EPA Gave Volkswagen a Free Pass On Emissions Ten Years Ago Due To Lack of Budget

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 2, 2015 @05:54AM from the because-this-issue-wasn't-political-enough-yet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A new report suggests that continuing cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget contributed to Volkswagen being able to cheat on its emissions tests. When the test scripts were developed the department — which can still only conduct 'spot tests' on 20% of all qualifying vehicles — was forced to concentrate on heavy machinery and truck manufacturers, which at the time had a far higher incidence of attempting to cheat on vehicle standards tests. Discounting inflation the EPA's 2015 budget is on a par with its 2002 budget (PDF), and has been cut by 21% since 2010.

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ooh, ooh, I know how to fix this problem by sribe · 2015-10-02 06:15 · Score: 3, Funny

CUT TAXES! CUT TAXES!
No, see, really. See. If you cut taxes, you know, step 3, profit!
Re:Hmm... by tripleevenfall · 2015-10-02 06:25 · Score: 4, Funny

To be fair, the EPA has been very busy cleaning up rivers in Colorado.