The US Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release on Friday that it is launching more aggressive testings of diesel-engine cars in the United States, a decision that was urgently asked after the Volkswagen emission scandal.
The agency, created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment, said it will introduce better testing in two different ways to stop car companies from thwarting air pollution laws like Volkswagen did.
“We must continue to improve and adapt our oversight, and we will,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, according to the Washington Post. “The additional monitoring will help to ensure that “the industry is competing on a level playing field and that consumers are getting what they paid for,” she said.
First of all, they will monitor individual costumers’ vehicles. Secondly, they will assume a new routine that consists of testing the cars that go through highways by tracking their emissions. This was only being done in large trucks since they account for far more air pollution than small ones, but now it is going to be implemented for all vehicles in the US.
Details of the new procedures are confidential to make it harder for car companies to use technology tricks to fool EPA’s testings.
“We are not going to tell them what these tests are; they do not need to know,” said Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “They only need to know that we will be keeping their vehicles longer and driving them more.”
The Volkswagen Case
After outside contractors used portable monitors to measure emissions of WV cars while they were on the highway, it was revealed that the multimillionaire company used technical tricks to fool EPA’s pollutions tests in 500,000 cars in the US, not to count other 10 million and a half around the world.
VW is now facing a criminal investigation by the Justice Department for billion of dollars since their vehicles released nitrogen oxide up to 40 times higher than US standards.
The company has set aside more than $7 billion to remedy the problems with its cars. It has also pledged to repair its reputation with customers.
Source: The Washington Post