The Environmental movement has been surprisingly silent on the impending implementation of the Bush Mexican Truck Pilot program. The trucks due to cross the border in May 2007 are not only much older, more polluting trucks, but the fuel they use is 333 times more sulfurous than the fuel used in the US.

According to the EPA website all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Canada are using S15. S15 is the designation for the ultra-low sulfur diesel now mandatory nationwide containing 15ppm (parts per million) of sulfur. The diesel produced by Pemex is 500 ppm. Pemex is the state owned petroleum producer in Mexico. S15 also reduces the amount of Nitrous Oxide and particulates in the atmosphere.

The age of the Mexican truck fleet is a significant factor in pollution production. In a Diesel Fuel News article by Jack Peckham he states 303254 77% of all the diesel vehicles in Mexico's federal district are pre-1988 vehicles, accounting for 72% of all the diesel emissions, as Victor Hugo Paramo, federal district environmental secretariat official, explained at the Hart World Fuels Conference/Rio 2002 here. Some 40% of the 180,000 diesel vehicles in the D.F. are older than 20 years. These old vehicles aren't prime candidates for the best low-emissions technologies such as particulate matter (PM) filters, as they often suffer high engine-out emissions and lack of electronic controls.

Most Over the Road(OTR) trucks have a minimum of 500 gallon fuel tanks, with some of the larger truck having 750-1000 gallon capacity. These trucks will have the capability to cross the US without refueling and burning this atrociously polluting fuel.

Pemex has no plans to have S15 available on a large scale within even the next 10 years. When US trucks are able to travel to Mexico, there are no current plans to allow US trucks into Mexico, they will not be able to purchase S15. The inherent unfairness of not allowing US trucks into Mexico at the sametime Mexico can send in an unlimited number of polluting trucks to the US is yet another reason to kill quash this program.

I encourage all environmentally conscious people to contact their Senators and Representatives to stop this program before it starts next month.