As with the rest of the nation, the majority of diesel fuel pumps throughout the region switched to ultra-low-sulfur diesel Sunday, helping the Washington area meet its air quality standards.
About 25 to 30 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions in the region are due to diesel engines, saidJane Rohlfs, air quality chief for the region’s Council of Governments. Nitrogen oxide is one of the major ingredients for creating ozone.
Old diesel emissions and exhaust are “top contributors to our fine particle problem, which is essentially soot,” Rohlfs said.
“The benefits will start off significant, but sort of small, and will continue to grow over the next 10 years as the fleet turns over and as people start buying these new vehicles. We see a tremendous drop in pollution in heavy duty diesels in the future,” Rohlfs said.
The new fuel reduces soot emissions by more than 95 percent compared to conventional diesel fuel in 2007 diesel engines, and is 10 percent cleaner in other diesel vehicles.
“The comparison is similar to removing lead from gasoline in the 1970s,” said Bill Buff, a spokesman for the Diesel Technology Forum.
“This is great news for anybody who breathes,” said Richard Kassel, National Resources Defense Council’s director of the Clean Fuels and Vehicles Project. “When this Environmental Protection Agency program is fully implemented thousands of people will live longer, hundreds of thousands of people will have fewer asthma emergencies and $70 billion will be saved in health costs every year.”
Big trucks, buses and 2007 diesel vehicles are required to use the new blend, Buff said. Emissions from 60 trucks using the new fuel in 2007 would be equal to one truck sold in 1998 running on the old blend of diesel, Buff said.
New consumer diesel vehicles will also be developed, since diesel engines get 20 to 40 percent more miles to the gallon.
“We’re not talking about a niche product,” like electric hybrids and ethanol fuel, Kassel said. “Diesel engines have powered the American economy for a long time, but until now, thank to cleaner fuel and the cleaner engines that will follow, they will be clean as well as efficient.”
