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NYT: As Deadline Nears, Clean Diesel Widely Available

By Felicity Barringer   The biggest revolution in highway fuels since lead was removed from gasoline will be nearly complete on Sunday as a vast majority of trucks and buses will be able to fill their tanks with diesel fuel with just 3 percent of the sulfur content in the older fuel. Like lead, sulfur generates air pollution that leads to sever health consequences.  Like lead, it also gums up the works of fine-tuned pollution control devices, making it exceedingly difficult to produce cleaner-burning engines.   So the new fuel will pave the way for new generations of diesel engines that experts say will eventually cut lethal particulate pollution from diesel tailpipes an estimated 95 percent.   In a news conference in Columbus, Ind., the headquarters of Cummins Engine, a major manufacturer of diesel engines, the environmental protection administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said, "Under President Bush's leadership, the pumps are primed to deliver clean diesel and a cleaner future for America." The new fuel contains 15 parts per million of sulfur, down from the standard of 500 parts per million thanks to changes in the refining process.  As of Sunday, at least 80 percent of the diesel available for trucks and buses has to meet the new standard. Officials of the environmental agency said Tuesday that the changeover was occurring so swiftly that 90 percent of the fuel would be compatible. Old diesel engines burning the cleaner fuel will reduce dangerous particulate emissions by 10 percent, experts say.  New engines with improved controls, which have to be available by Jan. 1, will cut this particulate pollution by more than 95 percent.  The rule mandates more improved engines in 2010.  It is unclear how soon existing trucks and buses, which often are in use for more than 10 years, will be turned in for newer models. Leading environmental groups linked arms with industry in a chorus of praise for the new fuel and engines to follow.  They emphasized the health benefits and the novel wording of the rule.   Mr. Johnson said diesel engines had been the workhorses of the economy and the vehicle fleet. Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, an industry group, said in a conference call on Tuesday that the new standard was also significant because it "opens up the door of possibility" to a new generation of light-duty diesel cars and trucks in the United States in the near future. Article available at: www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/washington/11diesel.html