I think that availability of low
> sulfur fuel is the bottleneck though as well as the capture of
> particulates which cause cancer.
Particulate emissions are controlled solely by changes to the exhaust
system, by adding some sort of filter or trap.
Low sulfur fuel was to have been on the market years ago, but when Bush came
into office, that deadline was set back. (I will leave the political
comments to others, as you could make an argument both ways) the deadline is
now coming, sometime in September, and I believe it is firm this time.
Although low sulfur fuel can be burned in old engines, the newest designs
from other parts of the world (European cars in particular) can't use old
fuel at all, so it will be necessary to make the introduction fairly
universal. For those of you that envision mountains of yellow around
refineries, not to worry. The stuff is used in the manufacture of
agricultural fertilizers.
As far as soy-diesel and ethanol go, we have selected the two worst possible
sources. Alcohol can be made from many other, far less expensive crops. As
far as soy goes, the market is substantial for other uses. We could find
other sources, I'm sure.
In Los Angeles, both the UP and the BNSF are working to both reduce
emmisions through particulate filtering and alternative power, such as LNG
locomotives and hybrids. All work is in the earliest, most experimental
stages.
Bill Pearce
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