油价暴跌殃及美国“地沟油”

Ructions in the global oil market have spread to restaurant kitchens across the US as chefs who once had buyers vying¹ for used cooking oil find they must now pay to have it taken away.

全球石油市场的动荡已波及全美各餐馆的厨房，原因是曾令买家争相购买用过的食用油的厨师们，如今发现必须自掏腰包把它们运走。

The rise of US biodiesel, refined from fats and vegetable oils, turned a waste product into a sought-after commodity when crude prices were high, even attracting the attention of thieves armed with vacuum hoses.

生物柴油是一种从动物脂肪和蔬菜油中提炼出的燃料。在原油价格高企之时，美国生物柴油的崛起将废品变成了备受追捧的商品，甚至还吸引了配备真空抽吸软管的偷油贼。

But the collapse³ in crude oil prices has blunted biodiesel’s edge against conventional diesel². Production capacity at the refineries⁴ which turn fat into fuel is also far larger than demand, causing the US biodiesel industry to lose about $130m last year, a University of Illinois economist⁵ has estimated.

然而，原油价格的暴跌，令生物柴油对常规柴油的优势不再明显。而在将动物脂肪转化为燃料的各提炼厂，产能也远远高于需求。据伊利诺伊大学(University of Illinois)一位经济学家估计，这导致美国生物柴油产业去年亏损约1.3亿美元。

In 2013, benchmark yellow grease sold for 36 cents per pound, according to price reporting service The Jacobsen. As biorefineries’ financial woes⁶ have crept upstream, wholesale⁷ grease now sells for less than 20 cents.

根据报价服务The Jacobsen提供的数据，2013年基准的黄脂膏售价为每磅36美分。而随着生物柴油提炼厂的财务困境蔓延至上游，批发黄脂膏如今的售价还不到每磅20美分。

“It used to be we paid customers for their oil. Now, people are charging to pick up the oil,” said Natalie Chakov, office manager of the Green Oil Recycling group in New York, which has stopped collecting cooking oil to focus on cleaning grease traps.

纽约绿油回收组织(Green Oil Recycling)办公室主任纳塔莉瀠科夫(Natalie Chakov)表示：“过去往往是我们出钱向客户买油。如今，人们要收钱才会把油取走。”目前，绿油回收组织已停止收集食用油，转而专注于清洗隔油器的业务。

Last week, a court-ordered liquidation⁸ began for Grease Lightning, a collector founded in 2010 whose smudged tank trucks were once a common sight outside pubs and restaurants around New York City.

上周，针对Grease Lightning的法庭清盘令开始执行。该公司是一家成立于2010年的收集公司，其污秽的油罐车一度是全纽约市酒吧和餐馆外的常见风景。

NYC Hospitality Alliance, a restaurant industry group, confirmed most hauliers would no longer pay for used oil. At the peak, refineries were paying collectors $3 a gallon for rendered cooking oil, said Ryan Faulkner, general manager of the Virginia Biodiesel Refinery⁹ company. As those prices have declined, “you can’t afford to pay a 爀攀猀琀愀甀爀愀渀琀 anything”, he said.

餐馆行业组织——纽约市酒店联盟(NYC Hospitality Alliance)证实，多数承运商不愿再为用过的食用油付钱。弗吉尼亚生物柴油提炼公司(Virginia Biodiesel Refinery)董事总经理瑞恩輠克纳(Ryan Faulkner)表示，价格最高的时候，提炼厂会为用过的食用油向收集公司支付每加仑3美元。他说，随着价格的下跌，“人们再也没法向餐馆支付任何报酬了”。

Some large fast-food chains are faring better. Yum Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, told the Financial Times: “We partner with contractors¹⁰ who pick up our used cooking oil and reuse it for biodiesel and animal feed. We do not pay them to do this, they pay us.”

一些大型快餐连锁在这方面更为成功。经营肯德基(KFC)、必胜客(Pizza Hut)和塔可钟(Taco Bell)的百胜餐饮集团(Yum Brands)告诉英国《金融时报》：“我们和承包商合作，它们收集我们使用过的食用油，然后用其生产生物柴油和动物饲料。我们不付钱让它们这样做，它们付钱给我们。”

And there may yet be hope for smaller restaurateurs. The federal government recently decided¹¹ to require at least 1.9bn gallons of biodiesel use this year, almost double the amount outlined in a 2007 law. Congress also recently reauthorised a biodiesel tax credit for this year and next.

对于更小的餐馆而言，希望可能还是存在的。联邦政府最近决定要求今年生物柴油的使用量至少达到19亿加仑，几乎是2007年出台的一项法律中规定数额的两倍。国会最近还重新批准了今年和下一年的生物柴油税收抵免。