外文翻译---天然气在低碳经济中的角色

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1、 本科毕业设计 外文文献及译文 文献、 资料题目： The Role of Natural Gas in a Low-Carbon Energy Economy 文献、资料来源： World Institute 文献、资料发表（出版）日期： 2010.4 院 （部）： 热能工程 学院 专 业： 建筑环境与设备工程 班 级： 建环 084 姓 名： 杨丹 学 号： 2008031125 指导 教师： 陈彬剑 翻译日期： 2012.5.25 山东建筑大学毕业设计 外文文献及译文 - 1 - 外文文献： The Role of Natural Gas in a Low-Carbon Energy E

2、conomy Executive Summary Growing estimates of natural gas resources, including a new category of unconventional gas, suggest that accessible supplies of this least carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels may be far more abundant than previously assumed. This unexpected development creates opportunities

3、 for deploying natural gas in a variety of sectorsincluding power generation, industry, and transportationto help displace oil and coal, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality. Beyond providing a cleaner, market-ready alternative to oil and coal, natural gas can facilita

4、te the systemic changes that will underpin the development of a more energy-efficient and renewable energy-based economy. For example, smaller, distributed generators, many producing usable heat as well as electricity, could generate economical, low-emission replacements for a large fraction of curr

5、ently operating conventional power plants, providing flexible back-up to the variable output of the solar and wind generators that will comprise a growing share of the electric power system. All of these gains are contingent on the development of sound public policy to incentivize and guide the tran

6、sition. Critical policy decisions that are now pending include: electric power regulation at the local, state, and federal levels； effective federal and state oversight of the natural gas exploration and extraction process； future Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory decisions under the

7、U.S. Clean Air Act； and putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions. I. The Renaissance of Gas Natural gas was first developed as a modern fuel, together with oil, in the late 19th century. Most of the early gas resources were co-located with oil, and this associated gas was extracted almost as an a

8、fterthought as the oil industry took off in the early 20th century. Like oil, natural gas began to be used to a limited extent in the industrial, residential, and commercial sectors as a feedstock and to heat buildings prior to World War II. Following the war, the United States and a few other count

9、ries began to build the extensive and expensive pipelines needed to make gas a mainstay of the U.S. energy economy, and the first generation of gas-fired power plants was built. As a byproduct of oil production, natural gas was cheap, and by the early 1970s, provided 30 山东建筑大学毕业设计 外文文献及译文 - 2 - perc

10、ent of the U.S. energy supply, most of it in industry and buildings. But that was the peak. As U.S. oil supplies dwindled, so did gas, hampered by government price controls that discouraged exploration. By the late 1970s, most experts believed that natural gas had entered a period of inevitable decl

11、ine. Policymakers were so worried that, for a time, Congress made it illegal to build gas power plants in the United While gas maintained its dominant position as an industrial fuel and the most economical means of heating homes, by the 1990s, it had fallen to less than 24 percent of the U.S. energy

12、 supply and stayed close to that level for the next decade and a half. Modest demand growth in the 1990s and early 2000s was met by Canadian imports. The 1990s were marked by relatively low and stable gas prices as U.S. and Canadian suppliers easily kept up with demand growth. But soaring oil prices

13、, together with falling reserves of conventional natural gas, drove gas prices from just over $2 per million BTU in 2002 to as high as $13 per million BTU in 2008, making many potential users reluctant to invest in the fuel.Since then, gas prices have moderated somewhatranging between $2.50 and $6 p

14、er million BTU in 2009 and 2010. Still, price volatility remains the Achilles heel of natural gas, particularly when compared with coal. Tempering coals price advantage are the substantial environmental advantages of natural gas, which have gained economic significance as clean air standards have be

15、come progressively tighter in recent decades. Burning natural gas produces virtually none of the sulfur, mercury, or particulates that are among the most health-threatening of pollutants that result from coal combustion. A National Research Council study published in 2009 estimated that the environm

16、ental damages associated with electricity from natural gas are 95 percent lower than from coal. Although natural gas does produce nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide and is an important contributor to ozone pollution in some areas of the United States, these can be reduced substantially with widely

17、available emissions controls. Growing concern about climate change in recent years has also worked in favor of natural gas. Gas contains 25 percent less carbon than oil and half as much carbon as coal. Planned and proposed federal and state actions to curb greenhouse gas emissionsfrom stricter requi

18、rements for emissions control technology to renewable or clean energy portfolio standards to a cap on carbonall expose oil and coal investments to much higher risk than natural gas. Environmental considerations have helped revive interest in natural gas as a source of electricity in recent years. Since the 1990s, 65 percent