The California Air Resources Board has just published their emissions testing results for the '09 Volkswagen Jetta TDI clean diesel, according to a poster on PriusChat.com. The data is a little too complex to decipher quickly. But the gist is that while the Jetta TDI is 50-state legal and has much cleaner emissions than diesels past, it's not as clean as today's ULEV and SULEV-rated vehicles.

The Jetta TDI gives enthusiasts hope that the green revolution will still allow for fun-to-drive cars, especially ones with a manual transmission. The TDI does get excellent fuel economy—30 mpg city and 41 mpg highway—even if it's not as good as VW had originally promised, and even if diesel is more expensive than regular gas these days. I'm going to continue following and posting everything I can find, since the VW TDI is the first clean diesel car to be available in anything resembling a normal price range for most buyers. (The Mercedes BlueTECs are nice, but not everyone has $50k for an SUV.)

You can find the full Jetta TDI emissions report at this link.