Replies

"This wasn't a little bit of cheating - the cars put out 10 to 40 times the allowable amount of NO emissions. That is asinine."

And no one will ask is NOx really that big of a problem. Their are a handful of engine tinkers that say it isn't and we have wasted billions of barrels of oil because we won't run lean and get the better fuel mileage because of EPA Nox Regs. The rules went coo-coo-banana-nutsoo in 95' went Clinton said we will take 95% of the emissions out of cars in 1995. Ya but... They were already 95% cleaner than their 1960's counterparts so he was going after that last 95% of the last 5%... Ever hear of Kelly Johnson's ( Lockheed SR-71 fame ) axiom on overall design? You go for the 80% because the last 20% you try to squeeze out of a vehicle design isn't worth it, it is not cost effective. We are in splitting hairs territory and it is no wonder cars are so expensive, not to mention the exotic technologies they are adopting to meet Obama's fuel regs.

The big kicker to me is how efficient these diesel engines are, with a fuel that needs less refining (ceept in the USA EPA rules). Not counting that into the process is just plain stupid, as are the guidleines they have to get through. I have been near a lot of these vehicles when they've been running, you can run them in a closed garage and they don't smell funny at all, giving off no sign they are polluting.

These don't have some huge battery that needs to be taxpayer subsidized, and they challenge all of the Government motors weenies as failures.

When all the dust is settled, I won't be surprised to find some criminal government conspiracy to take these things down, they're simply too good, and we can't have that.

NOx regulations in the US are considerably stricter than in Europe.

The Euro 5 standard sets the limit at 0.29 gm/mi for cars 2014 and before.

The US standard is currently 0.07 gm/mi, a quarter of what Europe allows.

Why is the US standard so much stricter? Does it truly need to be?

Or is it simply the issue of an out-of-control regulatory agency that will never admit that they've done enough, because that will interrupt their funding stream?

The EPA will always generate statistics that "prove" that failure to adopt the whatever tightening of the regulatory noose they are currently pushing will kill a specific number of people.

And that also "proves" that anyone who opposes such regulations wants to kill all those people.

In this case (per Wiki), the EPA is claiming that this violation by VW will kill between "16 and 94" people in the US (as if they will live forever had VW not done what they did).

This is what the EPA is fighting. Hint-it's NOT pollution.