美国有线新闻 CNN 特朗普推翻奥巴马任内决定 重启美两大输油管道项目(在线收听

 

First story on CNN 10 today: executive actions from the White House concerning a pair of controversial oil pipelines.

We're explaining it all starting with a look at the Dakota Access Pipeline.

It's a $3.7 billion project that would join oil rich areas of North Dakota to Illinois, where it can then be distributed to other parts of America.

Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the plan to build it last summer.

But the Standing Rock Sioux, a Native American tribe whose reservation is near a pipeline construction site sued the government. They said that the pipelines being built on sacred ground, that it would destroy Native American burial sites and that if it ruptures underneath Lake Oahe, where part of the pipe would run, it could contaminate the tribe's water supply.

Thousands of activists joined the Standing Rock Sioux in protest and late last year, the Obama administration reversed its decision and said it would not allow construction under Lake Oahe.

Supporters of the project say it's safe, that its construction would create thousands of jobs and that those whose land is affected already agreed to allow construction. The company building the pipeline called the Obama administration's reversal politically motivated. Now, the Standing Rock Sioux is calling a Trump administration decision politically motivated.

Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive action to move the Dakota Access Pipeline forward. The tribe said it was unfairly rerouted toward their land without their consent. The White House says the pipeline is good for jobs, growth and energy.

You'll notice some similarities between this controversy and one over another pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline. President Trump signed an action yesterday to advance that one as well.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Keystone XL pipeline extension would stretch about 1,200 miles, most of it in the United States, from Alberta,Canada down to Nebraska.

There are lots of pipelines out there, some of which would connect with this.

So, why all the fuss about this extension?

First of all, the environment. Opponents say that they fear that this will spoil the landscape. If there is a spill, that it could contaminate ground water, hurt humans and animals. And they say this is dirty oil, a type of oil that when it's burned, produces more greenhouse gases.

Supporters say the company that wants this, TransCanada, has already promised much more robust safety measures, that rail shipments are rising already to bring this oil in and the rail shipments are riskier than the pipeline would be.

The second issue, jobs. Supporters like to cite a study that says somewhere around 42,000 jobs or more would benefit from this pipeline.

That includes not only the people who work on it, but people in restaurants and hotels and supply houses.

But opponents say that's all temporary. That's for one or two years while this thing is built. In the end, there may be only 50 permanent jobs coming out of this.

So, that raises the real question, why would you want to build this thing at all? It's only 36 inches across. Does it really make a difference?

Supporters say yes, it does. It means about 830,000 barrels of oil a day coming into the United States from a secure ally, reducing our dependence on overseas oil from places like Venezuela or the Middle East.

Whereas opponents say, look, it is just not worth it. For all those various reasons they've already cited, even as supporters continue to say, look, it's time, after all this debate, to dig the trenches and to get this pipe into the ground.

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/cnn2017/2/395063.html