Keep It in the Ground or America First?

(Diesel Technology Forum) ... One of the great benefits of the diesel platform is its capability to run on higher blends of high quality biofuels including renewable diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel. These fuels are considered advanced biofuels by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that have the capacity to reduce C02 emissions by at least 50 percent. Unlike ethanol, these fuels are derived from waste agricultural products and can directly displace the use of petroleum fuels. In the case of renewable diesel fuel, this displacement can be complete as most new diesel engines are approved to operate on 100 percent renewable diesel fuel.

In fact, the future of the diesel platform may not be tied to petroleum fuel at all but on high quality biofuels. Already, the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Walnut Creek and other municipalities announced the successful transition to operate publicly owned fleets of diesel vehicles and equipment exclusively on renewable diesel fuel. The City of New York, with the largest public fleet in the country, announced its intention to use renewable diesel fuel when that fuel is available on the East Coast.

Clean diesel engines are already at work reducing demand for fuel and can further reduce demand when operating on high quality biofuels. In fact, reliance on clean diesel technology may offer an insurance policy to keep more of it in the ground.