2015年12月英语四级听力VOA慢读练习8
听力部分一直以来都是同学们考试时的难点，也是吐槽最多的部分。暑期想要早点为下半年的四六级考试做准备就来四六级考试网练习一下英语四级听力题吧，考虑四级听力的特点，我们特别准备了VOA的慢速听力材料哦。听力音频点击下载.mp3
听力材料：
President Barack Obama announced the finalversion of his "Clean Power Plan" this week. Mr.Obama says the plan will reduce carbon pollutionfrom power stations by one-third over the next 15years. He said this is the single most important stepthe United States has ever taken in the fight againstclimate change.
But his political opponents say they will fight therules in Congress. They even plan to ask courts tostop them. Congressional Republicans say thepresident's plan will hurt states where coal is mined.They also say it will be costly to put in place and will raise electricity rates.
Yet the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is happy about the plan. GinaMcCarthy says it will give her agency more power to limit carbon pollution from existing powerplants. She says gases linked to climate change will be reduced at a faster rate than would havebeen possible under an earlier version of the rules.
The new plan cuts about nine percent more of those gases than the earlier proposal. This hasangered many officials in coal-mining states, including members of Mr. Obama's party.
At the White House on Monday, the president said the EPA must act now because the effects ofclimate change are already being felt. In his words, "we are the first generation to feel theimpact of climate change (and) we're the last generation that can do something about it."
"There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change."
The president said: "We only get one home. We only get one planet. There is no Plan B."
Mr. Obama said he believes the changing climate is the greatest challenge to futuregenerations. He said the United States must reduce the amount of electricity it produces withcoal, and increase the amount it creates with renewable energy, such as wind power. Thepresident said power plants create about a third of the carbon pollution in the country's air.That is more than automobiles, homes and airplanes combined, he said.
The United States and China are among the world's biggest polluters. Coal supplies more than athird of the electricity used in the U.S. Only five percent of the country's power comes fromwind and solar energy.
One of the president's strongest critics is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He sharplycriticized the new rules during a speech this week in the Senate. He said they would hurtstates that depend on coal, like his home state of Kentucky. It has lost thousands of coalmining jobs in recent years. Senator McConnell says the new rules would cost many more.
"And in Kentucky, these regulations would likely mean fewer jobs, shuttered power plants (and)higher electricity costs for families and businesses. So I'm not gonna sit by while the WhiteHouse takes aims at the lifeblood of our state's economy."
Many power companies and other businesses are expected to oppose the Clean Power Plan.And about 25 states are expected to fight the plan in court. Experts say the Supreme Court willprobably have to decide if the federal government has the power to put the new rules intoeffect.
Senator McConnell has called on governors to refuse to accept the plan. It requires states towrite their own rules and put them in place by 2022. That is two years later than the rulesannounced earlier this year.
Senator John Barasso is a Republican from the western state of Wyoming.
"Governors know that this is going to be bad in terms of reliability of energy in their states,bad for jobs and bad for their economy, and it's going to cost people in their states more forenergy."
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt is also a Republican.
"And it'll have (a) disproportionate impact on poor families and working families and middle-class families that can barely pay their utility bill now."
Mr. Obama said opponents of his plan should consider the effects of pollution on people intheir states.
"So if you care about low-income and minority communities, start protecting the air theybreathe and stop trying to rob them of their health care."
The president said his plan would reduce the number of early deaths from power plantpollution by 90 percent. And he said it would reduce the number of pollutants than can causeasthma attacks by 70 percent.
Mr. Obama noted that Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has said fightingclimate change is a moral obligation. The president said he will talk to the pope about the issuewhen Francis visits Washington next month.
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