Trump throws out power plant climate pollution rules
Trump throws out power plant climate pollution rules
特朗普废除发电厂气候污染法规
There couldn’t be a worse time for the US to stop regulating carbon pollution from power plants. 对于美国而言，现在停止监管发电厂的碳污染简直是再糟糕不过的时机了。
The Environmental Protection Agency announced its plans today to kill any remaining standards on how much greenhouse gas pollution power plants are allowed to emit in the US. The move will only make electricity dirtier as AI, electric vehicles, and a revival of domestic manufacturing drive up power demand. 美国国家环境保护局（EPA）今日宣布，计划废除美国发电厂温室气体排放的所有现行标准。随着人工智能、电动汽车以及国内制造业的复苏推高了电力需求，此举只会让电力生产变得更加污染严重。
The EPA’s proposal today is a major escalation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to promote fossil fuels while making it easier to build out energy-hungry data centers. Environmental and consumer advocates, meanwhile, are fighting back — arguing that Trump’s deregulation spree comes with higher costs for the environment, public health, and Americans’ pocketbooks. EPA今日提出的这项提案，标志着唐纳德·特朗普总统在推广化石燃料的同时，为建设高耗能数据中心提供便利的举措进一步升级。与此同时，环保人士和消费者权益倡导者正在进行反击，他们认为特朗普的放松管制狂潮将导致环境、公共卫生以及美国民众的钱包付出更高昂的代价。
“Failure to limit climate pollution means more children ending up in the emergency room with asthma attacks and heatstroke, more families struggling to rebuild homes after harrowing storms,” Moms Clean Air Force director and cofounder Dominique Browning said in an emailed statement. “It means higher health care bills, higher insurance costs, and more economic struggle at a time when Americans cannot afford it.” “未能限制气候污染意味着更多的孩子因哮喘发作和中暑被送进急诊室，更多的家庭在经历可怕的风暴后难以重建家园，” “妈妈清洁空气力量”（Moms Clean Air Force）总监兼联合创始人多米尼克·布朗宁（Dominique Browning）在一份电子邮件声明中表示。“这意味着在美国家庭难以承受之时，他们将面临更高的医疗账单、更高的保险费用以及更多的经济困境。”
The power sector pumps out a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, surpassed only by transportation. In February, the Trump administration overturned the “endangerment finding” for vehicles. The finding recognized that greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations” and allowed the agency to regulate that pollution under the Clean Air Act. Now, the EPA is extending that rollback to power plants. 电力行业排放了全国四分之一的温室气体，仅次于交通运输业。今年2月，特朗普政府推翻了针对汽车的“危害认定”（endangerment finding）。该认定曾承认温室气体“威胁到当代和后代的公共健康与福祉”，并允许该机构根据《清洁空气法》对相关污染进行监管。现在，EPA正将这一撤销行动扩展至发电厂。
There is scientific consensus that greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels causes climate change. But in its press release today, the EPA argues that greenhouse gas pollution is “out of its scope to regulate” because its impacts are “global in nature, and any potential public health harms are too uncertain, conjectural, remote, and convoluted to tie specifically to the U.S. power sector.” The US has produced more greenhouse gas pollution than any other country in history and is still a leading carbon emitter after China. 科学界已达成共识，即化石燃料产生的温室气体污染导致了气候变化。但在今日的新闻稿中，EPA辩称温室气体污染“超出了其监管范围”，因为其影响是“全球性的，且任何潜在的公共健康危害都过于不确定、推测性强、遥远且复杂，无法具体归咎于美国电力行业。”美国历史上产生的温室气体污染总量超过世界上任何其他国家，且目前仍是仅次于中国的全球主要碳排放国。
The agency today is finalizing its repeal of Biden-era greenhouse gas requirements for power plants, as well as proposing the elimination of any remaining limits to that climate pollution for the power sector. The EPA claims the finalized rule would save $310 billion while the additional proposed actions would shave off $370 million “in direct compliance costs.” 该机构今日正在敲定废除拜登政府时期针对发电厂的温室气体要求，并提议取消电力行业在气候污染方面剩余的所有限制。EPA声称，这项最终确定的规则将节省3100亿美元，而额外提出的行动将减少3.7亿美元的“直接合规成本”。
Energy, of course, has become a flashpoint in the culture war over affordability. Electricity has gotten more expensive in the US as demand rises for the first time in over a decade with more data centers, factories, and electric vehicles plugging into power grids. At the same time, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has prioritized making America “the AI capital of the world,” ostensibly by slashing environmental regulations for energy-intensive data centers and the gas and coal-fired plants that power them. 能源问题自然已成为关于负担能力的文化战争中的一个爆发点。随着更多数据中心、工厂和电动汽车接入电网，美国电力需求十多年来首次上升，电价也随之水涨船高。与此同时，EPA局长李·泽尔丁（Lee Zeldin）将使美国成为“世界人工智能之都”作为优先事项，其表面手段就是削减针对高耗能数据中心及其供电的燃气和燃煤电厂的环境法规。
The EPA’s proposed changes will be open for public comment for 45 days, and are likely to face a raft of legal challenges. “The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country,” Sierra Club chief program officer Holly Bender said in an emailed press statement. “While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting.” EPA提出的这些变更将进行为期45天的公众意见征询，并可能面临一系列法律挑战。“塞拉俱乐部（Sierra Club）将动用我们在法院、国会以及全国各社区的一切力量，反击这一鲁莽且危险的提案，”塞拉俱乐部首席项目官霍莉·本德（Holly Bender）在一份电子邮件新闻声明中表示。“在野火肆虐、洪水摧毁社区、家庭难以负担飙升的电费和保险费之际，特朗普政府却在向化石燃料行业发放继续污染的许可证。”