Question

According to the passage, which of the following statements about sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs is true?

• A. Older production technologies cannot be adapted so as to reduce production of these outputs as waste products.
• B. Under the most recent environmental regulations, industrial plants are no longer permitted to produce these outputs.
• C. Although these outputs are environmentally hazardous, some plants still generate them as waste products despite the high compliance costs they impose.
• D. Many older plants have developed innovative technological processes that reduce the amounts of these outputs generated as waste products.
• E. Since the production processes that generate these outputs are less costly than alternative processes, these less expensive processes are sometimes adopted despite their acknowledged environmental hazards.

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Although these outputs are environmentally hazardous, some plants still generate them as waste products despite the high compliance costs they impose.

"New regulations have imposed extensive compliance costs on companies still using older industrial coal-fired burners that generate high sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide outputs, for example, whereas new facilities generally avoid processes that would create such waste products."- the only logical inference that can be made from this sentence from the passage is option C. The other choices do not fit the context.