HOUSTON — Amid talk of cars powered by everything from ethanol to electricity to hydrogen, one oil company is betting big on another alternative fuel: diesel.

Marathon Oil Corp. is beginning construction of a $3.2 billion addition to its largest refinery, in Garyville, La. The current facility, like most U.S. refineries, makes about twice as much gasoline as diesel. The addition, which Marathon expects to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2009, will crank out roughly equal amounts of both.

The UK has Keeley Hazell and now another diesel option to drive too…….it’s just not fair. Both would be more than welcome in the US……..and could even stay at my house if they wanted. More jokes could be made from there, but I’ll just let you get on to reading the article from yorkpress.co.uk.

Land Rover dealerships will open their doors this weekend to showcase the latest addition to the Freelander 2 range - the 2.2-litre diesel automatic.

Customers interested in purchasing a Freelander 2 will have the opportunity to test the latest model, which features the same six-speed automatic transmission as the 3.2-litre i6 petrol Freelander 2, complete with Land Rover’s CommandShift for manual sequential gearchanging and a sports mode for more spirited driving.

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A press release from Strategy Analytics Inc, my favorite phrase in it is “better-than-hybrids highway fuel economy”. I’m glad people are starting to fully realize hybrids aren’t living up to the hype, and that people are seeing diesel as a profit-making strategy.

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Strategy Analytics Automotive Electronics Service report, “Diesel Challenges Hybrids in the US,” shows upside potential for new diesel technologies allied with the availability of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel in generating increased light-duty diesel vehicle sales across the US.

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From Cnet.com
Feast your eyes on this, car technology and high-mileage nuts. It’s a Honda Accord that runs on diesel.

Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as “clean” as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city).

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Congratulations to Mercedes Benz for unveiling the first GTL diesel powered vehicles.

MB has built a pair of M-Class SUV oilburners to run this new revolutionary technology. I’m not sure if oilburners is a valid term for this now? To those that haven’t heard of GTL, it stands for Gas-To-Liquid which is basically the process of converting natural gas into a liquid form to be run in diesel engines. The benefit of this is that there are no shortages or worries of shortages of natural gas unlike crude oil. In fact some in Europe and Africa may have already experienced GTL. Shell is blending GTL into its V-Power premium diesel, but hasn’t really made it known as of yet.

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From UPI

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 24 (UPI) — An innovative methodology developed by U.S. government scientists might help speed reformulated diesel fuels to market.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently patented the reformulation technology developed at its Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The reformulated fuels are expected to result in less air pollution, while saving consumers an estimated $3.6 billion during the expected 12-year product impact period.

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From justauto.com

GM plans to trial biodiesel B30 with one of its key fleet customers using two van models, including the British-built Vivaro. The biodiesel B30-compatible models use the existing 2.0 CDTI Vivaro and 2.5 CDTI 100PS and 120PS Movano engines, and offer up to 20% fewer CO2 emissions on a ’source to wheels’ basis compared to the standard Euro 4-compliant diesel units.

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From allafrica.com

A LIQUID that resembles diesel has been oozing out of a rock at the summit of a hill near Chinhoyi Caves.

The “diesel”, which is suspected to be a result of petroleum sipping through the dolomite and lime caves of the mountainous region, was discovered some time last year by local people.

CMED (Private) Limited has sunk a pipe into an opening at the site and erected a tank to collect the liquid.

CMED managing director Mr Davison Mhaka yesterday confirmed that samples of the “diesel” had been tested and found to be purer than the diesel currently being used in motor vehicles.

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- Capello & McNish extend LM P1 championship lead in ultra-close finish for overall honours
- Audi scores 1-2 LM P1 class win on R10 TDI Houston début

Dindo Capello (Italy) and Allan McNish (Scotland) have achieved another LM P1 class victory but came so close to an overall win. The reigning American Le Mans Series champions drove their diesel-engined Audi R10 TDI home in to third position overall - first in LM P1 - in the fourth round of this year’s series in Houston (US State of Texas), the top-three covered by a mere 1.341secs. The reigning ALMS LM P1 champions started the #1 Audi from the front row for the fourth round - the third consecutive “street” race - after missing pole by 0.006secs to the lighter LM P2 #9 Acura. Organisers dictated a “single file” start but McNish swept ahead entering Turn 1 - handing to Capello with a 14secs lead after 54mins.

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Alright today is hippy day, also known as April 22nd or Earth Day. In honor of Earth Day it’s time for everyone to go out and plant a tree or get rid of those energy wasting incandescent light bulbs. Checkout this Greenpeace demonstration to get their point across that incandescent is an EVIL energy waster!

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