General Motors (GM) will pay nearly $146 million in penalties due to excess carbon dioxide emissions from 5.9 million older vehicles.
General Motors (GM) is set to pay nearly $146 million in penalties to the federal government after 5.9 million of its older vehicles were found to emit excess carbon dioxide. According to the NHTSA, certain GM models have not complied with federal fuel economy standards between 2012 and 2018.
The issue was noticed when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did its own testing and saw that GM pickup trucks and SUVs emitted over 10% more carbon dioxide on average than the company’s initial compliance testing had shown. The affected vehicles are still on the road and cannot be fixed.
“Our investigation has achieved accountability and upholds an important program that’s reducing air pollution and protecting communities across the country,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.
GM says that for its vehicles, it followed all rules relating to emissions and mileage certificates. The company is saying they did nothing wrong and says that it has not violated the Clean Air Act. The problem, according to GM spokesperson Bill Grotz, is due to changes in testing procedures changed by the EPA in 2016.
GM will lose credits used to ensure greenhouse gas emissions remain below the fleet standard for emissions applicable to each model year. “We believe this voluntary action is the best course of action to resolve the outstanding issues with the federal government,” Grotz said.
Roughly 4.6 million fully loaded trucks and SUVs, as well as 1.3 million mid sized vehicles are affected by the enforcement action. This includes models such as the Chevy Tahoe, Cadillac Escalade, and Chevy Silverado. The EPA understands that these violations were not intentional, but critics are wondering how such a massive pollution could go unnoticed.
The recent Supreme Court decision rejecting the Chevron doctrine adds more detail to the situation. Although it is not required that GM owners take any action, some may be wondering why their vehicles are burning at least 10 % more fuel than the window sticker number indicates.
David Cooke, senior vehicles analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, questioned how GM could not know that pollution exceeded initial tests by more than 10% because the problem was so widespread on so many different vehicles. “You don’t just make a more than 10% rounding error,” he said.
Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the violations by GM “show why automakers can’t be trusted to protect our air and health, and why we need strong pollution rules. Supreme Court, take notice!”
The government claims are resolved in the settlement, but it is unknown whether individual complaints will come through directly by consumers.
