Q1 - An electric utility has determined

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Breakdown:
Two options are presented (gas or waste plants). The latter burns trash on top of making energy. It also is 3x as pollute-y, but environmentalists universally support it.

Answer Anticipation:
The correct answer will need to give a reason that the waste plant is better even though it pollutes more than the alternative. Anything that speaks to a benefit of the waste plant over the gas plant will survive a first pass.

Correct answer:
(C)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) If anything, opposite. This answer would be a reason to go with the gas-fired plant.

(B) This answer might survive a first pass, but it's ultimately too weak/out of scope. While the increased energy use is a reason to build a plant, it's not a reason to build the waste plant. The increase in trash volume would add strength to the environmentalists' position if we knew there wasn't a better way to get rid of that trash; short of that, this answer doesn't strengthen the argument.

(C) Bingo. Unlike (B), this answer specifically states that the waste plant will replace a more damaging alternative, which gives a reason to build this plant over the gas-fired plant.

(D) If anything, opposite. If air pollution is such a problem, the environmentalists should go with the less polluting alternative, which is the gas-fired plant.

(E) Out of scope. Just because other things pollute more doesn't mean the environmentalists won't care about the pollution of the power plants. This also doesn't give us a reason to pick the waste plant over the gas plant, which is what the environmentalists' position is.

Takeaway/Pattern: Make sure all the information you need is encoded in the answer - and not an additional assumption you're making - before picking an answer.

#officialexplanation

[xjiang.xj]

I eliminated A B C D on my first pass because I expected the right answer to shed some light on the gas-fired plant being worse than the waste-to-energy plant. Then I came to E and thought maybe E is the correct one because air pollution isn't a big concern for the new power plant. I don't like C because it doesn't make any comparison between the two options. If the waste-to-energy plant produces less air pollution than the existing one but three times as much as the gas-fired plant, doesn't it look like the gas-fired plant is better?
What need to be fixed in my thought process?

[ohthatpatrick]

If you're picking (E), you're not quite holding onto the paradox tightly enough:

"GIVEN THAT the waste plant makes 3x as much pollution as the gas plant, WHY IS IT THAT environmentalists favor the waste plant?"

(E) isn't an answer to that question. It's more like dismissively saying, "Oh, shush about pollution. Pollution from power plants isn't even our biggest source of pollution."

So what?

Wouldn't environmentalists take any savings on pollution they can get?

ANALOGY:
Even though the MegaBlade is 3x as expensive as the generic razor (and equally effective), Cheap Charlie is going to buy the MegaBlade.

Whaaa? Why would Cheap Charlie buy the MegaBlade?

Would it explain anything to say, "The money he spends on razor blades is just a small fraction of his overall spending."

No! We'd still wanna know why he didn't take the cheaper option.

=========

With (C), you might be missing that the waste plant would serve two functions: power plant AND incinerator.

So environmentalists are choosing between
Gas Plant: 100 units of Pollution
+
Waste Incinerator: 500 units of Pollution

vs.

Waste Plant: 300 units of Pollution

[xjiang.xj]

Oh.... I see what I missed...Thanks for pointing out. I read it like they want to build a new plant that can serve the two functions and they have two options... This kind of misread is really frustrating.

[seychelles1718]

Is C the correct answer because it is better than other answers? Just from what C is saying, we can't be certain that using the gas-fired plant does not replace the trash incinerator, correct? But even though we don't know that, C is the best among 5.

[ohthatpatrick]

You shouldn't be doing any Strengthen questions with a mindset of "Which answer PROVES the conclusion is correct". Almost ZERO correct answers on strengthen would have that quality.

They're just supposed to improve your opinion of the argument.

(C) greatly improves my opinion of the environmentalists' position. I went from being totally confused why they would support the more polluting waste-to-energy plant to being totally clear on why they would support it.

You're right, that if the natural gas-fired plant were also going to be used to replace the incinerator, then I'd be back to being confused.

But where would we get such a far-fetched possibility?

Plant #2 is specifically called a "WASTE (trash) - to - energy" plant. It derives its energy from burning trash, apparently.

And the author specifically identifies that plant #2 would serve as an incinerator AND a power plant.

The author specifically tells us that as a differentiating feature. She doesn't say, "UNLIKE natural gas-fired", but it's amply implied by the context.

Hope this helps.

[LolaC289]

Is C the correct answer because it is better than other answers? Just from what C is saying, we can't be certain that using the gas-fired plant does not replace the trash incinerator, correct? But even though we don't know that, C is the best among 5.

I actually thought of the same thing myself during the prep-test! So I eliminated it .

https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... 14552.html
This is a weakening question where two lakes, applied with the same fishing ban in order to save the fish, only turned out to be effective in one but ineffective in another. I chose A on that question, which says the ineffective lake was affected by acid rain; And when Patrick addressed why A is incorrect he gave the reason that "in no way distinguishes H Lake from Q Lake, in terms of acid rain."

So basically, when we attribute one thing to one of the two things, without further clarification, we don't know if the same can apply to the other as well, correct? If it works for weakening question I don't know how things are different in strengthening question.

Back to this question, B seems really good to me, because if both energy use and the volume of trash increased substantially, then a waste-to-energy seems to be a really good choice, because it turns waste, the increased volume of trash, to energy, the increased need for energy. It seems to address both ends so it seems like a better choice than gas-fire plant.

I also have a question concerning the grammar, I guess. The very end of the first sentence in the stimulus says "build either a natural gas-fired plant or a waste-to-energy plant that would serve as both a trash incinerator and a power plant". What is this object clause modifying? Just the waste-to-energy plant or the gas-fired plant also?

Appreciate for future help!

[LarissaE805]

Okay, maybe I was thinking wayy too deep about this, but I chose B over C, because for C I was thinking "Okay, great it is replacing a plant that PRODUCES more waste, but what if REPLACING the plant creates even MORE waste than the original plant produces to begin with. Then it would be counter-productive"

But, I guess I way over thought that one...