There’s an editorial/commentary in the Strib
about Clean Diesel. Its yet another example of people wanting something “green” to happen and avoiding all reality around their mandates. As in, the consequences.
In today’s politically charged climate in Washington, it’s rare to find a program that has near-universal support among Democrats and Republicans. It’s also unusual for a policy to bring together environmentalists, industry and government officials for a common cause, much less one that actually provides a $13-to-$1 positive return on investment to taxpayers and the federal government.
Some background on “Clean Diesel”: I own a clean diesel. My 2007 GMC Sierra has a clean diesel engine in it. Congress dictated that all new light trucks must have a clean diesel engine starting in 2007. Larger semi trucks and equipment were phased in over the next years.
I have to burn special diesel with just 15PPM of sulfur in it. The old stuff was 500PPM. Now I like the fact that my truck doesn’t leave a soot cloud, don’t get me wrong. But the choice forced upon me by Congress has cost me money, convenience, and makes me do things differently.
The upfront cost of the equipment on my truck added at least $1000 to the purchase price I was told. General Motors was required to redesign the entire concept of the diesel in order to make it meet the standards.Plus my truck looks like I drove over a light pole with the giant exhaust system that it is required to have.
The large silver pipe that sticks out the back of the truck has been a problem for me during the fall and winter. You see, when you are trying to back out of parking spaces in the winter when there are the giant piles of solid icy snow, and you accidentally bump into the snow with the exhaust pipe that protrudes out past the bumper (not curved to the side be hind the wheel like other trucks due to the hot exhaust temps) it ends up bending the pipe and exhaust system.
This is just one of the drawbacks of people in ivory office buildings in Washington pretending to have good ideas. The results or consequences of what looks or feels good on paper isn’t realized for the real world applications.
You see, in order to meet the emmissions requirements, my exhaust system has a filter in it. This filter requires cleaning, in order to do that, my truck will dump raw fuel into the over sized pipes and ignite it to flash burn the nasty soots and particles. Hence the need for the giant tube and cooling tip that sticks out like a sore thumb.
I am lucky enough to do a lot of highway driving. If I was someone who spent most of my time in stop and go traffic or city driving, I would not get up to speed in order to safely have the truck’s exhaust system clean itself. It will only clean itself when moving at highway speeds.
I’d get a warning light telling me to get it out on the open roads and drive it for 30 minutes. If you are unable to do so, the truck would go into “limp” mode and you’d have to take it to a dealer, they’d have to cut into the exhaust system, pull out the filter, and put it into a fancy expensive machine that would clean the filter. Then they’d` have reinstall it and repair my exhaust system. And since it is a federal emissions requirement, they have to do it free of charge, or out of their pocket.
So there is a chance that people with clean diesel trucks like mine could end up stranded and needed a tow truck due to the “green” policies and mandates. But that’s not the total problem. There’s other applications that this clean diesel technology is impractical, unusable, or dangerous.
There’s a serious danger of fire if you have leaves or other flammable things under the vehicle. A pile of leaves or dry long grass in a field could start on fire due to the extra hot exhaust pipes under my truck. And I can tell you the first few times the truck “cleans itself” you wonder what the heck kind of roadkill you somehow ran over to create that stench of death you smell. The phrase, “I think your truck just sh!t itself” makes us giggle, but also provides a little frustration when you think about how it all came to be by environutters and bureaucrats in Washington.
I’ve talked to a local fuel delivery company about my truck. They are a fuel tanker and delivery company. They go and pick up fuel in 8000 gallon trailer from the fuel depots (those big giant white circles like you see West of 35W as you drive on 35W in Roseville) The restrictions to even drive a vehicle onto the premises are onerous, for good reason. And, I’m told, a truck like mine, with an overly hot running exhausts system is not allowed onto the grounds.
The system in my truck is similar to that on newer semi tractors pulling those fuel tanker trailers, meaning new big trucks that meet the federal emissions are not able to be used to deliver fuel due to the danger of causing a fire or explosion. He said he bought a new truck before the mandate kicked in so he didn’t have to worry about how the details get worked out.
That’s just some of the pains caused by do gooder bureaucrats and politicians appeasing the green lobby. There’s also the true cost of operating a vehicle with clean diesel. My MPG blows or better put, my truck sucks fuel. I chose a diesel because I do a lot of driving and towing. A diesel gives you, or should, better mileage and has a much lower drop when towing or hauling heavy loads.
As I said, it should. In pre-clean diesel trucks like mine, people easily get 22 MPG and see very small drops when hauling. In my truck, I get 14-15 MPG around town. On a tank of fuel with mixed city and highway driving, I average around 16-18 MPG. On road trips keeping my speed at 65MPH and below is the only time I see anything close to or over 20 MPGs. When I toss a trailer behind her, I’m see MPG drop to 9 to 12. Considering I spent thousands and thousands of extra dollars on a diesel to avoid such wild MPG performance typical in a gas engine, I’m kinda POed.
Why? Because lower MPGs due to the clean diesel requires me to burn more fuel. Its the entire non-sense part of green laws that makes me insane. Its impossible to have an engine that can perform well that is both clean bruning and gets good mileage. You can easily do one of the other, but not both.
Enter the ridiculous CAFE requirements. Vehicles have to meet high requirements for low emissions, but now also have to meet over the top CAFE levels. Now my truck was a Gen 1 version, so I have great power still. Something that people behind me when I try to merge onto a highway pulling my boat or a bobcat appreciate. I can get up and get moving, the purpose of a diesel for towing.
Newer versions will very likely be forced to scale back power in order to meet the CAFE MPG standards.
So let’s sum this up.
I have a clean truck that came factory equipped with the crap the people in the Strib story are praising. Praising spending untold billions to retro fit onto older trucks and machines. So I have some experience with the real world consequences of their goals and agenda.
The equipment is very expensive up front. Its high maintenance and can lead to down time which, for construction companies, costs them twice. Once for the repairs, once for lost productivity.
The longterm costs of running a clean diesel machine, in my own experience, is much higher due to lower MPG performance. I’m paying more at the pump and visiting them more frequently due to the green mandates. That means I’m using more fuel in order to be green to other people’s standards.
So when people talk about reducing our need for foreign fuel, or domestic for that matter, I get a little upset. These green policies are making us more addicted to oil. I’m using more oil and burning more of it because of a law that Congress passed.
The same law these morons are praising for wasting millions to retrofit old machines and trucks so they can feel good the at the next cocktail party with the other tree huggers.
I call these people Lunacrats. They push lunacy as public policy.
