High Speed Rail Affirmative
HSR Oil Advantage Solvency
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- HRS solves congestion and oil dependency
- Peak Oil
HSR Oil Advantage SolvencyOil DependencyHSR is the ideal medium to facilitate a shift away from oil and will reduce oil-based transportation by 40%Perl, Director Urban Studies Program, Simon Fraser University,’10 (Anthony, June 10, Council on Foreign Relations, “Expert Roundup: Reducing U.S. Oil Consumption,”http://www.cfr.org/energyenvironment/reducing-us-oil-consumption/p22413)//sp High-speed trains have revolutionized the way that people move between cities hundreds of miles apart. These trains are powered by electricity--the ideal medium to facilitate a transition away from oil because it can blend energy sources and thus shift from non-renewable carbon based fuels like coal and natural gas to renewable sources like solar, wind, and water as soon as the infrastructure to generate them can be built. These trains are powered by electricity--the ideal medium to facilitate a transition away from oil because it can blend energy sources, and thus shift from non-renewable carbon-based fuels. In "Transport Revolutions," Richard Gilbert and I illustrated one scenario whereby the United States could reduce oil-powered transportation by 40 percent between 2010 and 2025 while obtaining roughly the same levels of ton-miles in freight transportation and passenger-miles in local and intercity travel. Around half of today's car travel would shift to electric propulsion, mostly aboard local buses and trains, while about one-third of domestic flying would be substituted by electric trains, mostly running at 125 miles per hour or faster. Electric cars also would play a modest, but growing role in providing local mobility. Similar shifts would occur in freight transportation. HRS solves congestion and oil dependencyRosenthal 11 (John December 11 Bloomberg news http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-19/riding-high-speed-rail-to-a-u-s-recovery-john-rosenthal.html) Investment in rail is a step toward energy independence. Transportation accounts for almost three-quarters of U.S. oil consumption. Shifting millions of passenger trips from cars and airplanes to electric-powered trains each year wouldn’t just relieve airport and highway congestion; it would also reduce the amount of oil we need to import from the Middle East. And because trains use a third less energy per passenger mile than cars do, they’re far less damaging to the environment. The weak economy only increases the urgency. Interest rates are at historic lows, real estate values remain depressed, private sector spending is stagnant, and unemployment is stuck around 9 percent. There could hardly be a better time to borrow billions of dollars to buy up land for train rights-of-way and to create high-paying jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction. Peak OilHSR drastically lowers our oil dependency and our risk from the coming peak oil crisisUSHSR NO DATE (The US High Speed Rail Association is the leading company in the study of HSR. “Numerous benefits with train systems” http://www.ushsr.com/benefits.html) Faster, more efficient mobility, enormous energy savings, reduced environmental damage - a train system solves many problems: Creates millions of green jobs nationwide building the new rail infrastructure and manufacturing the rail cars Pays for itself by significantly reducing our $700 billion a year oil purchase trade deficit Offers a convenient, comfortable way to travel without hassles or delays Congestion Relief - delivers new mobility while relieving congestion on highways and runways A major step toward solving global warming by reducing our oil consumption and emissions Drastically reduces our oil addiction and lowers our risk from the coming peak oil crisis Lowers our dependence on costly military operations securing oil flow around the world Lowers our national security risk, and ends wars for oil Freedom from oil - Powered by clean electricity from renewable energy sources: wind, solar, geothermal, ocean/tidal Safe, affordable, green transportation for everyone Saves lives (43,000 Americans die each year in car accidents) Provides efficient mobility that moves people and goods without delay and waste. HSR is the single most powerful thing the U.S. can do to shift away from oil before prices inevitably rise and resource wars escalateUSHSR, 12 – United States High Speed Rail, created of HSR (“Rail - The Solution to Rising Gas Prices”, 2012, http://www.ushsr.com/benefits/energysecurity.html)//MP Building an electrically-powered national high speed rail network across America is the single most powerful thing we can do to get the nation off oil and into a secure, sustainable form of mobility. A national network of high speed trains can be powered by a combination of renewable energy sources including wind, solar, geothermal, and ocean/tidal energy. America's dependency on oil is the most severe in the world, and inevitably pulls us into costly resource wars. It also pushes us into exploring for oil in extreme locations such as 10,000 feet deep below the Gulf of Mexico. We use 25% of the entire world's oil supply, yet we only have 5% of the world's population. We use 8-10 times more oil per person per day than Europeans, and they have faster, easier and better mobility than we do. The extremely high daily oil consumption of Americans is not due to a higher standard of living, but because of the extremely inefficient nature of our national transportation system – based on individual vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, combined with our sprawling community designs that force people into cars for every trip. As the world oil supply begins to peak and then irreversibly declines, prices will rise faster, and the situation will get far worse for America if we don't quickly reduce our national oil dependency. This dependency cuts across our entire society and affects our daily survival. Oil provides 95% of the energy to grow, process and deliver food to the nation. Our entire national transportation system is powered mostly by oil. Numerous daily products we use are made from oil. We use 20 million barrels of oil every day - just in America - 70% of it for transportation. Of the 20 million barrels we consume, we import 2/3 of this oil (13 million barrels per day) from foreign sources, many in unstable places. No combination of drilling off our coasts, hydrogen fuel cells, natural gas, biofuels, and used French fry oil will solve this and carry 300 million Americans into the future. None of these fuels can be scaled up to anywhere near the amount of liquid fuel we use daily in any practical, economical, or sustainable way. 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