[E352]Supreme emissions|经济学人
本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第7期，United States版块。
Climate change
The nine justices press pause on one of the president’s proudest achievements
Feb 13th 2016
AMERICA’S bold effort to cut carbon-dioxide emissions[二氧化碳排放量] from power plants[发电厂] is on hold[暂停;尚未办理的事情;等候接听;把持住的(指有问题的)]. On February 9th the Supreme Court[最高法院], divided five to four along partisan lines, putting the brakes on[to slow down or stop an activity] Barack Obama’s flagship environmental policy, pending[推迟对…的决定;使悬而不决] a possible ruling this summer. The plan forms the core of America’s recent commitments to cut emissions, made at the UN climate talks in Paris.
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▷ partisan lines
If an issue is 'divided along partisan lines', that means that people of one political party tend to work on way, and people of another party tend to work the opposite way.
Note that words other than 'partisan' can be used similarly; e.g., 'racial', 'ethnic', 'class', 'religious', 'gender', etc. Also note that, especially in the case of race, class, and religion, these may be actual physical borders.
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Power plants are America’s largest source of greenhouse gases, accounting for just under a third of all emissions. The Clean Power Plan[清洁能源计划], under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency[环境保护署] (EPA), gives orders to each state which, considered together, should amount to removing 870m tonnes of carbon dioxide[二氧化碳] from power-station emissions by 2030 (as measured against 2005 levels). The regulations give states some flexibility over how and when to cut emissions. But each one is required to submit plans by 2018 and to show some progress on them by 2022. If the goals are met, the reduction by 2030 will be equivalent to[等(同)于;相等(当)于…;与…等效] taking 80m cars off the road.
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The legal basis[法律依据;法律根据] for the regulation was thought to lie in a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2007, which declared CO2 a pollutant[污染物], thereby[从而,因此] placing it under the EPA’s remit[势力范围;管理范围]. The court upheld most of an agency rule requiring new or rebuilt factories and power plants to use the “best available technology” to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases in 2014. That year the justices also supported the EPA’s regulation of pollution that drifts over state lines. But the agency was rebuked for its overreach in 2015: the Supreme Court reprimanded it for regulating mercury[汞,水银], arsenic[砷;砒霜;三氧化二砷]and other substances emitted by power plants without taking proper account of the costs. The Court’s new order suggests it may eventually conclude that the president has again exceeded his authority[越过自己的权限].
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▷ rebuke [rɪ'bjuːk]
【注释】
a) to speak angrily to someone because you disapprove of what they have said or done
斥责；指责；训斥
I was rebuked by my manager for being late.
我因为迟到而遭到经理的训斥。
▷ reprimand ['reprɪmɑːnd]
【注释】
a) to express to someone your strong official disapproval of them
训斥；申斥；谴责
She was reprimanded by her teacher for biting another girl.
她因为咬了另一个女孩而受到了老师的训斥。
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States, utilities[公用事业;公用事业设备;公用事业公司] and mining companies have declared the plan to be too much, too soon. The attorney-general[司法部长;总检察长;首席检察官] of West Virginia[西佛吉尼亚州], one of the states opposing it, said he was “thrilled” after the court issued its stay. Richard Lazarus, from Harvard Law School, calls the intervention[介入;调停;妨碍] “extraordinary”. Although compliance with[符合;遵守] the regulation is not required until 2022, the deadline for submitting first plans to cut back on emissions was supposed to be September. (States also had the option then to ask for more time.) That date will now almost certainly need to be pushed back.
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