Clean Fuel Worsens Climate Impacts for Some Vehicle Engines

[The Straight Story]

Clean Fuel Worsens Climate Impacts for Some Vehicle Engines

— A pioneering program by one of the world's largest cities to switch its vehicle fleet to clean fuel has not significantly improved harmful vehicle emissions in more than 5,000 vehicles -- and worsened some vehicles' climate impacts -- a new University of British Columbia study finds.

The study -- which explores the impacts of New Delhi, India's 2003 conversion of 90,000 buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws to compressed natural gas (CNG), a well-known "clean" fuel -- provides crucial information for other cities considering similar projects.

Of the city's more than 5,000 auto-rickshaws with two-stroke engines -- a common form of transportation in Asia and Africa -- the study found that CNG produced only minor reductions in emissions that cause air pollution and an increase in emissions that negatively impact climate change.

According to the researchers, the New Delhi's program could have achieved greater emission reductions at a cheaper price by simply upgrading two-stroke models to the cleaner, more fuel-efficient four-stroke variety.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110301122045.htm

[Tesha]

1. I'm going to unrec this.

The headline is the sort that will provide a phony
talking point for right wingers while the story itself
provides no such thing; it's well known that two-stroke-
cycle non-diesel engines are far dirtier than four-stroke
engines and so it's pretty useless to provide this sort
of data about them.

Tesha