Green Daily

I don't understand why so many greens eagerly buy into "clean diesel" while, on cue from Al Gore as if he were an orchestra conductor, suddenly in unison laugh in uproarious contempt at the very idea of clean coal.

Clean coal denial is based on carefully ignoring the efforts coal plants are making to do EXACTLY what "clean diesel" cars do - filter out or trap particulate matter (smoke and soot), sulfur, etc. - and focusing ONLY on CO2.

Well, diesel emits less CO2 than gasoline, yes, BUT - it also inherently emits MORE smoke, soot, and particulate matter than gasoline, and is a major source of sulfur (a cause of acid rain), etc.

And like ALL petroleum based fuel, it is a mutagen and carcinogen. If spilled it remains concentrated at harmfully toxic levels. It will not biodegrade but instead requires expensive cleanup.

Diesel is also very inconvenient if you run low on fuel and the only gas stations near you do not have a diesel pump. You grind to a halt, walk along the highway or call AAA, etc. To avoid this prospect you must carefully plan routes, especially on longer trips, find stations that sell diesel, etc.

What transportation fuel avoids these problems very neatly? Alcohol.

Alcohol fuel emits NONE - ZERO smoke, soot, and particulate matter. It emits NONE - ZERO sulfur. It emits significantly less NOx than petroleum fuel, and its vapor is less than a TENTH as reactive to NOx. It is both readily water-soluble, thus melting away into the vast hydrosphere to reduce its dosage far below toxic levels (fruit has natural methanol at harmlessly low doses for example); AND readily biodegradable, breaking down within days ir not hours into harmless components.

And if your flex fuel vehicle running low on its alcohol fuel can't find an alcohol selling station, it can just fill up on gasoline in a pinch and do fine UNLIKE diesel, so it is much more practical.

Finally, the CO2 "clean diesel" emits is very different from the CO2 emitted by ethanol and biomass derived methanol.

Diesel CO2, although reduced compared to gasoline, is still from petroleum, still obtained by drilling underground to obtain carbon that has been sequestered away from the biosphere forever in human terms, and throwing that CO2 into the atmosphere, making it a net ADDITION to atmospheric CO2.

But ethanol comes from plants; not sequestered guck; its CO2 is from the current biosphere and is part of the carbon cycle already, thus is NO NET INCREASE in CO2. Carbon neutral.

That is a HUGE difference.

So why on EARTH would greens get excited about dirty, air-fouling, water-poisoning, CO2 adding diesel fuel, when flex fuel cars able to run on clean burning, non problem if spilled alcohol are available?

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