一场技术革命正在与美国和欧洲的政治决策发生冲突，从而削弱了针对这种强效温室气体的气候法规。
A technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken climate regulations on the potent gas.
美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周二撤销了一项针对主要全球变暖污染物的法规——就在几天前，一颗卫星刚刚在得克萨斯州拉伯克竞选集会附近油气井发现了一大股涌出的甲烷羽流，特朗普正是在该集会上宣布这一消息的。
President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.
各国政府和私营部门正在部署新一轮技术，以前所未有地精准定位甲烷泄漏。但这场技术革命正与美国和欧洲的政治决策发生冲突，这些决策旨在削弱旨在遏制这一气候变化强劲驱动因素的法规。
Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.
“甲烷问题，”特朗普周二晚间表示，“我正式终止拜登昂贵且不必要的甲烷法规，以为消费者和能源生产商节约450亿美元的成本，释放大量的得克萨斯州天然气，并产出2.1亿桶石油。”
“The methane problem,” Trump said Tuesday night. “I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil.”
尽管新技术能够以惊人的准确度识别出气体泄漏以及违规者，但美国和欧洲的监管机构却纷纷主张应当废除或推迟甲烷规则，因为这些规则构成了对能源价格和供应稳定性的威胁。
American and European regulators alike have argued that the methane rules should be ditched or delayed because they threaten to increase the price and availability of energy, even as new technology identifies gas leaks — and bad actors — with remarkable accuracy.