经济学人:页岩气 增加了开采压力

 　　Shale¹ gas

　　页岩气

　　Raise the pressure

　　增加了开采压力

　　Government dithering keeps frackers above ground

　　政府仍就是否批准开采页岩气犹豫不决

　　Inflated² concerns

　　担心通胀

　　FOR all the debate about it, Britain's shale-gas industry is minuscule³. Whereas roughnecks in America have sunk many thousands of wells since a boom began more than a decade ago, Britain has fracked at only one test site, in Lancashire, and not since 2011. In a report published on May 8th, an all-party group from the House of Lords said that speeding shale-gas exploration should be an “urgent national priority”. So far, so familiar—and entirely⁴ in tune⁵ with the position of the coalition⁶ government. But the authors go on to blame the government, not green campaigners, for holding the frackers up.

　　在所有对于页岩气的争议中，英国的页岩气企业发展最为迟缓。一百年前天然气开始发展时，美国的油井工人已经下探了数千油井了，而直到2011年，英国才在兰开夏郡一处试点进行油井开采。在一份发表于3月8日的报告中，上议院的一个全党组织称，加快页岩气勘探应成为“国家的紧急首要任务”。至今，这句话非常熟悉-与联合政府的处境非常一致。但是报告的撰写者旨在批评政府暂停油井开采，并非环保主义者。

　　页岩气.jpg

　　The Lords' economic-affairs committee argues that shale gas could boost Britain's economy while reducing its dependence⁷ on imports. It says that proper oversight⁸ can limit the environmental and health risks associated with fracking. And it recognises that burning more gas instead of coal—which is still used to generate more than one-third of Britain's electricity—could be a cheap and sustainable way to lower the country's carbon emissions⁹ while waiting for pricey renewable technologies to mature.

　　上议院经济事务委员会称，页岩气会促进英国的经济发展，减少国家对进口天然气的依赖。委员会还称，适当的监管会控制油井开采对环境和健康方面的危害。该委员会还认为，燃烧更多的天然气以取代煤-目前仍为英国提供超过三分之一的电力-价格低廉，而且是降低整个国家碳排放更加可持续的方法，同时还可以等待造价高昂的可再生能源技术成熟。

　　But a thicket¹⁰ of regulation has slowed progress to a crawl. Although dozens of test wells are needed even to calculate the extent of Britain's shale-gas reserves, Cuadrilla, an oil and gas firm, reckons it could take more than a year to get clearance¹¹ for each site. Part of the problem is that several government agencies share responsibility for approving fracking applications. The Lords worry that unwieldy rules will not make the business much safer but could prod¹² shale-gas firms into seeking far richer pickings abroad.

　　但繁琐复杂的管制拖累了进程以致发展缓慢。虽然仍需要数十个试验井以计算英国页岩气的储量的范围，据石油天然气公司Cuadrilla推测，要想开采每个试验井需要超过一年的时间。之所以出现这个问题，有部分原因是因为有几个政府部门同时监管批准油井的开采。上议院担心，庞杂的条条框框并不能使企业更加的安全，反而会刺激页岩气企业寻找国外富产油气田投资。

　　Complaints about bureaucracy are embarrassing to a government that has promised to go “all out for shale”, and which is busily finding ways to stop critics beyond Westminster from holding up the industry. It has persuaded shale-gas firms to put ￡100,000 ($170,000) into a fund for local causes each time they drill a test site. In January it promised to let local councils keep all the money frackers pay in business rates, up from half at present. Next month it will probably announce plans to make it easier for fracking firms to drill tunnels deep beneath people's homes.

　　关于官僚主义的抱怨使得政府颜面尽失，政府之前承诺“全力以赴页岩气”，而现在却忙于想方设法要平息议会关于阻碍产业发展的批评。政府曾建议页岩企业为每次钻探试验井投入10万英镑（约合17万美元）用以地方政府的补贴。今年一月，以市场价支付补偿，目前只有市场价的一半。下个月，政府很可能宣布新计划，使钻探公司从居民屋子下钻隧道更为简单。

　　Pushing through that proposal will mean fending¹³ off noisy opposition¹⁴ from environmental lobbies such as Greenpeace, which had hoped its supporters could use Britain's aged¹⁵ trespass¹⁶ laws to make life difficult for shale-gas boosters. Such campaigns carry weight while most Britons are still making up their minds about the industry. The proportion in favour of fracking has shrunk since lively protests erupted at a drill site near Balcombe in Sussex last summer; it may keep sliding until a few pioneers prove it can be safe and unobtrusive. All the more reason to get cracking.

　　推行这样的提案，意味着要抵挡来自环境保护游说团体，如绿色环保组织嘈杂的反对意见，这类团体希望，其支持者能够利用英国行之有年的入侵法，使得那些支持开采页岩气的人举步维艰。在大多数英国人构思自己对于工业看法的时候，这样的活动有举足轻重的作用。支持开采的比例在去年一次发生在靠近苏塞克斯郡Balcombe市爆发的激烈抗议后有所缩小；而且还有可能继续下滑，直到有先驱者能够证明，开采可以安全无害、不事张扬。所有的理由都是为了能够开采。

　　1.thousands of 成千上万

　　例句:I must have driven past that place thousands of times.

　　我得有上千次开车经过那里。

　　2.hold up 举起；耽搁；阻挡

　　例句:They arrived late due to a motorway¹⁷ hold-up.

　　他们因高速公路交通堵塞迟到了。

　　3.associate with 与…交往，联系

　　例句:Mother warned the boys not to associate with bad companions.

　　母亲告诫孩子们别和坏人交往。

　　4.need to 需要

　　例句:You'll need to get on the right side of Carmela.

　　你得讨卡梅拉的欢心。

1 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

2 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

4 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

6 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

7 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

8 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

9 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

10 thicket   

n.灌木丛，树林

参考例句：

• A thicket makes good cover for animals to hide in.丛林是动物的良好隐蔽处。
• We were now at the margin of the thicket.我们现在已经来到了丛林的边缘。

11 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

12 prod   

vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励

参考例句：

• The crisis will prod them to act.那个危机将刺激他们行动。
• I shall have to prod him to pay me what he owes.我将不得不催促他把欠我的钱还给我。

13 fending   

v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的现在分词 )；挡开，避开

参考例句：

• He is always spending his time fending with the neighbors. 他总是与邻里们吵架。 来自互联网
• Fifth, it is to build safeguarding system and enhance the competence in fending off the risk. 五是建立政策保障体系，提高防范和抵御风险的能力。 来自互联网

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

16 trespass   

n./v.侵犯，闯入私人领地

参考例句：

• The fishing boat was seized for its trespass into restricted waters.渔船因非法侵入受限制水域而被扣押。
• The court sentenced him to a fine for trespass.法庭以侵害罪对他判以罚款。

17 motorway   

n.高速公路，快车道

参考例句：

• Our car had a breakdown on the motorway.我们的汽车在高速公路上抛锚了。
• A maniac driver sped 35 miles along the wrong side of a motorway at 110 mph.一个疯狂的司机以每小时110英里的速度在高速公路上逆行飙车35英里。