U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt said the agency needs to make sure Volkswagen‘s excess diesel emissions is not duplicated, and will deal with inappropriate conduct by automakers “very aggressively.”
Volkswagen confessed in September 2015 to illegally utilizing software application to avert emissions guidelines, since then the EPA has been investigating diesel issues in a number of other automakers including Fiat Chrysler and Daimler.
In March, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to 3 felonies in a U.S. court and deals with three years of probation and oversight by a court appointed display. The automaker has actually accepted spend more than $25 billion on buybacks, fines and ecological efforts.
The United States Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler in May and alleged the automaker of illegally using software to bypass emission controls in 104,000 diesel vehicles sold from 2014.
“What Volkswagen did was really, very troublesome and we have to ensure it does not happen once again,” Pruitt informed Reuters in an interview.
Pruitt said the firm should take an aggressive stance to prevent cheating by automakers.
“Look what Volkswagen, and Fiat – you have this Fiat case that is on the horizon as well. The e-mails and the communications that I know – it was tactical and intentional and should be handled very aggressively,” Pruitt stated.
Asked whether he thought the Obama administration handled Volkswagen too harshly, Pruitt replied: “I wouldn’t call what was done too light at all.”
