VW May Use Loophole To Avoid Criminal Charges
Clean Air Act and VW
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, but 45 years later, it may be giving car companies a way to ditch improving their car emissions and keep going with carbon emissions at an alarming rate. There is a loop-hole in the law that keeps the car companies from having penalties if they have issues.
The loophole in the Clean Air Act does not give any particular punishment for automakers. While many other kinds of companies are legally liable under the Clean Air Act, car makers won the ability to skirt around the legal limits of emissions thanks to lawmakers who were sympathetic to the automakers. The automakers instead face civil penalties when charges are pressed - which, Wall Street Report states, are easier to implement against the automakers because of the loophole.
The entire case started when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started to investigate Volkswagen after devices were found that skirts the legal emissions limit. These devices are called defeat devices, and are used to keep the emissions detectors from noticing how much was being emitted. The government and the state of California were feeling lied to - as were many consumers - about what was going on with the company. Fred Upton - the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - noted that it seemed like there was a dirty little secret behind the Volkswagen company. He also noted that the customers weren't the only ones feeling betrayed.
Furthermore, the company has a very real possibility of going out of business due to the case. They are expected to have to pay at least $7.3 billion in reparations - which has already been set aside. The reason the price is so high is due to how many vehicles from the VW company have been compromised with these defeat devices - around 1 million or so. The costs are estimated to be around $18 billion in total, and are estimated to be much more than any other EPA Clean Air Act case yet. The VW case is expected to be worth much much more than the well-famed 1998 defeat device case.
While the emissions don't make the cars unsafe to drive or sell, the fact that the cars are not what VW advertised will cause a class action lawsuit - on a large scale. The defeat device installed on the cars caused anyone who bought one of the affected models to spend more on the cars than they should have when they were bought. While legal action for the Clean Air Act emissions issues may not be taken, they are sure to be taken for the fraud issues that have popped up.
Due to the loophole, the EPA is going to attempt to add legislation that will close it. VW is not the only automaker that has skirted the legal emissions limits. Joan Claybrook - whom is a former NHTSA administrator - says that the automakers will not stop or change their behavior until they are faced with criminal instead of civil penalties.
