Climate Change 2020-2021 Topic Proposal Proposed to The NFHS Debate Topic Selection Committee August 2019 Proposed by: Irene Caracioni and Dustin L. Rimmey Topeka High School Topeka, KS 1 Acknowledgements The ideas, background information and framing for this paper have come from a 2015-2016 proposal to the college topic selection committee. A large majority of the definitional work comes from all of the individuals who publicly shared their research on the CEDA forums from the topic wording meeting that year. 2 Introduction In 2002, the phenom from St. Louis, Nelly noted “It’s getting hot in herre.” While it is clear that he was probably not talking about climate change, seventeen years later he very much could be. According to Julia Hollingsworth in a 2019 CNN article “that if global temperatures rise 3 degrees Celsius by 2050, 55% of the world's population across 35% of its land area would experience more than 20 days of lethal heat per year, "beyond the threshold of human survivability."” Clearly, time is not on our side and we need to use the research and argumentation abilities of the next generation of leaders to help save our planet. As a community, we have not taken the opportunity to directly debate climate change or greenhouse gas emissions as the sole focus of a resolution. While we have debated areas that include climate like: Alternative Energy (1997 and 2008) or environmental pollution (1971, 1993) we have not made emissions reductions the sole focus. The Trump administration has taken an activist role is rolling back domestic climate policy and United States participation in international agreements. There is a broad consensus in the academic and scientific communities that the United States needs to do something to either mitigate or adapt to climate change, yet they are doing nothing. Under this topic, affirmatives could take a variety of approaches to change the course of current climate policy. Affirmatives could set hard targets to reduce emissions to, enact a cap and trade or carbon tax system, eliminate subsidies of fossil fuels, or potentially increase alternative energy production to reduce emissions. Negative teams will have access to a wide range of economic sectors for disadvantages and private agency counterplans in addition to a very legitimate debate about whether the states or the national government is the more credible actor on climate policy. Critical and non-traditional debaters could discuss why regulations are inherently neoliberal, why we should reject environmental managerialism in addition to arguments like settler colonialism or identity politics-based critiques that have a growing literature base focusing on climate change studies. 3 Table of Contents Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ 2 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS—LAST TO UPDATE ........................................................................................................ 4 SECTION 1: THE STATE OF CLIMATE POLICY .................................................................................................. 6 1A. The Trump Effect ........................................................................................................................................................... 7 1B. Divisions on What to Target .................................................................................................................................. 20 1C. Climate Change is an Existential Threat ........................................................................................................... 23 SECTION 2: SOLVENCY MECHANISMS .............................................................................................................. 25 2A. Climate Mitigation ..................................................................................................................................................... 26 2B. Regulations to Restrict/Reduce Emissions ....................................................................................................... 28 2C. Market-Based ............................................................................................................................................................... 31 2D. Capture Technology .................................................................................................................................................. 35 2E. Increase Alternative Energy................................................................................................................................... 37 2F. Eliminate “Dirty” Subsidies ..................................................................................................................................... 48 SECTION 3: DEFINITIONS/TOPICALITY—MOSTLY DONE ........................................................................ 50 Climate Policy ...................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Emissions Targets .............................................................................................................................................................. 58 Greenhouse Gases (6 Gases)........................................................................................................................................... 59 Greenhouse Gases (Broad) ............................................................................................................................................. 62 Greenhouse Gases (Direct vs. Indirect) ...................................................................................................................... 64 Market-Based Regulations/Incentives ...................................................................................................................... 67 Mitigation ............................................................................................................................................................................. 83 Penalties ................................................................................................................................................................................ 85 Private Sector ...................................................................................................................................................................... 88 Regulations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Renewable Energy ............................................................................................................................................................. 94 4 Renewable Energy Targets ............................................................................................................................................ 97 Restrictions ....................................................................................................................................................................... 100 Total ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 102 SECTION 4: RESOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................................ 103 SECTION 5: NEGATIVE GROUND ..................................................................................................................... 105 SECTION 6: WHY THIS TOPIC—NOT STARTED ......................................................................................... 110 SECTION 7: WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................................ 112 5 Section 1: The State of Climate Policy 6 1A. The Trump Effect It would be an understatement to note that US Climate Policy is a mess. From debates on whether or not climate change is anthropogenic or natural, to whether or not it is real or a hoax to who exactly is responsible for taking action, the US has no clear vision on how to tackle climate change. The Trump administration has taken an active role in disrupting any past actions taken by the US. On Trump’s watch we have withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, are rolling back CAFÉ standards, eliminating Obama’s Clean Power Plan etc. Several states have attempted to institute agreements to bind their states to the Paris Agreement, while other states have doubled down on oil and gas production. Phillip Wallach from the Brookings institute highlights the current nightmare of American climate policy: Philip A. Wallach, 3-22-2019, (Senior Fellow - R Street Institute Former Expert - Brookings Institution) "Where does US climate policy stand in 2019?," Brookings, https://www.brookings.edu/2019/03/22/where-does-u-s-climate-policy-stand-in-2019///IC To think about federal climate policy these days is to think about the future. Will we see Democrats embrace a radical program like the Green New Deal? Or will elites of both parties come to see a carbon tax as an attractive means of raising