STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go back to Brooks Jackson who was going to give us the American half of that dual story about diesel power in Europe and the United States.</s>BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here's the way Americans think of diesel power: Smoky, noisy, dirty. And here's today's reality: It does not smoke, has plenty of power. (on camera): And it's rated at 44 miles to the gallon on the highway; the manual version gets 49. That's 40 percent better than the same car with a gasoline engine. (voice-over): It's the laws of physics.</s>ALLEN SCHAFFER, DIESEL TECHNOLOGY FORUM: Diesel fuel has more power per gallon of fuel. The diesel cycle, the way it burns the engine, gets more power out of that fuel.</s>JACKSON: Yet diesel cars account for less than 5 percent of Volkswagen's U.S. sales, and nobody else sells them here. Diesel is good if you're worried about global warming; this VW diesel pumps out one-third less greenhouse gases than a comparable gasoline engine. But there's a trade-off: More smog. Even this cleaned up diesel emits eight times more smog-producing pollutants than VW's ultra-low emission gas-powered car. On balance, U.S. environmentalists just hate diesel power.</s>ANN MESINKOFF, SIERRA CLUB: It's a choice we don't need to make when there are much cleaner gasoline technologies.</s>JACKSON: Manufacturers say it will be hard to make diesel cars much cleaner until refineries remove sulfur from diesel fuel. Sulfur clogs emission control devices. And low-sulfur fuel isn't required until 2006. (on camera): So for now, to paraphrase Henry Ford: Americans can have any diesel car they want, as long as it's Volkswagen. Brooks Jackson, CNN, Washington.
Why Are Diesel-Powered Cars So Unpopular in the U.S.?