笔记导读
Global Methane Pledge 全球甲烷承诺
spotlight 聚光灯
under/in the spotlight 备受(媒体和公众的)关注；◆ The issue will come under the spotlightwhen parliament reassembles. 等议会重开的时候，这个问题将成为焦点。
comply /kəm’plaɪ/ 遵从；服从；顺从，和with搭配：comply(with sth) ◆ They refused to comply with the UN resolution. 他们拒绝遵守联合国的决议。
benefits outweigh the costs 好处超过成本
pushback 反对；抵制；反弹
flashpoint 爆发点，一触即发之际 ◆ Tension in the city is rapidly reaching flashpoint. 这座城市处于紧张状态，大有一触即发之势。
双语全文
Global leaders at the Glasgow climate summit pledged Tuesday to sharply curtail methane emissions, with President Biden saying the U.S. would tighten regulations on oil and natural-gas production to reduce leaks of the potent greenhouse gas.
The effort spotlighted growing concerns about the environmental harms of methane, a byproduct of drilling, livestock and landfills that traps roughly 85 times more heat than carbon dioxide.
“One of the most important things we can do in this decisive decade…is to reduce our methane emissions as quickly as possible,” Mr. Biden said at a summit event marking progress on the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative led by the U.S. and the European Union to cut methane emissions by 30% globally by 2030.
全球各国领导人在格拉斯哥气候大会上承诺将大幅减少甲烷排放，美国总统拜登(Joe Biden)称，美国将加强对石油和天然气生产的监管，以降低甲烷这种强效温室气体的排放。
这一努力凸显出人们愈发关注甲烷对环境造成的危害，甲烷是钻井、畜牧业和垃圾填埋场的副产品，其吸收热量的能力是二氧化碳的约85倍。
拜登在一个探讨全球甲烷承诺(Global Methane Pledge)进展的峰会活动上表示：“在这个决定性的十年里，我们所能做的最重要的事情之一……就是尽快减少我们的甲烷排放。”全球甲烷承诺是一项由美国和欧盟牵头的倡议，计划到2030年将全球甲烷排放量削减30%。
More than 100 countries have signed the pledge. Summit participants including the U.S., China and Brazil also committed Tuesday to ending and then reversing deforestation by 2030, promising nearly $20 billion of public and private funds to protect and restore forests.
Under the newly proposed U.S. methane rules, the Environmental Protection Agency would seek for the first time to regulate methane at existing wells nationwide, a move smaller producers fought for years. The move would place roughly a million new and existing wells under EPA methane regulation, with stricter requirements for new wells in addition to the first-time regulations for old ones.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the methane reduction plan “a very bold and aggressive step towards tackling climate pollution.”
“The timing is critical here,” he said in a phone interview. “World leaders are gathering in Glasgow, and they’re looking to the United States for leadership.”
The rules would mandate what the EPA calls “a comprehensive monitoring program to require companies to find and fix leaks” across operations including wells, pipes and storage tanks. The agency’s plan includes provisions to encourage the use of new technology such as drones for more effective monitoring.
已有100多个国家签署了该承诺协议。包括美国、中国和巴西在内的峰会参与国周二还承诺，将在2030年前结束并扭转森林退化，承诺拿出近200亿美元的公共和私营部门资金用于保护和恢复森林。
根据这项美国牵头的甲烷规则新提议，美国国家环境保护局(Environmental Protection Agency，简称EPA)将首次寻求对全美现有油气井的甲烷排放进行监管，小型生产商多年来一直反对这一举措。此举将使约100万口新建油气井和现有油气井纳入EPA的甲烷排放监管，除了首次将旧油气井纳入监管之外，EPA还对新建油气井提出了更严格的要求。
这些新规将会要求执行EPA所称的“全面监测计划，要求公司发现并解决泄漏问题”，该规定将适用油气井、输送管道和储存罐等各项业务。EPA的新规条款还包括鼓励使用无人机等新技术提高监测效率。
It would also prohibit venting off gas at oil wells, which producers sometimes do when oil is much more valuable than gas. The EPA would require producers to put that gas in a pipeline to be sold when possible to keep natural gas from being wasted. In 2030 alone, that would save $690 million worth of gas that might otherwise be wasted, the agency said.
The combined measures would reduce methane emissions from oil wells, storage tanks and other facilities covered by the regulations by an estimated 74% by 2030, compared with emissions from those sources in 2005, the EPA said. The agency said it aims to complete the regulations next year, following a 60-day public comment period and a review by other agencies that could lead to changes in the proposal.
Complying with the new rules will cost the oil-and-gas industry an estimated $1.5 billion by 2026, the year it is fully implemented, the EPA said, an estimate that includes capital expenses and operating and maintenance costs, minus projected revenue from gas that would otherwise not be captured.
新规还将禁止在油井中排放天然气；当石油的价值高于天然气时，生产商有时会采取这种做法。EPA将要求生产商尽可能地将这些天然气放入管道中待售以杜绝浪费。EPA表示，仅2030年，这项措施就将防止价值6.9亿美元的天然气浪费。
EPA称，总的来看，到2030年，这些措施预计将使新规监管下的油井、储存罐和其他设施的甲烷排放量比2005年水平减少74%。EPA称，其目标是明年最终敲定这些规定，在此之前将有为期60天的公众意见征询期，并需接受其他机构的评估，期间可能会对这项提议进行调整。
EPA称，到2026年，即新规全面实施的那年，遵守新规将使油气行业损失约15亿美元，此预期包括资本支出和运营及维护成本，减掉原本无法捕获的天然气的预期收入。
By 2032 those costs will decline to about $1 billion, the EPA said. The EPA said that the benefits will outweigh the costs by reducing harmful health effects from methane and property damage from severe weather linked to global warming.
The rules face pushback from some Republicans lawmakers who said consumers could end up footing the bill.
EPA表示，到2032年，这些成本将降至10亿美元左右。EPA称，通过减少甲烷对健康的有害影响，以及减少与全球变暖有关的恶劣天气造成的财产损失，其带来的好处将超过成本。
这些规则面临一些美国共和党议员的反对，他们称最终为此埋单的可能是消费者。
The Democratic Mr. Biden is seeking to restore U.S. leadership on climate change after his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
Mr. Biden has also proposed spending $555 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but that plan is awaiting congressional approval. Democrats cut one key element—a $150 billion program aimed at pushing utilities to draw more power from clean-energy sources—due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.).
The EPA plan is one of several proposed measures the Biden administration unveiled Tuesday. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced its own plans for rules limiting emissions from hundreds of thousands of miles of pipes in urban gas-distribution systems and transmission lines crisscrossing the country, according to senior administration officials.
在共和党籍前任美国总统特朗普(Donald Trump)宣布美国退出巴黎气候协议之后，作为民主党籍总统的拜登正寻求恢复美国在气候变化问题方面的领导地位。
拜登还提议为减少温室气体排放投入5,550亿美元，但该计划仍在等待美国国会的批准。由于西弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员Joe Manchin的反对，民主党删除了该提议里的一项关键内容，即一项耗资1,500亿美元的计划，该计划旨在推动公用事业公司使用更多清洁电力。
EPA的这项计划是拜登政府周二公布的数项拟议措施之一。据美国政府高级官员透露，美国管道和危险品安全管理局(Pipeline And Hazardous Material Safety Administration)宣布了该局制定规则的计划，这些规定将限制遍布全美的城市燃气分配系统和输送管线中数十万英里长的管道的碳排放。
