Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said on the Senate floor Tuesday that the federal government needs to throw Volkswagen officials in jail, just days after the Environmental Protection Agency said the company was cheating U.S. emission standards.
“I lay this not only on the corporate culture,” Nelson said. “I lay it at the feet of the U.S. regulatory agencies who ought to be doing their job, ought to be doing it in a forceful way, and then there ought to be some prosecutions and corporate executives that knew this and had done it, ought to be going to jail.”
Nelson described the problem as one in which Volkswagen was “deceptively telling” consumers about the great mileage its cars was getting. But actually, the company was accused by the EPA of installing devices that shut down the emissions control functions of their cars, and only having them turned on during emissions tests.
Still, Nelson was outraged.
“What in the world is happening to the American automobile industry, and those foreign manufacturers that are selling automobiles here to take advantage of the American automobile consuming public?” he asked.
“Where are our U.S. regulatory agencies?” he asked. “What is the Obama administration doing about this in its regulatory agencies? Why are they not dropping the hammer on corporations and corporate executives that are purposefully deceiving the American people about faulty automobile products that cause the loss of lives and property?”
The EPA has threatened to fine Volkswagen up to $37,000 per car, which could total up to $18 billion in fines. The company’s stock has dropped, and a House subcommittee will hold hearings on the scandal in the coming weeks.
