CNN新闻英语第 49 课：The Perfect Electric Storm 完美电力风暴-2

LENO 雷诺
Wow, ok, go ahead. 哦，好，请接着说。

GUEST 嘉宾
First, I get a really long extension cord, and I plugged it into a socket in Texas. 首先，我做了一根长长的延长电线，然后插在得州的插座上。

REPOTER 记者
But for Californians, there was not a whole lot to laugh about. 但是对加州居民来说，整个事情并不好笑。

DAVID FREEMAN 大卫·弗里曼
It was a leap of faith into free-market economics. It just doesn't work with electricity. 这是向自由市场经济信念的跨越。但这种信念不适用于电力行业。

REPORTER 记者
A flawed deregulation plan, an absence of new power plants, tight supply, high demand, soaring wholesale prices, retail price caps, even the weather, a combustible mix that created chaos in the energy markets. 有纰漏的管制政策、缺乏新的电力工厂、供应紧张、需求居高不下、批发价格高得惊人，零售价格受到限制，甚至天气也跟着捣乱，这些混合而成的易燃物引爆了电力市场的混乱。

LORETTA LYNCH, CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISIION 洛蕾塔·林奇，加州公共设施委员会
So the speculators moved in, and it felt like the Wild Wild West. In some parts of the state, utility companies shouldered the burden to the tune of 12 billion dollars, which left one of them, PG E in bankruptcy court. In others, costs were passed along to consumers. 因此，投机商涌入，感觉就像到了狂野西部。在加州的一些地区，公共设施公司肩负了高达120亿美元的债务，导致其中一家PG E公司因破产走上法庭。在其他地区，费用转嫁到消费者头上。

In San Diego, retail customers saw their rates triple within a year. The state could no longer guarantee its citizens electricity, in the summer of 2000. Californians learned a new phrase, rolling blackouts, by May of last year, after the state suffered two consecutive days of them. 在圣地亚哥，零售价格在一年中涨了3倍。在2000年夏天，加州无法保证市民的用电。在2001年5 月，经过两天的连续停电，加州人学会了一个新名词：轮流停电。

DAVID FREEMAN 大卫·弗里曼
We were in trouble every day. 我们每天麻烦不断。

REPORTER 记者
For the summer of 2001, the predictions were dire. 34 days of power interruptions and hundreds of thousands of job losses. Nothing short of economic disaster. But the state has not had a rolling blackout since. 2001年夏天，对于停电的预测是相当可怕的。停电34天，上万个工作机会丧失，这如同经历了一场经济灾难。但自此之后加州再也没有发生如同数年前突然遭受的完美电力风暴--连续停电。

Just as suddenly as that perfect electric storm battered the state a few years earlier, a new storm blew through last summer. No less powerful, but much more kind. A string of events that would put the whole crisis on hold. 去年夏天，（加州）又遭到电力风暴的袭击。和以往的强度虽然不像上下，但已经温柔多了。一系列经济事件使得整体陷入停电危机的事件不再发生。

CHRISTINE USPENSKI,SCHWAB WASHINGTON RESEARCH GROUP 克里斯蒂·乌斯本斯基，SCHWAB华盛顿研究集团
Nothing cures an energy crisis like a recession. 没有什么比经济衰退更能医治能源危机。

REPORTERA 记者
A slowing economy may have helped reduce demand and so did mild temperatures, but California consumers get high marks for their conservation efforts. Across the state, they cut energy use dramatically. 经济不景气也许能有助于减少需求，宜人的气候也能减少用电需求。加州消费者给人印象颇深的是他们的节电行为，全州用电量因此急剧下降。