According to the Edmunds website, diesel fuel engines have traditionally been seen as more fuel efficient and longer lasting than their gasoline counterparts. The image of diesel engines has always been of high pollution rates.
The U.S. Government's Environmental Protection Agency reports its ratings on emissions from gasoline and diesel fuels is based on the amounts of carbon emitted when the fuel is vaporized. Carbon content from 1 gallon of fuel is used to determine average CO2 emissions.
The EPA lists the average CO2 emissions from 1 gallon of gasoline as 19.4 pounds of carbon. The average carbon emission from 1 gallon of diesel fuel is listed as 22.2 pounds of carbon.
The Green Car website reports diesel fuel engines are popular in various parts of the world, including Europe in 2010 because of their low levels of fuel usage. Compared with the energy produced by diesel engines, gasoline fuel engines only produce a comparable amount of between 85 and 87 percent BTUs of energy.
