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Diesel Cars, Trucks And SUVs Part Of The Solution To Petroleum Reduction, Says California Study

California Assembly Bill 2076, adopted in 2000, required the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board to identify strategies to reduce California's reliance on petroleum, primarily as an effort to moderate fuel price fluctuations. The report, Reducing Petroleum Dependency in California, will be discussed at a public hearing on June 6, 2003 in Sacramento and will be adopted by the two agencies at the end of June 2003. The report will then be sent to the state legislature.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California legislators looking for ways to cut petroleum demand over the next 30 years and reduce transportation fuel price swings, will soon learn, probably to their surprise, that environmentally friendly diesel cars, trucks and SUVs are one of the most practical, cost-effective ways to do it.

Reducing Petroleum Dependency, a joint project of the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board, concludes that significantly more fuel efficient vehicles are the most effective way of slowing, even reducing, petroleum demand in California.

Tops for their petroleum-reducing potential in the next 20 years are gasoline-electric hybrids, clean diesel vehicles, and a natural-gas-derived fuel that can run in diesel engines when blended at about 33% with diesel fuel. Diesel passenger vehicles yield a 45% improvement in fuel economy over gasoline models, according to the report.

Longer term, the study puts great hope in fuel cell technologies, which use hydrogen to power engines, providing high fuel efficiency, reduced climate-change impacts, and no tailpipe emissions. Still in R&D stage, cost is a major consideration in the future of this technology.

The advantages of diesel passenger vehicles are numerous. First, they're market ready, not just on the engineering drawing board. Second, diesel cars, trucks, and SUVs available in Europe today provide significant fuel economy over similar gasoline-fueled models, and put out roughly 15% less carbon dioxide emissions. Third, their energy efficiency is cost effective for the consumer and won't require heavy government subsidies. Fourth, the engines are durable and reliable. And fifth, drivers who want power and space can get it, without sacrificing fuel economy.

"If we want these fuel efficient vehicles to reduce petroleum use, as the report hopes, they've got to be available, affordable, and appealing enough to get them on the road in large numbers," said Allen Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum. "When Americans learn to appreciate the combination of fuel efficiency and power, these diesel vehicles are really going to find their market," said Schaeffer.

"By 2030, if 32% of the passenger vehicles in California were based on fuel-efficient diesel engine powertrains, as is the current case in Europe, petroleum consumption would be reduced by 840 million gallons of gasoline a year," according to the DTF's Schaeffer. "That's 20 million barrels of petroleum a year." The projection is based on a study conducted by M Cubed, a Davis, California-based economics consulting firm, for the Forum. (Click Here to read the complete study.)

Unfortunately, the California report discounts the full potential benefit of diesel vehicles by assuming that U.S. consumers won't be eager buyers of the improved technology, in contrast to the rising market demand for the fuel efficient, powerful vehicles in Europe. There, 40% of new cars and light trucks, and 70% of new luxury cars, are powered by diesel engines sporting new, fuel efficient engine components and featuring advanced emissions control technologies. The California report assumes a market penetration of only 10% by 2020. (Click Here to read the DTF report on the popularity of diesel passenger vehicles in Europe.) 

Surprisingly, the California report recommends that the legislature set a goal to increase the use of alternative fueled vehicles to 10% of the market by 2020, even thought the report's data indicates that compressed natural gas, electric batteries, liquid petroleum gas and other "boutique" fuels just don't pass the cost-effectiveness test for reducing petroleum use. And they're unlikely to gain much acceptance elsewhere in the country because of high expense relative to fuel savings.

"Regardless of the admirable intention of diversifying the fuel source, what good is a vehicle that runs on a boutique California fuel if you can't fill up the tank once you cross the state line?" asked Schaeffer.

"Even the alternative fuel infrastructure alone would cost California taxpayers hundreds of millions in subsidies for technologies that, at best, provide a 20- to 50-year bridge to vehicles powered by fuel cells," said Schaeffer.

When the California petroleum reduction study was requested by the legislature in 2000, many people assumed petroleum-based diesel vehicles wouldn't even be a consideration. But when the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board calculated the costs and benefits, not only to the consumer, but to the environment, diesel passenger cars emerged on the positive side of the choices.

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The Diesel Technology Forum represents manufacturers of engines, fuel and emissions control systems. It brings together the diesel industry, the broad diesel user community, civic and public interest leaders, government regulators, academics, scientists, the petroleum industry and public health researches to encourage the exchange of information, ideas, scientific findings and points-of-view to current and future uses of diesel power technology. For more information about the Forum and to view our white paper, visit our web site at www.dieselforum.org.