美国国家公共电台 NPR Large Methane Leaks Threaten Perception Of 'Clean' Natural Gas

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A new study published in the journal Science finds methane¹ emissions² from U.S. oil and gas operations are 60 percent higher than previous estimates from the federal government. Now, this comes at a time when we're getting more and more electricity from natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal. But Leigh Paterson reports that burning's not to blame. The problem is leakage³.

LEIGH PATERSON, BYLINE⁴: Anthony Marchese has been focused on methane for years. He's a professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University. And in 2013 and 2014, he and his team of researchers spent months on the road - driving around to over 100 oil and gas sites in 13 states.

ANTHONY MARCHESE: You'd pull up to one of these facilities in the morning.

PATERSON: The researchers would take out a fancy, expensive camera.

MARCHESE: A camera that can detect, you know, methane, which is usually invisible.

PATERSON: And at times...

MARCHESE: We would see the facility in what we would call an abnormal operating state.

PATERSON: An abnormal operating state - like, natural gas, mostly methane, spewing out of a storage tank.

MARCHESE: We saw that fairly frequently.

PATERSON: Twenty percent of the time, he says. The Environmental Defense⁵ Fund put the new methane study together, using Marchese's data and its analysis, along with data from over 100 other independent researchers. They found that overall the methane leak rate is around 2.3 percent of total gas production. Now, that might not sound like a lot, but EDF estimates that this is enough natural gas to power 10 million homes for an entire year. Ramon Alvarez of EDF was one of the lead authors of the study.

RAMON ALVAREZ: The fact is that the magnitude of emissions are so large that it has a material impact on the climate impact of natural gas as a fossil fuel.

PATERSON: Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. So leaks make natural gas a dirtier source of electricity than assumed. Now, the energy industry is pushing back on all of this.

KATHLEEN SGAMMA: Science is not one study, and then it's all solved.

PATERSON: Kathleen Sgamma is head of the Western Energy Alliance in Denver.

SGAMMA: It's the preponderance of evidence. And there have been several studies which show much lower leakage rates.

PATERSON: And she argues that Colorado producers have done a great job bringing down their methane emissions. And there is something to that. In 2014, Colorado became the first state to tackle the methane problem with regulations. And since then, so other states - like California, New York and Pennsylvania. But at the federal level, the opposite is happening. The Trump⁶ administration is working to roll back two Obama-era rules meant to reduce methane emissions. For NPR News, I'm Leigh Paterson.

1 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

2 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。

3 leakage   

n.漏，泄漏；泄漏物；漏出量

参考例句：

• Large areas of land have been contaminated by the leakage from the nuclear reactor.大片地区都被核反应堆的泄漏物污染了。
• The continuing leakage is the result of the long crack in the pipe.这根管子上的那一条裂缝致使渗漏不断。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。