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  3. The UK government’s decision to shutter plans to build the world’s first tidal lagoon off Swansea Bay is a hard blow for Wales.

The UK government’s decision to shutter plans to build the world’s first tidal lagoon off Swansea Bay is a hard blow for Wales.

admin2022-04-20  52
问题     The UK government’s decision to shutter plans to build the world’s first tidal lagoon off Swansea Bay is a hard blow for Wales. The tidal lagoon project, had it gone ahead, was expected to create 2,200 jobs, plus more in the supply chain. These are the kinds of jobs that Wales, so damaged by steel and coal closures, needs. But the business secretary, Greg Clark, has decided the country can’t have them because they would be too expensive.
    Welsh politicians have reacted with understandable fury to Mr Clark’s announcement, which comes almost exactly 12 months after the government abandoned plans to electrify the railway from Cardiff to Swansea, and just a day after Member of Parliament (MPs) voted to press ahead with another expensive infrastructure project: a third runway at Heathrow.
    There are some rational reasons to approve of this week’s decision, while regretting its consequences. No one, including the Tidal Lagoon Power company, denied that the electricity produced off the Welsh coast would have cost more than the cheapest renewables. The most recent government auctions saw offshore wind schemes win contracts at record lows of￡,57. 50 per megawatt hour, meaning they are within a few pounds of being subsidy-free.
    But cost is not the only consideration. Otherwise, the government would never have gone ahead with the hugely expensive, risky and uncertain Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Nor would it have cut subsidies for solar power and onshore wind, as it did in 2015. Those decisions—particularly the promise to curb onshore wind, as the Conservatives did in their 2015 manifesto, despite poll after poll showing that a majority of the public prefers wind and solar to nuclear—were ideological.
    In a City speech this March, Mr Clark praised business for putting "evidence before ideology". It is welcome that the secretary of state says this is his own approach. Too many of his Conservative colleagues remain too strongly attached to fossil fuels, including the prospect of a whole new shale gas industry. As the price of renewables continues to fall, they will surely lose the argument. With Mr Clark in charge, the hope is that onshore wind and solar subsidies may soon return—though too late for UK companies that could have developed and profited from the technology had we not given up on it long before the renewables boom.
    Yet the government is planning more nuclear power stations, including one in Wales.
    Different rules seem to apply for different technologies. It looks like a Tory government in Westminster snubbed Welsh Labour’s pet project. Backers of the tidal project felt shut out by ministers. Wave energy lobbyists perhaps don’t have the firepower in Whitehall that others can muster. Mr Clark might have relied on the evidence to make a tough call not to back a new, green technology. But it’s hard to shake off the impression that the decision was one rooted in the partisan politics of self-interest.
Which of the following is true of Hinkley Point C, according to Paragraph 4?
选项 A、It is a safer choice than solar and wind power plans.
B、It goes against the interests of Conservative party.
C、It is less welcomed by the public than renewable programs.
D、It promises to bring huge benefits to British people.
答案C
解析 本题是推断题。根据题干定位至第四段。该段给出潮汐项目被拒不只因为成本高的依据，即欣克利角C核电站耗资巨大，但也得以推进；太阳能和向岸风能项目成本低，却遭资金削减。而第四句揭示了这些决议内情是由于保守党抑风能扬核能，无视民众对风能太阳能 (可再生能源)的支持。可知，站在民众的角度来说，欣克立角C不如可再生能源项目受欢迎。故答案选C。A项“它比太阳能和风能计划更安全”与第二句中提到的risky and uncertain相矛盾，故排除，B项“它不利于保守党的利益”和D项“它有望为英国人带来巨大利益”在文中均未提及，故排除。
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