評論
打印
Shale gas
頁巖氣
Raise the pressure
增加了開采壓力
Government dithering keeps frackers above ground
政府仍就是否批準開采頁巖氣猶豫不決
Inflated concerns
擔(dān)心通脹
FOR all the debate about it, Britain's shale-gas industry is minuscule. 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 entirely in tune with the position of the coalition government. But the authors go on to blame the government, not green campaigners, for holding the frackers up.
在所有對于頁巖氣的爭議中，英國的頁巖氣企業(yè)發(fā)展最為遲緩。一百年前天然氣開始發(fā)展時，美國的油井工人已經(jīng)下探了數(shù)千油井了，而直到2011年，英國才在蘭開夏郡一處試點進行油井開采。在一份發(fā)表于3月8日的報告中，上議院的一個全黨組織稱，加快頁巖氣勘探應(yīng)成為“國家的緊急首要任務(wù)”。至今，這句話非常熟悉-與聯(lián)合政府的處境非常一致。但是報告的撰寫者旨在批評政府暫停油井開采，并非環(huán)保主義者。
The Lords' economic-affairs committee argues that shale gas could boost Britain's economy while reducing its dependence on imports. It says that proper oversight 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 emissions while waiting for pricey renewable technologies to mature.
上議院經(jīng)濟事務(wù)委員會稱，頁巖氣會促進英國的經(jīng)濟發(fā)展，減少國家對進口天然氣的依賴。委員會還稱，適當(dāng)?shù)谋O(jiān)管會控制油井開采對環(huán)境和健康方面的危害。該委員會還認為，燃燒更多的天然氣以取代煤-目前仍為英國提供超過三分之一的電力-價格低廉，而且是降低整個國家碳排放更加可持續(xù)的方法，同時還可以等待造價高昂的可再生能源技術(shù)成熟。
But a thicket 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 clearance 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 prod shale-gas firms into seeking far richer pickings abroad.
但繁瑣復(fù)雜的管制拖累了進程以致發(fā)展緩慢。雖然仍需要數(shù)十個試驗井以計算英國頁巖氣的儲量的范圍，據(jù)石油天然氣公司Cuadrilla推測，要想開采每個試驗井需要超過一年的時間。之所以出現(xiàn)這個問題，有部分原因是因為有幾個政府部門同時監(jiān)管批準油井的開采。上議院擔(dān)心，龐雜的條條框框并不能使企業(yè)更加的安全，反而會刺激頁巖氣企業(yè)尋找國外富產(chǎn)油氣田投資。
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.
關(guān)于官僚主義的抱怨使得政府顏面盡失，政府之前承諾“全力以赴頁巖氣”，而現(xiàn)在卻忙于想方設(shè)法要平息議會關(guān)于阻礙產(chǎn)業(yè)發(fā)展的批評。政府曾建議頁巖企業(yè)為每次鉆探試驗井投入10萬英鎊（約合17萬美元）用以地方政府的補貼。今年一月，以市場價支付補償，目前只有市場價的一半。下個月，政府很可能宣布新計劃，使鉆探公司從居民屋子下鉆隧道更為簡單。
Pushing through that proposal will mean fending off noisy opposition from environmental lobbies such as Greenpeace, which had hoped its supporters could use Britain's aged trespass 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.
推行這樣的提案，意味著要抵擋來自環(huán)境保護游說團體，如綠色環(huán)保組織嘈雜的反對意見，這類團體希望，其支持者能夠利用英國行之有年的入侵法，使得那些支持開采頁巖氣的人舉步維艱。在大多數(shù)英國人構(gòu)思自己對于工業(yè)看法的時候，這樣的活動有舉足輕重的作用。支持開采的比例在去年一次發(fā)生在靠近蘇塞克斯郡Balcombe市爆發(fā)的激烈抗議后有所縮小；而且還有可能繼續(xù)下滑，直到有先驅(qū)者能夠證明，開采可以安全無害、不事張揚。所有的理由都是為了能夠開采。翻譯 周雨晴 校對 王化起
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