Sniffing a Scandal

Guest Post by Eric Peters

They only crucified Jesus once – and that was enough (so we are told) to atone for all mankind’s sins . . . in perpetuity.

And mankind did (and does) sin. In the moral sense. Murder, theft, rape and all the other uglies.

VW suffers crucifixion in perpetuity for its sins – which are of a purely statutory nature. Like failing to buckle-up for safety. So far, the German automaker has been godsmacked to the tune of $30.4 billion (not a typo) in fines and other levies for tuning its diesel-powered cars to pass government emissions certification tests.

To which the obvious rejoinder is – well, what’s the problem? They passed the tests, right?

Ah, but they didn’t really pass the tests. VW “cheated” by programming the cars to make it through the tests, then altered their programming once through the tests.

Here’s where things get . . . interesting.

The tests VW “cheated” on are not the same tests as the tailpipe exhaust emissions tests most of us have to subject our cars to, in order to register them and renew registration. All of the “cheating” VWs passed – and continue to pass – these “tailpipe sniffer” tests, which ought to give you some idea about the amount of “cheating” VW was up to on the other tests.

Think about it.

The smog check joints – thousands of them, across the land – detected no smog (technically, no noxious compounds such as oxides of nitrogen) in excess of the allowable thresholds. The cars passed those tests. If their emissions were not within allowable limits, they wouldn’t have.

They also passed by the automated roadside emissions detectors in ultra-strict California. These snuff the air as cars pass by and if the air is not up to snuff, they snap a photo of the offending car’s plates and send its owner a nasty note informing him that he must bring the car in for examination, pronto – or else.

But not one VW diesel – as far as I have been able to determine – was identified as a “polluter” by these tests. Or the tests you stand in line to go through to get your tags renewed. The absence of any California drive-by smog alarums is particularly noteworthy because the cars being snuffed were being driven. Not idling while hooked to a test rig. But the “cheating” asserted by Uncle asserts that once out in the world, actually driving, the “cheating” cars became churning cauldrons of toxic effluvia-spewing foulness.

“Up to 40 times” the allowable amount of oxides of nitrogen! You may remember the cry (and the hue which went along for the ride). It sounds dark and stormy, extremely ominous. But if it really was anything like a black cloud of noxiousness, how come the roadside sniffers and tailpipe tests never identified even one?

One of two things must be true.

Either the smog tests and roadside sniffers are worthless – they cannot detect “excessive” and ”harmful” emissions and not just from VWs but from cars, generally – in which case an epic fraud has been perpetrated by the government, which forces us to waste time each year waiting in line to have our vehicles smog-tested, to assure their tailpipe cleanliness on machines incapable of registering excessive emissions . . .

Or – possibly more alarming – VW’s diesels were targeted for termination because of the threat they posed to the Electric Car Agenda. They were too efficient and practical and inexpensive.

Given the choice between a $21,000 Jetta TDI that goes 700 miles on a tank and refuels in five minutes vs. a $35,000 Tesla that goes 150 miles (maybe) and needs hours to recharge, most buyers will make the obvious choice.

If they are allowed the choice.

They no longer have that choice. The VW (and Audi and Porsche) diesels are gone, replaced by less efficient, more expensive gas engines – and VW is being bled to the tune of billions to finance the propagation of even less efficient and more expensive electric cars, which can’t compete with diesel-powered cars on the merits.

California, for instance, is going to use $422.6 million of VW’s money to erect electric car charging stations and to subsidize electric public transport (bus and rail). Georgia will use $63.6 million to finance (subsidize) “zero emissions” electric shuttles at Hartsfield -Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Minnesota will purchase 65 electric vehicle charging stations with its portion of the loot ($47 million).

Crucifixion coin is raining down like manna from heaven on every state in the union – all of them alleging damages done by VW’s “cheating” but none of them having produced even a single actual victim of this “cheating.”

The governor of Connecticut – another state which wet its beak in VW’s blood – stated the following:

“While it will be impossible to offset the entirety of (the) pollution that resulted from VW’s emissions cheating, the release of these funds will help to improve air quality and protect public health . . .”

Italics added.

The “pollution that resulted” from VW’s “cheating” was never quantified; like other modern shibboleths – “climate change,” for instance – things are never defined but always sound really bad.

And no harm is ever proved.

Same goes for “improve air quality and protect public health.” Well, it sounds great. But what does it mean, precisely?

Nothing.

But it has been useful (in the sense of Lenin’s useful idiots) for accomplishing something. First, the disappearance of diesels – and not just VWs and not just the ones VW was selling before the company got nailed to the cross. There are also the ones VW never got to sell – including models in development which averaged 80 MPG – and didn’t need hours to recharge or cost as much as a Lexus or Mercedes, either.

Second, it made possible the diversion of VW’s honestly earned profits – which could have and almost certainly would have gone toward the development of even more efficient diesel-powered alternates to electric cars – into the pockets of electric car grifters, public and private.

This is how it goes. And why it goes.

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