Environmental Leaders Rebut Musk Letter to CARB

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Fifteen leaders of environmental and health groups signed off on a letter sent to environmental regulators Dec. 18 asking officials to fully punish Volkswagen in response to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and others asking authorities to push for electric vehicles instead.

The letter, which was signed by the policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air and the director of the Sierra Club California, among others, calls for “vigorous enforcement of both criminal and civil laws” to deter actions like Volkswagen’s cheating of diesel emissions tests.

The California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed in September that Volkswagen admitted to fitting nearly 500,000 cars in the U.S. with an illegal “defeat device” designed to cheat emissions tests. In November, the agencies said an additional 85,000 cars with 3-liter diesel engines were cheating too.

The letter calls on environmental officials to force Volkswagen to offset its emissions in heavily polluted areas through “verified, enforceable contemporaneous pollution reductions.”

The letter from the health and environmental groups said the letter by Musk and other business leaders fails to address the health impact of Volkswagen’s cheating scandal, nor does the proposal offer any compensation to the “clean” diesel buyers tricked into buying those cars.

The letter by environmental groups to CARB said it supports more EVs, but said “VW’s punishment for knowingly violating California’s air pollution regulations should fit the crime.”

Source: Green Car Reports

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

More by Aaron Cole

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 10 comments
  • Chuckrs Chuckrs on Dec 30, 2015

    One of the signatories to Musk's letter is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Another signatory is the producer of Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth". If they are willing to swallow their bile, the letter to the CARB must have some redeeming features. The letter is not addressed to the EPA which is probably a lost cause anyway. EPA gonna EPA regardless. If you are a Californian, is it more important to get an agreement for cleaner air sooner by advancing technology or to get revenge on those duplicitous Germans? Living far away, its not my call.

  • RideHeight RideHeight on Dec 30, 2015

    Sad battery-czar face?

  • Pwrwrench Pwrwrench on Dec 30, 2015

    Clean Diesel? I have this neat red bridge near S.F. I can sell you. Seriously, California has never met the Clean Air Standards and probably never will unless there is an apocalypse. Most of the things that are done are part of a wink-wink nudge-nudge deal with the Federal EPA. Chief among these are biannual emission inspections for cars and light trucks. So regular people get to pay for something that doesn't do much because the Gov will not take on the Industries, shipping including railroads and airlines, agri-business, cement kilns, and so on. As far as requiring replacement of older diesel engines, this has been kicked around for more than three decades. Latest I read was that whenever a motor wears out it supposed to be replaced by one that meets the current standards. That's going to take a long time. Everyday I get stuck behind some truck or school bus belching black smoke and giving me a headache. If you pay any heed to the media you would think that if you got within a quarter mile of a TDI you would be instantly asphyxiated. Most of them are probably cleaner than 70% of the vehicles on,and off, the road.

  • Zip89123 Zip89123 on Dec 30, 2015

    I'd trust Hitler before I'd trust the Sierra Club.

Next