House Democrats want to create criminal penalties for companies such as Volkswagen that create software to cheat vehicle emissions tests.
California Democratic Reps. Mark DeSaulnier, Alan Lowenthal and Ted Lieu joined New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Vermont Rep. Peter Welch in introducing the Clean Air and Vehicle Technology Accountability Act on Thursday.
The bill would establish criminal penalties under the Clean Air Act for carmakers that knowingly install so-called “defeat devices” on their vehicles. Defeat devices are millions of lines of software code that allow computers in cars to tell when the vehicles are undergoing emissions testing.
Volkswagen’s clean diesel vehicles would limit the amount of nitrogen released from the vehicles when they could tell that they were being tested. However, under normal driving conditions, the vehicles would emit up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen.
DeSaulnier said the motivation for the bill is the legal agreement reached by Volkswagen and the federal government Thursday that he says allows the company to avoid standing trial for the scandal.
“Having had a long history in the California air regulatory field, this is an extreme example, but not unique that a company has chosen to violate public health law and then cut a deal without the decision-makers taking personal responsibility. This legislation will address decades of fraudulent actions by industry bad actors,” DeSaulnier said.
According to a statement, the bill would give the federal government the authority to bring criminal charges against automakers who knowingly bypass, defeat or render inoperable air pollution controls in cars.
The agreement between VW and the Justice Department’s Environmental Division, the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board would allow the company to buy back hundreds of thousands of vehicles equipped with defeat-device software.
The company has admitted that it used the technology to skirt emissions tests because it was worried it couldn’t meet U.S. standards without cheating. Welch said the bill would make auto companies think twice about doing so in the future.
“Volkswagen customers are still mad as hell about being deceived by the car maker — and they should be. The company’s decision to secretly install a device in cars that bypasses environmental protections was a sham of massive proportions and has eroded the trust of its customers and the public,” he said.
“Our legislation will make auto executives think twice before deciding to rip off their customers and damage the environment.”
