The Pros And Cons Of Volkswagen's Clean Air Act

Even though regulations for car emissions have been put in place, there are still issues due to lack of enforced regulations and the amount of destructive gas that is produced from these metal beasts, which is still harming the environment. One of the first attempted victories in this war was when the United States implemented the Clean Air Act of 1963. In summary, this act was passed to regulate the cleanliness of the air on a national scale. So far, it has worked fairly well for the past 53 years. However, there have been modifications to it throughout the years. The Clean Air Act amendment of 1990 helped tighten down regulations on how much pollution is allowed to be emitted from vehicles. According to Emma Marris, an American non-fiction

Volkswagen is building car engines with faulty defeat devices. These devices help control how much gas is released from the car at one time. Laura Allen, the Deputy Press Secretary at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states, “VW’s illegal defeat devices have resulted in thousands of tons of excess NOx emissions in California, a state where more than 12 million people live in areas that exceed air quality standards set to protect public health” (4). Volkswagen has produced cheaper defeat devices hoping to save money, but they have broken the law and polluted the air in the process. However, Volkswagen is not the only one disregarding the Clean Air Act amendment of 1990. Audi is another violator of this law. They are doing the same thing by producing cheaper products in hopes of making more money. And surprisingly, the EPA themselves are in a bit of hot water. Marris has dubbed that the “EPA was breaking the law by refusing to consider greenhouse gases as ‘pollutants’” (4). Marris is making sure that nobody is hiding from the truth of what is really going on behind closed

Car companies are spending less money and producing subpar equipment hoping to become richer. Allen reports that Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division states that “car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems breach the public trust, endanger public health and disadvantage competitors” (3). In turn, however, they are only having to spend more on recalled products and lawsuits against them. What would help improve the environment and their status is producing new and improved equipment to pass down to the consumers. Another way that our economy is taking a hit is because of all the proposed plans. Most of them are created to combat the problem at hand rather than defeat it at the source. This, in turn, is causing taxpayers to pay more money to fight a war that is impossible to win. The environment will be expensive to fix, but with healthier, fresher minds, the problem can be solved