环保翻译案例:拜登政府重新将气候问题纳入环保法
Biden Restores Climate to Landmark Environmental Law, Reversing Trump
拜登政府重新将气候问题纳入环保法
A new rule requires agencies to analyze the climate impacts of proposed highways, pipelines and other projects, and gives local communities more input.
新的条例要求各部门分析拟建高速公路、管道及其它项目的气候影响,此举将为区域提供更多信息。
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is restoring parts of a bedrock environmental law, once again requiring that climate impacts be considered and local communities have input before federal agencies approve highways, pipelines and other major projects.
华盛顿-本周二,拜登政府宣布正恢复美国基础环保法的部分内容,其中又一次要求在联邦机构批建高速公路、管道及其它重大项目之前要纳入环境影响方面的考量及区域提供的信息。
The administration has resurrected requirements of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald J. Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects.
拜登政府恢复了前总统唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)所删除的拥有50年历史的《国家环境政策法》的规定。特朗普认为,这些规定减缓了矿山和公路扩建及相关项目的开发速进度。
The final rule announced Tuesday would require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the greenhouse gases that could be emitted over the lifetime of a proposed project, as well as how climate change might affect new highways, bridges and other infrastructure, according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The rule, which takes effect in 30 days, would also ensure agencies give communities directly affected by projects a greater role in the approval process.
周二宣布的最终条例要求联邦政府部门依照白宫环境质量委员会(White House Council on Environmental Quality)的要求,分析拟建工程全部生命周期中可能排放的温室气体,并分析气候变化如何影响新建高速公路、桥梁及其它基础设施。这项条例将于30天后生效,还将确保联邦政府部门为项目直接影响的区域更大的批复权力。
Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the council, described the regulation as restoring “basic community safeguards” that the Trump administration had eliminated.
该委员会的主席布恩达·马洛里(Brenda Mallory)女士称,该条例恢复了特朗普政府所删除的“社区基本保障”要求。
“Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help projects get built faster, be more resilient, and provide greater benefits to people who live nearby,” she said in a statement.
“为环保审批流程打上补丁将加快项目的建设速度,增加项目的韧性,并且为周边居民提供更大的利益,”她在一份声明中称。
The move comes as President Biden’s climate agenda faces headwinds from Congress and the courts. The president also is under pressure to boost oil production as a way to temper high gas prices across the United States. Last week the Interior Department said it would begin offering oil and gas drilling leases on public lands and waters, despite Mr. Biden’s campaign promise that he would end new leases. Senior administration officials this week maintained the leasing decision was necessary because of a court ruling, and said that it had also raised federal royalties that companies must pay to drill.
此举恰逢拜登总统的气候计划面临来自国会和法院的阻力。总统也面临着增加原油产量来平抑美国天然气价格的压力。内务部上周称将开始提供公共土地和水域的油气钻探租赁合约,尽管拜登的计划中承诺停止新增这些合约。政府高层官员本周仍然认为由于有法院判决,租赁合约上的决策是有必要的,并称已经提高了各公司应支付的钻探印花税。
On Friday, which is Earth Day, Mr. Biden will be in Seattle, where aides said he is expected to give a speech highlighting efforts to expand solar energy and offshore wind farms as well as clean energy initiatives that Congress authorized last year as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
拜登先生将于本周五世界地球日这天前往西雅图。据助手称,他有望发表演讲,着重介绍太阳能和海上风场的增建计划,以及国会批准的清洁能源倡议,这也是两党通过的1.2万亿美元的基础设施建设一揽子计划的一部分。
Administration officials said the new rule would not have major immediate impacts since the Biden administration had already been weighing the climate change impacts of proposed projects. But it would force future administrations to abide by the process or undertake a lengthy regulatory process and possibly legal challenges to again undo it.
政府官员称,由于拜登政府已经在衡量拟建项目的气候变化影响,所以新条例不会立即发挥重大作用。但是这个条例将倒逼未来政府遵守此流程,或者执行长期监管流程,还可能会发起司法挑战以再一次取消此流程。
The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, after several environmental disasters including a crude oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and a series of fires on the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio that shocked the nation.
1970年总统理查德·M·尼克松(Richard M. Nixon)签署《国家环境政策法》的背景是发生了几次环境灾难,包括加州圣芭芭海上原油泄漏,俄亥俄州凯霍加河(Cuyahoga River)严重污染后频发火灾,令全国震惊。
It mandates federal agencies to assess the potential environmental impacts of proposed major federal actions before allowing them to proceed. Agencies are not required to reject projects that might worsen climate change — only to examine and report the impacts.
该条例要求联邦政府部门在批准重大项目前评估其潜在环境影响。政府部门不必拒绝可能使气候变化问题恶化的项目,而只需要检查和汇报其影响。
The Trump administration had freed the government from considering the ways in which proposed new dams or pipelines, for example, might increase emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that are warming the planet to dangerous levels. It required agencies to analyze only “reasonably foreseeable” impacts. Mr. Trump said the change would eliminate “mountains and mountains of red tape” that he said had delayed projects across the country.
诸如大坝或管道等拟建项目可能排放二氧化碳和甲烷等温室气体并让地球变暖至危险水平,特朗普政府先前没有考虑这种增加排放的方式,而要求政府部门仅分析“合理可预见的”影响。特朗普先生称,该变化将去除那些所称延缓全国项目开发进度的“繁文缛节”。
Under the changes announced Tuesday, agencies would have to consider the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of a decision — including the effect a new project would have on neighborhoods already burdened by pollution.
根据周二宣布的更改条例,政府部门将要考虑决策的直接、间接、累积影响,包括新项目可能对已经饱受环境污染拖累的区域的影响。
The administration’s changes also encourage agencies to study alternatives to projects that are opposed by local communities, and it says the law’s requirements are “a floor, rather than a ceiling” when it comes to environmental reviews.
拜登政府的更改条例也鼓励各部门对区域社区反对的项目提出替代方案,并称该条例的要求是环保审批中的“地板,而不是天花板”。
Republicans and some business groups are hostile to the changes, arguing that additional reviews would delay the development of badly needed infrastructure.
共和党人及一些商业群体对此更改怀有敌意,认为增加审核将会延缓急需基础设施的建设进度。
Karen Harbert, the president of the American Gas Association, which represents natural gas companies, said she is “extremely disappointed” by the regulation. “This new rule will impede infrastructure projects this nation needs,” she said in a statement.
美国天然气协会是天然气公司的代表,其会长卡恩·哈尔伯特(Karen Harbert)称她对该条例“非常失望”。她在声明中称,“这项新的条例将对国家需要的基础设施项目形成掣肘”。
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a trade organization, wrote in comments to the Council on Environmental Quality that federal reviews for many transportation projects take five to seven years, with some lasting as long as 14 years. The new rule, it argued, would make matters even worse.
美国道路和交通建设者协会(American Road and Transportation Builders Association)作为一个贸易组织,在写给环境质量委员会的评论中称,联邦政府审核许多交通项目需要五到七天,有的甚至持续14年之久。该协会称,此项新条例将会使事情更糟。
“Project delays resulting from the current NEPA process will often lead to demonstrable and significant costs to the taxpayers,” the group wrote in a letter to the agency. “This is simple logic, based on continuing increases in labor and materials costs, among other factors.”
“目前NEPA流程所引起的项目延期经常会给纳税人造成重大的成本,”该团体在给该协会写的信中称。“劳动和材料成本的持续增长等等其它因素,这是很简单的逻辑。”
Democrats and environmental groups embraced the move.
共和党人及环境组织对此举表示支持。
Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said the Trump administration had “stripped and gutted” environmental protections.
亚利桑那州共和党成员兼下议院天然资源委员会主席劳尔·M·格里加尔瓦(Raúl M. Grijalva)称,特朗普政府已经“剔除和去除”了环保政策。
“I’m glad this administration recognizes how egregiously wrong those actions were and is moving forward to restore the protections that have helped protect our environment while promoting sustainable development for decades,” he said in a statement.
“令我感到高兴的是,本届政府认识到那些行为错误百出,而且正努力恢复多年来已经帮助保护我们的环境同时促进可持续发展的环保政策,”他在一份声明中称。
The new rule also proposes giving federal agencies the authority to work closely with communities to develop alternative approaches to projects. Historically, the law’s process has been one of the most important tools available to local communities to try to amend or stop projects that could cause significant harm.
新条例还建议,赋予联邦机构权力,与社区紧密配合制定项目的替代方案。从历史上来看,地方社区可以使用该法律的程序更改或制止可能造成重大危害的项目,是他们可以使用的最重要的工具之一。
The final rule represents the first phase of a two-step regulatory process. Administration officials said that, in the coming months, it would propose another set of broader changes to the law. 最终条例是两步监管程序的第一部分。政府官员称,接下来的几个月将对该法律提出另一系列的修订要求。