Four Companies, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, Are Burning Coal

Multiple Choice

Four companies, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, are burning coal to produce electricity. As a result, they also produce emissions. The first row of the table below shows the total pounds of emissions currently produced by each firm. The other rows of the table show the cost for each firm of reducing emissions by the first 50 tons, the second 50 tons, and so on. The government wants to reduce emissions by one third, and does so by issuing marketable permits based on the current level of emissions where the permits will shrink the allowable amount of pollution by one third.

Alpha will reduce emissions by _______ tons, Beta will reduce emissions by _______ tons, Gamma will reduce emissions by _______ tons, Delta will reduce emissions by _______ tons, for a total cost of _______.

A) 50, 150, 50, 250, $130
B) 50, 200, 0, 250, $150
C) 0, 200, 50, 250, $120
D) 50, 200, 50, 200, $100