紐時賞析／批拜登政府能源政策目光短淺 美能源部長承諾將「180度逆轉」

U.S. Energy Secretary Pledges to Reverse Focus on Climate Change

美能源部長承諾 扭轉氣候變遷政策

Before a packed crowd of oil and gas executives on Monday, Chris Wright, the new U.S. energy secretary, delivered a scathing critique of the Biden administration’s energy policies and efforts to fight climate change and promised a “180-degree pivot.”

美國新任能源部長萊特周一在一群石油和天然氣產業高管面前，嚴厲批評拜登政府能源政策及對抗氣候變遷所付出的努力，並承諾「180度逆轉」。

Wright, a former fracking executive, has emerged as the most forceful promoter of President Donald Trump’s plans to expand American oil and gas production and dismantle virtually every federal policy aimed at curbing global warming.

萊特曾擔任水力壓裂公司高管，現在他已成為總統川普擴大美國石油和天然氣生產，及廢除所有目標抑制氣候全球暖化聯邦政策的最強力提倡者。

“I wanted to play a role in reversing what I believe has been a very poor direction in energy policy,” Wright said as he kicked off the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, the nation’s biggest annual gathering of the energy industry. “The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change, with people as simply collateral damage.”

萊特在於休士頓舉行的美國能源產業年度最大集會標普全球CERAWeek能源會議上表示：「我認為能源政策目前的發展方向很糟糕，我想扮演扭轉局勢的角色。前政府關注氣候變遷的政策目光短淺，民眾遭到池魚之殃」。

Wright was dismissive of renewable power, which he said played only a small role in the world’s energy mix. Natural gas supplies 25% of raw energy globally, before it is converted into electricity or some other use. Wind and solar only supply about 3%, he said.

萊特蔑視可再生能源，稱其在世界能源結構只占很小的比率。天然氣被轉化為電力或一些其他用途之前，供應全球25%的原始能源。他表示，風力和太陽能僅供應約3%。

He noted that gas also had a variety of other uses — it could be burned in furnaces to heat homes or used to make fertilizer or other chemicals — that were hard to replicate with other energy sources.

他指出，天然氣擁有多種用途，可在暖氣爐中燃燒使得房屋變得溫暖，及用來製作肥料和其他化學製品。這些用途是其他能源難以複製的。

On Monday, Wright signed the fourth export approval since Trump took office, extending an approval for the Delfin terminal off the coast of Louisiana. He said the Biden administration’s review of gas exports had found only modest impacts on global emissions and domestic U.S. prices.

萊特周一簽署自川普就職以來第四份出口許可，延長路易斯安那州離岸Delfin天然氣接收站許可。他表示，拜登政府對於天然氣出口的檢討，對於全球排放量和美國國內價格的影響不大。

On the topic of climate change, Wright said he didn’t deny that the planet was warming, calling himself a “climate realist.”

在氣候變遷議題上，萊特不否認地球正在暖化，自稱是「氣候現實主義者」。

“We have indeed raised global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 50% in the process of more than doubling human life expectancy, lifting almost all of the world’s citizens out of grinding poverty, launching modern medicine,” he said. “Everything in life involves trade-offs.”

他表示：「全球大氣中二氧化碳濃度的確增加50%，人類平均餘命增加超過一倍、幾乎讓所有民眾擺脫赤貧、現代醫學開展，生活中每件事都是有得有失。」

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