The National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), established in 1985, is a non-profit organization of 184 Indian Nations with other non-voting associate members representing representing organizations, tribes and businesses engaged in tribal gaming enterprises from around the country. country. The common committment and purpose of NIGA is to advance the lives of Indian peoples economically, socially and politically. NIGA operates as a clearinghouse and educational, legislative and public policy resource for tribes, policymakers and the public on Indian gaming issues and tribal community development.

Indian gaming interests guarantee that native have immense clout with politicians. MacPherson 2004 (Karen, Post-Gazette National Bureau, “American Indians Flex Political Muscle”, 2-1, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ American Indian political clout grew further after Congress passed the 1988 federal law that allows tribes to operate casinos and other gaming operations on their lands. More than 200 tribes now operate 321 casinos, and Indian gaming has become a nearly $13 billion annual business, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission. A few tribes have become fabulously wealthy through their gaming operations. Recognizing the power of money in the American campaign system, those tribes and others have steadily increased their contributions to candidates who support Indian causes. Political Political contributions to federal campaigns from American Indian gaming interests interests have risen from $1,750 in the 1990 election to $1.8 million in the first nine months of 2003, according to an analysis of Federal Federal Election Commission figures by the Center for Responsive Politics. Politics. "Clearly, Indian gaming interests have increased their contributions in recent years in an effort to wield more influence,'' said Steven Weiss, a spokesman for the center. David Wilkins, a professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota, agreed that Indian gaming has "provided some tribes, and I emphasize 'some,' with serious cash that gives them an opportunity to play a role in state and national politics... State and national political leaders leaders also want to tap into that money for their t heir own political purposes so they are finally listening to tribal nations.''

The influence of these lobbies extends well into other political issues The Hill 2006 (2/15, The Hill, "Lobby League: Indian Affairs", http://hill6.thehill.com/business--lobby/l http://hill6.thehill.com/business--lobby/lobbyobbyleague-indian-affairs-2006-02-15.html) NIGA has represented represented Indian tribes and businesses engaged in the gaming industry for the past 20 years. Its influence “extends to a lot of issues not related related to gaming,” a tribal lobbyist said. National Congress Congress of American Indians (NCAI): Joe Garcia, Jacqueline JohnsonFounded JohnsonFounded in 1944, the NCAI is the oldest and largest

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 122 / 145 ] Indian group in the United States, representing representing more than 250 tribal governments and many individual American Indians.


AT: Bush Good-AT: Plan is a Flip Flop Bush supports wind energy UPI 5/8 [2008, Analysis: U.S. wind market's mixed signals, http://www.upi.com/International_Security /Energy/Analysis/2008/05/06/a /Energy/Analysis/2008/05/06/analysis_us_win nalysis_us_wind_marke d_markets_mixed_s ts_mixed_signals/3295/] ignals/3295/] The AWEA aims to have 20 percent of the nation's electricity supplied from wind by 2030. Statements Statements by President President Bush and Secretary Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman in the past two years have echoed this goal, Stephen Miner, AWEA's director director of conference conference and education, told UPI.


AT: Bush Bad-Turn Political Capital The plan causes a partisan firestorm, trashing Bush’s capital Friedman 2008 [Thomas, Pulitzer prize columnist for the New York Times, Dumb as We Wanna Be, http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30frie 2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?hp, dman.html?hp, April 30] Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisono p oisonous us that when Congress passed passe d the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.


AT: Bush Bad-Turn GOP Base Wind energy legislation is unpopular with the republicans in the s enate Cash and Chemnick 2008 (“Tax credits for renewable energy pass Senate, but House fight looms”, Inside Energy with Federal Lands, Lexis-Nexis, April 14, 2008) In February, the House passed a bill that t hat would extend a variety of credits for wind, solar, efficiency and other technologies technolo gies that are set to expire exp ire by the end of 2008 . The measure (H.R. 5351) would authorize au thorize $18 $1 8 billion for the credits, and pay for them with rollbacks to oil and natural gas tax breaks. Similar packages have failed twice in the Senate, because pro-fossil fuels Republicans Republicans have used Senate rules to block them. Last week, the Senate voted 88-8 for a renewable renewable tax credit extension bill sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and John Ensign, a Nevada Republican. Republican. It was added to a housing bill (H.R. 3221), which later passed by a vote of 84-12.


AT: Bush Bad-Turn Flip Flop Plan is a flip flop for Bush-he just vetoed the affirmative Daniel Weiss and Nick Kong, Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at American Progress, 2008 (3/4, Center for American Progress, Progress, "Renewable "Renewable Energy Subterfuge: Bush's Sleight of Hand", http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/03/sleight_of_hand.html) The routine has varied little since Bush first took office. President President Bush pays lip service to clean energy technologies while opposing many voluntary incentives and other efforts to promote these very same technologies. Often, Often, these events occur only days apart. Another attempt at sleight of hand will occur tomorrow, when President Bush addresses the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference on Wednesday, March 5. This speech comes just seven days after the administration opposed House passage of the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act, H.R. 5351. This bill would extend tax credits to encourage producers and homeowners to employ wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy technologies. Without an extension, an estimated 116,000 construction workers and other employees will lose their jobs. President President Bush will no doubt use his speech to extol the virtues of clean energy technology technology incentives even while he prepares prepares to wield his veto pen to stop legislation that would do just that. This will only be one event in a long string of Bush rhetoric that doesn’t match reality.


AT: Bush Bad-AT: Plan Bipartisan The bipartisan nature of plan is reversed due to funding concerns in the Congress Zachary Coile, Washington Bureau staff writer, 6/18 (2008, San Francisco Chronicle, "Congressional Stalemate over Renewable Energy", http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MN bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNVE11ALRM.DTL) VE11ALRM.DTL) Even as lawmakers of both parties talk about the need to shift the country toward clean, renewable renewable energy, Congress is in danger of letting key tax credits that have fueled the growth of wind and solar power expire at the end of the year. The Senate failed for the second time in a week Tuesday to pass a bill to help businesses and homeowners switch to renewable energy. The tax incentives have strong bipartisan support, but they have been caught up in a fight between Democrats and Republicans over how to pay for them.


AT: Spending Disadvantage Wind PTCs lead to increased tax revenues Triple Pundit 6/18 6/18/8. http://www.triplepundit.c http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/wind-e om/pages/wind-energy-ptc nergy-ptc-more-than-more-than-pays-003254.php. pays-003254.php. Moreover, tax revenues from wind energy project, vendor and individual workers’ income more than pays for the federal tax incentive, which is due to expire Dec. 31, according to a study GEFS released today at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s (ACORE) Renewable Energy Finance Forum, which took place at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. “Congress’s repeated failure to act could derail the wind energy industry at the worst possible time for the economy, placing 76,000 jobs and more than $11.5 billion in investment at risk,” commented Randall Swisher, the American Wind Energy Association’s executive director.

Plan is key to federal tax revenues Triple Pundit 6/18 6/18/8. http://www.triplepundit.c http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/wind-e om/pages/wind-energy-ptc nergy-ptc-more-than-more-than-pays-003254.php. pays-003254.php. Last year’s crop of wind projects that came on-line generate federal income tax revenues, revenues, as do income taxes on individual workers wages, vendors’ profits and land leases, according to the GEEFS study. They also provide federal tax revenue after 10 years, when the PTCs expire. On top of federal tax revenues, wind projects generate an estimated $6 million a year in local property taxes, $15 million annually in state income taxes on wages and profits during construction, and $1.5 million per year in taxes while operating.

Wind farms pay for themselves Triple Pundit 6/18 6/18/8. http://www.triplepundit.c http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/wind-e om/pages/wind-energy-ptc nergy-ptc-more-than-more-than-pays-003254.php. pays-003254.php. “Congress is debating how to pay for the wind tax credits perhaps without realizing that, over time, wind farms pump more money into the US Treasury and state and local coffers than they take out,” Kevin Walsh, managing director of renewable energy at GE Energy Financial Services, said at the conference today. “Our study shows that the wind farms more than pay for themselves through existing existing tax revenues, so it’s time to renew the incentives immediately.”

Plan generates more tax revenue than it spends Barron 8 Rachel. 6/18/8. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/ge-dont-blow-wind-incentives-away-1022.html . Last year, wind farms built with the help of a production tax credit will deliver federal tax revenue that exceeds exceeds the cost of the incentive program by $250 million, according to the study, which included taxes from workers’ wages, company profits and land leases. That number doesn’t include state or local taxes.


AT: Tourism Disadvantage Wind power won’t reduce tourism – surveys s urveys and statistics prove opposite results AWEA 2008 http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_environment.html . There is no evidence that wind farms reduce tourism, and considerable evidence to the contrary. For example, in late 2002, a survey of 300 tourists in the Argyll region of Scotland, noted for its scenic beauty, found that 91% said the presence presence of new wind farms "would make no difference in whether they would return." Similar surveys of tourists in Vermont and Australia have produced similar results. Many rural areas in the U.S. have noted increases in tourism after wind farms have been installed, as have scenic areas in Denmark, the world's leader in percentage of national electricity supplied by wind. Other telling indicators: local governments frequently decide to install information stands and signs near wind farms for tourists; wind farms are regularly featured on post cards, magazine covers, and Web pages. American Wind Energy Association. Accessed 6/25/8.


AT: Kritiks-General Kritiks-Ge neral Although law has silenced indigenous voices, we should not abandon it, but reengage it with a subversive mindset. The 1AC acts as a counter-hegemonic counter-hegemonic narrative that engages oppressive law from the bottom up by revealing atrocities committed against native Americans. As an audience to our act, you have an an obligation to affirm affirm our methodology as a means to break down the colonized vs. colonizer mindset against Native Americans. Feldman 2000 (Alice, PhD and Lecturer of Sociology Sociolo gy @ UC Davis, “Knowledge and Unknowing Law: Oppositional Opposit ional Narratives in the Struggle for American Indian Religious Freedom”, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. http://sls.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/557)) DMZ http://sls.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/557 RECENT SOCIOLEGAL scholarship has demonstrated that, despite its inherent power to oppress peoples and silence alternative voices, law also has transformative capacities. Many argue that engaging the legal process provides opportunities to reframe exclusionary principles and practices subsequently transforming the social discourses, relations and institutions they help to shape (Mather and Yngvesson, 1980; Merry, 1990; Trubek and Esser, 1989). Interpretive and critical race scholarship in particular have explored the crucial roles in the process of social change played by personal narratives narratives and oppositional storytelling conveyed in legal settings (Crenshaw et al., 1995; Delgado, 1995; Williams, Williams, 1991). This work is based upon an appreciation of the integral function of narratives narratives in constructing meanings, identities and communities, and serving as the means through which they are negotiated and debated within and through the social relations and institutions they animate (Ewick & Silbey, 1995; French, French, 1996; Mertz, 1992). As Robert Cover famously observed, no law or legal institution ‘exists apart from the narratives narratives that locate it and give it meaning’ (cited in Ball, 1989: 2280). Thus, although law serves predominantly predominantly as an arbiter of coercive and hegemonic power, its narrative narrative foundations make it subject to the same challenges as all other discursive formations. Because it is embedded within larger processes processes of social and cultural production, law ultimately functions as an ‘extended conversation’ (Merry, 1990) that can reshape public discourse. As such, an increasing body of work has come to focus on the ways in which the telling of Other narratives narratives in legal settings can provide ways to subvert oppressive oppressive mindsets, legitimate subjugated knowledges, histories and identities, and create relationshipbuilding opportunities which may then serve as means for expanding sociolegal imaginations and practices (Cover, 1995; Lawrence, 1995; Williams Jr, 1986, 1990a, 1994a). The presentation of counter hegemonic narratives narratives in legal settings constitutes a ‘reconstructive ‘reconstructive jurisprudence’ (Harris, (Harris, 1994) that evolves from ‘the bottom’ up, grounded in the experiences and wisdom of those most oppressed. oppressed. In this fashion, Ball observes: In contrast to the [law’s] language of command . . . narrative is inherently communal. A story is shared. shared. It establishes a relation of mutuality between narrator and hearer. When it works, the audience becomes a participant in the performance . . . embark[ing] on a joint venture. To tell and to hear the story of it is also to engage in a joint enterprise. To this extent, the story does what it says. (1989: 2288) The Word – as a ‘tradition of teaching, preaching, preaching, and healing . . . an articulation and validation of our common experience . . . a vocation of struggle against dehumanization’ – ultimately constitutes a praxis, a critical, cultural pedagogy (Lawrence, (Lawrence, 1995: 336). 3 36). Like other forms of critical pedagogy, the sociolegal deployment of counterhegemonic narratives has the power to engender a process which strives toward the ‘ emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality’ (Freire, 1967/1993: 62, original emphasis). Yet, according to Ewick and Silbey (1995: 222), because narratives are determined by ‘the contextual features of their elicitation . . . [they] have no necessary political valence’. They are not inherently transformative, regenerating, regenerating, transcendent, or redemptive (Ball, 1989 2281). Stories alone are not enough, for effective stories need ‘already willing listeners’ (Ball, 1989: 2315; Lawrence, 1995). Subversive storytelling ultimately relies relies upon a willingness on the part of the audience to participate, to be changed, or at least to acquiesce to the telling – the opposite of the silencing that makes oppression possible. The success of such strategies, moreover, moreover, depends upon the latent dialogic elements of law – an institution well known for its propensity for ‘systematic noncommunication’ (Goodrich, 1986) – to facilitate the legitimation and diffusion of marginalized marginalized perspectives that contest the existing order. Using law in a transformative manner proves especially challenging for colonized peoples. In many ways, law has served as colonialism’s ‘handmaiden’ (Merry, 1991: 917), legitimating conquest, normalizing racism and subjugating indigenous peoples (Anghie, 1996; Williams Jr, 1986; Williams, 1991).1 The denigrating cultural stereotypes and images cultivated during contact to justify

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 131 / 145 ] conquest (perpetuated by a constellation of orientalizing knowledge-producing knowledge-producing institutions) formed the grounds for diminishing native peoples’ inherent sovereignty, appropriating appropriating their lands and annihilating their cultures under early international international law (Williams Jr, 1990b; Green and Dickason, 1989). Codified in law, the sociolegal fabrications and redefinitions of indigenous peoples as wards, incompetents and conquered peoples subsequently formed the basis for vast bureaucracies bureaucracies of colonial administration commissioned to maintain the occupation and dependence of indigenous peoples, especially in the USA (Berkhofer, 1978; Dippie, 1982; Pearce, 1967). Emerging postcolonial approaches approaches to legal analysis have begun to map the colonial foundations that shape and mediate the articulation, mobilization and success of claims made by colonized peoples (Darian-Smith and Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick, 1999). They highlight the ways in which colonial processes have engendered state systems whose legitimacy relies upon contradictory, ‘schizophrenic’ ‘schizophrenic’ colonialist constructions (Anghie, 1996) with a propensity propensity for the ‘hysterical repression’ repression’ of (in this case) Indian peoples in response to what is ultimately an ‘infinitely disproportionate disproportionate sense of threat’ (Fitzpatrick, (Fitzpatrick, 1994: 211). The subsequent need to maintain the volatile discursive and material structures structures of the underlying colonizer/colonized dichotomy demands the ongoing silencing and exclusion of indigenous peoples in order to ensure the hegemony, if not survival, of the nation-state and various dominating interests. Therefore, Therefore, when indigenous peoples approach approach law as a context in which to be heard, they must contend with legal practices and ‘majority’ interests inherently inherently antithetical to their liberation (and even their well-being), and which are illequipped to empower their anticolonial efforts. They often face legal and social audiences that have little capacity for or interest in receiving what they have to say as anything other than irrelevant, false or threatening. threatening. Indigenous and other colonized peoples therefore stand at the nexus of the infinite potential to exploit the ‘anxiety’ inherent in colonial formations (Perrin, (Perrin, 1995) in order to disrupt and transform them, and perpetual silence because they cannot be heard through the din of its dysfunction. Drawing upon critical race and postcolonial tools, analysis of the use of oppositional narrativ narratives es in legal settings thus provides crucial insights into the conditions under which the subaltern can speak (and be heard), and how what is said can be empowered to succeed in reconstructing legal resources and relations.

AT: Kritiks-General Kritiks-Ge neral Rejecting dominate discourses isn’t enough, as they have inherently altered and shape the reality of our knowledge. Instead, we must reconstitute both oppressive discourses and ourselves – the permutation is the only way to create a true ethical encounter with oppression. Feldman 2000 (Alice, PhD and Lecturer of Sociology Sociolo gy @ UC Davis, “Knowledge and Unknowing Law: Oppositional Opposit ional Narratives in the Struggle for American Indian Religious Freedom”, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. http://sls.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/557)) DMZ http://sls.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/9/4/557 Subverting hegemonic discourses and practices, then, proves not only a matter of challenging or exposing, or a matter solely of critique. It demands more than the displacement or replacement of one discourse with another, and cannot be achieved merely merely through presencing or considering voice, or providing information. The transformative moments of the communication process lay in the positive engagement engagement with the Other; in moments of re-cognition, in acts which meet the challenges of telling a different story. story. It is this potential which ultimately renders the use of existing hegemonic and colonialist legal systems a viable strategy (if not necessary evil) by those they oppress. Yet, the subversion that ultimately lies at the heart of transformation obtains through a co-creation by both oppressed oppressed and oppressors, oppressors, colonizers and colonized, who are engaged equitably in a rebuilding process of reconciliation and rehabilitation (Freire, 1967/1993; McLaren, 1995; Nandy, 1983). Dialogue is a crucial tool of change, but it must be a form of dialogue that goes beyond that which is used increasingly and casually in a plethora of literatures, and that has come to represent only the transfer of information (which Freire [1967/1993] refers to as the ‘banking’ form of education). Pervasive social change necessitates dialogue which, in the Freirean sense, is based upon structures of interaction in which all parties meet, in cooperation, to change the world by resolving problems posed as mutual challenges, solved for the benefit of all through a process of re-cognition (what he calls ‘problem-posing’ education). Identifying the conditions under which narratives are, in fact, subversive requires the development of more comprehensive comprehensive conceptual frameworks and the expansion of approaches approaches like critical race and some postcolonial scholarship which seek to advance reconstructive reconstructive agendas. This is a project to

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 132 / 145 ] which the philosophies and methods of critical pedagogy, with their focus on the relationships relationships between knowledge and power and their commitment to elaborating egalitarian forms of engagement and social relations, have much to offer (Luke, (Luke, 1996; McLaren, 1995; Roman and Eyre, 1997). Adapting these methods to sociolegal scholarship would strengthen it in two central ways.


AT: Capitalism C apitalism Kritik Turn – political decentralization makes economic decentralization inevitable. Preston 2003 (Keith, Essayist @ American Revolutionary Vangaurd, “Philosophical Anarchism and the Death of Empire”, accessed online July 8, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ Conventional theories of political economy typically portray "Big Business" and "Big Government" as natural antagonists of one another. another. The "left" champions the state as the protector of the little guy from the predatory corporation while the "right" champions the corporation as the hapless victim of predatory government bureaucrats.(41) bureaucrats.(41) However, the present corporate system could not exist without the favors granted to corporations by the state in the form of subsidies, infrastructure, infrastructure, central banking, the state monopoly over the production of currency, currency, tariffs, monopoly privilege, contracts, bailouts, guarantees, military intervention, patents, the suppression of labor, regulatory favors, protectionist protectionist trade legistlation, legistlation, limited liability and corporate personhood laws and much else. Similarly, the state's legistlative process and executive executive hierarchy is beholden to the corporate interests interests who fund the electoral system and provide the bureaucratic bureaucratic elite among the military, foreign policy and "international trade" establishments. Condoleeza Rice's migration from Chevron to the National Security Council is no mere coincidence. The amalgam of Big Business and Big Government, consolidated on an international scale, represents a centralization of wealth and power of so great a degree as to jeopardize the t he future of humanity hum anity. What sort of economic order would wo uld accompany the political victory of anarchism? Economic decentralization would naturally follow political decentralization. As the massive, bureaucratic nationstates currently being incorporated into the New World Order collapsed and disappeared, disappeared, the corporate entities propped up and protected by these states would also vanish. Just as the dissolution of centralized political power would result in the sovereignty and selfdetermination determination of communities and associations, so would these entities be able to develop their own unique economic identities. Economic resources resources of all types, from land to industrial facilities facilities to infrastructure infrastructure to high technology, technolo gy, would fall into th the e hands of particular communities com munities and popular pop ular organizations organization s. Such entities would likely organize themselves themselves into a myriad of economic institutions. It can be expected that workers would play a much greater leadership role in the formation of future economies as workers access to resources and bargaining power, both individually and collectively, would likely be greatly enhanced. The result would likely be an economic order where the worker-oriented enterprise replaces the capitalist corporation as the dominant mode of economic organization. organization.


AT: Leftist Left ist Kritiks Krit iks (1/2) Their typical leftist response to our inquiry perpetuates a silence to the on-going colonization of Native America, serving as a mask for the state to appear benevolent even as its existence is contingent upon a legacy of colonization. Churchill 96 (Ward, (Ward, Prof. Prof. of Ethnic Studies @ U. of Colorado, Boulder BA and MA in Communications from Sangamon State, “From a Native Son”, p. 520-530, p. NetLibrary) DMZ I’ll debunk some of this nonsense no nsense in a moment, but first I want to take up the posture of self-proclaimed self-proclaimed leftist radicals in the same connection. And I’ll do so on the basis of principle, because justice is supposed to matter more to progressives than to rightwing hacks. Let me say that the pervasive and near-total silence of the Left in this connection has been quite illuminating. Non-Indian activists, with only a handful of exceptions, persistently plead that they can’t really take a coherent position on the matter of Indian land rights because “unfortunately,” “unfort unately,” they’re t hey’re “not really co conversant nversant with the issues” ( as if these t hese were tremendously tremen dously complex c omplex). Meanwhile, they do virtually nothing, generation after generation, to inform themselves on the topic of who actually owns the ground they’re standing on. The record can be played only so many times before it wears out and becomes just another variation of “hear no evil, see no evil.” At this point, it doesn’t take Albert Einstein to figure out that the Left doesn’t know much about such things because it’s never wanted to know, or that this is so because it’s always had its own plans for utilizing land it has no more right to than does the status quo it claims to oppose. op pose. The usual technique for explaining this away has always been a sort of pro forma acknowledgement that Indian land rights are of course “really “really important stuff” (yawn), but that t hat one” really doesn’t have hav e a lot of time to get g et into it ( I’ll buy your book, bo ok, though, thou gh, and keep it on my shelf, shelf , even if I never read it ). Reason? Well, one is just jus t “overwhelmingly preoccupied” preoc cupied” with wit h working on “other important importan t issues” (meaning, what they consider to be more important issues). Typically enumerated are sexism, racism, homophobia, class inequities, militarism, militarism, the environment, or some combination of these. It’s a pretty good evasion, all in all. Certainly, there’s no denying any of these issues their due; they are all important, obviously so. But more important than the question of land rights? There are some serious serious problems of primacy and priority imbedded im bedded in the orthodox o rthodox script. script . To To frame things thin gs clearly in this regard , lets hypothesize hypot hesize for a moment mom ent that all of the various non-Indian movements concentrating on each of these issues were suddenly successful in accomplishing their objectives . Lets imagine that the United States as a whole were somehow transformed into an entity defined by the parity of its race, class, and gender relations, relations, its embrace of unrestricted unrestricted sexual preference, its rejection of militarism in all forms, and its abiding concern with environmental protection (I know, I know, this is a sheer impossibility, but that’s my point). When all is said and done, the society resulting from this scenario is still, first and foremost, a colonialist society, an imperialist society in the most fundamental sense possible with all that this implies. This is true because the scenario does nothing at all to address the fact that whatever is happening happens on someone else’s land, not only without their consent, but through an adamant disregard disregard for their rights to the land. Hence, all it means is that the immigrant or invading population has rearranged rearranged its affairs in such a way as to make itself more comfortable at the continuing expense of indigenous people. The colonial equation remains intact and may even be reinforced reinforced by a greater degree degree of participation, and vested interest interest in maintenance of the colonial order among the settler population at large. The dynamic here is not very different from that evident in the American Revolution Revolution of the late 18th century, is it? And we all know very well where that led, don’t we? Should we therefore therefore begin to refer to socialist imperialism, imperialism, feminist imperialism, imperialism, gay and lesbian imperialism, environmental environmental imperialism, African African American, and la Raza imperialism? imperialism? I would hope not. I would hope this is all just a matter of confusion, of muddled priorities among people who really do mean well and who’d like to do better. If so, then all that is necessary to correct the situation is a basic rethinking of what must be done., and in what order. Here, I’d advance the straightforward premise that the land rights of “First Americans” should serve as a first priority for everyone seriously committed to accomplishing positive change in North America. But before I suggest everyone jump off and adopt this priority, I suppose it’s only fair that I interrogate the converse of the proposition: if making things like class inequity and sexism the preeminent focus of progressive progressive action in North America inevitably inevitably perpetuates the internal colonial structure of the United States, does the reverse hold true? I’ll state unequivocally that it does not. There is no indication

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 135 / 145 ] whatsoever that a restoration of indigenous sovereignty in Indian Country would foster class stratification anywhere, least of all in Indian Country. In fact, all indications are that when left to their own devices, indigenous peoples have consistently organized their societies in the most class-free class-free manners. Look to the example of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy). Look to the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy. Look to the confederations of the Yaqui and the Lakota, and those pursued and nearly perfected by Pontiac and Tecumseh. They represent the very essence of enlightened egalitarianism and democracy. Every imagined example to the contrary brought forth by even the most arcane anthropologist can be readily offset by a couple of dozen other illustrations along the lines of those I just mentioned. Would sexism sexism be perpetuated? Ask one of the Haudenosaunee clan mothers, who continue to assert political leadership leadership in their societies through the present day. Ask Wilma Mankiller, current head of the Cherokee nation , a people that traditionally led by what were called “Beloved Women.” Ask a Lakota woman—or man, for that matter—about who it was that owned all real property property in traditional society, and what that meant in terms of parity in gender relations. Ask a traditional Navajo grandmother about her social and political role among her people. Women in most traditional native societies not only enjoyed political, social, and economic parity with men, they often held a preponderance of power in one or more of these spheres. spheres. Homophobia? Homosexuals of both genders were (and in many settings still are) deeply revered as special or extraordinary, and therefore spiritually significant, within most indigenous North American cultures. The extent to which these realities do not now pertain in native societies is exactly the extent to which Indians have been subordinated to the mores of the invading, dominating culture. Insofar as restoration of Indian land rights is tied directly to the reconstitution reconstitution of traditional indigenous social, political, political, and economic modes, you can see where this leads: the relations of sex and sexuality accord rather well with the aspirations of feminist and gay rights activism. How about a restoration restoration of native land rights precipitating some sort of “environmental “environmental holocaust”? Let’s get at least a little bit real here. If you’re not addicted to the fabrications of Smithsonian anthropologists about how Indians lived, or George Weurthner’s Eurosupremacist Earth First! Fantasies about how we beat all the wooly mammoths and mastodons and saber-toothed saber-toothed cats to death with sticks, then t his question isn’t even on the board. I know it’s become

AT: Leftist Left ist Kritiks Krit iks (2/2) fashionable among Washington Post editorialists to make snide references to native people “strewing refuse in their wake” as they “wandered nomadically about the “prehistoric” North American landscape. What is that supposed to imply? That we, who were mostly “sedentary agriculturalists” in any event. Were dropping plastic and aluminum cans as we went? Like I said, lets get real. Read the accounts of early European arrival, despite the fact that it had been occupied by 15 or 20 million people enjoying a remarkably high standard standard of living for nobody knows how long: 40,000 years? 50,000 years? Longer? Now contrast that reality to what’s been done to this continent over the past couple of hundred years by the culture Weurthner, Weurthner, the Smithsonian, and the Post represent, and you tell me about environmental devastation. That leaves militarism and racism. Taking the last first, there really is no indication of racism in traditional Indian societies. To the contrary, the record reveals reveals that Indians habitually intermarried intermarried between groups, and frequently adopted both children and adults from other groups. This occurred in precontact times between Indians, and the practice was broadened to include those of both African and European origin—and ultimately Asian origin as well—once contact occurred. Those who were naturalized by marriage or adoption were considered members of the group, pure and simple. This was always the Indian view. The Europeans and subsequent Euroamerican settlers viewed things rather differently, however, and foisted off the notion that Indian identity should be determined primarily by “blood quantum,” an outright eugenics code similar to those developed in places like Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. Now that’s a racist construction if there ever was one. Unfortunately, a lot of Indians have been conned into buying into this anti- Indian absurdity, and that’s something to be overcome. But there’s also solid indication that quite a number of native people continue to strongly resist resist such things as the quantum system. As to militarism, no one will deny that Indians fought wars among themselves both before and after the European invasion began. Probably Probably half of all indigenous peoples in North America maintained permanent warrior societies. This could perhaps be reasonably construed as “militarism,” “militarism,” but not, I think, t hink, with the sense the term conveys within the European/Euro-American European/Euro-American tradition. There were never, so far as anyone can demonstrate,, wars of annihilation fought in this hemisphere prior to the Columbian arrival, none. In fact, it seems that it was a more or less firm principle of indigenous warfare warfare not to kill, the object being to demonstrate personal bravery, something that could be done only against a live opponent. There’s no honor to be had in killing another person, because a dead person can’t hurt you.

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 136 / 145 ] There’s no risk. This is not to say that nobody ever died or was seriously injured in the fighting. They were, just as they are in full contact contemporary sports like football and boxing. Actually, these kinds of EuroAmerican games are what I would take to be the closest modern parallels to traditional inter-Indian warfare. For Indians, it was a way of burning excess testosterone testosterone out of young males, and not much more. So, militarism in the way the term is used today is as alien to native tradition as smallpox and atomic bombs. Not only is it perfectly reasonable to assert that a restoration of Indian control over unceded lands within the United States would do nothing to perpetuate such problems problems as sexism and classism, but the reconstitution of indigenous societies this would entail stands to free the affected portions of North America from such maladies altogether. Moreover, it can be said that the process should have a tangible impact in terms of diminishing such oppressions elsewhere. The principles is this: sexism, racism, and all the rest arose here as a concomitant to the emergence and consolidation of the Eurocentric nation-state form of sociopolitical sociopolitical and economic organization. Everything the state does, everything it can do, is entirely contingent on its maintaining its internal cohesion, a cohesion signified above all by its pretended territorial integrity, integrity, its ongoing domination of Indian Country. Country. Given this, it seems obvious that the literal dismemberment of the nation-state inherent inherent to Indian land recovery correspondingly correspondingly reduces the ability of the state to sustain the imposition of objectionable relations relations within itself itself. It follows that realization of indigenous land rights serves to undermine or destroy the ability of the status quo to continue imposing a racist, sexist, sexist, classist, homophobic, militaristic order on non-Indians.


AT: Realism (1/2) 1 – Non-responsive – we we are realist, we’re just not knuckle heads about it. Our warming advantage indicates that it’s in the interests of US energy supremacy and survival to allow wind farms to expand. 2 – Even if Realism R ealism is inevitable with Western governments, their evidence isn’t comparative to how tribal states act. We’d contend that realist international international relations theory is a purely Western construct – in reality, reality, tribal governments are as anti-realist as you could get. Churchill 96 (Ward, (Ward, Prof. Prof. of Ethnic Studies @ U. of Colorado, Boulder BA and MA in Communications from Sangamon State, “From a Native Son”, p. 520-530, p. NetLibrary) DMZ But before I suggest everyone jump off and adopt this priority, I suppose it’s only fair that I interrogate interrogate the converse of the proposition: if making things like class inequity and sexism the preeminent focus of progressive progressive action in North America inevitably perpetuates perpetuates the internal colonial structure of the United States, does the reverse hold true? I’ll state unequivocally that it does not. There is no indication whatsoever that a restoration restoration of indigenous sovereignty in Indian Country would foster class stratification anywhere, least of all in Indian Country. In fact, all indications are that when left to their own devices, indigenous peoples have consistently organized their societies in the most class-free class-free manners. Look to the example of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy). Look to the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy. Look to the confederations of the Yaqui and the Lakota, and those pursued and nearly perfected by Pontiac and Tecumseh. They represent the very essence of enlightened egalitarianism and democracy. Every imagined example to the contrary brought forth by even the most arcane anthropologist anthropologist can be readily offset by a couple of dozen other illustrations along the lines of those I just mentioned. Would sexism be perpetuated? Ask one of the Haudenosaunee clan mothers, who continue to assert political leadership leadership in their societies through the present day. Ask Wilma Mankiller, current head of the Cherokee nation , a people that traditionally led by what were called “Beloved Women.” Ask a Lakota woman—or man, for that matter—about who it was that owned all real property property in traditional society, and what that meant in terms of parity in gender relations. Ask a traditional Navajo grandmother about her social and political role among her people. Women in most traditional native societies not only enjoyed political, social, and economic parity with men, they often held a preponderance of power in one or more of these spheres. spheres. Homophobia? Homosexuals of both genders were (and in many settings still are) deeply revered as special or extraordinary, and therefore spiritually significant, within most indigenous North American cultures. The extent to which these realities do not now pertain in native societies is exactly the extent to which Indians have been subordinated to the mores of the invading, dominating culture. Insofar as restoration of Indian land rights is tied directly to the reconstitution reconstitution of traditional indigenous social, political, political, and economic modes, you can see where this leads: the relations of sex and sexuality accord rather well with the aspirations of feminist and gay rights activism. How about a restoration restoration of native land rights precipitating some sort of “environmental “environmental holocaust”? Let’s get at least a little bit real here. If you’re not addicted to the fabrications of Smithsonian anthropologists about how Indians lived, or George Weurthner’s Eurosupremacist Earth First! Fantasies about how we beat all the wooly mammoths and mastodons and saber-toothed saber-toothed cats to death with sticks, then t his question isn’t even on the board. I know it’s become fashionable among Washington Post editorialists to make snide references to native people “strewing refuse in their wake” as they “wandered nomadically about the “prehistoric” North American landscape. What is that supposed to imply? That we, who were mostly “sedentary agriculturalists” agriculturalists” in any event. Were dropping plastic and aluminum cans as we went? Like I said, lets get real. Read the accounts of early European arrival, arrival, despite the fact that it had been occupied by 15 or 20 million people enjoying a remarkably remarkably high standard of living for nobody knows how long: 40,000 years? 50,000 years? Longer? Now contrast that reality to what’s been done to this continent over the past couple of hundred years by the culture Weurthner, the Smithsonian, and the Post represent, and you tell me about environmental devastation. That leaves militarism and racism. Taking the last first, there really is no indication of racism in traditional Indian societies. To the contrary, the record reveals that Indians habitually intermarried between

WDW 2008 Wild Lab Indigenous Energy Massey/Parkinson/Ziegler-[ 138 / 145 ] groups, and frequently adopted both children and adults from other groups. This occurred in precontact times between Indians, and the practice was broadened to include those of both bo th African and European origin—and ultimately Asian origin as well—once contact occurred. Those who were naturalized by marriage or adoption were considered members of the group, pure and simple. This was always the Indian view. The Europeans and subsequent Euroamerican Euroamerican settlers viewed things rather differently, however, and foisted off the notion that Indian identity should be determined primarily primarily by “blood quantum,” an outright eugenics code similar to those developed in places like Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. Now that’s a racist construction if there ever was one. Unfortunately, a lot of Indians have been conned into buying into this anti- Indian absurdity, and that’s something to be overcome. But there’s also solid indication that quite a number of native people continue to strongly resist such things as the quantum system. As to militarism, no one will deny that Indians fought wars among themselves both before and after the European invasion began. Probably half of all indigenous peoples in North America maintained permanent warrior warrior societies. This could perhaps be reasonably construed as “militarism,” “militarism,” but not, I think, with the sense the term conveys within the European/Euro-American tradition. There were never, so far as anyone can demonstrate,, wars of annihilation fought in this hemisphere prior to the Columbian arrival, none. In fact, it seems that it was a more or less firm principle of indigenous warfare not to kill, the object being to demonstrate personal bravery, something that could be done only against a live opponent. There’s no honor to be had in killing another person, because a dead person can’t hurt you. There’s no risk. This is not to say that nobody ever died or was seriously injured in the fighting. They were, just as they are in full contact contemporary sports like football and boxing. Actually, these kinds of Euro-American games are what I would take to be the closest modern parallels to traditional inter-Indian warfare. For Indians, it was a way of burning excess testosterone out of young males, and not much more. So, militarism in the way the term is used today is as alien to native tradition as smallpox smallpox and atomic bombs.


AT: Realism (2/2) 3 – Their inevitability and good claims only hold true because we presume to be true beforehand – we’re bred to believe that realism is inevitable only because we’ve never lived in a different system – that different system, however, however, has been shown to work by tribal governments. Hall 1999 (Anthony J., Dept. of NA Studies @ U. of Lethbridge, “Ethnic cleansing of Native North American People”, People”, April 15, accessed online July 8, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ To now read all these years later Mr. McKayís dismissive comments about Bruce Clark as the infamous loser in Temagami and countless and other cases, raises the question of strange argumentative concoctions youíd need to win before a judge with the deep prejudices and sparce historical knowledge of a Mr. Justice Steele. While I thought he was the last word in judicial ethnocentrism, Mr. Mr. Justice Allan McEachern managed to outdo his Ontario counterpart counterpar t in the ruling of o f the lower court on the Delgamuukw Delgam uukw case. Mr. McEachern, who doubles as chair of the judgeís own self regulating regulating body, pronounced that Indians have almost nothing of worth to retain for either themselves or the world from their own Indigenous cultures. To make this point, the BC jurist actually quoted Thomas Hobbes, who used imaginary North American Indians in 1651, to argue that life without a dictatorial ruler is “nasty, brutish and short.” Accordingly, to properly understand the genesis of Dr. Clarkís legal interpretation, interpretation, you need to know someting of the nature of his formative experiences experiences with judges that, in my view, were unusually extreme extreme in their ethnocentric hostility to Indian peoples and Indian cultures. What emerged for him from this experience, was a dawning recognition that the stakes of the contentions over Aboriginal and treaty rights are so big, and the legacy of legal impropriety so old and so well protected by layer upon layer of dubious and overtly racist legal precedent, precedent, that it is almost unimaginable that any judge would take the responsibility of overturning this status quo -- of overturning this institutionalized institutionalized complicity in genocide that is so deeply ingrained in the framework of North American experience experience that it is made to seem normal and natural and simply a fact of life.


AT: Topicality-Incentives PTCs are federal incentives Union of Concerned Scientists 2007 (2/14, "Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extended Again, but Risk of Boom-Bust Cycle in Wind Industry Continues", http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/production-tax-credit-for-renewable-energy.html) In one of the last measures taken taken by the 109th Congress, an important federal policy for promoting the development of renewable energy received a one-year extension. The production tax credit (PTC) provides a 1.9-cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) benefit for the first ten years of a renewable energy facility's operation. The PTC was set to expire on December 31, 2007, but due to the efforts of a coalition of clean energy supporters —including UCS—it was extended for one year as part of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (H.R. 6408). Strong growth in U.S. wind installations is now projected through 2008.

Tax credits are incentives US Department of Energy, Feb 29, 2008 (Tax Incentives, accessed on 7/9/2008, http://www.eere.energy.gov/states/alternatives/tax_incentives.cfm ) Tax incentives are widely used to help purchasers overcome the relatively high front-end costs of energy efficiency equipment. These programs serve to reduce the investment costs of acquiring and installing energy efficiency products and reward investors with tax credits , deductions, and allowances for their support of these products.


AT: Topicality-Alternative Energy Wind energy is alternative energy Random House Unabridged Dictionary D ictionary,, 2006 (accessed on 7/9/2008, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alternative%20energy) alternative energy –noun energy, as solar , wind, or nuclear energy , that can replace replace or supplement traditional fossil-fuel sources, as coal, oil, and natural gas.


AT: Topicality-‘in Topicality-‘in the United States’ 1 – W/M – plan provides incentives for alternative energy developed by Native Americans. Our __________ __________ evidence says that native power is transferred transferred to the federal power grid for US consumers to use. 2 – W/M – Regarding energy policy, Tribal Tribal nations are treated as states and receive federal grants Suagee 1992 (Dean B., J.D. @ U. of North Carolina, “Self “Self-Determin -Determination ation for Indigenous Peoples at the Dawn of the Solar Age”, 25 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 671, Spring and Summer, accessed online July 9, 2008, p. L /N) DMZ This Article challenges readers to help make the principle of self-determination for indigenous peoples a reality. Part I presents an overview of the emerging international law of the rights of indigenous peoples and discusses the threat of cultural genocide. Part II presents a comparative law example of the status of indigenous peoples under the domestic law of the United States, where American Indian tribes n5 retain a [*675] substantial substanti al measure of their original sovereignty. sovereignty. Although the status of Indian tribes in the United States is less than ideal, a large number do continue to exist as politically distinct communities, and each tribe is intent on being treated as a permanent feature of our federal system. This continued and distinct existence teaches many lessons that are applicable in the international arena. In particular, Part II notes the recent trend in United States environmental law of authorizing Indian tribal governments to be treated as states and offers some comments on one federal grant program which is designed for the express express purpose of helping Indian tribes to preserve preserve their cultural heritage.

3 – C/I – ‘in’ means in control of. Dictionary.com Dictionary.com Unabridged 2008 (‘”In”, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/in ) DMZ being in power, authority, control, etc.: a member of the in party.

4 – We meet out C/I – our 1AC outlines in numerous times why tribal nations are under the authority of the USfg – here’s some contextual evidence Suagee 1998 (Dean B., Director of First National Environmental Law Program, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, Vermont, “Tribal “Tribal Self-Determination and Environmental Environmen tal Federalism: Cultural Values as a Force for Sustainability”, 3 Wid. L. Symp. J. 229, Fall, accessed online July 10, 2008, p. L/N) DMZ Anaya has explained, however, the right of self-determination does not necessarily include the right to become an independent country. n52 In his opinion, self- determination has both substantive aspects and remedial aspects. The substantive aspects can be further broken down into two component parts: First, in what may be called its constitutive aspect, self-determination requires that the governing institutional order be substantially the creation of processes processes guided by the will of the people, or peoples, governed. Second, in what may be called its ongoing aspect, self-determination self- determination requires that the governing institutional order, independently of the processes leading to its creation or alteration, alteration, be one under which people may n53 live and develop freely on a continuous basis. When a people has been deprived of the substantive aspects of self- determination, deprivation establishes the need for a remedy. In the context of decolonization, the remedy provided by the international community has generally included the right to become an independent country. In the context of indigenous peoples, however, this may not be the most appropriate remedy. Rather, an indigenous people people might choose from a variety variety of [*239] arrangements arrangements other than than independent statehood and, if the ongoing aspects of the arrangement arrangement work, it would be meaningful self-determination. self-determination. There may well be cases in which independent statehood would be an appropriate appropriate remedy, but because this remedy is not a generally available right, n54 it would be far more productive for the states of the world to focus on the substantive aspects of self- determination for indigenous peoples than to take a hardline position opposing any regognition of the right at all.



AT: Topicality-‘in Topicality-‘in the United States’ 5 – Their interpretation is bad: A – Overlimits – the only difference between a ‘nation’ and ‘country’ is that native nations aren’t required to follow every federal law – this deduces affs dealing with US territories, provinces untopical. Such a brightline would even even make affs dealing dealing with the state of Nebraska untopical as it doesn’t follow key federal guidelines such as No Child Left Behind, B – This burden is unreasonable – it’s impossible to find a state that follows every federal mandate, and at best, ensures there are only a few few topical affs. This ensures affs lose every round as only so much can be done substantially s ubstantially in the few states that meet that criteria, C – Contradictory – the term term “united states” is inclusive of of all state and territories. territories. It makes no sense for ‘in’ to require full participation in laws if states can be exempt – this is a reason why the interpretation is arbitrary and an independent reason to reject it as it lacks any coherence – no aff could ever meet it. D – Underlimits are always better than overlimits – generics and counterplan ground means there’s always a neg side bias – give the aff a break if we’re a reasonable approach to the topic. 5 – Competing interpretations encourages minor distinctions which are swamped by the opportunity cost of the substantive tradeoff and thus are insufficient to reject a reasonable aff interpretation. Potential abuse is never a voter because they can’t link our plan to the world of debate they describe – if anything, our aff disproves the intrinsicness of their limits story. story.


AT: Topicality-‘in Topicality-‘in the United Unit ed States’ S tates’ We Meet Evidence Evid ence Indigenous Tribes Tribes are “domestic dependent tribes” within the United States. Peggy B. Hu and Jeffrey Thomas, Washington File Staff Writers, 2006. America.gov, “United States Respects Indian Tribes' Right to Self-Determination: Indian tribes retain unique sovereign status as "domestic dependent dependent nations"”. July 10, 2008. http://www.america. http://www.america.gov/st/washfile gov/st/washfile-english/2006/November/20061103120126cjs english/2006/November/20061103120126cjsamoht0.4840967.html. amoht0.4840967.html. Washington -- Many people are puzzled when they hear the U.S. president use such phrases as “governmentto-government basis with tribal governments,” “tribal sovereignty” or “self-determination” for American Indians. Isn’t the United States “one “one nation ... indivisible," indivisible," as the Pledge of Allegiance says? The answer is more interesting than a simple “yes” or “no.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Justice' s Office of Tribal Tribal Justice, American Indian tribes are considered "domestic dependent nations" within the United States. As such, they retain sovereign powers over their members and territory except where such powers specifically have been modified by U.S. law. American Indians are more than members of a racial minority group in the United States; they are indigenous people of the Americas with a status akin to dual citizenship. In his November 1 proclamation marking National American Indian Heritage Month, 2006, President Bush reaffirmed his administration's adherence to a national policy of self-determination for Indian tribes, a policy that began under President Richard Nixon. The United States “will continue to work on a government-to-government basis with tribal governments, honor the principles of tribal sovereignty and the right to selfdetermination,” Bush said, “and help ensure America remains a land of promise for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and all our citizens.” (See text of proclamation.) During a February meeting of governmental and indigenous delegates to draft an "Inter-American Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People," U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States John Maisto said the United States "is proud of its longstanding commitment to tribal sovereignty [and] self-determination, and government-to-government relationships with federally recognized tribes.” (See related article.) “A policy of self-determination for American Indians is one of the most positive aspects of the U.S. experience, and may potentially serve as a model for better relations between other countries and indigenous peoples and populations," he said. President Bush, surrounded by American Indian dignataries, Mrs. Laura Bush and Interior Secretary Gayle Norton, signs the Executive Memorandum on Tribal Sovereignty and Consultation in honor of the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, September 23, 2004, in Washington. President Bush signs the Executive Memorandum on Tribal Sovereignty and Consultation, September 23, 2004.) The U.S. federal government currently recognizes 561 Indian nations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) within the U.S. Department of the Interior manages 55.7 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians. The BIA also is responsible for maintaining tribal schools serving nearly 48,000 American Indian primary, secondary and university students. TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP Each tribe determines who qualifies as a member, and an individual can qualify as a member of more than one tribe. As a result, many of the 4.5 million U.S. citizens -- or 1.5 percent of the total population -- identified as full- or part-American Indians or Alaska Natives in the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate (July 1, 2005), might claim membership in more than one Indian nation. In general, tribes use the blood-quantum system, the descent system or a combination of the two to determine membership. Tribes also might have residency or other requirements for those who seek membership. In the blood-quantum system, a prospective member must prove he or she has inherited a certain percentage of “Indian blood” from the tribe he or she wishes to join. The Nez Perce Perce Nation, for example, will grant membership only to those who are "at least one fourth (1/4) degree Nez Perce Indian ancestry born to a member of the Nez Perce Tribe.” The descent system does not set a minimum blood requirement. Instead, prospective members must demonstrate that they are directly descended from a tribal member from a particular time period. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, for example, requires that prospective members trace their lineage to at least one person listed on the Dawes Rolls of 1899-1907, the official list of people accepted by the Dawes Commission as members of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole Indian tribes. American Indians are active participants in all aspects of American life. Among the more famous American Indians are former senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne); National Museum of the American Indian founding director W. Richard West, Jr. (Southern Cheyenne, Cheyenne and Arapaho); physicist Fred Begay (Navajo and Ute); Olympic medalist Billy Mills (Lakota); composer Louis Ballard (Quapaw and Cherokee); ballerina Maria Tallchief (Osage); poet Simon Ortiz (Acoma); singer Felipe Rose (Lakota) of the Village People; actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Dakota branch of Sioux People); actress Irene Bedard (Inupiat Eskimo and Cree); author Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo); author N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa); and activist and writer Winona LaDuke (Ojibwa). For a timeline of key legal developments affecting the status of the American Indian in the United States, see fact sheet. For more information on U.S. society, see Population and Diversity . (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Final Wild Lab Aff 1 [1]

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