The Volkswagen Air Pollution Emissions Litigation

• Date: 01 July 2016

46 ELR 10564 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 7-2016

The Volkswagen Air Pollution

Emissions Litigation

by Arnold W. Reitze Jr.

Arnold Reitze is Professor of Law at S.J. Quinney College of Law and a member of the Utah Air Quality Board.

I. The Volkswagen Revelations

On September 18, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protec-

tion Agency (EPA) announced that 482,000 Volkswa-

gen diesel engine vehicles sold in the United States were

programmed to pass emissions tests, but when operated

under normal driving conditions emit air pollutants well

above the legal limit.1 Interestingly, EPA, with a budget

of $12 million to oversee compliance with transportation

regulations, never discovered the cheating that went on for

many years.2 Instead, the International Council on Clean

Transportation (ICCT), a European environmental group,

wanted to know how Volkswagen was meeting U.S. emis-

sion standards that were more stringent than Europe’s.

ICCT hoped to have the U.S. technology adopted for

European motor vehicles.3

ICCT provided a grant of $69,000 to West Virginia

University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and

Emissions (CAFEE) to study emissions from real-world

driving using an onboard portable emissions measure-

ment system.4 After extensively testing various Volkswagen

models in California and road testing diesel vehicles on

a drive to Seattle, the CAFEE researchers concluded that

the vehicle’s emissions were exceeding the Clean Air Act

(CAA)5 standa rds by 5 to 35 times.6 On March 31, 2014,

the results of the study were presented at an industry con-

ference in San Diego.7

EPA and California regulators investigated, and on

September 3, 2015, Volkswagen admitted that it deliber-

1.   , 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 3011

(Oct. 9, 2015).

2. Charlotte Alter, e Man Who Brought Down Volkswagen, T, Nov. 30,

2015, at 100.

3. Dune Lawrence et al., How Could Volkswagen’s Top Engineers Not Have

Known, B B, Oct. 26, 2015, at 52.

4. Alter, supra note 2, at 102.

5. 42 U.S.C. §§7401-7671q, ELR S. CAA §§101-618.

6. Lawrence et al., supra note 3, at 52.

7. Id.

ately outtted its cars with “defeat devices.”8 e vehicles

involved in the cheating include model year (MY) 20 09

through 2015 Volkswagen Beetle and Jetta as well as the

MY 2014 and 2015 Passat.9 Subsequently, Volkswagen

announced that about 11 million diesel vehicles were sold

worldwide with aected diesel engines.10 is includes cars

with the 1.6- and 2.0-liter diesel engines sold in Europe.11

According to EPA, Volkswagen inserted lines in the com-

puter code governing the engine performance that activates

the emissions controls when driving patterns are detected

that are consistent with the testing protocol. When the

vehicle’s operation is consistent with road use, the engine

instead is programmed to ma ximize fuel economy, but

emissions increase dramatically.12

Later, it was found that the Volkswagen Golf, Audi A3,

and Porsche models also were programmed to cheat on

emissions test ing.13 On November 2, 2015, EPA and the

California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced that

Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter diesel

engines have the defeat devices, which added about 10,000

vehicles plus an unknown number of MY 2016 vehicles to

the vehicles alleged to violate the CAA.14 Volkswagen ini-

tially estimated the nancial impact of these transgressions

may cost t he company over $9.24 billion, but by April

2016, the estimate had increased to $18.2 billion to cover

the global emissions cheating scandal.15

8. Id.

9. Patrick Ambrosio, -

, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 2805 (Sept. 25, 2015).

10. Arne Delfs et al.,  

Takes Hard Line, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 3076 (Oct. 16, 2015).

11. Andrea Barbara Schuessler, Volkswagen Admits Europe Manipulations, Ger-

many’s Transport Minister Reveals, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 2809 (Sept. 25,

2015).

12. Lawrence et al., supra note 3, at 52.

13. Christie Smythe et al.,    

, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 2805 (Sept. 25, 2015);

Alter, supra note 2, at 103.

14. Patrick Ambrosio,     

Devices in Diesel Vehicles, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 3351 (Nov. 6, 2015); Patrick

Ambrosio, 

, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 3585 (Nov. 27, 2015).

15. Christoph Rauwa, 

Protect Jobs, 46 Env’t Rep. (BNA) 3654 (Dec. 4, 2015); Patrick Ambrosio,

Author’s Note. Research assistance was provided by J.D. candidate

    



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