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  3. A cluster of state-owned power plants in north-western Greece have been spewing smoke and toxic ash over nearby villages for dec

A cluster of state-owned power plants in north-western Greece have been spewing smoke and toxic ash over nearby villages for dec

admin2022-11-01  70
问题     A cluster of state-owned power plants in north-western Greece have been spewing smoke and toxic ash over nearby villages for decades. The plants are fueled by lignite, a dirty brown coal extracted from open-pit mines that scar the local countryside. Studies have shown that mining communities suffer above-average rates of lung disease and cancer, yet jobs in other sectors are scarce in a region with chronically high unemployment.
    Changes may be on the way. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the new centre-right prime minister, has promised to shut down all of Greece’s 14 lignite-fired power stations by 2024. Fleets of wind turbines and solar panels will be rolled out across rehabilitated mining areas. Mr Mitsotakis is anxious to boost Greece’s green credentials: at present its annual carbon-equivalent emissions are a third higher than those of Portugal, a similar-sized EU member state.
    Despite being blessed by abundant sunshine and strong winds that blow year-round across the Aegean sea, Greece is still a clean-energy laggard. That is mostly due to PPC, the state electricity utility, which has stuck to lignite to save money, rather than switching to natural gas and renewables. In 2017 some 70% of homes and businesses consumed electricity that was produced at PPC’s lignite-fired power stations. This year the figure may fall to 50%: small private suppliers that run natural-gas-fired plants have picked up customers fleeing PPC after Mr. Mitsotakis’s government raised its electricity prices.
    The prime minister has set himself a remarkably ambitious target: renewable sources are to cover 35% of Greece’s energy needs by 2030. That would mean tripling current wind and solar output, at a cost of around €40bn. Consultants predict a bonanza for foreign investors: Chinese, American, Spanish and Italian companies already own Greek wind and solar installations and are acquiring licences to build more.
    Oddly, they will face strong opposition from Greece’s increasingly active environmental movement. It takes up to seven years for a licence for a wind park to be granted; many applications are rejected by specialist judges at the council of state, Greece’s highest legal body.
    Apostolos Pantelis, a hill-walker, is campaigning against plans to build wind parks on mountain ridges in the remote Agrafa region, a refuge for rare griffon vultures, brown bears and wolves. Greece’s environment is "too fragile" to sustain such big projects, he says. New roads would erode the mountainsides and noisy, 200m-high turbines would scare away its wildlife. He says that "people used to think wind energy would be beneficial for tourism. But it just ruins the view."
The most obvious barrier to achieve green energy target comes from_____
选项 A、foreign investors
B、lignite miners
C、national conservationists
D、state specialists
答案C
解析 根据题干关键词barrier和green energy target可定位到原文第四段和第五段。第四段首句指出总理为自己设定了一个提高风能和太阳能产量的目标，而紧接着第三句表示“咨询顾问预测外国投资者将大赚一笔”(Consultants predict a bonanza for foreign investors…)，并未提及实现目标的困难，所以继续阅读第五段。第五段通过Oddly进行转折，接着说明“他们面临来自日益活跃的环保运动的强烈反对”。由此可知，表示反对的是环保主义者，因此选项[C]为正确答案。
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