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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

admin2013-05-04  29
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 true about the new national standards of auto emission and fuel efficiency?
选项 A、Cars and trucks will be 40% cleaner by 2012 than they are today.
B、The new standards will be put into practice in the year 2016.
C、It was the first time that the U. S. set limit on greenhouse gas emission.
D、The standards were meant to push auto industry to grow healthily.
答案C
解析 事实细节题。由题干中的new national standards of auto emission and fuel efficiency定位到第一段。本段最后一句指出：这些规定是第一次对美国温室气体排放做出限制，这些规定指的就是奥巴马总统宣布实施的新标准中的规定，故[C]正确。本段第二句提到，这项规定会在2012年付诸实施，在新规定下到2016年新生产的轿车和卡车将比现在节能40％，[A]和[B]把这句中陈述的事实混在了一起，都不符合原文，故排除；第一句对这项新标准的评价是：settled a long—running battle between environmentalists and the car industry in favor of the greens，可见新标准的实施是朝着有利于环保的方向进行的，而不是要照顾汽车产业的发展，故排除[D]。
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