The Sulfur in Diesel Fuel Regulations will diminish the level of diesel fuel used in on-road vehicles to a maximum of 15 parts per million (ppm), a 95 percent reduction from the current limit of 500 ppm. The new regulations, Anderson says, will significantly reduce air pollution in combination with other rigorous vehicle emissions requirements to be proposed early next year.

"Canada is following on what the [Environmental Protection Agency] has done, by regulations they passed in January," Bruce McEwen of Environment Canada told the Earth Times. It is also following standards imposed by the United States for the same reduction, in attempt to align emissions reductions on both sides of the border.

Canada signed the ozone annex with the US last year, in which both nations committed to reduce smog-causing pollutants that create disastrous health and environmental problems. Oddly enough, it comes at a time when the Bush administration is imposing a policy that will leave the highest polluting industries free from regulations established under the Clean Air Act of 1977 in the US.

The new regulation requires a complete turnover of diesel supplies, and the introduction of advanced emission control systems for buses, trucks and other on-road vehicles using diesel engines.

"It's going to cost a lot to take sulfur from the fuels, of course," maintained McEwen. "How much those costs will affect the market in the long run I don't know--we'll just have to wait and see."

The new 15 ppm limit will come into effect in 2006, he said, to allow for refineries to make the necessary changes. In the Arctic regions, the limit on sales will occur a year later to accommodate "logistical difficulties" in the far north.

Developers of regulations for vehicles and equipment say the initiative is meant to correspond with "phase two" of the standards for on-road light vehicles, which will come into effect in 2004.

The government eventually intends to impose tougher standards on off-road vehicles as well, including snowblowers, lawnmowers and portable generators. A proposal for such utility engines and gasoline-run equipment will be made in about two years, said a regulations developer for off-road vehicles with Environment Canada, who wished to remain unnamed.

While alternative fuel sources have also been discussed, the government is concentrating on emissions reductions at this time because the use of alternative resources tend to involve complicated underlying factors. Biodiesel, McEwen said, is an option often favored by the government, but it is also "kind of a chicken or egg situation. It usually depends on the government. The thing is always [whether] there is enough demand for it to be worth increasing the supply."

Another factor, he said, is the long term cost-benefit analysis of such an option. "We would have to look at the crop calling, manage transport of the fuel, determine the economic impacts--we can't just look at the effects on emissions." However beneficial those might be.