Starting today, refiners and fuel importers are required to take virtually all the sulfur out of most highway diesel fuel to help meet the Environmental Protection Agency's clean-air regulations.
The new rules require the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel 97 percent, from 500 parts per million to 15. The Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) will enhance environmental protection and prevent nearly 8,300 premature deaths and tens of thousands of cases of respiratory ailments such as bronchitis and asthma:
"America is breathing easier due to President Bush's historic investment in clean energy," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "Drastically cutting the emissions that cause soot and smog, EPA is delivering the American people cleaner engines, cleaner air and cleaner lungs."
NPR's All Things Considered equates the implementation of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel with the removal of lead from gasoline. Removal of sulfur will allow the use of catalytic converters on diesel engines, greatly reducing the pollution those engines spew into the atmosphere.
More information on EPA's clean diesel initiatives is available here.
Hopefully, before too long we will no longer get caught behind an 18-wheeler, a bus, or other diesel powered vehicle and subjected to vile clouds of soot flowing from tailpipes.
I am surprised and disappointed that such an important improvement wouldn't receive much more attention.
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