Beating the diesel drum; Better technology yields clean, efficient power-so why doesn't America care?(Brief Article)

Recent advances make diesel engines quieter, cleaner and more fuel efficient than ever. Recently, near Detroit, GM, ord, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen rolled out passenger vehicles featuring the latest diesel technology to demonstrate the dramatic improvements they've made over the clattering, smoking, smelly diesel cars that fouled our roads during the 1970s fuel crises.

Besides being smooth, quiet diesels, the vehicles-including a BMW X5 (below), Mercedes-Benz 270 CDI, Ford Explorer and Audi A8-shared one other trait: You can't buy them here. Only Volkswagen sells diesel-powered cars in the United States today; it sold 15,700 diesels in 2000 and 15,750 so far this year. With the exception of some medium-duty ickups the government would call passenger vehicles, that's it-just about one in every 1000 passenger vehicles sold in America is a diesel. In contrast, diesel powers about four out of every 10 such vehicles sold in Europe, a market of similar size.

VW saw a huge sales spike in the United States with the Jetta TDI in spring when gasoline prices briefly shot up over $2 per gallon. With prices one international incident away from topping $2 per gallon over the long term, you'd think the diesel engine would be primed for the U.S. market. It's not that simple.

European drivers have long appreciated diesel benefits that don't apply here. Lower taxes on diesel fuel make it much cheaper to burn than heavily taxed gasoline in Europe. Cleaner-burning diesel fuel, required by regulation, allows car manufacturers to make the most of diesel technology. The latest diesel engines achieve 30 percent to 60 percent better mileage than equivalent gasoline engines, emit 30 percent to 60 percent fewer greenhouse emissions and produce more power per unit volume than other fuels. And diesel fuel is widely available in clean, consumer-friendly service stations.

One obstacle to the expansion of diesel's popularity in the United States is the low quality of U.S. diesel fuel. U.S. refiners have resisted the expense of installing new equipment to extract sulfur from diesel fuel, and the trucking industry is a political ally opposed to the slight per-gallon cost increase that would result if cleaner fuel was mandated by regulation. Compared with Europe, America is much more heavily dependent on long-distance truck transportation of goods, and even a slight increase in fuel expenses spreads throughout the economy.

But with the high sulfur content in today's American ...