PBS高端访谈:奥巴马政府已经清除阿拉斯加区域石油钻井的障碍

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: The Obama administration has essentially¹ cleared the way to allow Royal Dutch/Shell to begin drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer. It's one of the most consequential² and long-awaited drilling decisions from the government. Shell is seeking approval to drill in the American portion of the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska.

　　Environmental groups have long warned of the dangers of doing so. Estimates show there may be as much as 22 billion barrels of oil and 93 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the area.

　　Reporter Coral Davenport covers all this for The New York Times, and she joins me from its Washington bureau.

　　Coral Davenport, welcome.

　　Let's — help us understand a little better what area we're talking about. Exactly where is it, how large is it, what does it look like?

　　CORAL DAVENPORT, The New York Times: Judy, it's a very big portion of the Arctic Ocean.

　　The part that they're looking at, where Shell's leases are, are about 70 miles off the coast of Alaska. It is a pristine³, untouched area. It is home to habitats of several rare species, large mammals, migrating habitats for whales, feeding habitats for walrus⁴.

　　It's also a very treacherous⁵ area, extreme storms, waves of up to 50 feet high, completely frozen over with ice in the winter. So this is a very remote, very treacherous, almost completely untouched area.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So, understanding the environmental objections, we know Shell has had difficulties in the past with some drilling in similar circumstances. What has Shell said it's going to do to protect the environment?

　　CORAL DAVENPORT: So, this is not the first time the administration has given a go-ahead to Shell to drill in the area. It gave a permit to Shell to start exploring to see what's in the area.

　　They went in, in summer of 2012. They were plagued that whole period with safety problems, operational problems. They had two rigs that went to ground that had to be towed away. The administration said that they wouldn't reissue a permit to Shell until they had gone back, assured that they would upgrade their safety and operations procedures.

　　In the meantime, the administration had also put forth⁶ new drilling safety regulations that anyone drilling will have to follow. Environmental groups of course still say, despite all these promises, all these assurances and new regulations on the part of the administration, this area is just so treacherous to drill and so pristine that they fear that it's still an accident waiting to happen.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, what else should we know about why the administration has agreed to do this? Oil prices are certainly down. The supply is up.

　　What is the administration saying is a rationale?

　　CORAL DAVENPORT: Well, some of this is built in.

　　These areas, these federally owned portions of land were sold by the Bush administration to be drilled, to be leased. And so Shell paid for its lease to drill during the Bush administration. They applied⁷ for a permit to use that lease to go in and drill it.

　　If the Obama administration had ignored that permit or had, you know, just completely thumbed it down or denied it, Shell absolutely would have sued. If they were to have taken away the permit, they would have to give Shell back the money that it had paid for it, so some of this was just a matter of the Obama administration had to deal with what was on its plate.

　　Again, nonetheless, environmental groups are surprised and saying, could it have found some kind of way not to do this? It really is still a very striking — striking piece of this president's environmental legacy⁸.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: But this does, Coral Davenport, this essentially clears the way for this to happen. And we understand this summer, there is not much else that could take place in the meantime in the courts or elsewhere to stop this?

　　CORAL DAVENPORT: Right.

　　To be clear, what the administration gave today was a conditional⁹ approval. They cleared the last — sort of second-to-last and certainly the last major hurdle¹⁰ for Shell to move forward. It gave it on condition that Shell made sure it gets the rest of some of its local and state-level permits. The company has said it's moving forward with doing that. That will be the absolute final.

　　But people I have talked to said this is just sort of 95 percent of the way there. And the big piece that everyone was waiting for to see which way it would go was this decision by the Obama administration.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: All right. It's a story that everyone is — I know is watching.

　　Coral Davenport with The New York Times, thank you.

　　CORAL DAVENPORT: Thanks so much, Judy.

1 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

2 consequential   

adj.作为结果的，间接的；重要的

参考例句：

• She was injured and suffered a consequential loss of earnings.她受了伤因而收入受损。
• This new transformation is at least as consequential as that one was.这一新的转变至少和那次一样重要。

3 pristine   

adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的

参考例句：

• He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

4 walrus   

n.海象

参考例句：

• He is the queer old duck with the knee-length gaiters and walrus mustache.他穿着高及膝盖的皮护腿，留着海象般的八字胡，真是个古怪的老家伙。
• He seemed hardly to notice the big walrus.他几乎没有注意到那只大海象。

5 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

8 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

9 conditional   

adj.条件的，带有条件的

参考例句：

• My agreement is conditional on your help.你肯帮助我才同意。
• There are two forms of most-favored-nation treatment:conditional and unconditional.最惠国待遇有两种形式:有条件的和无条件的。

10 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。