infidel

It's like the they ignore the fact that manufacturing five gasser engines to go the same distance as one diesel makes five times more pollution not to mention using close to five times more natural resources.

P.J

Anyone know the differences in what it takes to refine 87 Octane and #2?
I'm not a chemical engineer, but I would guess that Diesel itself is alot eaiser to refine and involves less chemical additive to make it pump ready?? I could be way off here, but but if there are less harmful chemical's used in the refining process, isn't that in itself safer for the enviroment? Take a look at the FACTS on Bio Diesel, you can dump 20 gals strraight to earth and three weeks later is bio-degraded. The Big oil companys (and Bush) arent about to allow a blended "bio" fuel to mess with their fortunes!
Bring on the BIO DIESEL, can't be bought within 100 miles of my home!!!???

BoostdCTD

It is expanding, just how fast. Here in the great lakes states Meijer is a pretty big chain, like another Wal-Mart. Recently they've started renovating pumps to run some B10, hopefully they'll be running it in the stations by me soon. I also recently found some stations about 20 miles east and south of me that carry Amoco Premier, so hopefully there will be no more of this general "premium" stuff.

P.J

When I asked the man at my favorite fuel stop what he knew about Bio Diesel, he looked at me like I had two heads. I did a little explaination of how it is regular fuel blended with a soy or otherwise natural type oil, he still looked confused. He is of Middle Eastern decent, so he may not have even understood the first word that came out of my mouth. (not dumping on the guy, he's got the best prices around). Coastal in Middletown, DE

SoTexRattler

Ya know,... As I get older I view most anything like this in "print" these days to be absurdly biased, one way or the other. And it is ultimately the result of some special interest group pushing their own hidden agenda. They write it up pretending to be the guardians of public health when in actuality they are treehugging, commune life promoting, socialist wacko's that want us to return to the horse and buggy days again.
But wait! Horses and cows generate METHANE gas, Oh horrors! a global warming gas!!!
They'll never be happy until the ultimate polluters are gone from the face of the earth, mankind itself!
That way the buffalo can roam and meadolarks can flit freely around the dead ruins of human civilization...

Read between the lines of that article.. They want to accelerate the removal of those "nasty" diesel engines by punishing those owners that run them.. Either by banning them directly by taxation, or making them way too costly to clean up to someone elses idea of an emission standard...
"-Since many older diesel engines can run for 30 years, more action is needed by federal, state, and local governments to retrofit existing diesel engines to run more cleanly, the group said.-"

Written as a fear "smear" campaign at its heart.. Diesel = DEATH! Specifically designed to resonate with mankinds primal self-preservation instinct.

I smell proponents of Hydrogen-electric fuelled vehicles behind that article!

I'll bet if someone got to the bottom of the members of "the group" they would be amazed at who (and what) they are!!!

Keithisoffhissoapboxfornow

BoostdCTD

pjsnyder76, I've asked them what cetane their fuel is and got the same look. You can't ask anyone behind the desk there, maybe the manager or owner would know something, but unless you're talking to the distributor I wouldn't expect much knowledge on the whole issue.

P.J

No Doubt, I had good intentions while inquiring. I was thinking along the lines of, he may just want to be the FIRST person in our area to sell it, he's near a pretty big truck stop on a fairly heavly traveled (by tractor/trailer) highay. He basically ended the conversation by saying "I'll sell whatever the distributor ships me, and I've never heard of any Bio Diesel". So, he did mention the distributor when encountered with the question. Hey, he sits behind a 1 1/2 thick piece of Lexan, giving directions and selling rolling papers all day, we can't expect much.

AlpineRAM

Well, over here (we have more than 50% of the passenger cars and almost 100% of the trucks diesel) the pollutants became a problem. Now the manufacturers use a particulate filter technology that reduces these emissions and dos not increase consumption (except for 4 punds more vehicle weight), does not reduce power output and makes the vehicle cost about 300 US$ more in production. A basic requirement for these systems is good fuel quality.
Trucks are also retrofitted (even old trucks) with systems like these and do also have no bad side effects. The costs for replaxing the filters each 100 000 kms (More than 60 k miles) are very low, like 50-100 US$, the filters are sent to the factory and recycled.
So that's not too bad for the consumer IMHO- the catalytic converter for the gassers had a bigger impact on the $$$ side of operating a vehicle than that.
I won't comment on death tolls, political agendas etc. Basically the technology to get rid of more than 97% of the particulate emissions with diesels is here. Adn the 5k US$ for retrofitting a truck seem very steep to me.

AlpineRAM

BoostdCTD

Sounds almost to good to be true, but IIRC starting in a couple years EGR is going to be a requirement on all new diesels here. We are finally getting our fuel quality up to the rest of the world's standards, a couple more years and it should be changed over completely.

Palmetto_kid

Hey now!!! Im not sure what that is, but it might get you kicked off the board if you keep on being so facitious!

lol.......just kidding....

AlpineRAM

I think it should be left to the technicians to reduce the emissions. I don't think the environment cares about how it's done to lower emissions, it will benefit anyway. I think that the US had a leader role on vehicle emissions for some time (especially on gassers) and it was also beneficial for the economy. I think it would be manageable to get the same results with diesels. Since EGR is problematic why not use any different means of making what comes out of the tailpipe a good bit less noxious?

Jim Lane

It sounds like the rest of the states will catch up with California, They have been doing that here for sometime now. (checking for smoke).(belive it is called Snap Test or something like that)
The South Coast Air Quality Management (SCAQMD) has run PSA's on the TV to call in your license number if they see you smoking. My truck is stock and I have gotten notices from them twice already. Both were when I was pulling a grade. Somebody with a cell phone probably behind me. I have also seen a trailer they park on the side of the freeway, there is a camera and a laser device that watches your exhaust as you go by. There is usually several CHP cars waiting ahead of that.

Gee Wizz does this mean they might raise the price of diesel fuel again?
Jim.

jrs_dodge_diesel

These tree huggers have it so good with the clean air in the states they don't even know it. They need to go to other countries like China and some Asian countries, or anywhere else that emissions laws are not enforced well or don't exist. Those countries pollute way more than the U.S. does.

infidel

Does that make it right to do it here?

jrs_dodge_diesel

No, I like breathing just like anyone else. I think the U.S. has it good when it comes to clean air standards. Not many other countries can say the same though.