Following Call from Klobuchar, EPA Indicates It Will Change Diesel Emissions Testing Process in Wake of Volkswagen Revelations

Press Release

Following a call from U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has indicated that it will be announcing changes to its diesel emissions testing process in the wake of the recent Volkswagen revelations. Yesterday, Klobuchar sent a letter to the EPA that questioned the agency's diesel emissions testing process and called on the agency to immediately address consumer, environmental, and public health concerns resulting from Volkswagen's development and installation of "defeat devices" on nearly 500,000 Model Year 2009-2015 Volkswagen and Audi diesel passenger vehicles. Klobuchar also urged EPA to work with the Department of Justice to take any civil or criminal actions possible to make it clear that these deceptions will not be tolerated. In addition, Klobuchar took to the Senate floor yesterday to urge the EPA to explain why its emission standards approval process did not detect this deceptive software and call on the agency to establish robust safeguards to prevent automakers from gaming the system again.

"As a member of both the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, consumers are at the heart of my work in the Senate," Klobuchar said. "The actions by Volkswagen to deliberately deceive people around the world about emissions levels in their cars is fundamentally about a breach in trust--consumers thought they were getting the same product that was being advertised. New diesel emission testing processes will be a step in the right direction, but it is critical we get to the bottom of this to figure out how this happened and to ensure that it never happens again."

Recent reports revealed that Volkswagen willfully deceived regulators and the general public to artificially lower emissions of its 2009-2015 Volkswagen and Audi diesel vehicles. Volkswagen installed a "defeat device" on nearly 500,000 of these vehicles that hid levels of nitrogen oxides as high as 40 times that of allowable U.S. emissions standards. Approximately 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States and 11 million cars worldwide have been affected.

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