fuel quality standards (was: scirocco & aztec)

[foxxinabox at wideopenwest.com (Foxx (in a box))]

 >The states already has the TDI - or at least most of them do, anyways.
 >There are lots of other issues with North American fuel besides its
 >(still too high although dramatically reduced, sulphur content.)
 >Cetane value, for one, is a minimum of 50 in Europe - however it's
 >only a minimum of 35 in North America.  Although we did get the 1.9 PD
 >(pumpe deuse) TDI, with its increased hp, torque and efficiency this
 >past year, and the 2.0 TDI is
 >supposedly in the Passat for 2005, VW must detune their diesel
 >powerplants to run propoerly on our crappy fuel.

   this, and the current price of fuel, got me thinking. i hear all the 
time that gas prices are so high is because they have to formulate it 
for different regions. i understand that california had tougher 
emissions standards than, say, north dakota, but my question is why not 
make one formula of gas that meets the toughest emissions standards and 
sell that everywhere. seems to me, then, that more cars would be burning 
cleaner fuel and that gas prices would drop. i'm surely missing 
something somewhere, but until i get more info, seems to me that this 
would be the way to go.

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