Board To Use Volkswagen’s Millions To Try To Offset Damage Company’s Dirty Cars Did To California
Nailed by state and federal officials in 2015 for illegally selling thousands of highly polluting cars, the German automaker agreed to pour money into trying to make up for the damage it caused. But it will be a hard task. "It's not going to undo the damage that has been done to your lungs," said Will Barrett, a senior policy analyst with the American Lung Association's California chapter. "The pollution's out there; it's been emitted."
Sacramento Bee:
California Air Resources Board Looks To Spend Volkswagen Pollution Money
The California Air Resources Board is finalizing a plan to spend $423 million of Volkswagen's money on financial incentives to persuade trucking companies, mass-transit agencies, tugboat operators and other major polluters to upgrade their fleets and buy greener vehicles. The idea is to eventually take as much pollution out of California's air as Volkswagen's dirty cars put in — especially the heavy volume of smog-forming nitrogen oxide, or NOx, caused by the VW vehicles. (Kasler, 5/14)
In other news —
San Francisco Chronicle:
In Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup Scandal, Supes Push For Redoing Botched Test
San Francisco supervisors Monday pressed the Navy to retest the entire Hunters Point Shipyard, including a portion already dotted with new condos, during the first public hearing into the widening scandal of the botched $1 billion cleanup at the Superfund site. For weeks, the supervisors had eagerly awaited an opportunity to question Tetra Tech, the environmental engineering company responsible for ridding the site of nuclear residue and other toxic materials. (Dineen, 5/14)