Biggest Clean Air Act Viol. Since ’63
Cummins Inc., whose motors have operated anything from the Nissan Titan XD and Ram heavy-duty lorries to generators and school buses, has been hit with a $1.675 billion penalty because of its deliberate dealing of emissions cheating devices which is a transgression of the Clean Air Act. The US Department of Justice revealed the compromise, highlighting that it was the topmost civil penalty ever under the Clean Air Act as well as the second biggest environmental fine ever.
“A statement from Cummins Inc. has revealed that the company is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for potentially using emissions-defeating devices in its diesel engines. According to the statement, Cummins allegedly installed devices to defeat emissions sensors in some 630,000 2013-2019 Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups, along with “undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices” on 330,000 of the same run of trucks. The DOJ is reportedly looking into whether the company violated the Clean Air Act by installing the devices.”
Over the past year, Stellantis was penalized roughly $300 million for the installation of emissions defeat devices on over 101,000 Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles. However, Cummins’ misconduct could have had a much greater impact. Unfortunately, this is not their first Dieselgate scandal. As far back as 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency fined Cummins – as well as six other diesel engine makers – an eye-popping figure of $83.4 million, the highest thus far, for purposely deactivating emissions control systems during highway driving. Every manufacturer agreed to invest more than $1 billion to remedy the problem, yet evidently Cummins did not take the lesson to heart.
“In this case,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland commented in a statement released by the Justice Department, “our preliminary estimates indicate that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have resulted in thousands of tons of excessive nitrogen oxide emissions, which can cause respiratory issues and infections over time.”
Taking into account the severity of this situation, no other corporation has received a larger penalty relative to ecological destruction other than BP when its Deepwater Horizon oil spill drenched the Gulf of Mexico in 3.19 million barrels of oil.
Essentially, federal authorities are not limiting their attention to just those big figures regarded as crooked; they have also started holding back minor traders who currently distribute cheating mechanisms on sites such as eBay. Resultantly, providers like Flyin’ Miata no longer offer whatever complete range of advancements they previously had.
