燃油价格处于历史高位，选民正将愤怒发泄在唐纳德·特朗普总统和共和党人身上。
Fuel prices are historically high and voters are taking out their anger on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
在中期选举的最后关头，特朗普正发起一场竞选攻势，试图平息农民、卡车司机和驾驶员的不满，他们已被每加仑4美元的汽油价格和接近历史纪录的柴油价格搞得精疲力竭。
Trump is waging a campaign in the final moments of the midterm election to quell discontent among farmers, truckers and drivers exhausted by $4 gas and near-record diesel.
在过去几周里，特朗普政府官员推出了一系列政策举措，包括向农民提供80亿美元的救命钱、一个有争议的从俄罗斯进口柴油的计划、允许卡车司机使用红柴油，以及翻新老旧的“暗影船队”油轮的办法。
In the past few weeks, Trump officials have unveiled a wide range of policy moves, including an $8 billion lifeline to farmers, a controversial plan to import diesel from Russia, allowing truckers to use red-dyed diesel and ways to rehab the aging armada of dark-fleet tankers.
这场最后时刻为遏制能源价格冲击而进行的紧急应对，隐含地承认了与伊朗的冲突加剧了美国民众多年来对高昂生活成本的沮丧——这是特朗普承诺上任第一天就要解决的问题。
The last-minute scramble to contain the energy price fallout is an implicit acknowledgement of how the war with Iran has exacerbated the American public’s yearslong frustration with the high cost of living – a problem Trump promised to fix on Day One.
“看起来和感觉上都很慌乱，因为他们确实慌了，”中右派智库美国行动论坛主席道格拉斯·霍尔茨-伊金说。“他们无法在未来14天内改变柴油价格。他们只能指望说服选民再给他们一次机会。”特朗普政府的一些行动可能有帮助，但没有一项能给选民他们渴望的东西：廉价汽油、柴油和航空燃油。
“It looks and feels panicky because they’re panicked,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank. “They can’t move the price of diesel in the next 14 days. They have to hope they can convince voters to give them another chance.”Some of the Trump administration’s actions could be helpful, but none of them will give voters what they crave: Cheap gas, diesel and jet fuel.
“这里没有灵丹妙药。没有一项能解决根本问题，”曾任小布什总统能源顾问的鲍勃·麦克纳利说。
“There are no silver bullets here. None of them will solve the underlying problem,” said Bob McNally, a former energy adviser to President George W. Bush.
麦克纳利是拉皮丹能源集团的创始人兼总裁，他说，共和党和民主党人一样，都在翻遍每一块石头寻找解决方案。
McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group, said Republicans and Democrats alike look under every rock for solutions.
“很少有什么比高涨的油价更让在任总统感到恐惧的了——尤其是在选举年，”他说。“我必须说，我给这届政府点赞。他们翻的石头比大多数政府都多。”最新的举措发生在周一晚上，特朗普在堪萨斯州的竞选活动中宣布向农民提供80亿美元的救命钱。
“Few things terrify a sitting president more than high and rising pump prices – especially in an election year,” he said. “I have to say, I give this administration credit. They are looking under more rocks than most.”The latest move came on Monday night on the campaign trail in Kansas where Trump announced an $8 billion lifeline for farmers.
美国农业部表示，本收获季向美国农民发放的一次性款项将“在暂时性市场扰动和投入成本上升期间提供救济”。全国柴油价格已从战前每加仑3.76美元飙升至9月下旬的历史高点每加仑6.53美元。
The US Department of Agriculture said the one-time payments for American farmers this harvest season will “provide relief during temporary market disruptions and increased input costs.”Diesel prices have skyrocketed from $3.76 a gallon nationally before the war to an all-time high of $6.53 a gallon in late September.
这一涨幅对农民打击尤甚，他们需要柴油为拖拉机和其他农用设备提供动力，同时也依赖柴油卡车将农产品运往市场。
The spike has been especially painful for farmers, who need diesel to power their tractors and other farm equipment and also rely on diesel-powered trucks to get their food to market.
据堪萨斯州立大学农业经济学副教授格雷格·艾本达尔称，堪萨斯州典型农场去年在柴油上的支出约为3.1万美元——这一高昂成本今年可能翻倍。“耕作成本变得高得多——而一开始就很贵，”艾本达尔说。
Consider that the typical farm in Kansas spent about $31,000 on diesel last year – a hefty cost that could double this year, according to Gregg Ibendahl, associate professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University. “Farming has gotten a lot more expensive – and it was expensive to start with,” said Ibendahl.
除了柴油价格飙升，农民还面临化肥成本激增的问题，由于与伊朗的战争，这一关键投入品价格进一步上涨。
Beyond the diesel spike, farmers are grappling with surging costs for fertilizer, another critical input made pricier by the war with Iran.
关于这项80亿美元农民救助计划的细节尚不清晰——美国农业部表示，直到下个月才会公布向农民支付的费率——但专家表示，这笔援助似乎颇具分量。
Details on the $8 billion farmer rescue are fuzzy – the USDA says it won’t announcement payment rates for farmers until next month – but experts say the aid appears to be meaningful.
俄亥俄州立大学专注于农业经济学的教授加布里尔·莱德表示，80亿美元救助将为农民提供“一大笔钱”，但他警告称，此类临时性支付往往缺乏针对性。“有些农民可能会获利，其他农民仍将处于亏损状态，”莱德说。
Gabriel Lade, a professor focusing on agricultural economics at The Ohio State University, said the $8 billion rescue will provide “a good amount of money” to farmers but cautioned that ad-hoc payments like this tend to be poorly targeted. “Some farmers may come out ahead, others will still be behind,” Lade said.
特朗普政府的农民燃油救助距离联邦政府通过“农民桥梁援助计划”向农民支付120亿美元还不到一年。莱德表示，这些农民救助已成为美国农业经济的一个常态特征。
The Trump administration’s fuel rescue for farmers comes less than a year after the federal government paid farmers $12 billion through the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program. Lade said these farmer rescues have become a feature of America’s farm economy.
“我们陷入了一种境地：贸易战压低了产出价格，而实战却推高了投入价格，”莱德说。
“We are stuck in a situation where trade wars are depressing output prices and now real wars are raising input prices,” Lade said.
特朗普从俄罗斯进口柴油的计划引发了两党的不满，并遭到研究人员的质疑，他们认为这无异于杯水车薪。
Trump’s plan to import diesel from Russia sparked a bipartisan backlash and skepticism from researchers who say it amounts to little more than a band-aid.
最初的计划要求进口约220万桶柴油，对于美国每天大约400万桶（包括取暖油在内）的消费量来说，这只是杯水车薪。
The initial plan calls for importing about 2.2 million barrels of diesel, a drop in the bucket of the roughly 4 million barrels the United States consumes each day (including heating oil).
瑞穗证券能源期货总监罗伯特·尧格表示：“如果我们把所有这些桶装油在一天内进口完，也只够我们撑到午饭左右。”
“If we imported all those barrels in one day, it would only last us until about lunch,” said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities.
目前的柴油价格比特朗普宣布该计划时仅高出几美分，这凸显了外界的质疑，即遭受战争重创的俄罗斯炼油体系是否具备扩大出口的实力。
Diesel prices are a few pennies higher today than when Trump announced the plan, underscoring the skepticism that the war-hobbled Russian refinery system has the firepower to ramp up exports.
本月早些时候，特朗普在内布拉斯加州的一次竞选活动上签署了一项行政命令，允许卡车司机使用通常留给农民的、价格更便宜的红色染色柴油。
At a campaign event in Nebraska earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order allowing truckers to use cheaper red-dyed diesel normally reserved for farmers.
分析人士表示，此举可能会对半挂卡车司机有所帮助，因为这将暂时免除他们每加仑24.4美分的联邦公路柴油税。
Analysts said the move could be helpful for semi-truck drivers because it will temporarily shield them from the federal tax of 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel for highway use.
然而，他们警告称，这不会扭转大局，因为各州也对公路柴油征税。一些州已经暂停征收柴油税，而另一些州则没有。这给跨州行驶的卡车司机带来了复杂性和风险。
However, they cautioned it won’t be a game-changer because states also tax diesel for highway use. Some states have paused their diesel taxes, while others have not. That creates complexity and risk for truckers crossing state lines.
特朗普的官员们还在推动另一个旨在应对高油价的奇思妙想：让受制裁油轮组成的“暗影船队”重见天日。
Trump officials are also pushing another out-of-the-box idea designed to address high fuel prices: Bringing the dark fleet of sanctioned tankers out of the shadows.
能源部长克里斯·赖特周一在纽约的一次活动上表示，特朗普政府正在与投资者合作，以购买、清理并部署闲置的受制裁油轮。
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at an event in New York on Monday, said the Trump administration is working with investors to buy, clean up and deploy idled sanctioned tankers.
赖特对彭博新闻社表示：“我们要把一些船只从我所谓的‘坏蛋船队’转移到‘好人船队’。”
“We’re going to move some of the ships from what I call the ‘bad-guy fleet’ to the ‘good-guy fleet,” Wright told Bloomberg News.
对“暗黑船队”的关注旨在解决飙升的航运成本。克拉克森研究公司（Clarksons Research）的数据显示，雇用超级油轮将原油从波斯湾运往中国的日租金已从去年的约6.5万美元暴增至本周的140万美元。
The focus on the dark fleet is designed to address the skyrocketing cost of shipping. The daily rate to hire an oil supertanker to move crude from the Persian Gulf to China has exploded from about $65,000 last year to $1.4 million this week, according to Clarksons Research.
但部署“暗黑船队”的船只说起来容易做起来难。这需要应对复杂的法律迷宫、说服保险公司加入，在许多情况下，还要对老旧油轮进行昂贵的维修。
But deploying dark fleet vessels is easier said than done. It will require navigating a legal maze, convincing insurers to get on board and, in many cases, expensive repairs to aging tankers.
麦克纳利（McNally）表示：“这可能只会产生微小的影响，因为这些船只中有许多已经在使用中。没有投入使用的那些可能既年久失修又状况糟糕。”
“This will likely only have a small impact because many of these vessels are already being used. The ones that aren’t are probably old and in bad condition,” McNally said.
这些能源政策举措无论单独还是集体实施，都无法让天然气和柴油价格再次变得便宜。
None of the energy policy moves on their own or collectively will make gas and diesel cheap again.
伊朗战争，连同俄乌战争以及胡塞武装在红海的袭击，造成了一场需要相当长时间才能修复的供应链噩梦。
The Iran war, along with the Russia-Ukraine war and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, have created a supply chain nightmare that will take considerable time to fix.
国际能源署（International Energy Agency）负责人于周二警告称，全球能源市场可能需要一年多的时间才能恢复正常。
Global energy markets are likely more than a year away from returning to normal, the head of the International Energy Agency warned on Tuesday.
麦克纳利表示：“唯一会导致价格立即下跌的因素将是经济衰退——没有人希望以这种方式实现——或者是持久、可信的和平协议。而不幸的是，我们认为这不太可能发生。”
“The only things that will cause an immediate decline in prices would be a recession – which is not the way anyone wants to do it – or a durable, credible peace deal,” McNally said. “And unfortunately, we don’t see that as likely.”