Honestly, I think that the reason that diesel has such a hard time here is that the regulators now who are making the rules were kids in the 1970s when diesel cars in the US were crappy, smoky, smelly monsters, and thus the attitudes against diesel were cemented in their empty heads.

"Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed." Clarkson on the Mondeo.