China Pays a Price for Cheaper Oil By KEITH BRADSHER: Many refineries in China are buying cheaper high-sulfur crude,

and turning it into fuels that may contain many times more sulfur than the gasoline and diesel sold in the United States or Europe.

Environmentalists call sulfur the world's biggest single contributor to air pollution. It forms noxious gases like sulfur oxides, and it causes diesel engines to spew more soot. And high-sulfur fuel quickly ruins the catalytic converters installed on new gasoline-powered cars, defeating one of the main efforts in countries like China to cut down on the harm that vehicles do to air quality.