Those refineries typically distill the oil into lighter and heavier components. When crude oil gets pumped out of the ground, it's sent to refineries to be turned into usable fuel. Why Europe embraced diesel cars in the 1980s and '90s (David Ramos/Getty Images) So let's roll the tape and see what lessons we can learn from Europe's diesel problems. The whole episode is a sobering case study in how well-intentioned green industrial policy can go badly awry. On top of that, Europe's entrenched diesel industry has impeded progress on hybrid and electric car technologies that might have provided far deeper emissions cuts. The CO2 benefits from switching to diesel cars were overrated and likely offset by the extra soot the engines produced. It also appears that Europe's diesel push didn't actually do much to help global warming, as one 2013 study by Michel Cames and Eckard Helmers found. It's one reason why cities like London and Paris are still clogged with unhealthy levels of air pollution, causing thousands of premature deaths each year.
Lots and lots of automakers - not just Volkswagen - have been manufacturing diesel cars that emit far more gunk than they're supposed to.
We now know that Europe's regulators have failed spectacularly to control diesel pollution, relying on weak rules and flimsy testing procedures. And those ended up being much harder to clean up than experts initially predicted. One main drawback of diesel cars is that they can emit higher levels of other harmful air pollutants like particulates and nitrogen oxides. But they execution was badly botched, full of unintended consequences over the next 20 years. Thanks to tax breaks and other incentives, diesel cars now make up one-third of Europe's fleet: (Cames and Helmers, 2013)Įurope's diesel push seemed like a perfectly sensible idea at the time. The rationale was simple: Diesel engines use fuel more efficiently, so the switch was supposed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help stave off global warming. So let's say it: Europe's promotion of diesel vehicles as a green transportation option has been a disaster thus far - for reasons that go well beyond the Volkswagen scandal.Įver since the 1990s, European governments have been encouraging drivers to buy diesel cars as an alternative to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. And rightly so the company's deception was appalling.īut there's a broader, more consequential problem here that a lot of coverage has danced around or hinted at only indirectly. Hearings, lawsuits, fines, general opprobrium. Last month's news that Volkswagen had been illegally rigging its diesel-powered cars to cheat on pollution tests has sparked all sorts of outrage.
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