PBS高端访谈:哈维飓风袭击炼油厂导致天然气价格飙升

 　　Back in Houston, the country's fourth largest city is a hub of the nation's oil refineries¹, and, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, gas prices are up.

　　AAA says the national average for regular gas is now $2.59 a gallon. That's 23 cents higher than just a week ago.

　　The reason: Harvey has pushed more than 20 percent of refining capacity along with Texas Gulf² Coast offline, and it may take a while to get back to full speed.

　　For more on that, I am joined from Houston by Travis Bubenik, an energy and environment reporter with "Houston Public Media".

　　Travis, thank you very much for taking the time.

　　As I just said, we've got about 20 percent of capacity off. What is the prognosis for getting some of that back on line?

　　So, the energy department said as of this morning, that there are still 10 refineries along the gulf coast that are completely shut down after Harvey.

　　A number of others are still slowed as of some morning. But, you know, the big picture story is they're starting to get back online.

　　And that's going to be a slow, arduous³, and potentially hazardous⁴, if these refineries aren't, you know,

　　extremely careful in following protocols⁵, process over the next few days, maybe even weeks.

　　You said hazardous. There are some environmental concerns in that area. For example, oil spills and leaks, and what you just mentioned.

　　How are authorities going to deal with those environmental concerns, given that there are still rescues going on?

　　I think they're going to make a long list of them, and then have to go investigate.

　　I mean, the TCEQ, our state environmental regulators, the EPA, they're, of course, you know,

　　encouraging the public to report anything like oil spills, oil sheens on the water you see in floodwaters.

　　The Texas Railroad Commission, our oil and gas regulators, are fielding, you know,

　　reports about spills or leakages⁶ or anything like that from oil and gas operators in south Texas, again, closer to Corpus Christi where the storm made landfall.

　　Meanwhile, there are just sort of the everyday environmental hazards of floodwaters being spread out across this huge metropolitan⁷ area.

　　Texas A&M I think recently did some sampling around the Houston area and found E. coli bacteria levels in the floodwaters that are just way higher than what's safe for swimming in,

　　let alone eating or drinking anything that's been contaminated by these floodwaters.

　　So, you know, it's a nasty situation across Houston, and that's not to mention the spikes⁸ in air pollution

　　that are going to naturally come from these refineries starting back up because it's just kind of a dirty process to do that.

　　And that's something that environmental groups here in Houston and Texas are already tracking.

　　They're seeing, you know, pollution spikes that we haven't seen in the city, you know, for more than a decade in some instances.

　　We've also seen some chemical fires at these chemical plants. Why aren't authorities there better prepared for something like Harvey at those plants?

　　You know, I don't know if it's necessarily about the authorities being better prepared because they evacuated⁹ this area per the recommendation of this company, Arkema, northeast of Houston.

　　But I think open question is, why wasn't the company better prepared?

　　I mean, the company said from the get-go, you know, we never expected six feet of water in our facility.

　　I guess because it had never happened. But there are, you know, a number of questions

　　I mean, the reasons these fires broke out is because the chemicals lost refrigeration. They lost power and they lost backup power.

　　The question, to me, anyway, most immediately is, OK, if you never expected six feet of water, do you expect it now?

　　Or do company goes from this point and sort of treat this storm as a fluke? I mean, I think that's the open question.

　　"Houston Public Media's" Travis Bubenik, thank you very much. undefined

1 refineries   

精炼厂( refinery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The efforts on closedown and suspension of small sugar refineries, small saccharin refineries and small paper mills are also being carried out in steps. 关停小糖厂、小糖精厂、小造纸厂的工作也已逐步展开。
• Hence the sitting of refineries is at a distance from population centres. 所以，炼油厂的厂址总在远离人口集中的地方。

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

4 hazardous   

adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的

参考例句：

• These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
• Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。

5 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

6 leakages   

泄露； 漏( leakage的名词复数 )； 漏出； 漏出物； 渗漏物

参考例句：

• We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injection into it. 我们就可以看到，这个流量既有漏出的又有注入的。
• We can see that the flow has both leakages from it and injections into it. 我们就可以看到，这个流量是既有漏出的又有注入的。

7 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

8 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。