VW Admits to Diesel Fraud in 11 Million Cars Worldwide

[cigaretteman]

This could be pretty hard to recover from:

d on Tuesday, when the company said that 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide were equipped with the same software that was used to cheat on emissions tests in the United States.

The German automaker said it was setting aside 6.5 billion euros, or about $7.3 billion, to cover the cost of fixing the cars to comply with pollution standards. That could have a big impact on the company’s profits, which totaled €12.7 billion last year.

The carmaker’s statement was its first admission that diesel cars outside the United States may contain the software that led the Environmental Protection Agency to accuse the company of deliberately evading pollution tests. Previously, Volkswagen had acknowledged only that the problem affected about 500,000 vehicles in the United States.

Volkswagen did not immediately disclose where else in the world the other cars have been sold, but many are thought to be in Europe — where the use of diesel engines is much higher than in most other parts of the world, and where Volkswagen has sold many cars containing the tampered engines, known as Type EA 189 engines. The company said on Tuesday that “a noticeable deviation between bench-test results and actual road use was established” for the engines.

Volkswagen said it would also make “other efforts to win back the trust of our customers.”

Other diesel cars made by the company have the same engine-management software, but it has no effect, Volkswagen said.

The number of cars involved suggests that the scale of the damage to Volkswagen’s reputation and its financial standing may be even greater than thought.


The diesel cars were programmed to sense when emissions were being tested and to turn on equipment that reduced emissions, according to United States officials. At other times, the cars had better fuel economy and performance, but produced as much as 40 times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that can contribute to respiratory problems including asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

“Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures,” the company said.

The E.P.A. has ordered Volkswagen to recall almost a half-million vehicles sold in the United States from 2009 to 2015. The affected Golf, Passat, Jetta and Beetle cars were equipped with 2-liter diesel engines. Some Audi models also use the same diesel engine.

Volkswagen has halted sales of cars with the engines in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/b...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

[Nat Algren]

Do you believe this is how it all went down? Do you think the EPA is some holy religion doing God's work? Has this fascist government agency(EPA) been looking the other way for a long time now? Orrrrrrrrrrrrr, was this payback for VW starting engine production in a factory in Russia?

Markets | Fri Sep 4, 2015 8:19am EDT
Related: STOCKS, MARKETS, CYCLICAL CONSUMER GOODS
Volkswagen bets on long-term Russian growth with new engine plant
KALUGA, RUSSIA, SEPT 4 | BY GLEB STOLYAROV


Volkswagen AG started production at a newly built engine plant in Russia on Friday, aiming to cement its position in a market which it sees as offering long-term potential despite its recent contraction.

Sited next to Volkswagen's vehicle plant in Russia's car-manufacturing centre Kaluga, 150km south of Moscow, the factory has the capacity to produce 150,000 engines a year.

It will make engines for the Polo and Skoda Rapid models that are assembled in Kaluga and will later service the Volkswagen Jetta, Skoda Oktavia and Skoda Yeti models.

"We need to continue and strengthen our partnership (in Russia) despite the current situation," said Volkswagen board member Thomas Schmall. "We are doing everything in our power to strengthen our market position in the long term."

After a decade of annual sales growth in excess of 10 percent, the Russian car industry has been hit hard by an economic crisis caused by lower oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

Domestic car sales have halved from their peaks in 2012-2013, when during some months the country ranked ahead of Germany as Europe's largest car market by sales, and eighth biggest in the world. It now ranks only fifth in Europe and 12th globally.

Russia has sought commitments from foreign carmakers to boost local production and wants 60 percent of manufacturing costs spent domestically by 2020. In return, producers enjoy lower import duties on car components.

Volkswagen announced plans in 2012 to spend around 250 million euros on the engine plant, in line with Russian government targets to equip at least 30 percent of vehicles produced in Russia with locally-made engines by 2016.

Russian sales of the VW brand fell 44 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of this year and the company in March cut jobs and working hours at the Kaluga factory. But it says its investment plans are intact due to the market's longer-term prospects.

Ford Motor Co's Russian venture, Ford Sollers, also opened a $275 million engine plant in Russia this week. General Motors Co, by contrast, quit the market in March, winding up its Opel brand there and shutting its plant in St Petersburg. (Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Jack Stubbs and David Holmes)


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/04/volkswagen-russia-engines-idUSL5N11A1A920150904

 

[bagdropper]

Clean diesel my ass.

 

[cigaretteman]

Do you believe this is how it all went down? Do you think the EPA is some holy religion doing God's work? Has this fascist government agency(EPA) been looking the other way for a long time now? Orrrrrrrrrrrrr, was this payback for VW starting engine production in a factory in Russia?

Markets | Fri Sep 4, 2015 8:19am EDT
Related: STOCKS, MARKETS, CYCLICAL CONSUMER GOODS
Volkswagen bets on long-term Russian growth with new engine plant
KALUGA, RUSSIA, SEPT 4 | BY GLEB STOLYAROV


Volkswagen AG started production at a newly built engine plant in Russia on Friday, aiming to cement its position in a market which it sees as offering long-term potential despite its recent contraction.

Sited next to Volkswagen's vehicle plant in Russia's car-manufacturing centre Kaluga, 150km south of Moscow, the factory has the capacity to produce 150,000 engines a year.

It will make engines for the Polo and Skoda Rapid models that are assembled in Kaluga and will later service the Volkswagen Jetta, Skoda Oktavia and Skoda Yeti models.

"We need to continue and strengthen our partnership (in Russia) despite the current situation," said Volkswagen board member Thomas Schmall. "We are doing everything in our power to strengthen our market position in the long term."

After a decade of annual sales growth in excess of 10 percent, the Russian car industry has been hit hard by an economic crisis caused by lower oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

Domestic car sales have halved from their peaks in 2012-2013, when during some months the country ranked ahead of Germany as Europe's largest car market by sales, and eighth biggest in the world. It now ranks only fifth in Europe and 12th globally.

Russia has sought commitments from foreign carmakers to boost local production and wants 60 percent of manufacturing costs spent domestically by 2020. In return, producers enjoy lower import duties on car components.

Volkswagen announced plans in 2012 to spend around 250 million euros on the engine plant, in line with Russian government targets to equip at least 30 percent of vehicles produced in Russia with locally-made engines by 2016.

Russian sales of the VW brand fell 44 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of this year and the company in March cut jobs and working hours at the Kaluga factory. But it says its investment plans are intact due to the market's longer-term prospects.

Ford Motor Co's Russian venture, Ford Sollers, also opened a $275 million engine plant in Russia this week. General Motors Co, by contrast, quit the market in March, winding up its Opel brand there and shutting its plant in St Petersburg. (Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Jack Stubbs and David Holmes)


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/04/volkswagen-russia-engines-idUSL5N11A1A920150904

Yes, I'm sure that it's just payback for VW opening a plant in Russia

It didn’t add up.

The Volkswagens were spewing harmful exhaust when testers drove them on the road. In the lab, they were fine.

Discrepancies in the European tests on the diesel models of the VW Passat, the VW Jetta and the BMW X5 last year gave Peter Mock an idea.

Mock, European managing director of a little-known clean-air group, suggested replicating the tests in the U.S. The U.S. has higher emissions standards than the rest of the world and a history of enforcing them, so Mock and his American counterpart, John German, were sure the U.S. versions of the vehicles would pass the emissions tests, German said. That way, they reasoned, they could show Europeans it was possible for diesel cars to run clean.

“We had no cause for suspicion,” German, U.S. co-lead of the International Council on Clean Transportation, said in an interview. “We thought the vehicles would be clean.”

So began a series of events that resulted in Volkswagen AG admitting that it built “defeat device” software into a half-million of its diesel cars from 2009 to 2015 that automatically cheated on U.S. air-pollution tests. The world’s second-biggest carmaker now faces billions in fines, possible jail time for its executives and the undoing of its U.S. expansion plans.

“I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn said in a statement on Sunday. “We will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused.”

Gaming Emissions
The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said it is cooperating with regulatory investigations and ordered its own external probe.

German and his group were actually trying to prove exactly what Volkswagen has been claiming for years: that diesel is clean. They asked West Virginia University for help. The school’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions had the right equipment -- a portable emission measurement system to stick in the car trunk, attached to a probe to shove up the exhaust pipe. German’s group, funded mostly by foundations, didn’t.

Testers drove the monitor-equipped diesels from San Diego to Seattle because if Volkswagen had gamed the emission test, they couldn’t be sure how, German said. In another cheating case years ago, he said, long-haul trucks were equipped with devices that allowed the engines to gradually discharge more and more harmful nitrogen oxides the longer the vehicle cruised at the same speed. The more emissions, generally speaking, the greater the engine power. The 1,300-mile trip under varying conditions would expose any such scheme in the VWs, German said.

Meanwhile, the California Air Resources Board tested the vehicles in their laboratories and they passed.

Open Road
Then German received the results of the real-world tests.

“We were astounded when we saw the numbers,” he said.

On the open road, the Jetta exceeded the U.S. nitrogen oxide emissions standard by 15 to 35 times. The Passat was 5 to 20 times the standard.

“It was shocking,” German said.

The BMW X5 passed the road test.

The California watchdog and the U.S. Environment Protection Agency opened an investigation into Volkswagen in May 2014, according to letters published Friday. Talks between the parties went on for several months, with VW trying to replicate the West Virginia University results. The company said it had identified the reasons for the higher emissions and proposed a fix. That resulted in a recall of nearly 500,000 U.S. vehicles in December to implement a software patch.

The California agency continued to test VW cars after the recall began. It was concerned that real-world road tests couldn’t confirm that the software patch was working. Sure enough, nitrogen oxide emissions were still in violation of California and U.S. laws. The agency shared those findings with Volkswagen and the EPA on July 8.

Certify Sales
At the same time, regulators were considering whether to certify VW’s 2016 models for sale -- a routine process for most automakers. Regulators said they wouldn’t approve the cars unless the company resolved the questions about real-world tailpipe pollution. VW engineers continued to suggest technical reasons for the test results. None of the explanations satisfied regulators, who indicated the models wouldn’t be certified.

“Only then did VW admit it had designed and installed a defeat device in these vehicles in the form of a sophisticated software algorithm that detected when a vehicle was undergoing emissions testing,” the EPA said in its letter to VW Friday.

The VW investigation covers seven years’ production of diesel cars, including the VW Jetta, Golf, Beetle and Passat and the Audi A3.

China, Europe Questions
“We have no idea if this is also going on in China and Europe but we definitely think the question should be asked, especially since the agencies in those places don’t have the expertise and the legal authority that they have here in the U.S.,” German said.

Volkswagen has struggled to gain a foothold in the U.S., the world’s second-biggest car market, with a strategy built in part on touting the efficiency of fun-to-drive “clean diesel.” Now those vehicles have been shown to be anything but.

Diesel versions of the Beetle, Golf, Jetta and Passat comprise more than a quarter of the brand’s sales in the U.S. and are a vital part of the company’s strategy for meeting tougher U.S. fuel-economy standards going into effect in coming years. More than other carmakers, VW has chosen to focus on diesel technology instead of electrics or hybrids.

Volkswagen is debuting a refresh of its Passat sedan Monday night in Brooklyn, New York. Herbert Diess, VW’s brand chief, Michael Horn, who runs the brand in the U.S., and musician Lenny Kravitz are scheduled to attend.

 

[Nat Algren]

Ciggy, you don't understand Big Boy politics. The game is played on a field you are unfamiliar with.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Damn government regulations. If we didn't have those regulations, VW wouldn't have had to bend/break them and wouldn't be in trouble. VW owners wouldn't have to be inconvenienced by a recall. Shareholders wouldn't see their portfolios hit.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Clean diesel my ass.

Sounds painful. Let us know how that works out.

 

[fredjr82]

Ciggy, you don't understand Big Boy politics. The game is played on a field you are unfamiliar with.

What a typical response from one of our resident Libertarians. You asked a question and then followed it up with an article. Ciggy responded to your article with a counter argument. Then you do your best Hawktimus Prime impression and tell Ciggy he's wrong and you're right and he would never understand. Rinse and repeat. Hawktimus is a dipshit so I expect it from him, but you and stumming are actually somewhat intelligent. Step your game up!!

 

[86Hawkeye]

I'm waiting to see if they did this in Europe and what the EU might do about it.

Either way, this seems like it will be tough to recover from.

Just because you hate regulations, doesn't mean you don't have to follow them.

 

[Wahawk56]

What a typical response from one of our resident Libertarians. You asked a question and then followed it up with an article. Ciggy responded to your article with a counter argument. Then you do your best Hawktimus Prime impression and tell Ciggy he's wrong and you're right and he would never understand. Rinse and repeat. Hawktimus is a dipshit so I expect it from him, but you and stumming are actually somewhat intelligent. Step your game up!!

Aren't they the same person

 

[fredjr82]

Aren't they the same person

Like you and Swag are the same person or different?

 

[N_fuego]

11 million cars worldwide affected. Ouch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/b...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

[h-hawk]

The diesel cars were programmed to sense when emissions were being tested and to turn on equipment that reduced emissions, according to United States officials. At other times, the cars had better fuel economy and performance, but produced as much as 40 times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that can contribute to respiratory problems including asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

Wait, the Germans are still trying to gas people?!
(Maybe they finalized the plant in Russia because they knew of the public relations disaster about to unfold in the West.)

 

[ThorneStockton]

Damn government regulations. If we didn't have those regulations, VW wouldn't have had to bend/break them and wouldn't be in trouble. VW owners wouldn't have to be inconvenienced by a recall. Shareholders wouldn't see their portfolios hit.

I realize this is tongue in cheek, but in this instance, I really don't think it's too far off.

 

[bagdropper]

Sounds painful. Let us know how that works out.

Several years ago, I was surprised VW was not only hammering Europe with diesels, but they were re-introducing them here. My initial reaction to their marketing campaign was...clean diesel my ass!

And here we are...this is the kind of thing that kills car company sales for a decade. It would not surprise me they start practically giving away everything in their line just to keep units moving. This is also devastating because it forces them into technologies they effectively swore off by going the diesel route. If I am reading the articles correct, they did this to keep their power up because cleaning up the emissions robbed their diesels of power.

And nobody wants to go back to the days of 50 hp rattlebox Rabbits roaming around with a 0-60 time measured in half lifes.

 

[Nat Algren]

What a typical response from one of our resident Libertarians. You asked a question and then followed it up with an article. Ciggy responded to your article with a counter argument. Then you do your best Hawktimus Prime impression and tell Ciggy he's wrong and you're right and he would never understand. Rinse and repeat. Hawktimus is a dipshit so I expect it from him, but you and stumming are actually somewhat intelligent. Step your game up!!

Agreed Fred. Ran out to see my daughters play field hockey. Follow-up coming.

 

[Nat Algren]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is swept under the rug. This has been going on since 2009, yet, an investigation didn't start until May 2014. Where was the EPA then? Isn't this about the same time sanctions were placed on Russia over the Ukraine coup de tat? Washington needs Germany onboard. They are the EU. Now, we find out that the USSA is placing new nuclear weapons in Germany against Russia, which by the way, the German people are overwhelmingly opposed. I still submit that this has all the makings of a power play.

U.S. Will Station New Nuclear Weapons in Germany Against Russia
Posted on September 21, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.
Eric Zuesse

Germany’s ZDF public television network headlines on Tuesday September 22nd, “New U.S. Atomic Weapons to Be Stationed in Germany,” and reports that the U.S. will bring into Germany 20 new nuclear bombs, each being four times the destructive power of the one that was used on Hiroshima. Hans Kristensen, the Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, says, “With the new bombs the boundaries blur between tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.”

A former Parliamentary State Secretary in Germany’s Defense Ministry, Willy Wimmer, of Chancellor Merkel’s own conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union, warns that these “new attack options against Russia” constitute “a conscious provocation of our Russian neighbors.”

German Economic News also reports on Chancellor Merkel’s decision to allow these terror-weapons against Russia: “The Bundestag decided in 2009, expressing the will of most Germans, that the US should withdraw its nuclear weapons from Germany. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel did nothing.” And now she okays the U.S. to increase America’s German-based nuclear arsenal against Russia.

Maria Zakharova, of the Russian Foreign Ministry, says: “This is an infringement of Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” which is the treaty that provides non-nuclear states the assurance that the existing nuclear powers will not try to use their nuclear status so as to take over the world.

German Economic News says: “The federal government had demanded the exact opposite: The Bundestag decided in March 2010 by a large majority, that the federal government should ‘press for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Germany.’ Even the coalition agreement between the CDU and FDP, the German government in 2009 had promised the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Büchel. But instead there will be these new bombs.”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015...uclear-weapons-in-germany-against-russia.html

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is swept under the rug. This has been going on since 2009, yet, an investigation didn't start until May 2014. Where was the EPA then?

Good question but, at a guess, woefully underfunded, understaffed, and still staffed largely by anti-regulation, big oil shills left over from the Bush administration.

If the GOP candidates were saying they wanted to get rid of the EPA and replace it with a bigger, stronger, meaner EPA, I could get on board - for precisely this sort of thing (and, of course, because of climate change). But that's not what they are saying. They're saying car companies shouldn't have to meet standards. Or tell the truth.

 

[dgordo]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is swept under the rug. This has been going on since 2009, yet, an investigation didn't start until May 2014. Where was the EPA then? Isn't this about the same time sanctions were placed on Russia over the Ukraine coup de tat? Washington needs Germany onboard. They are the EU. Now, we find out that the USSA is placing new nuclear weapons in Germany against Russia, which by the way, the German people are overwhelmingly opposed. I still submit that this has all the makings of a power play.

U.S. Will Station New Nuclear Weapons in Germany Against Russia
Posted on September 21, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.
Eric Zuesse

Germany’s ZDF public television network headlines on Tuesday September 22nd, “New U.S. Atomic Weapons to Be Stationed in Germany,” and reports that the U.S. will bring into Germany 20 new nuclear bombs, each being four times the destructive power of the one that was used on Hiroshima. Hans Kristensen, the Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, says, “With the new bombs the boundaries blur between tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.”

A former Parliamentary State Secretary in Germany’s Defense Ministry, Willy Wimmer, of Chancellor Merkel’s own conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union, warns that these “new attack options against Russia” constitute “a conscious provocation of our Russian neighbors.”

German Economic News also reports on Chancellor Merkel’s decision to allow these terror-weapons against Russia: “The Bundestag decided in 2009, expressing the will of most Germans, that the US should withdraw its nuclear weapons from Germany. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel did nothing.” And now she okays the U.S. to increase America’s German-based nuclear arsenal against Russia.

Maria Zakharova, of the Russian Foreign Ministry, says: “This is an infringement of Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” which is the treaty that provides non-nuclear states the assurance that the existing nuclear powers will not try to use their nuclear status so as to take over the world.

German Economic News says: “The federal government had demanded the exact opposite: The Bundestag decided in March 2010 by a large majority, that the federal government should ‘press for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Germany.’ Even the coalition agreement between the CDU and FDP, the German government in 2009 had promised the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Büchel. But instead there will be these new bombs.”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015...uclear-weapons-in-germany-against-russia.html

What's your theory on why vw admitted they were doing this?

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

What's your theory on why vw admitted they were doing this?

Caught red-handed?

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Pretty clever programming, if legality and morality don't bother you.

 

[Nat Algren]

What's your theory on why vw admitted they were doing this?

They probably were guilty. Like I said, Germany is our ally in Europe and is the economic engine that drives the EU. We look the other way to gain the upper-hand in foreign policy. I wouldn't be surprised if US taxpayers pick up the tab.

John Perkins wrote a good book in Confessions of an Economic Hitman. During his time at the NSA, he wrote how they would induce countries to borrow heavily knowing they would default. When they did, they would exact their pound of flesh. Sometimes, they would assume control over their natural resources. Many opportune times, they would demand a friendly vote at the UN. Other times, they would place military bases on foreign soil.

Now we know that the NSA listens to Angela Merkel's phone calls and the CIA buys off or threatens journalists to post NATO friendly pieces, as told by Dr. Udo Ulfkotte.

 

[Nat Algren]

Good question but, at a guess, woefully underfunded, understaffed, and still staffed largely by anti-regulation, big oil shills left over from the Bush administration.

If the GOP candidates were saying they wanted to get rid of the EPA and replace it with a bigger, stronger, meaner EPA, I could get on board - for precisely this sort of thing (and, of course, because of climate change). But that's not what they are saying. They're saying car companies shouldn't have to meet standards. Or tell the truth.

If you told me this during Obama's 1st year in office, you might convince me. But, not after 2 terms nearly completed. Obama is a fascist. The Affordable Healthcare Act was written by Big Pharma and the Insurance companies. The MIC is running foreign policy. The bailouts for Wall Street.

 

[Nat Algren]

Some things to ponder:


Qatar and Volkswagen
Karen De Coster

Apropos my previous post on this topic, here’s a snippet from a Congressional Research Service paper from 2014, “Qatar: Background and U.S. Relations.”

Qatar, a small peninsular country in the Persian Gulf, emerged as a partner of the United States in the mid-1990s and currently serves as host to major U.S. military facilities. Qatar holds the thirdlargest proven natural gas reserves in the world, and is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Its small citizenry enjoys the world’s highest per capita income. Since the mid-1990s, Qatari leaders have overseen a course of major economic growth, increased diplomatic engagement, and limited political liberalization.

$5 billion is at stake with a major foreign policy stronghold, as well as Volkswagen’s politically unpopular moves in Russia.

7:47 pm on September 22, 2015Email Karen De Coster
Volkswagen and Foreign Policy
Karen De Coster

Government Motors executives knowingly kept putting faulty ignition switches on vehicles, playing the numbers game and covering up its con game that killed 120+ people. Then they pocket the US Justice Department and walk away with inconsequential fines and no criminal prosecution.

The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) will have 3 corporate officers/managers sent to prison for a very long time for a salmonella outbreak, even in spite of shaky evidence that these folks were acting out in a criminal manner.

Volkswagen *increases its investment in Russia* and bypasses the EPA’s politically-motivated, special interest-benefiting mandates, and so the company is currently being threatened with $18B in fines, while that same Justice Department cranks up a criminal probe and the financial markets slaughter 20%+ of the company’s value. Volkswagen is now an object of US foreign policy and Middle East diplomacy.

As dominoes continue to fall — Germany, France, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Italy are calling for queries into Volkswagen — the damage to the iconic German company became more clear Tuesday. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn has apologized and is fighting to keep his job, denying reports in German media that he would be replaced by Matthias Müller, the chairman of VW’s sister company Porsche. Volkswagen’s stock dropped nearly 20 percent Tuesday, a repeat of Monday’s slide. Qatar, the oil rich nation that is one of the Volkswagen’s largest shareholders, has already lost $5 billion on its investment.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/

 

[Nat Algren]

Not sure where people's love for the EPA comes from:

EPA Admits Spilling Millions Of Gallons Of Toxic Waste Into Colorado River - Stunning Aerial Footage


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/10/2015 15:59 -0400


By Joh
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal organization in charge of fining and arresting people and companies for damage done to the environment, spilled over a million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas river in Colorado this week. The waste came from an abandoned mining operation and turned the entire river a disgusting shade of bright orange.

The EPA admitted earlier this week that the spill occurred while workers from the agency were using heavy machinery to open the Gold King Mine, an operation that was shut down some time ago. While trying to enter the mine, the machines busted a shaft that was filled with wastewater, creating a leak into the river.

At first, the EPA attempted to downplay the spill and act like there was nothing wrong, but they were heavily criticized for those initial statements.

Dave Ostrander, the EPA’s regional director told reporters in a later statement that “It’s hard being on the other side of this.”



“We are very sorry for what happened. This is a huge tragedy. It’s hard being on the other side of this. Typically we respond to emergencies; we don’t cause them. … It’s something we sincerely regret,” he said.

However, some people are not willing to let the EPA off that easily, even some politicians have rightly pointed out that the EPA should be treated in the same way that any company or private individual would be treated if they poisoned the river.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, who is from the area where the spill occurred said the EPA must pay for their mistake.



“If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them. The EPA admits fault and, as such, must be accountable and held to the same standard,” Tipton said.

In a statement released this Thursday, Taylor McKinnon, of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said that



“Endangered species downstream of this spill are already afflicted by same toxic compounds like mercury and selenium that may be in this waste. Taylor McKinnon, of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Thursday. “These species are hanging by a thread, and every new bit of toxic exposure makes a bad situation worse. EPA’s downplaying of potential impacts is troubling and raises deeper questions about the thoroughness of its mine-reclamation efforts.”

Aerial footage below:


The EPA actually has no concern for the environment, they just happen to use the environment as a cover story to create laws and gain an advantage for the companies that lobbied for exemptions to the agency’s regulations, and to collect money in fines. There are solutions outside the common government paradigm, and that is mainly the ability for individuals, not governments, to hold polluters personally and financially accountable.



inShare2

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-...xic-waste-colorado-river-stunning-aerial-foot

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

If you told me this during Obama's 1st year in office, you might convince me. But, not after 2 terms nearly completed. Obama is a fascist. The Affordable Healthcare Act was written by Big Pharma and the Insurance companies. The MIC is running foreign policy. The bailouts for Wall Street.

You are are changing topics. Your question was where was the EPA back in 2009. I too am very disappointed with Obama on most of those same issues, But it's nevertheless true that the nearly crippled EPA is working better late in Obama's terms than in the beginning, if this story is any indication.

 

[Nat Algren]

They haven't de-funded enough.



Republicans are targeting wasteful and “egregious” spending at the Environmental Protection Agency, issuing a new report showing the agency has lost millions to employee scams, lax oversight and wasteful research projects.

A report released by Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake found numerous examples of EPA mismanagement and excess, including employees illegitimately spending $15 million on agency credit cards and $9 million the agency lost track of funding projects in California.

The report found the agency spent “$3,500,000 to fund ‘Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health’ workshops across the country… $1,500,000 annually to store out-of-date and unwanted publications at an Ohio warehouse” and another “$700,000 to attempt to reduce methane emitted from pig flatulence in Thailand.”

Sen. Flake’s report also points out another big-ticket spending item: the EPA spent $40,000 on a portrait of former Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson — who resigned in early 2013 amid a transparency scandal.


http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/02/r...of-taxpayer-dollars-to-fraud-poor-management/




Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/02/r...llars-to-fraud-poor-management/#ixzz3mWUBfWQe

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

They haven't de-funded enough.



Republicans are targeting wasteful and “egregious” spending at the Environmental Protection Agency, issuing a new report showing the agency has lost millions to employee scams, lax oversight and wasteful research projects.

A report released by Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake found numerous examples of EPA mismanagement and excess, including employees illegitimately spending $15 million on agency credit cards and $9 million the agency lost track of funding projects in California.

The report found the agency spent “$3,500,000 to fund ‘Planning for Economic and Fiscal Health’ workshops across the country… $1,500,000 annually to store out-of-date and unwanted publications at an Ohio warehouse” and another “$700,000 to attempt to reduce methane emitted from pig flatulence in Thailand.”

Sen. Flake’s report also points out another big-ticket spending item: the EPA spent $40,000 on a portrait of former Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson — who resigned in early 2013 amid a transparency scandal.


http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/02/r...of-taxpayer-dollars-to-fraud-poor-management/




Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/02/r...llars-to-fraud-poor-management/#ixzz3mWUBfWQe

Fix it. Don't make it worse.

 

[bagdropper]

Looks to me VW was facing de-certification in the US for this coming model year.

Company killer...had to cave in and admit guilt.

 

[naturalmwa]

 

[DrVenkman]

CEO is out as of about 30 mins ago. That didnt take long.

 

[N_fuego]

Interesting article in NYT discussing how prevalent rigging tests in the auto industry actually is:

Long before Volkswagen admitted to cheating on emissions tests for millions of cars worldwide, the automobile industry, Volkswagen included, had a well-known record of sidestepping regulation and even duping regulators.

For decades, car companies found ways to rig mileage and emissions testing data. In Europe, some automakers have taped up test cars’ doors and grilles to bolster the aerodynamics. Others have used “superlubricants” to reduce friction in the car’s engine to a degree that would be impossible in real-world driving conditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/b...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

[Nat Algren]

Fix it. Don't make it worse.

Your heart is in the right place...it usually is. I think we discussed this before. I am just amazed at how people can be so anti-big business, yet, support big government. Is this based on altruistic stump speeches? Just who do you think is running these cabinet posts? We know politicians lie. Let's look at the heads of government cabinet positions. Aren't they laden with corporate lobbyists? It is a revolving door. Monsanto runs the Dept. of Agriculture, Big Pharma runs the FDA, Goldman Sachs runs the Treasury Dept. and so on. It's the fox in charge of the hen house and they pay handsomely to do so.

 

[Nat Algren]

This news broke 1 week before the VW story. Was this USSA using the EPA to bludgeon Germany over the head and get people in line?

HISTORIC NEWS: Finally, EU Breaks Away from U.S.
Posted on September 12, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.
Eric Zuesse

On Saturday, September 12th, United Kingdom’s Labour Party elected as its leader and their candidate to lead the UK, Jeremy Corbyn, who has been the most vocal British critic of the UK’s serving as the lap-dog of an aggressive imperialistic United States of America.

Simultaneously, the leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own Christian Social Union Party, Horst Seehofer, a man who, prior to his being appointed to be the Party-chief had been Chancellor Merkel’s Agriculture Minister, has now turned against Chancellor Merkel (who until now was the most powerful leader in all of Europe) and denounced her policy on the refugee crisis, and has now stated publicly that Germany should instead ally with Russia and against NATO on the entire Syrian war.

This public statement, which is really a sea-change in history, was reported Friday night, 11 September, in Germany’s leading magazine, The Mirror, Der Spiegel, and it represents the breaking-point in Germany’s foreign policy, finally yielding now to the rapidly rising anti-Americanism within Germany that results from America’s prioritizing America’s war against Russia as being a more important goal than the global war against Islamic jihad, which is clearly the most pressing threat to national security not only within Germany, and not only within all Western countries, but even within Pakistan and many other countries that have majority-Islamic populations, as well as in India, China, and other nations around the world.

Seehofer’s statement simply cannot be ignored by the Chancellor, because it comes from the leader of her own Party (“Christian Social Union” is the Party’s name in Munich and throughout Bavaria, but elsewhere in Germany the Party is called instead the “Christian Democratic Union”). She has mainly ignored German public opinion thus far and cooperated with U.S. President Barack Obama’s war against Russia, which Obama is waging via his proxies in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere. But Merkel now will have to bend; and this could end up breaking NATO itself, since NATO is the international military alliance that was originally against the Soviet Union and that then became against Russia as soon as the Soviet Union ended communism and broke up into Russia and the other nations of the former Soviet Union. That continuation of the Cold War, now against Russia alone, even without the former ideological excuse of there being communism, was initiated by U.S. President George Herbet Walker Bush himself. It was reluctantly picked up by then West-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose protégée was Angela Merkel. “Bush made his feelings about compromising with Moscow clear to Kohl: ‘To hell with that!’ he said. ‘We prevailed, they didn’t.’” (This “compromise” was that NATO not expand “one inch eastward”; the promise that Bush’s own Secretary of State had made to the then-Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and on the basis of which Gorbachev allowed the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact to end and East Germany to be taken by West Germany.)

And so, the Cold War never really ended in the West (though Gorbachev was promised that it would); but, now, it might be finally forced to end, without a nuclear war (which continues to be the U.S. threat but becomes far less likely without there being allies for that on America’s side), because the current U.S. President’s intensification of the long-suppressed ongoing U.S. war against Russia is becoming too much for Germany, and for many other countries within the NATO alliance, to continue supporting. A serious international movement to destroy all nuclear weapons might even begin now.

The only NATO member-nations that are still highly supportive of America’s ongoing war against Russia are some former member-nations of the former Soviet Union and of the Soviet Union’s equivalent of NATO, the Warsaw Pact, which broke up in 1991 when the Soviet Union itself did. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, are among the now-NATO, former Soviet and Warsaw Pact, nations that are as anti-Russian as is the American ruling class (which President Obama represents). However, America’s former allies when the United States used to be a democracy, the West-European nations, are now starting to abandon the U.S., and so too are some of the East-European nations that were formerly under the Soviet yoke, such as Czech Republic, and Hungary.

America’s deepest control extended especially into two nations: UK, and Germany. However, the decision that George Herbert Walker Bush made in 1990, and that has been adhered to by his successors, to continue the former Cold War until Russia itself is defeated and becomes added to the America Empire, is now being increasingly abandoned by America’s formerly obedient vassal-nations. The American Empire has reached its zenith, and is now breaking apart.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/09/historic-news-finally-eu-breaks-away-from-u-s.html

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Your heart is in the right place...it usually is. I think we discussed this before. I am just amazed at how people can be so anti-big business, yet, support big government.

I only want government that's big enough to get the job done. Part of that job is to protect the people from those who would exploit or oppress them.

Which I why I ALWAYS say that the first step toward shrinking government is to break up large concentrations of private wealth and power. The smaller and less threatening private power is, the smaller public power needs to be.

You should always be wary of power. But I think it makes sense to trust public power more than private power because we have a bigger say in what public power does and how it functions - through things like the constitution, the Bill of Rights, and elections.

Right now, both public and private concentrations of power are too big and too resistant to reasonable efforts to exercise control over them by the people.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

This news broke 1 week before the VW story. Was this USSA using the EPA to bludgeon Germany over the head and get people in line?

HISTORIC NEWS: Finally, EU Breaks Away from U.S.
Posted on September 12, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.
Eric Zuesse

On Saturday, September 12th, United Kingdom’s Labour Party elected as its leader and their candidate to lead the UK, Jeremy Corbyn, who has been the most vocal British critic of the UK’s serving as the lap-dog of an aggressive imperialistic United States of America.

Simultaneously, the leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own Christian Social Union Party, Horst Seehofer, a man who, prior to his being appointed to be the Party-chief had been Chancellor Merkel’s Agriculture Minister, has now turned against Chancellor Merkel (who until now was the most powerful leader in all of Europe) and denounced her policy on the refugee crisis, and has now stated publicly that Germany should instead ally with Russia and against NATO on the entire Syrian war.

This public statement, which is really a sea-change in history, was reported Friday night, 11 September, in Germany’s leading magazine, The Mirror, Der Spiegel, and it represents the breaking-point in Germany’s foreign policy, finally yielding now to the rapidly rising anti-Americanism within Germany that results from America’s prioritizing America’s war against Russia as being a more important goal than the global war against Islamic jihad, which is clearly the most pressing threat to national security not only within Germany, and not only within all Western countries, but even within Pakistan and many other countries that have majority-Islamic populations, as well as in India, China, and other nations around the world.

Seehofer’s statement simply cannot be ignored by the Chancellor, because it comes from the leader of her own Party (“Christian Social Union” is the Party’s name in Munich and throughout Bavaria, but elsewhere in Germany the Party is called instead the “Christian Democratic Union”). She has mainly ignored German public opinion thus far and cooperated with U.S. President Barack Obama’s war against Russia, which Obama is waging via his proxies in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere. But Merkel now will have to bend; and this could end up breaking NATO itself, since NATO is the international military alliance that was originally against the Soviet Union and that then became against Russia as soon as the Soviet Union ended communism and broke up into Russia and the other nations of the former Soviet Union. That continuation of the Cold War, now against Russia alone, even without the former ideological excuse of there being communism, was initiated by U.S. President George Herbet Walker Bush himself. It was reluctantly picked up by then West-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose protégée was Angela Merkel. “Bush made his feelings about compromising with Moscow clear to Kohl: ‘To hell with that!’ he said. ‘We prevailed, they didn’t.’” (This “compromise” was that NATO not expand “one inch eastward”; the promise that Bush’s own Secretary of State had made to the then-Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and on the basis of which Gorbachev allowed the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact to end and East Germany to be taken by West Germany.)

And so, the Cold War never really ended in the West (though Gorbachev was promised that it would); but, now, it might be finally forced to end, without a nuclear war (which continues to be the U.S. threat but becomes far less likely without there being allies for that on America’s side), because the current U.S. President’s intensification of the long-suppressed ongoing U.S. war against Russia is becoming too much for Germany, and for many other countries within the NATO alliance, to continue supporting. A serious international movement to destroy all nuclear weapons might even begin now.

The only NATO member-nations that are still highly supportive of America’s ongoing war against Russia are some former member-nations of the former Soviet Union and of the Soviet Union’s equivalent of NATO, the Warsaw Pact, which broke up in 1991 when the Soviet Union itself did. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, are among the now-NATO, former Soviet and Warsaw Pact, nations that are as anti-Russian as is the American ruling class (which President Obama represents). However, America’s former allies when the United States used to be a democracy, the West-European nations, are now starting to abandon the U.S., and so too are some of the East-European nations that were formerly under the Soviet yoke, such as Czech Republic, and Hungary.

America’s deepest control extended especially into two nations: UK, and Germany. However, the decision that George Herbert Walker Bush made in 1990, and that has been adhered to by his successors, to continue the former Cold War until Russia itself is defeated and becomes added to the America Empire, is now being increasingly abandoned by America’s formerly obedient vassal-nations. The American Empire has reached its zenith, and is now breaking apart.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/09/historic-news-finally-eu-breaks-away-from-u-s.html

Interesting, although from what I could tell (following the link) Seehoffer's comments didn't sound remotely that incendiary. And the whole bit on Russia, while possibly close to the mark, seems unrelated to the first 2 points in this article (about the UK and Germany).

Who is this Eric Zuesse?

 

[Nat Algren]

I only want government that's big enough to get the job done. Part of that job is to protect the people from those who would exploit or oppress them.

Which I why I ALWAYS say that the first step toward shrinking government is to break up large concentrations of private wealth and power. The smaller and less threatening private power is, the smaller public power needs to be.

You should always be wary of power. But I think it makes sense to trust public power more than private power because we have a bigger say in what public power does and how it functions - through things like the constitution, the Bill of Rights, and elections.

Right now, both public and private concentrations of power are too big and too resistant to reasonable efforts to exercise control over them by the people.

But, as I have illustrated, corporations are the government. They are not about to relinquish the reins of power. They institutionalize and thus, legitimize their power through government.

 

[Nat Algren]

Interesting, although from what I could tell (following the link) Seehoffer's comments didn't sound remotely that incendiary. And the whole bit on Russia, while possibly close to the mark, seems unrelated to the first 2 points in this article (about the UK and Germany).

Who is this Eric Zuesse?

Au contraire. I see them as directly related. The chronology of these chess moves cannot be just a coincidence.

 

[ottumwan in tx]

Obamas beloved gm must be in trouble again. He did this before with toyota. Start a false flag event against another car company then pump up gm

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

But, as I have illustrated, corporations are the government. They are not about to relinquish the reins of power. They institutionalize and thus, legitimize their power through government.

No argument from me. And it's unacceptable. But why do I get the sense that you say that as "oh, well, that's the way it is; nothing we can (or should) do about it"?

Many from your slant ONLY criticize government and, while fretting (with justification) about abuses of government power, want to entirely free corporations from all regulations, oversight, or government influence. You at least recognize that government is already acting too much as the agent of private power - not as a bulwark against it.

There's nothing new about this influence of corporations and oligarchs over government. But it has gotten orders of magnitudes worse in recent decades. Plenty of reasons, but 2 stand out.

First, it used to be at least somewhat true that corporate power was balanced by labor power. That is only slightly true any more. As unions have become increasingly moribund, our top 2 parties have stopped resembling a business party and a labor party and, instead, have begun to compete by representing different coalitions of corporate power. Yes, the unions that remain mostly (but not entirely) side with the Dems, but when you are talking about only 6% of private sector workers being unionized (and just 11% of all American workers), that's not a very big deal. Especially given the success of groups like AEI and Cato and Heritage at demonizing unions.

The other factor that stands out is the effect of decisions like Citizens United and McCutcheon, that have basically declared that purchasing elections and bribing officials are legal behaviors and fully open to anybody, including corporations.