After intense legal infighting, Brazil has unveiled a schedule for cutting sulfur concentrations in diesel fuels and introducing lower-emission diesel buses and trucks. Environmentalists complain the complex, six-year phase-in of lower-sulfur fuels is too gradual, unduly compromising air quality and public health. But officials who negotiated the deal with the state oil company Petrobras, vehicle manufacturers and other stakeholders stand by the accord. “With the agreement, pollution levels will drop, especially in metropolitan areas, even if not as quickly as we and others would have liked,” says São Paulo federal prosecutor Ana Cristina Bandeira Lins. “Given the situation, we got the best deal we could.” Under the deal, Petrobras will lower the sulfur content in the two diesel fuels sold here... [Log in to read more]