A Few Magic Words

Things happen. I was going to give you an editorial about fuel taxes and what a-gasp-mistake it would be for governments to whack them. Taxes don’t drive spikes at the pumps, crude oil prices do. And crude prices are up for two reasons: oil suppliers made a conscious decision to curtail production, and demand for oil is high. If the government wants to cut my taxes, they can have at my income and business taxes. Heck, at least fuel taxes are fixed. As pump prices rise, taxes actually constitute a lower and lower proportionate cost to you. It’s little consolation, but that’s economics.

Enough of that. This month, space demanded that we cut a sidebar to Rolf Lockwood’s story on diesel engines. Holdovers like this end up in the middle drawer of a filing cabinet in the office two doors down until we can accommodate them later. But, in light of what’s happening with the price of fuel, one person I interviewed for the sidebar told a story I didn’t want to relegate to editorial purgatory.

About four months ago I was visited by a tactfully persistent and completely likeable guy named Roman Kulesza, who operates a consulting business from his home in King City, Ont. He was downstairs in the lobby with a product he wanted to introduce me to, a device that uses magnetic technology (magnetohydrodynamics, or MHD, I was told) to control mineral scale buildup in tubes, pipes, and hoses that carry fluid.

These magnets-made by a company called ENECON in New York City-are primarily used in industrial settings as a descaler for water, Roman said. But on a diesel engine, the magnets deliver a positive charge to the hydrocarbon fuel molecules. The result, he claimed, is a more complete burn, the byproducts of which are better fuel economy and reduced emissions.

Now, about twice a year someone shows up here with a pouch of aluminum pellets or a magic elixir to help your engine do more work on less fuel. They lay out a passel of mostly unverifiable testimonials and field trial results from South Africa or Brazil, if they get upstairs at all.

I told Roman I wasn’t really interested in his $300 magnets, although they seemed harmless enough to try: at least you’re just clamping the device to your fuel line and not drilling any holes. What I wanted to know was how the truck and city taxi fleets he sees react when he knocks on their door. I wanted to hear how he handles the chilly receptions to his cold calls.

“It’s odd,” he began. “Some people have seen lots of smoke and mirrors over the years and lump me in with the rest of them. Magnetic technologies have been around for a long time, but they haven’t been strong enough to make a difference. I try to educate people. I’m up-front about the limitations of the product: the effectiveness depends a lot on fluid velocity. And it actually works better on older engines.”

When a door gets slammed shut, Roman persists.

“It’s not hard to find people who seem interested in saving fuel and reducing emissions,” he said. “They listen to what I have to say, they seem to understand, and then at the end they ask one question: Who else is using it? It’s as though they figure that as long as their competition is absorbing the same high fuel costs as they are, they’re content. It’s a strange attitude, considering the margins they work with.”

Some prospects want to try before they buy. “They say, ‘Let me tell you whether it works.’ That’s great. That’s a positive step to me,” Roman explained. “I ask them to show me their current fuel records so we can outline some benchmarks. And the conversation stops. You’d be surprised how few people actually can produce detailed fuel records. It’s hard to run a test when you can’t set a baseline.”

I can’t say whether Roman’s magnets belong on a fuel line any more than they do a refrigerator (call him yourself, if you want: 905/833-7529). But I think there’s a bell-clear ring of truth to the guy’s observations about the costs his prospects are willing to absorb and how they manage those costs. At a time when folks are howling madly for fuel tax cuts, I thought his words were worth repeating.