Diesel Engines

Chrysler's new vice-chairman and president, Jim Press, would do well to remember a maxim that comes to us from the hallowed days of vaudeville: Never follow an animal act. For a media event introducing its 2009 Dodge Ram pickup, Chrysler's PR department wrangled -- or was it rustled? -- a herd of Texas longhorns in front of Cobo Center, site of last week's 2008 North American International Auto Show, known universally as the Detroit Auto Show.

California environmental regulators' science is sound and their policies are groundbreaking, but their timing is truly terrible. What else can you say about a group that is about to approve the most expensive environmental rules in state history even as the economy is melting down? Yet for all the short-term pain that the coming regulations on diesel trucks will cause, they will ultimately save far more than they cost. The state Air Resources Board has been busy of late.

G\o7ENERALLY\f7 speaking, Californians are pretty lucky. We have Yosemite, we have Big Sur. Our state leads the nation in Anna Nicole baby-daddies. And we have the California Air Resources Board, a bunch of bureaucratic do-gooders who actually do good when they're not screwing up royally.

Luis Ceja's orange Freightliner is rumbling down Ferry Street near the Port of Los Angeles, spewing diesel fumes. As a tiny, plastic hula girl shimmies on the dashboard, Ceja starts fuming too -- about how hard his job is, about how little he earns and about the fact that he and his fellow truckers can't bear the burden of improving the air quality here. "I hate that my truck pollutes," he says. "But I don't have the money to retrofit it or replace it.

BEFORE you even start, no, you can't have it. The BMW 330d -- powered by a hugely entertaining 3.0-liter twin-turbo-diesel that gets about 40-plus miles per gallon -- isn't sold in the United States. But it could be, with a little grass-roots support. And that's why Honeywell Turbo Technologies -- the supplier of the variable-vane turbos BMW uses in its diesels -- dropped off one of its engineering mules at the L.A. Times garage. A little marketing never hurt anyone.

Diesels are catching the interest of more economy-conscious car buyers in the U.S. In a recent survey by J.D. Power & Associates, the percentage of new-car shoppers who said they would consider buying a diesel-powered vehicle rose to 23% from 12% a year ago, while the portion who said they would consider a gasoline-electric hybrid slipped from 57% to 50%. Surveys by Kelley Blue Book have shown a similar trend.

California's diesel-powered bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy construction equipment must be retrofitted or replaced over the next 13 years to reduce the air pollution that sickens tens of thousands of residents every year, state regulators decided Thursday. Under tough new rules adopted by the Air Resources Board, California is the first state to make construction companies fix existing diesel-powered machines.

SACRAMENTO -- The skids seemed greased for one of environmentalists' top priorities this year: legislation forcing the construction industry to reduce pollution, which enjoyed strong support among environment-friendly Democrats. But the measure died suddenly last week when another frequent ally -- labor unions -- weighed in against it. The bill would have required construction firms bidding for certain public contracts to retrofit pollution-spewing diesel equipment.

In a rare display of partnership, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster on Monday touted a joint plan to scrap old diesel rigs and replace them with newer, cleaner models as part of an effort to slash port-related pollution linked to 2,400 premature deaths a year.

Backing up tough actions taken by Los Angeles-area ports, state regulators Friday enacted a strict air emission measure that will ban much of the current fleet of diesel trucks from all ports statewide. The California Air Resources Board will require all trucks to meet 2007 emission standards by 2014, an effort that mirrors a plan approved by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.