Go Greyhound, and leave pollution to us!

 

Bus deck, Union Station, Washington DC

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and the District Department of Energy and Environment have filed a lawsuit claiming Greyhound buses regularly disregard the District’s three-minute idling limit, polluting the air and endangering the health of workers, riders, and DC residents and visitors. The suit against the bus company is based on a DDOE study conducted at the Union Station bus deck, and the DA seeks reimbursement for investigation costs and $216,000 in penalties.

Washington DC is filled with idling intercity, charter, tourist, and commuter buses every day, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

More:

“D.C. sues Greyhound over buses idling at Union Station,” Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post

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Dieselgate: Bosch Was a Co-Conspirator

As we surmised, Volkswagen could not have installed emissions-test-cheating software on its 11 million diesel vehicles without the connivance of electrical engineering and manufacturing firm Robert Bosch GmbH. VW’s lawyers are claiming Bosch involvement in Dieselgate, and the Feds are investigating. Despite Bosch denials, there’s evidence the firm knew about the illegal VW cheat but didn’t alert German government regulators (or did they?). Bosch even demanded legal cover from VeeDub but the auto giant said “Nein.”

So we’ve got a mess that will cost billions to remedy, and two huge German corporations blaming each other for it. Bosch even wants people to call the scandal “VW-Gate” instead of “Dieselgate”. How do you say “Nice try!” in German?

More:

“Bosch worked ‘hand-in-glove’ with VW in emissions fraud: lawyers,” David Shepardson and Joel Schectman, Reuters

“Volkswagen Supplier Played Key Role in Cheating, Court Papers Say,” Jack Ewing, New York Times

“Bosch Knew VW Might Get Nailed For Diesel Cheating, Demanded Indemnification: Report,” Patrick George, Jalopnik

Update:

“Volkswagen engineer pleads guilty in emissions scandal,”Megan Geuss, Ars Technica

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Dieselgate: VW & Bosch

11 million Volkswagen diesel cars have emissions-test-cheating software that allows them to produce lower emissions when tested by regulators and higher-performance dirty exhaust while they’re actually on the road. Volkswagen engineers were certainly involved in this scam, but the Wolfsburg firm may not be the only one snared in the Dieselgate probe. VW electronic equipment and software is built by Robert Bosch GmbH, and Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Bosch involvement:

Dieselgate: Volkswagen or Bosch?

11 million Volkswagen diesel cars, 500,000 of them in the USA, have emissions-test-cheating software that allows them to produce lower emissions when tested by regulators and higher-performance dirty exhaust while they’re actually on the road. Now that WV has been caught, EPA is acting accordingly. Volkswagen engineers were certainly involved, but the Wolfsburg firm may not be the only one snared in Dieselgate. Most VW electronic equipment and software is built by Robert Bosch GmbH:

“It isn’t clear whether Bosch provided Volkswagen with the software at the heart of the scandal, or whether any of the Bosch-built components interacted with the software.

‘How these components are calibrated and integrated into complete vehicle systems is the responsibility of each auto maker,’ the Stuttgart-based company said.

Still, questions over how the software worked and who was responsible for installing it have spilled over to include Bosch.

German newspapers have reported that Bosch told Volkswagen in a 2007 letter that the use of Bosch-made software to manipulate car emissions was illegal. Volkswagen declined to comment Friday on the reports.”

— “Bosch Could Get Drawn Into Volkswagen Emissions Litigation,” Robert Wall, Wall Street Journal

So if Bosch knew VW was hacking their software, why didn’t they tell the authorities? Worse: Did Bosch tell the German government, which took no action other than suppressing the information?

NASA Explores New Car Smell

Attention space travelers: That new space capsule may smell good, but that aroma isn’t good for you. NASA’s Goddard Laboratory is on the case:

“For some people, the best part about buying a new car is its factory-fresh new car smell, a distinctive aroma created when the chemicals and residual solvents used to manufacture dashboards, car seats, carpeting and other vehicle appointments that outgas and fill the cabin. While the scent may be alluring to some, many researchers believe exposure to these gases isn’t particularly healthy — so unhealthy, in fact, that some recommend that drivers keep their new cars ventilated while driving.

Outgassed solvents, epoxies, lubricants, and other materials aren’t especially wholesome for contamination-sensitive telescope mirrors, thermal-control units, high-voltage electronic boxes, cryogenic instruments, detectors and solar arrays, either. As a result, NASA engineers are always looking for new techniques to prevent these gases from adhering to instrument and spacecraft surfaces and potentially shortening their lives.

GOP Claims EPA Costs Jobs

Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R, TN-7) has performed a remarkable scientific feat, eliminating the polluting and climatic effects of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. She did so at a single stroke by introducing H.R. 97, the “Free Industry Act.”

The act would deny the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to enforce control of those harmful substances by declaring the overwhelming body of scientific evidence to be erroneous. The Republican justification for H.R. 97 is the claim that EPA regulation of the aforesaid substances would be “job-killing.” As Dean Baker puts it, “Republicans call … policies ‘Job Killers’ because the media might ask for evidence if they called them ‘Baby Killers.’”

Kudzu Causes Air Pollution

Kudzu vines kill trees, smother native species, bury barns and houses. A new study says they cause air pollution, too. Invasive Pueraria lobata is infamous as “the weed that ate the South,” burying the countryside in tough, fast-growing vines with roots that can weigh up to 400 pounds.

Those roots fix nitrogen from the soil quite efficiently, which might be a good thing if microbes didn’t release much of that nitrogen into the air as nitric oxide, one of the gases that comes out of your car’s tailpipe. This nitric oxide reacts with sunlight and elements in the lower atmosphere to produce ozone and other components of smog, just like in the big city.