As of last Thursday, the EPA is requiring U.S. refineries to produce a low sulfur diesel fuel that will soon hit the pumps. This new, cleaner burning fuel may help to clean up diesel’s image. The CSMonitor wrote about this issue recently:
In a move that may presage diesel’s Cinderella-like transformation, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday required US refineries to begin making ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), a fuel with 97 percent less sulfur than ordinary diesel that, as a result, slashes soot emissions.
The rule, which mandates that 80 percent of the diesel produced for highway use be ULSD-compliant, was just the first step. By Oct. 15, all filling stations now selling diesel will be required to sell ULSD instead of or in addition to diesel.
Now that diesel fuel will be cleaner, the next step is to manufacture cleaner diesel engines, which will start happening sometime in the next year or two. This “clean fuel revolution†is being compared to the removal of lead from gas 20 or so years ago.
Check out a fuel report about the new, clean diesel at the CSMonitor.