Critical Reasoning

So-called environmentalists have argued that the proposed Golden Lake Development would interfere with bird-migration patterns. However, the fact that these same people have raised environmental objections to virtually every development proposal brought before the council in recent years indicates that their expressed concern for bird-migration patterns is nothing but a mask for their anti-development, anti-progress agenda. Their claim, therefore, should be dismissed without further consideration.

For the claim that the concern expressed by the so-called environmentalists is not their real concern to be properly drawn on the basis of the evidence cited, which one of the following must be assumed?

(A) Not every development proposal opposed in recent years by these so-called environmentalists was opposed because they believed it to pose a threat to the environment.

(B) People whose real agenda is to block development wherever it is proposed always try to disguise their true motives.

(C) Anyone who opposes unrestricted development is an opponent of progress.

(D) The council has no reason to object to the proposed Golden Lake Development other than concern about the development's effect on bird-migration patterns.

(E) When people say that they oppose a development project solely on environmental grounds, their real concern almost always lies elsewhere.

Source: LSAT