Move over disco music: Another ’70s trend is making a comeback — diesel fuel. During the oil embargo of 1973, the U.S. enjoyed a brief love affair with diesel because it gets better mileage than gasoline. However, its dirty emissions soon put a damper on the romance. Now, though, a cleaner-burning form of diesel is experiencing a revival. Four of the top 10 vehicles on the Department of Energy’s fuel-efficiency rankings are powered by diesel engines, with some of them getting close to 50 miles per gallon for highway driving. Diesel also costs less per gallon than gasoline — but even the cleaner version still emits particulate matter, which is linked to asthma and air pollution. So while the Diesel Technology Forum’s Pamela Jones says, “This is not your grandfather’s diesel,” Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club still says diesel is just the “quick and dirty way to improve fuel economy.”
