  We investigate the quantitative impact that data from the second oscillation
maximum has on the performance of wide band beam neutrino oscillation
experiments. We present results for the physics sensitivities to standard three
flavor oscillation, as well as results for the sensitivity to non-standard
interactions. The quantitative study is performed using an experimental setup
similar to the Fermilab to DUSEL Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE). We
find that, with the single exception of sensitivity to the mass hierarchy, the
second maximum plays only a marginal role due to the experimental difficulties
to obtain a statistically significant and sufficiently background-free event
sample at low energies. This conclusion is valid for both water Cherenkov and
liquid argon detectors. Moreover, we confirm that non-standard neutrino
interactions are very hard to distinguish experimentally from standard
three-flavor effects and can lead to a considerable loss of sensitivity to
\theta_{13}, the mass hierarchy and CP violation.
