Cleaner Diesel Could Raise Costs

WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers could pay more for a wide variety of goods transported by truck if the government demands cleaner-burning diesel fuel, regulators and industry officials say.

The trucking industry, which moves 80 percent of the nation's freight, is the primary user of diesel fuel. But it's also drawn increasing attention from automakers trying to improve the government-mandated fuel economy of their hot-selling pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

A diesel engine consumes 30 percent less fuel and spews less carbon dioxide than one powered by gasoline, but it also produces more soot and smog-forming nitrogen oxide.

The Environmental Protection Agency is looking at those and other factors as it considers whether diesel fuel should be cleaner, The Detroit News said in a report Monday.

Should the petroleum industry come up with diesel fuel that pollutes less but costs more, trucking companies - many of which pocket only four cents of every dollar of income - might have no choice but to pass the higher costs along to consumers.

"If there's increased cost to a business, often their services get more expensive and consumers can ultimately pay the price," said Jonathan Cogan, an information specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Automakers, meanwhile, are looking to diesel to help them meet federal fuel economy standards and avoid financial penalties. Since the 1993 model year, DaimlerChrysler AG has met those targets for trucks only once; General Motors Corp. has met them twice; and Ford Motor Co. has met them three times.

"It's a new and strange feeling for a lot of us that there's a new kid on the block and the kid is pretty big and pretty powerful," Allen Schaeffer, a vice president of the American Trucking Associations, told the News. "Automakers are just prospective diesel users. We're the users that drive the market."