Montana Vehicle Emission Standards (Missoula: fit in, 2015, lawyer)

[Hyperthetic]

In Montana, vehicle emission standards should be based on "emissions per mile" versus "emissions per gallon of fuel consumed".

"During normal driving, diesel cars like Akland’s released nitrous oxide at levels 10 to 40 times the legal limit."

But, at 43 miles per gallon, is this a lot? Compared with an 18 wheeler?

This is a laughable matter in that nitrous oxide is laughing gas.

"Salesmen at Volkswagen dealerships sometimes held their heads near the exhaust pipe while the engine was running to demonstrate the cleanliness of emissions to prospective buyers."

Now, you don't need to have a bad tooth to get a good laugh.

Montanans sue over Volkswagen emission 'defeat device'

"Transportation. Nitrous oxide is emitted when transportation fuels are burned. Motor vehicles, including passenger cars and trucks, are the primary source of N2O emissions from transportation. The amount of N2O emitted from transportation depends on the type of fuel and vehicle technology, maintenance, and operating practices."

Nitrous Oxide Emissions | Climate Change | US EPA

[Redraven]

VW corporation is seen as having "deep pockets".
Therefore, the lawyers are seeing big paydays in their future.
The people filing the lawsuits are not smart enough to realize that the lawyers will get the majority of the money from any settlement.
Over the years, I have been notified of many "Class Action" lawsuits that I might be able to participate in. It looks good, until you get to the bottom line, where it says taht the law firm will get several million dollars for "representing the Class", and each participant will get something like $12 to $60.
I don't even bother to fill out the paperwork to be admitted to the class. It isn't worth the time it takes!
In the mean time, we have guys and gals with diesel pickups that have modified the fuel systems so that every time they accelerate (which they LOVE to do), they leave a huge cloud of noxious black smoke that blocks the roadway for a few seconds, blinding everybody behind them. They seem to think that is fun. I think they should be required to spend 10 minutes on a dynomometer with their truck loaded to max GVW and running at 3/4 throttle, with all the doors closed. Maybe they would learn something.
then again, they might think that would be REAL FUN!!
I think the whole VW thing is an exercise in futility, and they would not want me on the jury for their silly lawsuit!

[Hyperthetic]

Anyway, we've got bigger inviromental (c) problems to fry . .

"Obama’s EPA Warns Sunlight Dangerous to Plants"

Obama

[ericsvibe]

This whole thing is just a big money grab. Emissions in the U.S. have very little effect when you look at the world as a hole. Only a few "wealthy" nations have any real emission requirements. And only a handfull actually enforce those requirements. Meanwhile 80% of the world population doesn't care at all.

One major volcanic eruption produces more greenhouse gasses then all of the automobile pollution combined for the history of mankind. This problem will not be fixed by better emissions on VW products.

The fix is already here, once the reachable oil has been exhausted in the next 20 years, technology will be advanced enough for REAL hybrid technologies to take over. Small alcohol or biodiesel engines generating electricity for the electric drive motors. The same technology that powers frieght trains.

[MTSilvertip]

I'd like to see them put an emission standard on all the wildfires we have all summer long!

Talk about degrading air quality

[Reziac]

I lived in the Los Angeles area during the first big vehicle emissions push. And that first big "fix the smokin' vehicles" push got the job done. Smog became mostly a thing of the past very quickly. (Los Angeles basin will always have a few smog days regardless, because of the area's geography. It's the same kind of enclosed bowl as Missoula.)

And then feature creep arrived. Emissions standards kept getting tightened, because it made legislators and regulators look like they were DOING SOMETHING!! And this increased the cost to drivers considerably (and progressed to being basically a scam on consumers mandated by the state), but made no further impact on smog reduction.

Increased regulation on "emissions" allowed by new vehicles continue to be tightened as well, but likewise have no real effect -- the real effect happened decades ago, and even if the standard was ratcheted down to zero, would cause no more than a fraction of a percent benefit in air quality. Basically, the work is already long done, and everything since then is just regulatory agencies justifying their jobs.

But when a manufacturer can't make the regulatory level because it's been ratcheted down to fantasy levels (internal combustion engines are going to make a certain amount of "pollution" no matter what) then we start seeing class action lawsuits. And those go like this:

A lawyer identifies a juicy target. He then finds a plaintiff (often a regular partner in this scam) to "represent the class". Lawsuit ensues, which the lawyer has a good chance of winning, and will probably be awarded his "costs" (pay) by the court even if he loses the suit, so he wins either way. When he wins, the lawyer takes half the money, the plaintiff takes the other half, and all the people scammed into being big numbers for the "harmed class" (cuz the more people they can get to sign up, the better it looks in court) get a token settlement. This is often as small as a "coupon".

Two people get rich; everyone else gets screwed. Consumer costs go up, because companies have to find the money to pay these settlements somewhere, or go out of business. So they have to raise prices (or lay off workers, or maybe cut costs by moving overseas entirely) to make up the loss. Every class action suit means you now pay more for something, or someone lost their job.

VW has deep pockets. VW is big enough that sometimes the right and left hand haven't spoken in years. This makes it easy to find "evidence" simply because in a big company, one department and the next aren't always on the same page. (This is one reason why some companies won't speak to you at all except through a consumer rep or legal department.) Expect to see more of these lawsuits, now that emissions levels have been cranked so tight that they're really not possible for normal engines to achieve.