Logical Reasoning

PT128 · S2 · Q12 Shaw: Regulatory limits on pollution

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Shaw: Regulatory limits on pollution emissions from power plants should be set in terms of the long-term average emissions level rather than peak emissions levels.

Levin's Implied Conclusion

We shouldn't set regulatory limits based on long-term average (we should set them based on peak emission levels).

Levin's Evidence

Short periods of high pollution emissions pose dangers to the environment.

Your proposal would be like dealing with the speed limit by thinking about a driver's average speed (including traffic slowdowns and stoplights), rather than thinking about their peak speed.

Evaluate

We don't need to breakdown Levin's argument at all. We just need to understand the analogy that is being made between speed limits and regulatory limits, so that we can match part to part.

Limits on Emission | Speed Limits

calculate emissions calculate speed by by long-term average avg speed (including traffic / stoplights)

calculate emissions calculate speed by by peak levels peak speed

short periods of short periods of high pollution high driving speeds emissions are are dangerous dangerous

Goal

The question stem wants to know what we would match up with "time spend at a stoplight". Well, at a stoplight, a vehicle's speed is zero miles/km per hour.

So, by analogy, we'd be talking about a power plants emissions being zero.

Let's look for something like, , which would presumably be when the plant is closed or non-operational for whatever reason.

12.

Based on the analogy in Levin's argument, time that a vehicle spends at a stoplight is analogous to time that a power plant

  1. operates without any monitoring of

    Bad Match: monitoring

    This answer would work if we removed monitoring. A vehicle's time at a stoplight (in relation to average speed) is akin to a power plant's time operating without any pollution emissions. We want an answer that's talking about time when a power plant is not emitting any pollution, but this is talking time when no one is measuring how much pollution a power plant is emitting.

    2% picked this

  2. operates at peak efficiency

    Bad Match

    We're looking for "time when a power plant isn't emitting any pollution", because that would match "time when a vehicle isn't 'emitting' any speed". When a car is idling at a stoplight, is it operating at peak efficiency? (No, it's just burning off gas -- peak efficiency is usually highway speeds of like 55mph, in terms of getting the best value of miles per gallon).

    1% picked this

  3. emits pollutants at a very

    Too Weak

    This is close, but we want "emits zero pollutants", not just a very low level. When a car is stopped at a stoplight, it 'emits' zero speed, not a very low level of speed.

    26% picked this

  4. Correct

    emits no pollutants at all

    Why this is right

    When a car is at a stoplight, it emits no speed. So by analogy, we'd be talking about a power plant emitting no pollutants.

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

    65% picked this

  5. emits pollutants at its peak

    Opposite

    This would match when a car is going its peak speed, whereas we're supposed to be matching when a car is going a speed of zero.

    6% picked this

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