Diesel Fuel

If you think your thesis in college was grueling, try this out: Take a go-kart and modify its engine so it can run on both diesel fuel and used cooking oil, the kind with chunks of fried stuff in it. But that's not all. For a handful of Naval Academy seniors trying to complete their "capstone" mechanical engineering project, the challenge requires them to build an engine that can power the go-cart on diesel fuel from their engineering building to the...

Federal agents said yesterday they have solved the mystery of the suspicious briefcase that prompted the evacuation of the U.S. District Courthouse in Baltimore Thursday afternoon.The briefcase was stolen from an IRS agent. Its contents -- a plastic device, a wire and vials -- are used to test diesel fuel to make sure truckers have paid highway excise taxes.The mystery began Thursday, when someone spotted the briefcase on a bench of the courthouse plaza along Lombard Street. Security officers reviewed videotape of the plaza, which showed a man placing the briefcase on the bench, opening it and closing it quickly before running off.Baltimore bomb squad officers X-rayed the briefcase.

A tractor-trailer spilled diesel fuel along 12 miles of northern Harford County roads Tuesday, forcing cleanup crews to replace 300 feet of Castleton Road.Castleton was closed about 9 a.m. Tuesday between Glen Cove Road and Smith Road in Darlington and remained closed yesterday, state police said."We have never had an incident like this, where we had to close down a road for so long," said Cpl. Clarence Ross of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, a member of the county's Department of Emergency Operations Hazardous Materials Team.

WASHINGTON -- It may not be immediately apparent to anyone who has not recently taken a close look at the pumps at filling stations, but since Jan. 1, the government has required that diesel fuel be sold in three colors.The colors are part of a new effort by two federal agencies and Congress to clean the air and collect fuel taxes.For the government, it is simpler. For everyone else, it is far more confusing.Consider: Highway vehicles must burn expensive clear diesel, except for government cars and trucks, local buses and vehicles owned by disparate groups like aircraft museums, nonprofit schools and the American Red Cross.

Diesel fuel spill stops I-95 trafficSouthbound traffic on Interstate 95 near Aberdeen came to a standstill for two hours Wednesday as firefighters, police and a hazardous material team contained a spill of 75 to 100 gallons of diesel fuel.A tractor-trailer changing lanes struck a second tractor-trailer merging from the shoulder into the slow lane just north of Route 22 about 6:30 p.m., state police said.The impact ruptured a tank on the truck driven by Jerome McKeiver Jr., 52, of Ocean City, N.J. He was charged with failing to stay in his lane, police said.

The Baltimore Sun gave the city $25,000 yesterday to settle an environmental group's claim that the newspaper broke a federal law by failing to report its storage of dangerous chemicals.The check, handed to Baltimore Fire Chief Herman Williams, is earmarked for the city's cash-strapped emergency planning for dealing with chemical leaks or fires.Environmental Action Foundation of Takoma Park, which had threatened to sue The Sun last year, said the settlement was the first of several it hopes to negotiate.

Here's a New Year's jolt for drivers of trucks, buses and cars that run on diesel fuel: Beginning today, be prepared to pay more at the pump in Maryland.The state's tax on diesel fuel today rose 2 1/2 cents to 21.75 cents a gallon from 19.25 cents a gallon under a law passed by the General Assembly last year.The increase is part of a 5-cent boost in motor fuel taxes that the legislature approved in April to help finance highway and transit improvements across the state.Before diesel consumers bemoan the tax increase, take note: Automobile drivers and other gasoline buyers have been paying the full 5-cent increase since May 1 when the state gasoline tax jumped to 23.5 cents a gallon from 18.5 cents a gallon.

Two injured as truck crashes into riverTwo trash haulers were injured slightly yesterday morning in Northwest Howard County when the truck they were in overturned and dumped diesel and hydraulic oil into the Patuxent River.The truck's driver, Charles Mickle, 26, of Gaithersburg, and passenger David Bird, 24, of Berkeley Springs, W.Va., were taken by ambulance to Montgomery General Hospital, said Battalion Chief Donald R. Howell, spokesman for Howard County Fire and Rescue Services. Both were treated and released.

The cleanup of 5,230 gallons of diesel fuel spilled Sunday from an underground storage tank near Hanover will continue throughout the week, a state official said yesterday.Fuel flowed into a marsh and Deep Run, a tributary of the Patapsco River, after vandals flooded a 10,000-gallon reserve fuel tank at the Weyerhaeuser Paper Co. with water, said Fire Department spokesman Capt. Gary Sheckells.Residents whose homes abut the creek notified police and fire officials Sunday afternoon, complaining about the diesel fumes.

Counterproductive Luxury TaxEditor: In the name of making rich people bear their share of balancing the federal budget, Congress last fall enacted a luxury tax on new boats. The result has been a disaster for the U.S. boat building industry. More than 20,000 people are out of work, boat yards are going bankrupt and communities which depend upon boat building are in depression.Congress has an opportunity in the closing weeks of this session to right the grievous wrong it made a year ago. It can repeal that tax and enact a more broadly based excise on marine diesel fuel, which presently carries no federal tax.The rationale for the luxury boat tax was that if you taxed the things rich people buy, then you automatically taxed the rich.

At least 70 Baltimore police patrol cars were sidelined because of an apparent problem at the city fuel pump over the weekend. Officials said the cars, which represent roughly a third of the Police Department's patrol strength at any given time, broke down because of problems with the fuel. Tests were being conducted to determine the precise problem, but officials say they were looking into whether the gas station's unleaded tank might have been filled with diesel fuel. Khalil Zaied, director of general services, said the cars first began sputtering and stalling out Sunday afternoon, and by 5 p.m. the city realized it had a larger problem on its hands and began diverting vehicles from the 24-hour, city-run Fallsway substation.

CORDOVA - On his family's 3,000-acre farm near Easton, Bobby Hutchison has been monitoring an office computer every 15 minutes for updates on Chicago commodities markets. But lately, it seems he ought to be checking the cost of diesel fuel and fertilizer nearly as often. The Hutchisons and other Eastern Shore farmers have been deciding how much land to devote to corn - a crop that is commanding $6 a bushel, triple the price it fetched just a couple years ago. On the flip side, though, is the soaring price of diesel fuel that keeps a fleet of tractors and combines rumbling.

Exxon Mobil reported the second-best quarterly profit in its history yesterday - and investors could barely hide their disappointment. Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said its net income rose 17 percent in the first quarter, buoyed by high oil prices. But that was less than Wall Street expected, and Exxon's shares fell 3.6 percent, to close at $89.70. Moreover, the company's report displayed fresh difficulties in its core business, with oil production dropping sharply compared with the quarter a year earlier.

After years of providing discounted diesel fuel and repairs for Head Start buses, Howard County officials have told the nonprofit the practice must end, raising fears that increased costs will hamper educational programs for 264 children from low-income households. The announcement came in a letter from a top county official that gave Head Start a one-week notice. The notice angered parents of Head Start children and the chairman of the county's Community Action Council board, which administers the $1.8 million-a-year program.

If you think your thesis in college was grueling, try this out: Take a go-kart and modify its engine so it can run on both diesel fuel and used cooking oil, the kind with chunks of fried stuff in it. But that's not all. For a handful of Naval Academy seniors trying to complete their "capstone" mechanical engineering project, the challenge requires them to build an engine that can power the go-cart on diesel fuel from their engineering building to the...

If you think your thesis in college was grueling, try this out: Take a go-kart and modify its engine so it can run on both diesel fuel and used cooking oil, the kind with chunks of fried stuff in it. But that's not all. For a handful of Naval Academy seniors trying to complete their "capstone" mechanical engineering project, the challenge requires them to build an engine that can power the go-cart on diesel fuel from their engineering building to the...

Most of the diesel fuel being produced nationwide is now a low-sulfur variety that will sharply cut pollution by trucks and buses - a change that federal officials are calling the biggest clean-fuel advance since unleaded gasoline. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said in a teleconference yesterday that ultra-low sulfur diesel now makes up about 90 percent of the output of U.S. refiners - exceeding the 80 percent standard the industry was required to meet by Sunday. The rule, proposed by the Clinton administration and implemented by the Bush administration, is the culmination of an environmental "Dump Dirty Diesel" campaign that began in New York more than a decade ago with ads on transit buses.

Cleanup continued yesterday after a docked push-boat sank off Havre de Grace on Tuesday night, spilling about 100 gallons of diesel fuel into the Chesapeake Bay, according to the Coast Guard. The leak was noticed as a dredging company attempted to raise the 25-foot craft, which sank near Millard E. Tydings Memorial Park. Booms set up to contain the spill failed, the Coast Guard said. State environmental officials said the spill was minor.

Each day before Dave Goldstein walks out the door of his Gaithersburg home and climbs into the front seat of his 1981 Mercury Lynx, he remembers to bring along a stack of papers with written answers to the questions he invariably gets from curious bystanders. "How fast can it go?" "How far?" "Where can I get one?" Ah, the joys of owning an electric car. Though Goldstein is one of fewer than 100 motorists in Maryland who are driving electric cars, he's feeling pretty good these days, because he doesn't have to worry about high gas prices.

More than 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel that began contaminating a small stream and surrounding soil near Piney Run Park in Sykesville more than a year ago has prompted a remediation effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Samples tested have determined that the leak is No. 2 diesel fuel, often used in heating oil, said Charles Fitzsimmons, on-site coordinator for the EPA. The agency installed a dam last spring to block further spillage into the unnamed creek that is downstream from Piney Run Lake, a potential drinking water source for Carroll County.