VOA标准英语2008年-Texas Oil Tycoon Urges US to Reduce Dependence

Longtime Texas oil tycoon¹ T. Boone Pickens is calling on the U.S. government to take steps to reduce the nation's dependence² on foreign oil. He is promoting an energy plan that features wind and natural gas - a proposal he discussed with lawmakers at a congressional hearing Tuesday. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

T. Boone Pickens is a man with a mission.

"I only have one enemy, and that's foreign oil," he said. "That's what I want to get rid of. My plan will reduce our dependency on foreign oil by 38 percent."

Pickens told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the United States imports nearly 70 percent of its oil today, up from 24 percent in 1970. He said many of the countries supplying the oil are not friendly to the United States.

Pickens warned of negative consequences in 10 years if the United States does not take any action.

"If we continue to drift like we're drifting, you're going to be importing 80 percent of your oil, and I promise you, it will be over $300 a barrel," he said.

The 80-year-old billionaire, who is founder³ and chairman of the BP Capital hedge fund, is spending $58 million on television and radio advertisements to promote his plan. The proposal relies on domestically produced natural gas and investment in domestic renewable energy sources such as wind power.

Pickens is the former owner of the independent oil company, Mesa Petroleum⁴, and has launched what is believed to be the world's largest wind farm in Texas.

Committee chairman Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who calls himself an independent Democrat⁵, supports Pickens' plan, and agreed with his call for cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"The near-total dependence of our economy, the energy sector⁶ and particularly the transportation sector, on oil is weakening our nation's position in the world, while enriching and strengthening a lot of countries in the rest of the world, many of them volatile⁷ and some of them just plain hostile to the United States of America," he said.

But Gal⁸ Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, took issue with Pickens' support of natural gas as an alternative to gasoline for transportation.

He told the committee that 63 percent of the world's natural gas reserves are under the control of Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, and that these countries are working to establish a natural gas cartel that will rival the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

"This is a spectacularly bad idea for us to shift our transportation sector from one resource that we don't have to another that we don't have," said Luft. "So we don't want to give at this point in time a gift to Iran."

Luft advocates using alcohol-based fuels instead, such as ethanol and methanol - which can be made from agricultural waste, coal and industrial trash.

Another witness, Habib Dagher, director of the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Laboratory, expressed support for Pickens' wind energy proposal. He said Europe is way ahead of the United States in harnessing this renewable resource.

"In Europe, there are plans by 2030 to generate 150 gigawatts of off-shore wind capacity for Europe," he said. "They are calling wind energy and off-shore wind the third industrial revolution. They have created over 300,000 jobs in Europe in wind and wind-related businesses. We can do the same."

The hearing came as the Senate voted to begin debate on legislation to limit speculation⁹ in oil markets that has been blamed for some of the recent increase in oil prices. The bill would require the Commodity Futures¹⁰ Trading Commission to set limits on trading in oil markets by investors¹¹ and speculators.

 

 

1 tycoon   

n.有钱有势的企业家，大亨

参考例句：

• The tycoon is on the verge of bankruptcy.那名大亨濒临破产的边缘。
• The tycoon has many servants to minister to his needs.那位大亨有很多人服侍他。

2 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

5 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

8 gal   

n.姑娘，少女

参考例句：

• We decided to go with the gal from Merrill.我们决定和那个从梅里尔来的女孩合作。
• What's the name of the gal? 这个妞叫什么？

9 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

10 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

11 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会