Volkswagen’s U.S. boss will be on Capitol Hill Thursday morning facing questions about the software in its diesel cars that cheats emission tests.
The German automaker has already admitted that its diesel cars were programmed to limit emissions when they were tested. But on the road in the real world they would dump up to 40 times the allowed level of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, or NOx, into the air. NOx is a major source of smog.
“These events are deeply troubling,” said Michael Horn, the head of Volkswagen in the U.S., in his prepared opening remarks. “I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group. We have broken the trust of our customers, dealerships, and employees, as well as the public and regulators.”
But Horn’s prepared remarks did not have any details about how many in Volkswagen’s executive ranks knew about the deceptive software, known as a “defeat device” installed its cars. He is certain to face questioning on that.
An official from the Environmental Protection Agency will also appear at the hearing. The agency will likely also face harsh questioning about how VW’s deception went unnoticed for so many years. VW models with the emissions-cheating software date back to the 2009 model year. But it wasn’t the EPA that eventually caught VW. Instead it was discovered through tests performed by a West Virginia laboratory that was commissioned by a clean energy advocacy group.
EPA officials will defend their testing, as well as the importance of the Clean Air Act that VW is charged with violating. They will testify that NOx, can lead to increased asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses that can be serious enough to send people to the hospital.
“It is this oversight that ensures the benefits of clean air emissions standards are realized, that the industry is competing on a level playing field, and that consumers are getting what they pay for,” said Chris Grundler, he head of the EPA’s office of transportation and air quality, in his prepared remarks.
