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  3. Obama Declares New Autocar Tail Gas Emissions and Economy Energy Standard As he stood in the rose garden on May 19 with stat

Obama Declares New Autocar Tail Gas Emissions and Economy Energy Standard As he stood in the rose garden on May 19 with stat

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问题        Obama Declares New Autocar Tail Gas Emissions and Economy Energy Standard
    As he stood in the rose garden on May 19 with state governors and auto executives, Obama announced tough new national standards for automobile emissions and fuel efficiency that essentially settled a long-running battle between environmentalists and the ear industry in favor of the greens. Under the proposed rules, which would begin to take effect in 2012, new cars and trucks will need to have an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 m. p. g. (6.6 L/100 km) by 2016— almost 40% cleaner than they are today. The regulations would be the first national limit on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions and could presage further action to curb climate change.
    For years, U. S. automakers have fought tougher regulations by arguing that Americans tend to prefer larger, gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks. That’s not always true: when gas prices were at an all-time high last summer, sales of SUVs were down considerably, while hybrids flew off dealer lots. Since then, prices at the pump have dropped—and so has the appetite for small cars. As long as the price of gas remains fluctuating, it’s far from certain that Americans will buy the more efficient cars and trucks the new standards will require automakers to produce. In the long run, though, a gas tax that puts a floor on fuel prices may be the only way to break America’s SUV addiction. But Obama has said he’s not interested. "You need a price signal. Regulations alone won’t do it," says Lester Lave, director of the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Initiative.
    Even more important is the ongoing debate in Congress over carbon cap-and-trade legislation. Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey have hammered out a bill that would reduce U.S. carbon emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. It faces an uphill battle in Congress, opposed by nearly all Republicans and many Democrats from coal-dependent states. Pushing it through will require an act of political will, but while Obama has praised the controversial bill, some environmentalists complain the White House has done too little behind the scenes to defend it. "The world was hopeful that Obama would care about global warming, but he has been completely missing in action on this," says Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace U.S.A.
    Radford is not being entirely fair: Obama has increased alternative-energy funding to record levels and assembled a green team of advisers. They include his Energy Secretary, the Nobel Prize-winning Steven Chu, who told me recently that "the climate-change problem is at least equal in magnitude" to World War II. He’s right. And if Obama wants to win this war, he’s going to have to fight, not just make peace.
What is the most important factor pushing Americans to buy fuel-efficient autos according to the passage?
选项 A、Steadily high gas prices.
B、Attractive prices of these autos.
C、Government’s encouraging policy.
D、The regulation on car emission.
答案A
解析 推理判断题。文章第二段讨论了美国人对节能型轿车的态度。其中第二、三句提到：去年夏天汽油价格达到历史高点的时候越野车的销售大幅下滑，而混合动力车的销售却异常火爆；但之后随着原油价格的下滑，人们对小型轿车的热衷程度也随之冷却。第四句紧接着说：只要汽油价格不断浮动，就很难断定美国人会购买新标准要求下汽车制造商们生产的新的节能车。由此可以推断，能够促使美国人购买节能车的最重要因素是汽油价格持续高位，故[A]正确。[B]、[C]在文中没有依据，而[D]中的regulation只是对汽车企业的规定，而不是针对购车人的规定，故排除。
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