For me, the appointment of Dr. Chu as Secretary of Energy was profound proof of the President’s commitment to fundamentally transforming America’s energy policy. Dr. Chu is unlike any Secretary of Energy we’ve had before and a rare commodity in Washington: not a politican or lawyer, but a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and professor of physics. Like the President, Secretary Chu has demonstrated a deep commitment to tackling the interlinked problems of energy and climate change. Five years ago, Secretary Chu changed the course of his distinguished career to focus on energy, leaving Stanford University to direct the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He brings to the Obama administration a depth of scientific and technological knowledge that will help us address this immense global challenge.
对我来说，任命朱博士为能源部长充分证明了总统的承诺，从根本上改变美国的能源政策。朱博士不同于任何历任能源部长，在华盛顿实属罕见：即不是政客也不是律师，而是获得过诺贝尔奖的科学家和物理学教授。与总统一样，朱部长已显示出深刻的承诺，解决能源和气候变化相互关联的问题。五年前，朱部长改变了他杰出的职业轨迹，重点关注能源领域，离开斯坦福大学，直接执导劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室。他带给奥巴马政府深度的科学和技术知识，这将帮助我们应对这个巨大的全球性挑战。
Secretary Chu is working to transform the Department of Energy to achieve President Obama’s vision and to spend wisely the vast new resources that now come with it. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the historic economic stimulus bill signed by President Obama in February -- included the largest investment in clean energy ever in the United States. The Act provides more than $60 billion for clean energy, including $11 billion to make our electrical grid smarter and connect it to sources of renewable power, $2 billion in competitive grants for battery research and development, $5 billion to weatherize low-income homes, $3.4 billion for carbon capture and storage, $4.5 billion to improve the energy efficiency of federal buildings – the list goes on. The Department of Energy alone received more than $32 billion for a variety of clean-energy grants and saw its loan guarantee authority expanded to $60 billion.
朱部长正在努力改革能源部，实现奥巴马总统的设想，明智地运用随之而来的大量新资源。美国的复兴和再投资法案——奥巴马总统在2月份签署的历史性经济刺激法案——包含了美国历史上最大的清洁能源投资。该法案向清洁能源领域提供600多亿美元，其中包括用110亿美元来改进我们的电网，将其与可再生电力资源相连接，将 20亿美元作为竞争性拨款用于电池的研究与发展， 用50亿美元来为低收入家庭进行节能改造，将34亿美元用于捕获和储存碳，将45亿美元用于提高联邦大楼的能源效率——这样的例子不胜枚举。仅能源部就收到逾320亿美元的各种清洁能源拨款，并见证其贷款担保权限扩大到600亿美元。
Secretary Chu has made spending these funds quickly and well a top priority. As of this week, the Department of Energy has announced nearly all of the funding opportunities for its Recovery Act grants; applications have already started coming in, and we’ve started reviewing them for funding. The Department also approved its first loan guarantee (to the California manufacturer of an innovative cylindrical solar panel) within two months of the new administration taking office – something that hadn’t been accomplished in the first two years of the program. We are processing loan guarantee applications at a record pace and will have more announcements in the weeks and months to come.
朱部长已将又快又好地运用这些资金作为其工作的最优先事项。截至本周，美国能源部已经宣布了复兴法案拨款计划中几乎所有的资助机会；申请书已经开始涌现，我们已经开始审批这些申请的资助需求。能源部还在新政府上任的头两个月内，批准了第一项贷款担保（给加州的创新圆筒形太阳能电池板制造商），这也是该项目头两年尚未完成的事情。我们正在以创纪录的速度处理贷款担保申请，并将在未来的几个星期和几个月中，发布更多的公告。
This unprecedented investment in clean energy is part of the President’s broader commitment to reducing our carbon emissions more than 83 percent by 2050. In his first address to Congress, President Obama challenged Congress to pass legislation that puts a market-based cap on carbon pollution. And in a historic moment just a few weeks ago, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill to do just that. The American Clean Energy and Security Act – often called the Waxman-Markey bill – has won support from a broad coalition, including many leading U.S. businesses, labor unions and environmental groups.
这项前所未有的针对清洁能源的投资是总统更广泛的努力——即到2050年削减83%以上的碳排放量——的一部分。奥巴马总统在他的首次国会演讲中向国会发出挑战，要求立法为碳污染制定一个以市场为基础的限额。而且，就在几个星期前一个历史性的时刻，众议院能源和商务委员会就此批准了一项专门提案。美国清洁能源和安全法案——通常被称为维克斯曼-马尔基提案——已赢得广泛联盟，包括美国许多著名的企业，工会和环保团体的支持。
The bill would reduce U.S. emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It would use a cap-and-trade program, similar to the successful program launched in the United States in 1990 to control acid rain. The bill would require utilities to generate increasing percentages of their electricity from renewable energy and require investments in energy efficiency. The bill would strengthen building efficiency standards 50% by 2016, while also creating and strengthening energy efficiency standards for lighting and appliances. And finally, the bill directs substantial resources toward investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, clean electric vehicles, carbon capture and sequestration, adaptation and international clean technology transfer. The final vote on the bill in our House of Representatives is expected in the weeks ahead.
到2020年，该提案将把美国的温室气体排放量比2005年降低17%，到2050年，比2005年降低83%。它将采用一个与美国 1990年成功推出的酸雨控制类似的限量管制与交易方案。该提案将要求公用事业增加其电力来自可再生能源的百分比，并要求对能源效率进行投资。2016 年，该提案将把建筑能效提高到50 ％，同时还创立和加强照明和电器的能效标准。最后，该提案把大量的资源投资于再生能源和能效，清洁电动汽车，碳捕获和封存，改进和国际清洁技术转让。预计在未来几周众议院将就这一提案做最后表决。
Yet even more is happening in Washington in this area. In a historic announcement just few weeks ago, President Obama announced tough new fuel-economy standards that will help to dramatically improve the fuel-efficiency of our auto fleet. The new standards require an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, an increase of more than eight miles per gallon. This will save nearly 2 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years and is equivalent to taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.
此外，在这一领域，华盛顿还有更多的事情正在发生。几个星期前，奥巴马总统在一个历史性的公告中宣布了严厉的新的燃油经济标准，这将有助于大大提高我们的汽车的燃料效率。新标准要求到2016年平均燃油经济性达到35.5英里每加仑，增幅超过8英里每加仑。这将在未来5年内出售的汽车的生命周期内节省出近20亿桶石油，相当于让5800万辆汽车停驶整整一年。
In addition, Secretary Ken Salazar of the U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced steps to accelerate development of offshore renewable energy projects – harnessing the power of wind, waves and ocean tides. It’s estimated that wind, both onshore and off, has the potential to provide as much as 20 percent of the United States’ electricity by 2030, creating a quarter-million jobs in the process. The Obama administration is committed to developing offshore wind, in particular in the Atlantic, where winds are strong and access to the grid is near. A few weeks ago, a proposed 170MW wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts won state permitting approval and now awaits federal approval. This would likely be the first offshore wind project in the United States and could power up to 400,000 homes.
此外，美国内政部长肯·萨拉扎最近公布了措施，加快发展海洋可再生能源项目——利用风力，海浪和海潮的力量。据统计，到2030年，陆上和海上的风能具备提供高达20%的美国电力的潜力，在该过程中可创造25万个就业机会。奥巴马政府正在努力发展海上，特别是大西洋上的风能，（因为）那里风力强劲，距电网入口近。几周前，在马萨诸塞海上建一个170兆瓦风力发电场的提案被该州许可，目前正等待联邦政府的批准。这将可能成为美国第一个海上风力项目，能够为多达40万户家庭供电。
Just like China, the United States has abundant supplies of coal. But if we burn coal in the 21st century using 20th century technologies, our air will be foul and disruptions to our climate will threaten us all. Secretary Chu has made carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology a priority and mobilized the Department of Energy’s expertise and resources around this critical issue. Last month, he announced $2.4 billion in Recovery Act funding for a variety of initiatives that will accelerate and expand the commercial deployment of CCS technology.
与中国一样，美国有丰富的煤炭供应。但是，如果我们在21世纪用20世纪的技术烧煤，我们的空气将被污染，我们的气候会被破坏，这将使所有人受到威胁。朱部长把碳捕获和储存（CCS）技术作为优先事项，并调动了能源部的专业知识和资源处理这个关键问题。上个月，他宣布了24亿美元的复兴法案资金用于资助各种将加速和扩大CCS技术商业应用的项目
责任编辑：sealion1986
