Beyond the Emissions Test at VW

4 thoughts on “Beyond the Emissions Test at VW”

1. I’ll be impressed when corporate executives serve long prison terms for crimes like this. Recalls and fines are well and good, but they often fail to even match the extra profits gleaned in this manner. Even when on occasion they do, they are absorbed as a calculated risk. How many other serious violations of the health, safety and labor laws did Volkswagen knowingly commit before they got caught for this one?

   Capitalism is inherently amoral. It incentivizes the “externalization” of costs, a two-dollar word for making other people pay by having to breath dirty air, lose limbs on factory floors, or die from exploding fuel tanks. A CEO acting in a “fiscally responsible manner” to his or her shareholders will often opt to break the law and endanger people. Those who don’t face punishment by “the market” which always demands the maximization of profits.

   No amount of additional regulation will overcome this potent tendency within capitalism because the political apparatus responsible for enforcement is always ultimately owned by the same capitalists.

2. EPA has given up on NO2 being a killer. Big study in UK found no effect of NO2. EPA has known NO2 is not a problem for years.

3. NOx in rain becomes nitrate fertilizer in the ground.
   “Smog” was ‘defined’ by the EPA (for purposes of measurement) as ozone, and is a function more of geography than chemistry.
   NOx is produced by high-compression ratios in engines (which are also make engines more efficient and use less fuel).

4. Yes, the obsession with CO2 has blinded Europe to real air pollution. The US has not relaxed its standards and came to the world’s rescue, this time and hopefully also in the future.

   https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/vw-and-co2-obsession/