Clean Diesel Rule (Engines and Fuel)

One June 1, 2006 EPA began requiring refiners and fuel importers to cut the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel 97 percent, from 500 parts per million to 15. The Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) rule will not only enhance environmental protection, but will also prevent nearly 8,300 premature deaths and tens of thousands of cases of respiratory ailments such as bronchitis and asthma.

By addressing diesel fuel and engines as a single system, this action will produce the clean air equivalent of eliminating air pollution from 90 percent -- or about 13 million -- of today's trucks and buses. Once fully implemented, ULSD will result in the annual reduction of 2.6 million tons nitrogen oxides and 110,000 tons of particulate matter. Lowering the sulfur content will enable modern pollution-control technology to be effective on the 2007 cars, trucks and buses. Once these fuel and engine regulations are fully implemented, 2.6 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions will be reduced each year. Soot or particulate matter will be reduced by 110,000 tons a year.