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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 do we know about the carbon cap-and-trade legislation according to the passage?
选项 A、Democratic representatives are all for it.
B、It has not been passed yet by the Congress.
C、Obama is neutral in the debate over it.
D、It would reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 17% .
答案B
解析 推理判断题。由题干中的the carbon cap-and-trade legislation定位到第三段。该段第三句说：该项提案在国会中面临着非常艰苦的战斗，几乎所有的共和党议员和一些民主党议员都反对这一提案，由此我们可以推断这一提案还未获得通过，故[B]正确，由此也可以排除[A]，因为并不是所有的民主党议员都支持这一提案。该段第四句中提到：Obama has praised the controversial bill，说明奥巴马总统是支持这一法案的，故排除[C]；第二句提到这项法案would reduce U．S．carbon emissions to 17％ below 2005 levels by2020，这里的17％是指与2005年相比降低17％，因此[D]不准确，故排除。
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