TIME TO CLEAN UP
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Ever noticed how sunsets seem to be getting more spectacular nowadays? They say it's due to air pollution. A sobering thought when you consider that something so beautiful can be so poisonous. Is this the legacy we want to leave our children?
Before hard-working hauliers fall off their chairs accusing CM of Green hysteria we have to face the fact that all internal combustion engines—in cars, trucks or buses—are contributing to that atmospheric pollution. Creating it has never been a problem. Stopping it has. Most hauliers won't adopt environmental measures voluntarily. And most Governments can't persuade them otherwise. So politicians tell operators how to dean up their act—and when.
For a classic example look no further than Euro1 engines. Low emission Euro-1 diesels have long been available in advance of this October's legislative deadline. Truck makers have hardly been deafened by cries from environmentally-aware hauliers demanding to buy them. But it's reassuring to know that there are still operators ready to tackle pollution such as Peter Lane, Exel Logistics and Sainsbury. This trio has started trials with a low-sulphur diesel from Greenenergy DMF. Reducing gaseous emissions from dieselpowered trucks was always going to involve fuel quality. Unfortunately many environmentalists chose to overlook that fact in their rush to save the world.
CyMcs might suggest that the fuel companies have been happy to let truck makers take all the stick and do all the work for ower emissions, If they did they aren't now: no-one's going to get a free-ride on emissions.
Green fuels, like the so-called "California" diesel—originally developed to meet that American state's tough air pollution regs—has been around for some time now and many engine makers have taken advantage of them for emission testings. Their benefits are great: almost 98% free of sulphur (which ultimately creates acid rain); particulate emissions down by 60%; and lower ash content. But they don't come cheap— they're about 0.4p per litre more than normal diesel and unless you've got a regular trunking run between depots which could bunker it the exercise would be a waste of time, money and effort.
What a pity then that at a time when the Government is making a lot of noise about being green it doesn't offer an environmental subsidy to encourage the use of such fuel. They do it in Sweden: according to Greenenergy DMF 75% of all fuel sales are of environmental grades, encouraged by tax concessions. What we need is a Government with the imagination and the courage of its convictions to offer truck operators a tax incentive to buy green diesel in the same way as car buyers have been wooed to buy unleaded petrol. Until it becomes mandatory those in power need to grasp the simple fact that green initiatives cost money. Otherwise green diesel will remain a fuel for the environmentally-conscious who can afford to have a conscience.