We do not know all that is going on here, but neither smell right
Inside Obama’s quiet deal to help Australia with refugees
This is a very strange deal, the more we hear about it, and should be very alarming when one surmises that these secret deals by Obama are probably all over the place. And the motives behind them are as treacherous as Obama himself. More on this as more becomes known. DLH
Regarding the latest about Volkswagen and its fudging on emissions tests
Cash For Not Clunkers Eric at Eric Peters Autos writes: (excerpt)
You’ve heard the saying that history repeats . . . as farce? Well, here we are. Not quite ten years after the government paid people to throw away perfectly good used cars to “stimulate” demand for new ones – the despicable Cash for Clunkers program – the government is doing the same thing again.
Only this time, the cars are not “clunkers” and the government is forcing VW to pay people to throw them away.
Almost 600,000 of them.
These cars are not high-miles and worn out, on their last legs. Many are only a year or two old. Nothing is wrong with any of them – other than their having been deemed “out of compliance” with Byzantine EPA emissions tests.
But only sometimes – and only slightly.
The cars were programmed to pass the EPA certification tests – required before they could legally be sold. They passed the tests, which incidentally is the same criteria Uncle insist on when it comes to the “education” of “the children” in government schools. Pass the tests (SOLs) and you pass on to the next grade. Kids are “taught” to pass the tests.
Uncle smiles.
But in VW’s case, it was later discovered that the programming was set up to run the engine differently – that is, better from the standpoint of the people buying and driving the cars – when out on the road and not connected to the EPA’s emissions test dynamometers. Under certain operating conditions – wide open throttle, for one – the calibrations were set to produce maximum performance.
Or, under other conditions, maximum miles-per-gallon.
Diesel-powered VWs like the Jetta and Passat TDI routinely delivered better-than-advertised (by EPA) mileage, out in real-world driving. I can vouch for this personally, having test driven every TDI-powered VW sold over the past 10 years. They all used less fuel – delivered higher mileage – than EPA said they would. Interesting. Less fuel used equals less exhaust gas produced equals lower emissions overall.
VW never gets credit for that.
Crickets. Including from the mother-loving “environmental community.”
Which makes my teeth hurt because if you do the arithmetic, the more-efficient-than-advertised VW diesels reduced the aggregate of harmful emissions yugely vs. the fractional per car increase in tailpipe emissions generated by the “cheating” software.
More reading
VW’s emissions scandal yields a new cash-for-clunkers program (Automotive News)
Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Cheating (CBS News)
Volkswagen Settlement (NY Times) Reports on earlier related settlement in June
What if owners like them the way they are?
Hard to say. Some states may not issues license tags to owners of the affected vehicles. If so it is forced wastefulness for unbalanced reason. Reading into the matter (article above and more) the extra pollution from the cars could be minimal. After reasonable fines against VW it seems that the least polluting alternative is to let VW work out compensation with owners, with government prosecutors and the EPA staying out of that part.
Remembering our former congressman Bruce Braley and his infamous Cash for Clunkers program. Keep in mind the Braley Clunker scam involved older and less valuable cars that no doubt operated further away from current EPA standards. That “fix” was no serious improvement to the environment.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/cash_for_clunkers_and_its_critics/
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/10/cash-for-clunkers-an-evaluation.html
https://www.veritaspac.com/2014/08/06/more-on-bruce-braley-cash-for-clunkers/
https://www.veritaspac.com/2013/01/05/bruce-braley-quad-city-times-foulest-achievement/
