If cold fusion worked, it

Answer choices

1. A

   Helps Explain5% picked this

   Cold-fusion power plants would be more expensive to build and maintain than traditional

   This balances out the cost savings we get from cold-fusion power with an extra cost that comes with cold-fusion. Since the plants cost more to build and maintain, that helps explain why the electric bill is still mostly the same as before. The electric company has to cover their costs of building / maintaining the more expensive plants.

   5%
2. B

   Helps Explain5% picked this

   Environmental regulations now placed on burning coal or fuel oil are less costly than the regulations that would

   This balances out the cost savings we get from cold-fusion power with an extra cost that comes with cold-fusion. Since the cold-fusion plants would have to pay more money for environmental regulations, that helps explain why the electric bill is still mostly the same as before. The electric company has to cover their costs of paying regulatory fees.

   5%
3. C

   Correct74% picked this

   Most electric companies would be willing to incorporate cold-fusion technology into

   Why this is right

   This has No Impact, because the conversation isn't about, "Will we ever switch everything to cold fusion? Would electric companies be willing to do so?" The conversation is, "In a hypothetical world where everything was switched over to cold fusion, how come electric bills wouldn't be way, way lower?" This doesn't give us any way to explain why electric bills would be mostly the same price.

   Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   74%
4. D

   Helps Explain7% picked this

   Only a relatively small portion of any residential electric bill is determined by the electric

   This tells us that what the electric company pays for the power it supplies is only a small portion of the electric bill (maybe it's around 25-30% of the bill, whereas the rest of the bill covers costs such as facility fees / taxes / regulations / advertising / human workforce etc.). So even if cold fusion made the energy part of the bill essentially free, we'd still have to pay 75% of what we're normally paying, because we have to cover all those other costs that the electric company has.

   7%
5. E

   Helps Explain9% picked this

   Personnel costs for the distribution of power to consumers are unrelated to the type of raw materials

   This is the worst of the four eliminate-able answers, because it's a weaker version of (D). But, like (D), it's reminding us that there are other costs involved with an electric company besides just raw materials and power generation. Even if your raw materials were free, you still have to pay all the employees that run the power plant / run the electric company / do customer service / do emergency repairs / etc. So, like (D), it's saying the reason that cold fusion would only somewhat decrease our energy bills is because a lot of what the energy company has to pay for has nothing to do with raw materials.

   9%