Lebanon to export diesel pollution, leave big problems Un-fixed

Diesel Fuel News, July 22, 2002

Lebanon's Parliament last week voted to buy diesel taxis and minibuses from their operators, then export the old vehicles. But new discussions could lead to imports of cleaner "green" diesel fuel and possibly exhaust catalyst schemes. Lebanon's taxi/minibus drivers have been striking due to the government's ban on black-smoke belching dirty-diesel vehicles that run on cheap heating oil.

Ironically, large trucks, large buses and military vehicles are exempt from the ban, much to the disgust of environmental advocates, a report from Jordan Times/AFP noted last week. Meantime, The Daily Star (Beirut) editorialized that the government's diesel ban was poorly thought-out. "The government's ham-handed dealing with the diesel issue, naturally, has raised the ire of industrialists, who have incurred massive losses in part because our politicians forgot that some 'luxury' goods, like bread, are delivered by diesel-powered vehicles," the Star said. Howeve r, the newspaper was skeptical that clean-diesel fuel and catalyst use could be policed properly in Lebanon.