2NC Extensions [Critical Immigration]: A/t - #5 “Regulations won’t solve” 304
4) It’s try or die: the longer emissions are allowed to grow, the more damage is done to the atmosphere and the less reversible changes become.
FIELD, 13
[Chris, director of the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science and co-chair of a working group tasked with assessing climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; “Obama is right on climate change”, 6/29, http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/28/opinion/field-obama-climate-change]
Why the rush? Climate change is driven by emissions of a range of heat-trapping gases, especially the total emissions of carbon dioxide, which have been pumping out since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. How much? Through 2012, that total is about 1,700 billion tons of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and cutting down forests. In 2012, carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. were 19.4 tons per person or about 750 pounds per person per week. Per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. may be lower now than they were in 1990, but the average American still emits three times the global average. Global annual carbon dioxide emissions continue to grow rapidly, with emissions in 2012 more than 50% above 1990 levels. Recently, and for the first time in more than 2 million years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere climbed above 400 parts per million, 37% higher than in 1800. The resulting global warming, about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit, will persist for at least 1,000 years. With every passing year, the pool of total carbon dioxide emissions grows bigger, causing more warming -- and more warming leads to greater damages from climate, weather extremes like heat waves, heavy rainfall, and coastal storm surge, as well as altered crop yields, threats to human health, and increased risks of wildfire.
2NC Extensions [Critical Immigration]: A/t - #6 “Political Capital is a myth” [1/2] 305
1) Their evidence has no warrant. Political capital works because Presidents are able to use favors and leverage to convince politicians to side with them, but only if they appear strong. Our uniqueness evidence proves that Obama has the strength to pull some politicians onto his side, but only if he avoids any battles in the short-term.
2) Obama will put enough political capital into the new regulations to succeed, but it will be extremely difficult.
NATIONAL JOURNAL, 13
[Amy Harder; “Obama Plans Marathon Sprint on Climate Change” 6/24, http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/obama-plans-marathon-sprint-on-climate-change-20130624]
President Obama is ready to take one more shot at global warming with the last, least-popular, and messiest tool he’s got left: regulations administered by the politically besieged Environmental Protection Agency. It won’t be popular, it might not work, and it could jeopardize his pick to head EPA. But the reality is that, three years after Congress killed a cap-and-trade bill, Obama is running out of time. If he doesn’t finalize EPA rules controlling greenhouse-gas emissions before he leaves the White House, a Republican president, or a GOP-controlled Senate, could undo the rules—and his environmental legacy. “He is serious about making it a second-term priority,” Heather Zichal, Obama’s top energy and climate adviser, said at an event last week. “He knows this is a legacy issue.” The effort amounts to both a marathon and a sprint, in which Obama must simultaneously navigate political, legal, and policy hurdles that could halt his efforts if he fails to map out a clear way forward. At issue is a pair of regulations controlling greenhouse-gas emissions from new and existing power plants, the latter of which account for nearly 40 percent of the country’s heat-trapping emissions. EPA proposed rules for new plants last spring but missed its April deadline to finalize them. The agency has also put on ice parallel rules targeting almost 600 existing coal-fired power plants. The rules covering existing plants could have the greatest impact, both on cutting carbon emissions and raising the cost of electricity, because coal is the cheapest, most prevalent, and dirtiest way to produce electricity. In a speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, Obama will outline a timeline for EPA to move forward regulating carbon emissions at new and existing power plants. “The time will go very quickly because regulations don’t move quickly through the process,” said Joe Kruger, who served as deputy associate director for energy and climate change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality during Obama’s first term. “It will be a bit of a time crunch to get it done by the end of the Obama second term.” Kruger, who now directs energy and environmental policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, predicted the administration will succeed because Obama is putting his own political capital into the issue. “They will figure out one way or another how to get it done,” he said.
2NC Extensions [Critical Immigration]: A/t - #6 “Political Capital is a myth” [2/2] 306
3) Obama needs all his political capital to get the rules changes through, or Congress will rip the changes to shreds.
FALLON, 13
[Brandon, recent grad student at CSULB with a BA in History from Fordham University; “Obama Is Moving Ahead On Climate — With Or Without Congress' Help ”, 6/27, http://www.policymic.com/articles/51623/obama-is-moving-ahead-on-climate-with-or-without-congress-help]
Executive powers are one way to limit the problem, but using them could make it appear as if the president is reaching for more power. Obama cannot tell Congress what to do, but he could order the Departments of Energy and the Interior and the EPA to begin cutting pollution and prepare for a future in which climate change will affect all of us. Leadership is a requirement if Obama is to make climate change a serious priority. It already has become a priority as Obama brought it up often in his State of the Union address. What the president cannot do now is leave the issue solely in the hands of Congress, which will likely result in a watered-down bill at best or nothing at worst.
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