Cowpie1 wrote:
Perspective is everything. True, doing the EHM may be technically illegal, but not sure it is that big of a deal in the broad picture. Commercial diesel engine up thru early 2007 in semis have the same concept as the EHM. My 2006 15L Cummins ISX in my semi has the same EPA approved "legal" EHM as my 2006 CRD "illegal" EHM. Both vehicles are relatively the same age, but the ISX has 575,000 miles on it as of this weekend. There are roughly 3 million commercial vehicles operating in the U.S. with the same "legal" EHM (and EPA approved) as the less than 11,000 CRD's with only a few having the "illegal" EHM. Most of those commercial trucks put on 100,000+ miles a year at an average rate of 6 mpg (and have operated legally in California and other locations which the CRD was "illegal" to sell), while the CRD's probably do an average 20,000 miles a year at average 24 mpg. Since their was no legal mandate to plumb the crankcase ventilation back into the engine on commercial diesels until recently, I really am losing no sleep that my CRD has an EHM.
That commercial vehicles are exempt from certain standards is not really much of an argument. The light truck exemption from CAFE standards is one of the reasons for our continued and deepening reliance on foreign oil. Commercial exemption is not done because it makes sense, but because companies can buy lobbyists who can then buy legislators.
I consider myself a common sense environmentalist. You and I likely disagree on a number of things, but I happen to run a slightly filtered EHM and, like you, don't lose any sleep over it. There's a Kantian moral tenet that suggests that one act only in ways that one would wish to become universal law. If everyone in America switched to diesel tomorrow with or without CCV or EGR we'd be in a better place environmentally. Add to that that I run B50 converted WVO and the wife and I tend to keep vehicles until they're dead (wife drives a Mercedes with 162K, my Mercedes before the CRD was at 145K). Could I be greener? Of course. Who couldn't? The ultimate green solution would be to not drive at all, live off of the grid, and grow your own food.
Perspective and balance.