Government creates problems – and then takes credit for “solving” them.
We have the obvious example of the “pandemic” that it created (in the lab) and then used – to “solve” the problem of people laboring under the idea that their freedom to leave their homes and go about their business was conditional upon government allowing them to.
Here’s another:
The government has made diesel engines – which used to be simple, rugged engines that could burn almost any combustible oil – into delicate and finicky engines that do not work well unless fed a strict diet of highly refined diesel, a fuel that also used to be simple (and inexpensive for that reason) before government got around to “regulating” it.
Mix the two together and – voila! – you have a problem that government is getting ready to solve.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Administration is “probing” reports of Bosch-made high-pressure fuel pumps used in a number of diesel-powered vehicles, including Ram 2500/3500 trucks with the Cummins 6.7 liter turbodiesel six as well as diesel-powered Ram 1500s, Jeep Gladiators and Cherokees and older (2014-2018) diesel-powered BMWs such as the 3 and 5 Series sedans and the X3 crossover (none of the latter BMWs are still available with diesel engines in the United States, because the government has made it all-but-impossible to offer diesel engines in anything except vehicles classified as trucks).
The stated problem has to do with the fuel, which “leads to increased slip and eventual particle-generating wear surface” within the pump, resulting in stalling, loss of power and other problems.
The actual problem is government-mandated modern diesel engines – which are electronically rather than mechanically injected and very persnickety about fuel. Which diesels did not used to be and which was one of the main attractions of diesel engines when they could still be fueled with anything from strained french fry oil to diesel oil that had been sitting in a jug for the past three years and burn it without problems.
Of course, that was a problem – for a government that does not want ordinary people to have and drive simple, durable vehicles that use little fuel and can use almost any fuel. It is why there has been a kind of jihad against the diesel engine, especially in passenger cars as these presented a problem – from the government’s point-of-view – for the government’s pushing of electric cars. Having $23k diesel-powered cars available such as were made by VW that had a range of 600 or more miles in between five-minute fill-ups was not going to help sales of $43k electric cars with ranges of less than half that (if it’s not too cold or hot out).
Diesel-powered vehicles (the older, simpler ones) also had the problem of lasting too long. Neither the government nor the car industry that is becoming indistinguishable from its adjunct wants people to have new cars that will last 20 years or longer before they need to buy another car.
So they made diesels more expensive and finicky – and diesel fuel more expensive. This latter eliminating the problem of diesel fuel having been historically less expensive, reducing the cost to fuel on top of the diesel engine’s being less expensive to run.
Now the complex and finicky diesels that the government put under the hood are having problems as a result of the fuel government put in their tanks. And government has the solution . . .
Even lower sulfur diesel fuel. 
The fuel is already ultra-low-sulfur (ULSD) so one wonders how much lower-sulfur it can get. Well, leave it to government to solve that problem – at our expense, of course. The solution is to adopt Euro-diesel standards and cut the sulfur allowable in diesel fuel sold here to 10 parts per million (ppm) as opposed to the allowable 15 ppm under the current “rules” – which the government enforces.
Well, how much is this going to cost us? We can get an idea by referencing what diesel costs in Europe. How’s about just shy of $8 per gallon grab you? It makes buying a $43k EeeeeVeeee seem almost sensible, doesn’t it?
And that’s just what government wants you to think. 
The Owned Press, meanwhile, doesn’t want you to think about the fundamental problem, which is government. It is well-paid to try to get you to think the problem is “bad” diesel rather than evil policies that have made diesel fuel everything it wasn’t and the same goes for diesel-powered vehicles, which used to be the more-efficient, money-saving alternative to gas-engined vehicles.
Now – courtesy of government – they cost more, are less reliable, more expensive to maintain and more expensive to fuel, while only offering a marginal efficiency gain relative to gas engines.
There is of course a solution to this problem, which could be remedied very quickly. But it would take someone standing up to government. Or the very least, pointing out that this is a problem of government.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My eBook about car buying (new and used) is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at [email protected] and I will send you a copy directly!
A real life example of my time in Pakistan, a family friend once went off and bought a top spec Land Rover Discovery, with the diesel engine and paid a fortune to have it imported to Pakistan to travel around and do some off-roading. Unfortunately it had never ending problems – why – because the engine (this was a Euro 5 engine about 15 years ago) required an extremely high grade of fuel, which apart from the nicer parts of the big cities was never available there !! Further, in many parts of Balochistan and Sindh (about as middle of nowhere as you can get in the world), most of the diesel is actually “illegal” black market diesel, often sold by a guy on the side of the road with a a drum, smuggled over by bootleggers from Iran or Afghanistan. They actually pour it in with a jug and a funnel 😂😂😂 (with this guy turning up in a shiny new landrover costing well over 100k after import duties in Pakistan). After a brief period with that car – he went off and got a proper toyota hilux !!
Now, the European manufactures have stopped selling diesels in Pakistan simply because they could not deal with the slightest impurity in the fuel, and kept causing constant issues!!
I have a vehicle with the aforementioned high pressure fuel pump recalls that ive been waiting a year for the part and still cant get it. I love my 3.0 diesel in my trailhawk jeep. I hear folks having a lot of problems with their fuel systems with this engine. I was also the first few thousand miles, a lot of regen, etc…i started using hotshot fuel additive and getting diesel from stations that have a high turnover of diesel and i havent had a regen in years. Im at 50k and my fuel pump hasnt failed. Although it feels like ive lost a little power and maybe a mile per gallon on the highway. When these psychos screw things up enough, we will reinvent diesel and maybe with a hybrid, but it will destroy the world if diesel were abandoned. Nothing will replace it until maybe hydrogen, a long way down the road, but all over asia/asia pacific and other countries and trans-Atlantic/Pacific shipping rely on it.
Reading Jalopnik much?
They suck.
They’re always pulling that stuff. They never stop.
Gerald Celente asks one pertinent question: Who the fuck are you?
With the correct tonal inflection, no doubt about it.
Complete pains in the ass is what they are, so there.
Build and manufacture Rudolf Diesel’s original diesel engine and grow peanuts to make it go.
It will cost peanuts.
There are no problems, only solutions.
To make your point about absurd diesel engine overregulation, you’ve gone all in on the theory that the government created the “one virus” in a lab? That’s quite a leap.
Hi Funk,
I used the “gain of function” example to make the point, which I hope cane out ok!
This entire JR piece is worth reading as it explains why “lab leaks’ and “gain of function” are fraudulent.
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2021/05/31/wuhan-lab-bioweapon-gain-of-function-but-the-virus-doesnt-exist/
Here’s a snippet:
For those people who not only claim SARS-CoV-2 was tweaked or invented in a Wuhan lab, but was made deadly there…they should consider the extraordinary lengths to which public health officials have gone to FALSELY pump up COVID case and death numbers.
None of that pumping would be necessary if an actual PANDEMIC virus existed and were loose in the world.
During the past year, I’ve covered all the criminal schemes to inflate case numbers. To cite just one scheme: Running the PCR test at an unconscionably high sensitivity has automatically created millions and millions of “positive COVID cases.” In concert with this fraud, the CDC has changed its definition of “a case,” so people who test positive but remain healthy with no symptoms can be counted as “COVID cases.” [4] [4a] [4b
—-
I think you can relate to this one. The whole “one virus” story is a lie. Lab leaks and gain of function make it seem otherwise. Rand Paul embarrasses himself when he traffics in this BS.
And if you think that is BS, the PCR tests are, as well. Founder Kary Mullis flat-out said that his PCR tests were NOT to be used to diagnose, because they were too sensitive. He said that you could test positive for anything you wanted, if you increased the cycle threshold high enough. It is why most hospitals used a CT of 30-45….high enough to test positive for COVID. Mullis also had no problems with lambasting Fauci for being an idiot, and not having a clue about real science. Conveniently, Mullis died August of 2019, right before the COVID crap hit. The whole thing has been one big lie. Will people recognize the next pandemic (and bend over) that Bill Gates is promising is coming? We may not have long to find out, if Gates has his way…
The diesel engine is a beautiful thing, at least it was. I’ve got a 60 year old tractor on the place that got parked about 6 years ago because the diesel engine was about the only thing that still worked. It had been ridden hard when I bought it 30 years ago (for $1800), and I didn’t let up on it. I would bet a paycheck that If I put clean fuel in it, and a new battery, it would start up and do a days work, if the rest of the tractor worked.
It appears the entire world has completely forgotten the KISS principal, along with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Every thing was working OK until the Psychopaths In Charge decided that a slightly possible serious future climate change was more important than feeding ourselves now. A question of priority, and they have no concept of that.
what once was great has been destroyed by government
Hey Mr. Kable,
I recently bought a nearly 40 year old backhoe, and most of it still works! I am happy about the old diesel at its heart, as I can always power it with vegetable oil or the like, in the event of a supply crimp or whatever apocalypse might make commercial diesel entirely unavailable.
I’m about to use that iron dinosaur to shape my land to my will, and ecstatic about it!
Low sulphur diesel has less lubrication….to solve that problem I would add 4 ounces of 2 cycle engine oil and 2 ounces of acetone and sometimes 2 ounces of power service additive to every 15 gallons of diesel…for cleaning and lubrication… in my diesel engined cars
Yep. The TDI guys all said to use Power Service white with every fill-up because VW would always blame the driver using “bad fuel” for failed fuel pumps. There were a few attempts to get a class action started but never really got going. Then dieselgate pretty much ended all that anyway.
I remember it was always a PITA because it stank and the fuel filler inlet was at an odd angle so you had to use a funnel. And you only needed a few ounces so inevitably the bottle would leak and drip and then stink up the car on the way home.
“There is of course a solution to this problem, which could be remedied very quickly” Eric
Eliminate government. There ya go!
The best government is no government or at least extremely small.
Maybe even privately owned instead of corporate owned. There is not one thing the state can do that free enterprise cannot do cheaper, and better.
No government, no corporations. Only partnerships as investments. Where only people are “people”.
If govco is so concerned about inflation they wouldn’t be doing something that will drive up transportation costs for shipping basically everything. Guess who’s going to pay those extra costs- all of us serfs, proving this is a feature not a bug. Another tightening of the choke collar the elitists have on us.
Govco is most definitely NOT concerned with inflation, since the secondary cause IS govco. The primary being fiat currency. Creating inflation is the only reason to use it. Of course govco is responsible for the use of fiat currency as well, so I guess govco owns it all.
If they were concerned, we would be back to a Gold standard long ago.
You nailed it Eric. I’m wondering if the asian manuf. have finally caught up to our insane competition-limiting Tier4 emission standards, and they need to move the goal posts again?
Tier 4 standards have finally impacted our little niche market of diesel powered equipment as well. Costs increases roughly $10K on a $50K product and has limited our products avail. performance range by 30% as well. We now have to put ‘disclaimers’ all over the machine “do not operate below 1400rpm, etc…” or the particulate filter will clog, etc….
So now the Contractors need TWO pieces of equipment to do the same job one did only a few years ago. And most of them are not up-to-speed on Regs, etc… and complain about it.
The amount of these products used in the USA compared to all diesels is less than 1%. Sorta like making manuf. put catalytic converters on motorcycles.
All of this is f-n insane and all of us pay more and more and more, and now it seems exponentially.
Many American-Marxists-Idiots would say it’s easy…just remove another 5PPM of evil sulfur and it’s done, and clean for the environment. Then real world has the law of chasing diminishing returns. Rule of thumb is to do most endeavors, the first 80% takes 20% of the total effort, the last 20% takes 80% of the total effort. In a waste treatment plant regulation being enforced in North Idaho the government increased the removal requirement of phosphates from PPM to PPT which normally cost in the low $1-2MM to treat to more than 10-fold increase $10-20MM to treat. For what benefit vs the cost?
Hi Hans, probably just make-work to keep the ponzi scheme going.
Chris and Hans,
Cousin Joe needs a job. Here’s one!
The problem being, the Psychopaths In Charge have no connection to reality. So the law of diminishing returns has no meaning for them. ANY return suits their psychotic desires.
That’s not their problem Hans. That’s up to engineering to figure out.
Cost for it? That’s up to accounting. And pricing it? That’s marketing’s problem.
And selling it? Well, that’s not government’s problem either, that’s up to sales.
Paying for it? Well, you better get a job because the banks aren’t writing up NINJA loans anymore.
Get rid of Diesel and you get rid of agriculture, construction, shipping, etc. There in seems to be the goal.
Hi Mike,
Of course that’s the goal, though they’ll use the excuse “Cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate Change”. In fact, the Epoch Times reported this morning that the Biden Thing’s climate czar, John Kerry, says they’re going to have MORE executive orders to deal with “Climate change”. Kerry didn’t specify what those EOs might be, but given what they’re already pushing, it could be anything such as a decree that ALL Americans MUST eat bugs, give up their gas powered vehicles, seizing MORE money from Americans, or even a war on farmers like what we saw in The Netherlands and elsewhere. They’ve already announced that they’re targeting not just gas stoves, but washing machines AND air conditioners, once again using “Cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate change” as the excuse, but of course, they’ll continue flying around in private jets and living in multimillion dollar McMansions that have YUUUUUUUUGE carbon footprints.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/28/oxford-climate-activists-setting-up-illegal-roadblocks/
Ever since the mandate for ULSD about 15 years ago, I have believed the agenda has been laid bare that the feds want to get rid of diesels altogether. The idiotic “dieselgate” scandal that was meaningless except as a way of shaming VW and any other manufacturers who had dared to continue developing diesel technology only deepened my understanding of this plan. More recently the diesel semi truck age limit imposed in California merely represents a continuation of the trend. We can’t have simple, efficient, powerful, and proven technology distract us from the monomaniacal focus on what Uncle Sam wants.
This is not so much nudging as it is ham-fisted regulating something out of existence, something that consumers were choosing. This is the same playbook used in the pandemic to effectively outlaw truly safe and effective alternative treatments to the more expensive, less safe, and less effective option favored by the midwit rulers in power and their handlers.
They aren’t midwits, they are effing insane.
hey john…5 comments on this post….posting too much?….lol…I made one short comment…and you are bitching….lol
I never accused you of posting too much. My intent was to point out that many of your posts take up half the comment space, and often more space than the article you are commenting on. Which discourages readers from reading through them. Me for instance. Ergo, shorter more to the point comments will get you more reading. Giving you advice, not criticism. Take it or leave it.
Diesels are too good. Can’t make money on plenty.
These guys act like communists in public, but are happy to see their gains from their hedge funds trading UHN and BOIL off of O’Biden’s fossil fuel Holodomor.