Download Proposition of Policy: The United States Federal Government should

PROPOSITION OF POLICY OUTLINE
Proposition of Policy: The United States federal government should fully fund and implement
the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative by financing new light water open cycle nuclear reactors
through power purchase agreements, loan guarantees, and federal lines of credit [In all fairness,
the idea for this policy is borrowed from one of my friends from the Arizona Debate Institute].
I. Introduction (dramatistic example of the status quo):
A. The movie The Day After Tomorrow and how that fictional work might soon become
reality.
B. Relate it to the latest hurricane season and the devastation of Florida—loss of lives,
homes, and money.
C. Thesis statement (proposition of policy: The United States federal government
should fully fund and implement the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative by financing new
light water open cycle nuclear reactors through power purchase agreements, loan
guarantees, and federal lines of credit) and preview of main points.
II. Significance/Harms (why your policy is needed; what are the reasons why we should act
now to solve a problem): The United States’ continued dependence on fossil fuels threatens not
only our economy but also the Earth’s ecosystems.
A. An oil-based economy will inevitably create an economic crisis as oil supplies run
out.
1. Oil prices are already high because of the instability in the Middle East and
the dwindling supplies of oil—this means that oil shocks to the economy are
inevitable [Goodstein; Heinberg].
2. High oil prices will place an enormous strain our economy and could cause
the collapse of our economy [Roberts].
3. A collapse of the U.S. economy could lead to massive unemployment, a
collapse of the world economy, and even war [Roberts; Scheer].
B. If we continue to burn fossil fuels global warming will continue to increase at
dangerous rates which threatens the health of the planet.
1. Despite all of the research funded by the fossil fuel industries that claims
global warming is not a problem, the best evidence confirms that global
warming is real and is starting the harm the environment [Alvarez; EPA;
Hansen; Hari; Henderson; IPCC].
2. Species will not be able to adapt to rapid climate changes and it will upset the
balance of the ecosystem [“Modest”; “Mussels”; McDaniel].
3. As a result, our ecosystems will be irreparably harmed and we risk another
mass extinction [McDaniel; Karl and Trenberth; Gregory, et. al.].
III. Inherency: In the United States, nuclear power is not growing fast enough due to the
current costs of nuclear power.
A. Part of the problem is structural because there are not enough nuclear power plants to
provide clean energy [Rhodes and Beller].
B. The lack of subsidies inhibits the construction of new nuclear power plants [Public
Citizen].
C. Another problem is that nuclear power has a negative stigma attached to it—after
Three Mile Island Americans have been afraid of nuclear power [Walker].
PROPOSITION OF POLICY OUTLINE
IV. Restatement of the Policy: The United States Federal Government fully fund and
implement the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative by financing new light water open cycle nuclear
reactors through power purchase agreements, loan guarantees, and federal lines of credit.
A. A concise explanation of the type of nuclear reactor used
B. A concise explanation of the funding for the policy—clarify what power purchase
agreements entail, and how loan guarantees and federal lines of credit work.
V. Solvency/Workability: The 2010 plan can fulfill our energy demands and provide the
United States with cheap and clean energy.
A. Nuclear power can provide cheap energy [Rhodes and Beller].
B. 2010 plan makes nuclear power affordable and competitive with other sources of
energy [“Business Case”].
C. 2010 plan will help provide clean energy for the entire United States [“Nuclear Power
2010”].
VI. Conclusion (remind the reader of the dramatistic example and the main points in the paper):
A. Come back to the story about Florida and remind the reader that wild weather patterns
could spread throughout the United States.
B. Also remind the reader about the instability in the Persian Gulf and the impact that it
could have on their daily lives—long gas lines, a faltering economy, etc.
C. Conclude with a restatement of the thesis (proposition of policy).
Works Cited:
Alvarez, Lizette. “Blair Warns of Climate Threat.” New York Times 15 September 2004: A13.
Department of Energy. Business Case for New Nuclear Power Plants: Bringing Public and
Private Resources Together for Nuclear Energy. October 1, 2002.
Domenici, Pete. A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy. Lanham,
Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Environmental Protection Agency. Global Warming—Climate. 20 September 2004
<http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/climate.html>.
Goodstein, David. Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil. New York, W.W. Norton, 2004.
Gregory, Jonathan, et. al. “Climatology: Threatened Loss of the Greenland Ice-sheet.” Nature
428 (2004): 616.
Hansen, Lara. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Hearings on
Climate Change. 108th Cong. 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2004.
Hari, Johann. “The Global Warming Crisis.” The Independent 15 September 2004: 33.
PROPOSITION OF POLICY OUTLINE
Heinberg, Richard. The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies. Gabriola,
B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2003.
Henderson, Mark. “Scientists Claim Final Proof of Global Warming.” The Times 6 May 2004:
4.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Summary for Policymakers: A Report of Working
Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Available at
<http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/spm22-01.pdf>, accessed on November 15, 2004.
Karl, Thomas and Kevin Trenberth. “Modern Global Climate Change.” Science 302 (2003):
1719-23.
McDaniel, Carl. “Increased Human Energy use Causes Biological Diversity Loss and
Undermines Prospects for Sustainability.” Bioscience 52 (2002): 917-28.
“A Modest Proposal to Save the Planet.” The Independent 27 May 2004: 2+.
“Mussels Found Near Pole in Global Warming Sign.” New York Times 18 September 2004: A5.
Nuclear Energy Institute. “Nuclear Power 2010: A Key Building Block for New Nuclear Power
Plants.” <www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum+3&catid=1201>, accessed on November 15,
2004.
Public Citizen. Nuclear Power 2010 Unveiled: Bush Plan for New Nuclear Reactors Maps Out
Monstrous Subsidies. March 2004.
Roberts, Paul. The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2004.
Rhodes, Richard, and Denis Beller. “The Need for Nuclear Power.” Foreign Affairs 79 (2000):
30-45.
Sheer, Hermann. The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future.
London: Earthscan, 2002.
Walker, J. Samuel. Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2004.