Boom.
The EPA found the “defeat device”, the device that allowed VW cars to emit less during tests than they would while driving normally, in diesel cars including the Audi A3 and the VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.
VW has stopped selling the relevant diesel models in the US, where diesel cars account for about a quarter of its sales.
The EPA said that the fine for each vehicle that did not comply with federal clean air rules would be up to $37,500 (£24,000). With 482,000 cars sold since 2008 involved in the allegations, it means the fines could reach $18bn.
Sounds like a good base for a novel:
All vehicle makers are found to be cheating as the EPA set the standards so tight that no engine would comply. Instead of coming up with more reasonable standards the gov shuts down fossil fuel engine use and mandates electric vehicles. This drives the need for electric power way up while at the same time shutting coal fired powerplants.
At the same time the deadline for positive train control arrives, and the inability to develop and test a non existent technology by the deadline results in trains being shut down.
I didn’t think Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be an instruction manual.
One interesting sidelight is that this is not the first time a manufacturer of diesel engines has been caught using a “defeat device”. Look back at 1998 for exactly the same thing involving heavy duty diesel engines manufactured by Caterpillar, Inc., Cummins Engine Company, Detroit Diesel Corporation, Mack Trucks, Inc., Navistar International Transportation Corporation, Renault Vehicules Industriels, s.a., and Volvo Truck Corporation.
http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/cummins-engine-company-diesel-engine-clean-air-act-settlement