In what’s being hailed as the most important environmental improvement to fuel since the banning of leaded gasoline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated the production of a cleaner diesel fuel with 97 percent less sulfur.
The switch from current diesel fuel to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) will reduce the amount of allowable sulfur in diesel fuel from 500 parts per million (ppm) to 15 ppm. When the new fuel is fully phased in, the EPA estimates it will result in the reduction of 2.6 million tons of nitrogen oxide emissions and 110,000 tons of particulate emissions annually. Such a reduction would be the equivalent of 90 percent of the air pollution produced by buses and trucks on the road today. The resulting air quality improvement will prevent an estimated 360,000 asthma attacks yearly, an EPA study estimated.
Bob Judge, an environmental engineer in the EPA’s Boston office, said ULSD will allow manufacturers to install better pollution controls in engines. Many new pollution control technologies simply can’t function with the level of sulfur in current diesel fuel.
“Sulfur poisons pollution control equipment on a diesel fuel engine,” Judge said.
Judge believes the new fuel will clear the way for new pollution control technology much the same way the removal of lead in fuel was followed by the introduction of catalytic converters in the early 1980s. He said the new fuel would also help reduce particulate emissions in existing diesel vehicles.
On June 1, the EPA mandated that 80 percent of all diesel fuel produced for use in road vehicles must be ULSD. The fuel will already be available in some service stations this summer.
“It may not be at your local gas station today, but it’s on its way,” Judge said.
ULSD will be the only diesel fuel available for road vehicles by 2010 in states covered by EPA emission regulations. California has already mandated a complete switch to ULSD in 2007. Under EPA rules, all 2007 diesel vehicle owners will be required to use ULSD exclusively. Owners of 2006 diesel vehicles are allowed to use either fuel until the phase-in period is complete.
All marine vessels, along with locomotives and other non-road engines, must use the current lowest-sulfur diesel fuel by 2007, and ULSD exclusively by 2012. In California, all off-road vehicles must switch to ULSD by September of this year.
Judge said that while newer marine engines will most likely come with better pollution control technology as a result of ULSD, existing lobster boats wouldn’t have to suddenly meet ULSD engine pollution standards.
“The trend is, as the technology improves, the standards get tighter, but they’re not retroactive,” he said.
No one can say for sure what the ultimate cost will be for a gallon of ULSD. The EPA estimates that the new fuel will cost three to four more cents per gallon to produce, but that isn’t the same as how much consumers will have to pay at the pump. At a recent press conference, Judge said, even oil company executives said they couldn’t estimate what the final cost will be for ULSD.
“That’s a real tough thing to get a handle on,” he said. “There’s so many variables.”
Even a modest fuel price hike might raise the daily operating costs for Maine fishermen significantly.
Dan Lunt, a Frenchboro lobsterman, estimates he uses between 125-150 gallons of diesel fuel a week. He doesn’t think he’s one of the highest fuel consumers among lobstermen, either.
“Some burn much more than I do, some burn less,” Lunt said.
Lunt estimates he spends about $450 a week on diesel fuel. He said he and other area lobstermen have felt the sting of rising fuel prices in the last two years.
“The cost of operating has doubled,” he said.
While not worried for his own livelihood, Lunt felt that a few more cents per gallon might put some lobstermen out of business.
“A lot of the marginal fishermen…they won’t be able to absorb it,” Lunt said. “They’re already at the bottom of the ladder.”
But Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said that such a small rise in fuel prices probably wouldn’t seriously harm Maine’s lobster industry.
“I think if the resource is strong, we’ll be able to weather a few cents,” she said.
She said the phase-in time for ULSD and its accompanying price hike will be easier to handle than the rapid fluctuations in fuel prices that fishermen have faced in the last two years.
“At least we can plan for it,” she said.