http://detnews.com:80/2001/autos/0105/22/b01-226787.htm
- 5/22/01
World Auto View
Diesel engines could help U.S. beat fuel crunch if feds wake up
By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News
FRANKFURT, Germany--There's a word in German that says an awful
lot about how many Europeans regard America's growing energy-crisis
angst.
The word is "schadenfreude," which means broadly means feeling joy
at someone else's pain or misfortune. Many here are looking on with
gleeful bemusement and outrage as Americans, branded the
world-champion consumers of natural resources, are staring at a
fossil-fuel comeuppance.
Take the man who stopped my wife in the park Monday and asked
where she was from. Upon hearing her answer, he launched into a
tirade about selfish Americans, irresponsible energy policy and a
slavish devotion to, of all things, air conditioning.
Such stereotypical ranting aside, Europeans are right to think
something is wrong when they see the global evangelists for free
choice in the free market effectively denying American citizens the
option to drive diesel-powered cars, perhaps the single best way to
reduce fuel consumption over the next decade.
Diesel engines, the hottest auto trend in Europe, are being
regulated out of existence in the United States. Only one automaker,
Volkswagen AG , offers diesel engines as an option in the U.S.
market. The rest don't bother because they figure restrictive
regulations and the expense associated with persuading Americans
don't justify the investment.
That's too bad. Diesels like the one my Canadian friend Tim Gray
is driving, a 2001 VW Jetta powered by a 1.9-liter TDI diesel, can
cut fuel consumption by 30 percent, reduce carbon-dioxide emissions
and save money without sacrificing the performance Americans expect
of their engines. But given the current regime, you won't be able to
buy them at all come 2004.
"I'm surprised how quiet it is, how smooth it is and how much pep
it has," says Gray, a tax consultant who drives about 6,000 miles per
month to cover his region of eastern Ontario. His cost for a fill-up
has dropped 33 percent while the distance he can travel on a tank of
fuel has nearly doubled.
The argument that Americans won't try diesels because they
remember the disastrous diesels of the late 1970s and early '80s is
silly. Times and technologies change. It's like saying Americans
won't buy Volvos or Chevys because they recall the problems in, say,
1981.
VW's TDI diesels pack a wallop of torque, scream down the highway
and can run forever on a tank of fuel. They meet California's strict
requirements for carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon emissions, but fail
to meet the guidelines for nitrous oxide -- a precursor of smog --
and particulate, or soot, emissions. That could change.
With low-sulfur diesel fuel like that already burning in European
diesels, VW thinks it could meet California's air-quality rules,
which are to be adopted by the federal Environmental Protection
Agency in 2004. The sooner oil companies deliver low-sulfur fuels to
the U.S. market, the better.
What should end, but won't, is the snide condescension from
environmentalists and their allies in the talking classes. They exude
German-style "schadenfreude" at a potential U.S. energy reckoning,
then belittle Americans for the cars they drive, the food they eat
and the houses they live in.
Saying no -- to diesel engines, nuclear power, energy exploration
and more sport-utility vehicles -- isn't an answer. It's a cop out.
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
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