Alan,
I haven't read the new law, but I would bet a lot of money that it will not
take cars off the road... NO politician would sign himself out of office...
Imagine the uproar from people who cannot afford a newer car.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Bosch <arbosch@RA.ROCKWELL.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 7:05 AM
Subject: New EPA rules for gasoline

>You may have heard by now the Pres. Clinton has signed in to law a bill
that
>will tighten the pollution laws for cars, light trucks, & SUV's.  Included
in
>the law is a mandate to Big Oil that allowable sulphur levels in gasoline
must
>fall from 300ppm presently to 30ppm somewhere around 2006.
>
>Now, I'm not an expert on this law.  Don't know the details, etc., but I
have
>heard the following two points and it has me concerned:
>
>1)  A spokesperson for some anti-pollution group stated that this is
"tremendous
>legislation...it will take 54 million vehicles off American roads almost
>overnight when fully enacted..."  Huh?  Does this mean that any vehicle
over X
>years old can not be driven?  Isn't there some kind of grandfather clause?
>
>2)  The auto industry and the oil refining industry are not fightin this
tough
>new law as they previously have other pollution and safety legislation.  If
54
>million vehicles are made obsolete over night, I wouldn't fight it either,
for
>one simple reason - $$$$$ - and a lot of them.
>
>(Here's the required Vanagon content)
>
>Is the lower sulphur levels is the next generation of gasoline going to do
>terrible things to our WBX engines?  I seem to recall that there was a
lowering
>of sulphur levels in Diesel fuel some years ago.  It supposedly played hell
on
>VW, Volvo, MB, and other automotive Diesel engines because the sulphur was
>acting as a fuel system lubricant (?) and the lack thereof caused injector
and
>injector pump failure (at least that's how I remember it).
>
>Alan Bosch
>& Phred ('88 Wolfsburg)
>Rochester, NY
>