1AC Inherency/Solvency

GDI 2K12 1/194

TIGGER AFF CORE

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1AC—Inherency/Solvency

TIGGER funding now thumps the DAs but funding will expire this year without an extension

Ehl 11 (Larry, Publisher of Transportation Issues Daily, TIGER Yes, TIGGER NO, in 2012 (Updated), http://www.transportationissuesdaily.com/tiger-yes-tigger-no-in-2012/) KA

TIGGER (Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction) is a Federal Transit program that, like its big cousin TIGER, was born in the Recovery Act and subsequently received annual funding. Unlike its cousin, TIGGER is dead for 2012 because its funding was zeroed out for the year in a bill that should pass Congress today or Friday. The Senate had proposed $25 million, but the House – which proposed $0 – seems to have won this fight. TIGGER grants are for capital investments to reduce transit system energy consumption; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. FTA announced that in evaluating applications it would look more favorably on “innovative technologies of national significance, such as electric drive and other forward-looking technologies” which would not normally funded out of other FTA programs. The Program “focuses on the total energy savings, and/or emissions reductions of a project over its expected its useful life.” Visit the FTA’s TIGGER for more details about the program. TIGGER was created and funded at $100 million through the Recovery Act. FTA received 224 applications proposing 561 projects, totaling more than $2 billion, and awarded 43 grants (pdf) (scroll to page 5) in October 2009. In 2010 FTA received 274 applications for the available $75 million.). USDOT Secretary LaHood commented that the “winning projects involved an array of environmental innovations, such as installing energy-efficient technologies at transit facilities, replacing traditional diesel-powered buses with low- or zero-emission vehicles, and building compressed natural gas fueling stations. In 2011 FTA was funded at $49.9 million. Grants have not yet been awarded. for 18 projects were announced on 11/17. View the projects award list (pdf) and the news release. Grant funding has mostly focused on helping transit agencies replace aging gas and diesel buses with hybrid and/or electric buses. Other projects including replacing aging, inefficient heating and cooling systems in transit facilities.

The status quo isn’t sufficient – there’s tons of markets demand for TIGGER

Department of Transportation 11 (Department of Transportation, BUDGET ESTIMATES FISCAL YEAR 2011 FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION, http://www.dot.gov/budget/2011/budgetestimates/fta.pdf) KA

The overwhelming response to FTA’s Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, demonstrated a high demand for research funding and opportunities to test and develop technologies and practices to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions. After wages, fuel and electricity account for a significant percentage of transit agencies overall operating costs. The variability of fuel prices can have a substantial affect on an agency’s budget. In addition, the cost to heat and cool transit facilities can be substantial. Although only $100 million of TIGGER funds were available, FTA received applications for 561 projects requesting over $2 billion. As can be seen in the box below, the TIGGER projects selected by FTA represent a diverse and innovative set of transportation strategies to address GHG emissions and energy reduction. This projects that can help transit systems change their GHG emissions profile and reduce their overall energy consumption.

The plan solves – consistent funding for TIGGER jumpstarts green transportation technology

Katz and Muro 10 (Bruce / Mark, Vice Prez of Brooking Institute/ Senior Fellow @ Brookings, State and Local Governments are Oversubscribing to Innovative Stimulus Programs, 3/24/10, http://www.brookings.edu/up-front/posts/2010/03/24-stimulus-katz-muro) LA

Recently we noticed that the year-old federal Recovery Act--for all its shortcomings and business-as-usual--actually served as a prolific hatchery for longer-term policy innovation. Along those lines we pointed out how many novel programs--introduced in the Recovery Act and ranging from the Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RTT) and Investing in Innovation (I3) funds to the interagency Sustainable Communities Initiative--are now wending through Congress as bona fide program start-ups in the base FY 2011 budget process. Stimulus, to that extent, really did introduce a few bits of true program creativity. Yet now here’s another observation relevant to the cause of reform: Many of the most forward leaning and innovative program offerings in the recovery package have been hugely over-subscribed by state and local applicants who are clamoring for new approaches. The result of a recent review of agency stimulus data led by our colleague Sarah Rahman, this finding of course reflects the acute needs of sub-national governments and community organizations that have been reeling all year with the fiscal and economic fall-out of the Great Recession. (See a matrix of the programs and the demand for them). But it also attests to the deep and broad-ranging demand across America for new types of federal engagement. Consider the size and variedness of the appetite for some of the most progressive competitive grant offerings: The Department of Energy’s mold-breaking Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program and the Department of Labor’s Pathways out of Poverty program for green workforce training each received 10 times more proposals than they could accept The Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and Transit Investments in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) programs were even more over-subscribed in terms of the total funding requests made in relation to the total grant amounts available. In TIGER’s case it was 38 times greater;in TIGGER’s case, it was 20 times greater Likewise, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and High Speed Rail competitive fundings registered total funding requests that were six to seven times greater than the respective programs’ funding availability And finally there is the case of the Build America Bonds. Started up in the stimulus package with issuance expectations of $4 to 5 billion, uptake of this new lower-cost borrowing tool now exceeds $71 billion What are we to make of this outpouring of demand? One implication is simply that the overhang of need in metropolitan America is great, not just for fiscal relief (as this recent Metroreport underscores), but for investment of all kinds: in energy innovation, education and training, transportation infrastructure and broadband networks. Congress should consider the message of program oversubscription and respond to it in the near term with new investments that will set a platform for growth going forward. For example, why shouldn’t the jobs bill being cobbled together now simply instruct key agencies to go down the list of unfunded stimulus projects and fund some of the most qualified ones? But to us the more compelling takeaway from our analysis is that the Recovery Act unleashed an extensive pent-up hunger for more flexible investment in the U.S. as well as new competitive grant approaches. New energy research paradigms, programs that move toward a low-carbon future, grants for new sorts of transportation solutions: Those have been the opportunities on offer. And as it happens, the response to the call has been immediate, enthusiastic, and geographically distributed. That means the demand for federal program reform and transformative investments reaches broadly across the nation. And that means that Congress must step up the pace of program reform, even in bad times. Going forward, the worst possible scenario would be for the resource constraints of the coming budget cycles to squeeze out the innovative (e.g. competitively awarded, merit-based programs) and revert back to federal business-as-usual (political awards and rigid formula-based categorical programs). Congress should heed the message of the Recovery Act’s oversubscription. Scores of Washington’s partners in U.S. metropolitan areas are urgently pursuing new priorities and new ways of operating as they seek to put in place the foundation for the next era of productive and sustainable growth. Congress should provide them the sort of catalytic programs and resources they seek.

Funding now is key – failure will crush demand for clean tech

Millar 11 (William, Prez of the American Public Transportation Association, Letter to SENATE AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP OF THE CONFERENCE NEGOTIATIONS ON THE FY 2012 TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (THUD) SPENDING BILL, http://www.apta.com/gap/letters/2011/Pages/113110_fy12_thud_conferees.aspx) LA

On behalf of the 1,500 member organizations of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), I urge you to support strong investment in public transportation and high-speed and intercity passenger rail programs as you conduct conference negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations spending bill. We recognize the challenges faced by the Appropriations Committees in crafting the FY12 THUD bill in the absence of a surface transportation authorization bill. With more Americans using public transportation, we urge the committees to recognize that tremendous funding needs persist for public transportation agencies across the country. Failure to make necessary investments may force private sector businesses in transit and related industries to lay off employees or to invest overseas. For the nation’s tens of millions of transit riders, less investment will mean less service, fewer travel options, higher costs and longer commutes. We strongly support providing funding at no less than $10.629 billion for Federal Transit Administration (FTA) programs in Fiscal Year 2012, the level approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. This amount includes $8.361 billion for formula and bus grant programs. At minimum, APTA also strongly supports funding the New Starts Capital Investment Grant program at the Senate approved level of $1.955 billion in FY 2012, which is a $358 million increase over the FY 2011 level. The success of major, multi-year capital projects under this program depends upon predictable support by Congress and the FTA. Further, continued federal investment commitments influence decisions by private financial markets to fund public transportation projects and oftentimes result in favorable bond ratings and lowered interest rates. We urge the conferees to support, at minimum, the Senate provided level of $25 million for the FTA’s greenhouse gas and energy reduction (TIGGER) grant program, $550 million for National Infrastructure Investment (TIGER) grants, and $90 million for HUD’s Sustainable Communities Initiative, which supports the interagency partnership between DOT, HUD, and the Environmental Protection Agency. We also urge the conferees to support, at minimum, the House provided level of $45 million for Research and University Research centers. These programs assist public transportation systems with addressing important needs and deserve the continued support of Congress.

Competitive bidding solves – trumps private or public actors working alone

Cohen 12 (Bonner R., Sr. Fellow at The Nat’l Center for Public Policy Research, senior policy analyst for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, author of The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences, testifed before the U.S. Sen. Environmental and Public Works Committee and before subcommittees of the Sen. Energy and Nat’l Resources Committee, House Resources Committee and House Judiciary Committee, “Fixing America’s Crumbling Underground Water Infrastructure: Competitive Bidding Offers a Way Out,” http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Bonner%20

Cohen%20 %20Fixing%20America's%20Water%20Infrastructure.pdf) KGH

Some market discipline into the process would go a long way toward achieving that goal. Opening up the bidding process under the principle of “may the best technology win” will immeasurably improve the quality of America’s underground water infrastructure in a cost-effective fashion. Competitive bidding can serve as an essential safeguard against the influence of politically preferred providers of government services. When government tries to pick winners and losers by mandating the use of one technology over another, it sends out an open invitation to crony capitalism, in which the well-connected gorge themselves at the public trough, at everybody else’s expense. One option public officials do not have is to continue business as usual. According to the Water Innovations Alliance, a coalition cost-conscious water providers and experts, it will take 15 to 20 years of significant investments to stabilize and modernize the U.S. water infrastructure at a cost of $365 billion, in today’s dollars. With little prospect that the funds required to address the problem will be forthcoming in the near future, responsible public officials are going to have to look elsewhere to satisfy the public’s demand for safe and affordable water. By doing something as simple and sensible as opening up municipal procurement processes to fair competition, the products of our most creative minds can be put to the service of ensuring Americans access to clean, reliable, and affordable water in their homes, schools, and businesses for generations to come.

1AC—Warming Advantage

Jump starting clean transportation tech and electric vehicles is key to solve warming

Greene and Schafer 3 (David—Oak Ridge Natl Lab and Andreas—MIT, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From U.S. Tranportation, Prepared for the Pew Center of Climate Change, http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/ustransp.pdf) LA

The U.S. highway system is funded through a federal tax on motor fuels, but other energy or carbon taxes have thus far not found acceptance in the United States. Targeted subsidies and incentives, however, are widely used. For example, exemption from a large fraction of the federal motor fuel tax created the ethanol fuel market. The gas- guzzler tax (a graduated tax on new passenger cars getting less than 22.5 mpg, starting at $1,000 and increasing to $7,700 at under 12.5 mpg) discourages the sale of passenger cars with low fuel economy. Surprisingly, there is no comparable tax on light trucks with low fuel economy. Numerous other tax incen- tives encourage alternative fuels, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and use of ethanol. A carbon cap-and-trade system, or even a carbon tax, would encourage a wide array of actions to reduce GHG emissions from transportation, but it is not a substitute for a comprehensive strategy. Achieving the necessary reductions requires addressing the need for new technologies, the market failures for light-duty vehicle fuel economy, as well as the synergistic effects of land use patterns, infrastructure supply, and transportation demand.

That snowballs – TIGGER catalyzes innovation in green transportation technology

McGraw, Shull, Miknaitas 10 (Jen, Climate Change Program Director, Stefanie, Policy analyst, Gajus, Ph.D and senior research analyst, The Route to Carbon and Energy Savings: Transit Efficiency in 2030 and 2050, http://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/Route_to_Carbon_and_Energy_Savings_TCRP_J11_Task9.pdf) KA

Transit agencies are adopting cutting edge technologies that are helping to lower their GHG emissions. With their high visibility in communities, transit vehicles have become traveling demonstrations of some of the newest energy technologies in recent years, including hybrid electric propulsion, hydrogen fuel cells, and biofuels. In 2009, the federal Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program granted transit agencies from around the country funds for innovative GHG mitigation actions. The 43 projects funded provide a view into the types of GHG mitigation actions being undertaken by transit agencies across the U.S. The TIGGER projects include advanced vehicles, flywheel energy storage, wind turbines, photovoltaics for electricity and hydrogen production, facility energy efficiency retrofits, and geothermal heating. 35 The current boom in innovation around transit vehicle technologies means that that there is a wide variety of choices for transit agencies seeking to improve the efficiency of their fleet. In some sense it is like the Wild West with so much new technology territory and agencies struggle to evaluate technology options on an even playing field.36 Agencies are working together to share best practices, which can increase GHG savings by improving the success rate of projects and speeding up the pace of implementation. 37,38 Efforts to combine orders across agencies to reduce the cost of procurement of new technologies are also being made.39 Transit agencies cannot allow GHG mitigation actions to adversely affect service, so information on performance of new strategies and technologies in the field is essential. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are working closely with transit agencies to do real-world testing of cutting edge transit vehicles so that providers can understand the performance of vehicles in action, rather than just in simulations. 40,41