美国总统特朗普本周看似对大石油公司的让步，实际上更多是对小生产商的照顾，甚至可能让欧洲获得更多监管主导权。
US President Donald Trump’s apparent handout to Big Oil this week is really more of a favor for small producers, and may actually hand more regulatory sway to Europe.
周二在得克萨斯州的竞选活动中，特朗普表示，环境保护局将废除拜登时代对数千口低产油气井甲烷排放的“昂贵且不必要”的限制。这一举措符合该政府众多其他环境撤销政策，被描述为解决该国能源价格问题的又一办法，尽管环境保护局自身的分析得出结论称，这至多只能在明年将汽油价格降低约0.14%。
At a campaign event in Texas on Tuesday, Trump said the Environmental Protection Agency will scrap “expensive and unnecessary” Biden-era restrictions on methane emissions from thousands of low-producing oil and gas wells. The move, which is in keeping with the administration’s numerous other environmental rollbacks, was framed as another solution to the country’s energy price woes, even though the EPA’s own analysis concluded it will, at best, reduce gasoline prices next year by about 0.14%.
甲烷对石油和天然气行业来说是一个微妙的挑战。它是一种超强温室气体，并与当地健康影响相关。它也是该行业销售的产品——天然气——的主要成分；让其泄漏或燃烧掉，长期以来一直被视为一种缺乏成本效益的转移措施的必要浪费。如今世界比以往任何时候都更需要天然气，而从更好的泵到卫星监测等甲烷排放减缓措施已大量涌现。包括特朗普政府期间在内的顶级石油首席执行官和行业团体，经常倡导某种形式的甲烷监管，并强调采取自愿行动的必要性。
Methane is a nuanced challenge for the oil and gas industry. It’s a super-potent greenhouse gas and linked to local health effects. It’s also the main component of the very product — natural gas — the industry sells; letting it leak or burn away has always been understood as a necessary waste that lacks cost-effective measures to divert it. Now the world needs more gas than ever, and methane emissions abatement measures, from better pumps to satellite monitoring, have proliferated. Top oil CEOs and trade groups, including during the Trump administration, have frequently advocated for some form of methane regulation and propounded the need to take voluntary action.
新规则还引发了市场准入问题：自乌克兰被入侵以来，欧洲已成为美国天然气的关键市场，目前正在设立贸易壁垒，将对高排放能源产品进行惩罚。特朗普政府上周成功推动布鲁塞尔推迟这些规则——再次以能源安全论据为由——但哥伦比亚大学的研究人员写道，这次推迟“几乎不能被视为对产业的胜利”，因为欧盟的最终减排目标并未改变。
The new rules also create issues over market access: Europe, which since the invasion of Ukraine has become a crucial market for US gas, is in the process of erecting trade barriers that will penalize high-emissions energy products. The Trump administration succeeded last week in pushing Brussels to delay those rules — leaning again on energy security arguments — but the delay “can hardly be considered a win for industry,” Columbia University researchers wrote, because the EU’s ultimate emissions goals are unchanged.
这意味着，无论特朗普采取什么行动，埃克森美孚及其同行仍在为了安抚布鲁塞尔，并为民主党主导的白宫做准备而进行甲烷减排。削减美国法规只会削弱它们相对于小型生产商的竞争优势，而这些小型生产商对全球市场兴趣较少，对环境声誉关注较少，且更受合规成本负担所困。
That means Exxon and its peers are still undertaking methane cuts for the sake of appeasing Brussels, and in preparation for a Democrat-led White House, no matter what Trump does. Gutting US regulations will only erode their competitive advantage against small producers that are less interested in global markets, less concerned about their environmental reputations, and more burdened by the costs of compliance.