Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Diesel Engine Maker Cummins to Repair 600,000 Ram Trucks in $2B Emissions Cheating Scandal
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 11 months ago on
January 10, 2024

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

DETROIT — Engine maker Cummins Inc. will recall 600,000 Ram trucks as part of a settlement with federal and California authorities that also requires the company to remedy environmental damage caused by illegal software that let it skirt diesel emissions tests.

New details of the settlement, reached in December, were released Wednesday. Cummins had already agreed to a $1.675 billion civil penalty to settle claims – the largest ever secured under the Clean Air Act – plus $325 million for pollution remedies.

That brings Cummins’ total penalty to more than $2 billion, which officials from the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board, and the California Attorney General called “landmark” in a call with reporters Wednesday.

“Let this settlement be a lesson: We won’t let greedy corporations cheat their way to success and run over the health and wellbeing of consumers and our environment along the way,” California AG Rob Bonta said.

Ram 2500 and 3500 Diesels Had Emissions ‘Defeat Devices’

Over the course of a decade, hundreds of thousands of Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickup trucks – manufactured by Stellantis – had Cummins diesel engines equipped with software that limited nitrogen oxide pollution during emissions tests but allowed higher pollution during normal operations, the governments alleged.

In all, about 630,000 pickups from the 2013 through 2019 model years were equipped with the so-called “defeat devices” and will be recalled. Roughly 330,000 more trucks from 2019 through 2023 had emissions control software that wasn’t properly reported to authorities, but the government says those didn’t disable emissions controls. Officials could not estimate how many of the recalled trucks remain on the road.

Stellantis deferred comment on the case to Cummins, which has denied allegations made by the government and is not admitting liability, according to court documents.

The engine maker said in a statement that Wednesday’s actions do not involve any more financial commitments than those announced in December. “We are looking forward to obtaining certainty as we conclude this lengthy matter and continue to deliver on our mission of powering a more prosperous world,” the statement said.

Cummins also said the engines that were cited but are not being recalled did not exceed emissions limits. Punishment for the unreported software is included in the penalty, the company said.

As part of the settlement, Cummins will make up for smog-forming pollution that resulted from its actions.

Preliminary estimates suggested its emissions bypass produced “thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland previously said in a prepared statement.

The Clean Air Act, a federal law enacted in 1963 to reduce and control air pollution across the nation, requires car and engine manufacturers to comply with emission limits to protect the environment and human health.

Transportation Sector Responsible for 33% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The transportation sector is responsible for about one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and much of that stems from light-duty vehicles. Limits aim to curb the amount of emissions from burning gasoline and diesel fuel, including carbon dioxide and other problematic pollutants.

“We increasingly are finding that the public health impacts from emissions from cars are really devastating and it is one of our biggest sources also of emissions leading to climate change,” said Jacqueline Klopp, director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at the Columbia Climate School.

“To the extent that vehicle manufacturers are trying to evade our emission standards that are our biggest tool for protecting us from these public health impacts and climate change, these kinds of fines for evasion are hopefully a very important deterrent,” she added. “There are profound justice and equity issues around air pollution produced by transport emissions.”

Diesel exhaust is harmful to human health; it’s a carcinogen. Long-term exposure to ozone-creating nitrogen oxides can cause health issues like respiratory infections, lung disease, and asthma.

Officials said Wednesday it was not lost on them that the Cummins settlement follows several other notable emissions cheating cases involving the auto industry in recent years.

A Look at the Other Diesel Cheaters

Wednesday’s details come seven years after German automaker Volkswagen agreed to plead guilty to criminal felony counts following investigations into its use of similar defeat devices, a massive emissions scandal known as Dieselgate.

The company installed software in certain model year 2009-2015 diesel vehicles across its brands, circumventing emissions standards and emitting up to 40 times more pollution than those standards allow. Volkswagen said 11 million vehicles across the globe were equipped with the pollution controls.

In 2017, the automaker agreed to pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty in addition to $1.5 billion in separate civil resolutions.

Fiat Chrysler saw similar consequences in 2019 for failing to disclose defeat devices used to make vehicle emission control systems function differently during emission testing. More than 100,000 EcoDiesel Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles were sold in the U.S. with the unauthorized software.

The automaker agreed to pay a $305 million civil penalty to settle the claims of cheating emission tests in 2019.

In 2020, Daimler, the auto parent of Mercedes-Benz, agreed to a $857 million civil penalty as a result of its disclosure failures and claims over its violations of the Clean Air Act.

“There’s a lot of sunk money into diesel engines and people making profits off of diesel engines,” Columbia’s Klopp said. “Unless you give them a really big fine and a really big deterrent, they’re willing to pay the fines to get those profits. That’s really sad because it puts the profits before the health of our communities.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

DON'T MISS

Two Fresno, Clovis Trustee Races Remain Tight. Bond Measures Passing with Growing Margins

DON'T MISS

Richardson Close to Cementing Northeast Fresno Council Race

DON'T MISS

Visalia Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Walnut Avenue

DON'T MISS

DOGE Is a Promising Step Toward Federal Efficiency: Fareed Zakaria

DON'T MISS

Listeria Outbreak Tied to Yu Shang Food Leaves California Infant Dead and 10 People Sick

DON'T MISS

UN Expert: Myanmar’s Desperate Military Ramps Up Attacks Including Beheadings, Rapes and Torture

DON'T MISS

Christine Pelosi Leads Charge to Ensure Every Vote Counts in Tight Duarte-Gray Race

DON'T MISS

Dolly Parton’s Wish? For Fresno County Children to Read

DON'T MISS

Man Found Dead in Fresno’s Roeding Park Identified as Bay Area Resident

UP NEXT

Two Fresno, Clovis Trustee Races Remain Tight. Bond Measures Passing with Growing Margins

UP NEXT

Richardson Close to Cementing Northeast Fresno Council Race

UP NEXT

Visalia Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Walnut Avenue

UP NEXT

DOGE Is a Promising Step Toward Federal Efficiency: Fareed Zakaria

UP NEXT

Listeria Outbreak Tied to Yu Shang Food Leaves California Infant Dead and 10 People Sick

UP NEXT

UN Expert: Myanmar’s Desperate Military Ramps Up Attacks Including Beheadings, Rapes and Torture

UP NEXT

Christine Pelosi Leads Charge to Ensure Every Vote Counts in Tight Duarte-Gray Race

UP NEXT

Dolly Parton’s Wish? For Fresno County Children to Read

UP NEXT

Man Found Dead in Fresno’s Roeding Park Identified as Bay Area Resident

UP NEXT

Fresno Authorities Search for Domestic Violence Suspect Considered Armed and Dangerous

Visalia Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Walnut Avenue

3 hours ago

DOGE Is a Promising Step Toward Federal Efficiency: Fareed Zakaria

4 hours ago

Listeria Outbreak Tied to Yu Shang Food Leaves California Infant Dead and 10 People Sick

4 hours ago

UN Expert: Myanmar’s Desperate Military Ramps Up Attacks Including Beheadings, Rapes and Torture

5 hours ago

Christine Pelosi Leads Charge to Ensure Every Vote Counts in Tight Duarte-Gray Race

5 hours ago

Dolly Parton’s Wish? For Fresno County Children to Read

5 hours ago

Man Found Dead in Fresno’s Roeding Park Identified as Bay Area Resident

7 hours ago

Fresno Authorities Search for Domestic Violence Suspect Considered Armed and Dangerous

7 hours ago

NBA Memo to Players Warns About Organized Home Break-Ins

7 hours ago

Fresno School Employees Say District’s Job Shifts Endanger Kids and Staff

7 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

A Strathmore man was arrested Thursday after authorities say he threatened to kill students and staff at Strathmore Middle School, the Tular...

3 hours ago

Jason Mitchell, 43, of Strathmore, was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill students and staff at Strathmore Middle School. (Tulare County SO)
3 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

3 hours ago

Two Fresno, Clovis Trustee Races Remain Tight. Bond Measures Passing with Growing Margins

3 hours ago

Richardson Close to Cementing Northeast Fresno Council Race

3 hours ago

Visalia Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Walnut Avenue

4 hours ago

DOGE Is a Promising Step Toward Federal Efficiency: Fareed Zakaria

4 hours ago

Listeria Outbreak Tied to Yu Shang Food Leaves California Infant Dead and 10 People Sick

5 hours ago

UN Expert: Myanmar’s Desperate Military Ramps Up Attacks Including Beheadings, Rapes and Torture

5 hours ago

Christine Pelosi Leads Charge to Ensure Every Vote Counts in Tight Duarte-Gray Race

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend