3月20日-22日阅读

Racial reckoning(racial reckoning：种族清算) reaches the palace gate

Harry and Meghan interview shatters(粉碎) image of acceptance

At the May 2018 wedding of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex(苏赛克斯), the British royal family welcomed its first Black member with what looked like earnest,(诚挚的，热烈的) open-armed(真心的，热烈欢迎的) enthusiasm. Michael Curry, presiding(presid，主持主管，presiding主持的) bishop of the Episcopal Church(圣公会) and a Black preacher from Chicago, gave a sermon(布道) on the uniting power of love over division; agospel(教义) choir(合唱团，唱诗班) sang a stirring(激动人心的) rendition(演绎) of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”

Kali Nicole Gross, a professor of African American studies at Emory University(埃莫里大学), remembers just how hopeful it felt for a family and a country with a history of racism to accept Meghan, who has a Black mother and a White father. “For a moment,” Gross said, “it looked like themonarchy(君主制，王室) was actually poised(平静镇静的) to maybe serve as(作为) an example of how to move forward . . . on these issues in a progressive way.”

On Sunday evening, any remaining(剩余的) shred(细条，少量) of that notion(念头) disappeared. Oprah Winfrey’s “tell-all” interview with Harry and Meghan featured(以……为特色) explosive(爆炸性的) claims(声称) from the couple about the racial hostility(n敌对)coming from within Britain’s royal family, especially Meghan’s allegation(宣称，指控，假说) that before the couple’s first child was born, the palace held “conversations” about “how dark his skin might be.”

Interior(里面的，内务政务) endorses(赞同支持) wind farm project

Officials anticipate(预料期望，认为……有可能) major expansion(扩大) of clean power to fight climate change
The Biden administration took a crucial step Monday toward approving the nation’s first largescale(大规模的) offshore wind farm about 12 nautical(海上的，航海的) miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a project that officials say will launch a massive clean-power expansion in the fight against climate change.
In completing(完成) a final environmental review of Vineyard Wind, the Interior Department(内务部) endorsed an idea that had beenconceived(构思) two decades ago but had run into a well-funded(资金充足) and organizedopposition(反抗抵抗) from waterfront(滨海区) property(资产，所有物) owners on the tony island, including then-Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D), who died in 2009, and the billionaire industrialist William I. Koch.

The $2.8 billion project that won approval Monday will be built several miles south of the original plan fought by the Kennedy family and will be out of sight from the family’s Hyannis compound(开阔场地、院子，复合物).

The Biden administration framed(制定) Monday’s decision as a way to increase the nation’s renewable energy capacity while creating well-paying construction(建造) jobs building turbines(涡轮机) and other clean-energy equipment. “The demand for offshore wind energy has never been greater,” Laura Daniel Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals(矿物) at Interior, told reporters in a news call.
“The technological advances, falling costs, increased interest and the tremendous(巨大的) economic potential make offshore wind a really promising avenue(大道).”

The Vineyard Wind project, which is jointly(连带的，共同的)run by the energy firms Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, will consist of(由……组成，包括) up to 84 turbines(涡轮) that will generate about 800 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 400,000 homes, according to the companies. Cables buried six feet below the ocean floor will carry the electricity created by the turbines to Cape Cod, where the power will feed into the New England grid, starting in 2023.

The project will boost the fledgling(刚诞生的) offshore wind power industry in the United States, which now largely consists of a five-turbine, 30-megawatt project off Block Island, R.I., that began operating in 2016.
Wind power is poised(v准备，adj镇定，姿态优雅) to take off along the East Coast, with recent commitments(现身投入，约定，承担义务) from seven states — New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland — to buy at least 24,000 megawatts of offshore electricity by 2035, according to the American Clean Power Association.

“By any measure, this is a breakthrough for offshore wind energy in the United States. Not even two months into a new Administration, years of delay(延迟) have finally culminated(结束，使到达高潮) in a thorough analysis that should soon put this infrastructure(基础设施) invest ment on its way to generating clean power for the region and creating good jobs at home,” Heather Zichal, the association’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Vineyard Wind awaits a final greenlight from several federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which could come as soon as next month.

If it wins final approval, the wind farm will go a long way toward cleaning up the power sector in Massachusetts. The state has pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but right now it gets about two-thirds of its electricity from gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change. Supporters say the wind turbines will produce enough clean energy to eliminate 1.68 million metric(公制的，计量的) tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually — the equivalent(相等的) of taking 325,000 cars off the road.
“With every step taken to reinsert(re-+insert：重新插入)certainty, reliability, and scientific rigor(严密精确，寒战) into the regulatory process for the Vineyard Wind project, the Biden administration is putting wind back in the sails of this vital new industry,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who helped craft his party’s Green New Deal in the previous Congress.

In December, Markey and other lawmakers representing New England, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), successfully extended(延长伸长扩大) tax cuts for offshore wind developers as part of a coronavirus stimulus package.

Though the Trump administration held sales for offshore wind leases, approval of the Massachusetts project proved elusive last year as concerns over the wind farm’s impact on the fishing industry mounted.
To assuage fishing concerns, the Biden administration is asking for the turbines to be spaced about a mile apart to allow smaller vessels to continue to fish between them.

But Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which represents commercial fishing, slammed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for failing to expand transit(运输) lanes to four miles through the sprawling(蔓延的杂乱的) 167,000-acre lease area to accommodate larger boats.

“If they have to spend an extra 10 hours to go around the turbines,” she said, “that’s 10 hours of lost revenue.”

Hawkins also raised concerns over the turbines interfering with fishing radar, as well as the potential impact of construction on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. “Climate change is really important,” she added. “But we need to do our due diligence on the environmental impacts.”

Offshore wind power holds significant potential for creating high-paying renewable-energy jobs the administration has promised to deliver, although the projects typically employ fewer people than the major fossil fuel pipelines that generate union jobs in the United States.

Orsted, a Danish firm that operates the wind farm off Rhode Island and has other leases(租约) along the coast as far south as Maryland, signed an agreement in November with North America’s Building Trades Unions to hire some of its workers. And it has been providing funding to the training school for the International Organization Masters, Mates, & Pilots Maritime Union, which is part of the AFL-CIO.

Donald Marcus, president of the maritime union, said Orsted’s support for the Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies in Linthicum Heights, Md., could help produce workers who can build turbines in the ocean 。“Generally speaking, vessel personnel make good family wages if they’re union jobs,” Marcus said. “That’s the case in large sectors of our industry. But not, I add, in the oil patch(补丁) down in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Offshore oil extraction in the gulf(海湾), which is near anti-union, conservative states, typically does not employ union workers.

In contrast, the Laborers’ International Union of North America worked to build Deepwater Wind, the nation’s first foray into offshore wind power.

Monday’s announcement drew praise(崇拜，表扬) from industry. National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said it was “critical for the project developers and for the offshore wind industry as a whole.” Milito called on the administration to move even faster, noting that it has been two years since the last federal offshore wind lease sale. He said a recent analysis suggested that nearterm lease opportunities could generate more than $160 billion in new investment over the next 15 years, but that Interior’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management “must first open the door to new leasing.”