every time you see " however" pay close attention to the immediately following content.
However, the catalytic converter, invented in 1967, enabled automakers to meet the 1970 standards efficiently.
Since the former grounds of being both economically infeasible and enviornmentally unneccesary have been denied by new tenchique invention in 1967, the current similar argument fails to contain any legitimacy.
NO! (sorry : ), the answer is (D). (E) is not the answer b/c there is an unwarranted assumption that similar technology will be making breakthrough in the future. There IS an evidence offered to deny the automakers' past claim, but absolutely no single evidence is provided here to prove wrong their current one, just a comparsion is made, which is why (D) is the official answer.