United States of America

Abstract

On 18 September 2015, a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) news conference shocked both the environmental and automotive worlds alike: Volkswagen AG (VW) admitted to installing software, called a defeat device, that artificially reduced emissions in hundreds of thousands of diesel automobiles, making the cars appear to pass the EPA’s emissions testing, but, when driven in the real world, increased the car’s emissions from 10 to 40 times the legal limit. These cars sold, in-part, for their environmental benefits were now the subject of a massive, multi-agency EPA investigation. Within weeks, VW would reserve billions of dollars in anticipation of the expense, its CEO would resign, and litigation and government enforcement actions would begin. This chapter provides the legal background for defeat devices, describes the discovery of VW’s emission irregularities, and presents the structure of some of the United States legal actions against VW. It concludes with some thoughts about the future of this issue and emissions testing.