208. The following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electr

[samarfadl]

208. The following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electric power company.

"Several recent surveys indicate that homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy and manufacturers are now marketing many home appliances, such as refrigerators and air conditioners that are almost twice as energy-efficient as those sold a decade ago. Also, new technologies for better home insulation and passive solar heating are readily available to reduce the energy needed for home heating. Therefore, we anticipate that the total demand for electricity in our area will not increase, and may decline slightly. Since our three electric generating plants in operation for the past 20 years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants should not be necessary."

The author in this argument is displaying some contentions regarding the electricity consumption and the behavior of the residents that is expected to reduce the electric consumption. At the end of his argument, he draws a conclusion of not constructing further generating plants. The author's argument is missing some points that weaken his position.

Firstly, the author cites some surveys to support his claims. But this is unconvincing since he provides no statistical data regarding the numbers of homeowners that are intending to conserve energy. Furthermore, the word "eager to" indicates that the homeowners are not actually using an effective strategy to conserve energy. They are eager but they haven't yet applied the strategies that guarantee the energy conservation.
In addition, the claim that the manufacturers are marketing appliances that are twice as energy-efficient as those sold a decade ago, doesn't indicate the energy conservation. This is because these appliances maybe more expensive than the old-fashioned one. In this case, the homeowners may not be able to afford such appliances and they are unlikely to buy them. Moreover, perhaps as the homeowners are already having these appliances in their homes they will be unwilling to buy these new appliances. In order to support his claim, the author must add some data of the actual number of homes using these appliances in order to give precise information of the actual energy consumption.

Again, the author claims that the available new technologies for home insulation are reducing the energy consumption. He must provide some surveys to ensure that the residents are actually using these technologies to reduce energy consumption. This makes his conclusion of low- or even constant- energy consumption unsubstantiated.

At the end of his argument, the author recommends not to construct a new energetic plant since the already existing three plants are satisfying the needs of this area. He fails to consider the fact that the resident may not be using the energy conserving technologies. He is also not considering the fact that the population of the area may be increasing, as a result this will lead to an increase in electricity consumption.

To sum up, the author is neglecting some significant points which weaken his argument. To strengthen his argument, the author must cite some data about the number of houses using the new technologies in order to ensure that the residents are reducing the energy consumption. In case of proving that the energy consumption is decreasing, his recommendation of not building new energetic plant would be substantiated.

any comments or suggestions are welcome
thanx

[nicegirl]

good argument.....

i want to suggest a point.....

-> It is possible that the due to new technological advancement,more energy is consumed.Because in the past,there are few facilities like tv,radio,mobile phones,ac,refrigerator & so on are used.Nowadays,it becomes a necessity and even a basic part of our life to use this accessories.So it might be possible that the energy consumption is increased.

-> The author did not provided the geographical information about the area.If it is an industrial area then also the energy consumption is high & there is a need to generate more energy.

[sandin]

The passage suggests that the construction of new generating plants should not be done as the demand for electricity will decrease in near future. He presented various evidences which show that the electricity consumption by the homeowners is decreasing and therefore there is no requirement of a new plant. However a close scrutiny reveals that the
evidences encompass only a narrow region and overlooked many important aspects, therefore the conclusion inferred is premature.

First the writer highlighted the results from recent surveys that the homeowners are inclined towards saving energy. However the passage did not give us any information about the homeowners involved in the survey. One may raise doubts about the number of homeowners involved, the locality of these homeowners etc. Perhaps the total homeowners in these surveys are not significant enough and therefore a view of few people does not imply the perception of all. Also, the locality of these homeowners is also required as may be that they do not belong to the area for which the new plant has been constructed.

Further, the writer advocates that the new appliances marketed are very energy efficient as compared to those sold a decade ago and new technologies are available to abate the enregy needed for home heating. Here we should consider the point that a decade ago not many homeowners have such expensive appliances as airconditioner and refrigerators as compared to now. Also today we will find that a house would have high electricity consuming appliances such as cellphones, laptops, microwaves, invertors, and numerous others which were not present in a many households a decade ago. So though the energy efficiency of these electronic products have doubled but the number of appliances used have also proliferated due to which there has been a manifold increase in the energy consumption.

The writer mentioned that the 20 years old electricity genreration plants have always fulfilled the energy requirement, but as these plants are so old there are high chances that they may stop working any time. Here the writer needed to provide information about the present condition of these plants and should have given us an idea as to how long they can be expected to work. Because in case if any one of them fails or ceases to give the required performance then many of our homes may be devoid of electricity and that time an immediate installation of a plant would not be possible. So a new plant will act as a back up and ensure that in case of failure of any of these plants the energy demands of the people are met uninterruptedly.

TO conclude the readers remained unconvinced of the writer's position in lack of proper reasoned arguments. THerfore the planning department should do a survey to find out the electricity consumption of the people and then accordingly choose for whether to install a new plant or not. Also the condition of the already installed plants should be taken into consideration.