VOA标准英语2012--Oregon Moves to Zone Ocean

Oregon Moves to Zone Ocean

U.S. communities routinely use zoning laws to control where businesses may operate in a neighborhood. Now there's a move to zone the ocean. A number of coastal¹ states and the federal government have fledgling plans to coordinate² competing uses for their off-shore waters.
The prospect³ of new wind-turbine farms going up within sight of popular beaches prompted interest in such plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. On the U.S. West Coast, the impetus⁴ has been wave and tidal energy development, but balancing competing uses for coastal waters has proved a difficult challenge.
Uncharted territory
At first glance, the Pacific Ocean looks wide open and mostly empty, but it's anything but that on a digital map the state of Oregon recently posted online. The interactive⁵ display includes some 150 layers of data about existing ocean uses and natural features.
Oregon Sea Grant fellow Todd Hallenbeck checks out prime fishing grounds on his laptop.
"There's a large area of the territorial⁶ sea that's important to fishing with the darker red colors representing some of the most important areas for each of the ports," he says, looking at the map, which lights up from Neah Bay, Washington south to the Oregon-California border. "We can turn on things like commercial shipping⁷ lanes...We can turn on some of the seabird layers that represent areas where there are seabird colonies."
Purple lines crisscross the screen. Little dots that appear along the shoreline and rocky reef areas represent seabird colonies.
Mixed-use approach
All this leaves wave energy developer Justin Klure, of Pacific Energy Ventures, feeling excluded from the initial set of lines drawn⁸ on the ocean planning map.
"First blush, those maps look a little intimidating⁹ from the industry perspective," Klure says, "because the areas that they've identified are relatively¹⁰ small and don't align¹¹ with some of the basic requirements that the industry is looking at, which is access to port, access to transmission, certain water depths."
Hallenbeck acknowledges there are challenges. "There are not a ton of areas that seem to not have something of importance in them already. So the challenge here is finding the few areas that do exist that have the least amount of conflict."
And Klure isn't giving up hope yet. It's early in the process, too early in his view to be "drawing lines in the sand." To stay with the zoning analogy, he argues for a "mixed use" approach while more data is gathered.
Regulatory uncertainty¹²
The planning process is moving slowly. That's creating regulatory uncertainty. It's scared off at least one ocean energy company interested in Oregon. Scotland-based Aquamarine Power closed its Oregon office this fall.
In a statement, the company expressed its hope of returning to the Pacific Northwest someday, but said it will focus on California in the meantime.
Aquamarine Power's energy generator¹³ relies on a large mechanical flap placed just below the surf. A more traditional ocean energy design uses an array of bobbing buoys¹⁴. There are also new prototypes that employ pressure-sensitive airbags on the sea floor.
Groups representing the fishing fleet remain leery of such technologies and the ocean-planning process.
Ilwaco, Washington crab¹⁵ fisherman Dale Beasley has a hard time imagining sharing the sea with industrial energy installations. "Ocean energy and fishing are mutually exclusive. They will not be able to coexist in the same area."
Not everyone agrees with that perspective. A representative of environmental groups is more conciliatory.
"I do think there is a way through this," says Susan Allen, who directs a coalition¹⁶ called Our Ocean. "It has to do with the fact that Oregon is uniquely suited to deal with this. We have a long legacy¹⁷ of figuring out what compromises are. We are the state that pioneered...land use planning."
The ocean mapping and zoning process won't stop the West Coast's first commercial wave-energy park. Ocean Power Technologies' demonstration¹⁸ project near Reedsport, Oregon, has already been approved.
The company plans to launch the first of 10 massive floating wave energy generators¹⁹ there around the middle of this year.

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

3 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

4 impetus   

n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力

参考例句：

• This is the primary impetus behind the economic recovery.这是促使经济复苏的主要动力。
• Her speech gave an impetus to my ideas.她的讲话激发了我的思绪。

5 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

6 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

7 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 align   

vt.使成一线，结盟，调节；vi.成一线，结盟

参考例句：

• Align the ruler and the middle of the paper.使尺子与纸张的中部成一条直线。
• There are signs that the prime minister is aligning himself with the liberals.有迹象表明首相正在与自由党人结盟。

12 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

13 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

14 buoys   

n.浮标( buoy的名词复数 )；航标；救生圈；救生衣v.使浮起( buoy的第三人称单数 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• The channel is marked by buoys. 航道有浮标表示。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Often they mark the path with buoys. 他们常常用浮标作为航道的标志。 来自辞典例句

15 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

16 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

17 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。

18 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

19 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》