Governors' Biofuels Coalition

The Volkswagen emissions scandal is part of a long history of deception by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when it comes to measuring tailpipe emissions and ignoring real world fuels, according to the Urban Air Initiative (UAI).

While the focus of the cheating has been on hardware and the defeat devices VW installed on vehicles, UAI notes that a much bigger issue lies with EPA’s test and certification fuels and how it certifies vehicles as “clean”.

UAI contends that fuels more so than vehicles are largely the reason for discrepancies between emissions calculated in a controlled, laboratory setting and the emissions that result from real world driving. According to UAI President Dave VanderGriend, the EPA knows the certification fuels it uses are twice as clean as the fuels you are able to buy.

So with dieselgate now being exposed, when will gasgate make news? The EPA is fully aware that consumer gasoline produces almost double the particulate emissions compared to its certification fuels, making the EPA the real “masters of deception”.

VanderGriend said the EPA is downplaying the significance of the Volkswagen emission scandal while ignoring how its certification fuels impact gasoline vehicles. “The fact of the matter is that gasoline vehicles, which are the overwhelming source of vehicle emissions, are also failing to provide real world emission reductions, and on a much greater scale,” he said.

“EPA has stated the diesel defeat devices impact less than one percent of the vehicles on the road but are turning a blind eye to deficiencies in its own program. The EPA is charged with protecting public health and is well aware more could be done to reduce emissions.”

The EPA needs to start using real world fuels, tested under real world driving conditions, in order to give us real world assessment of the actual tailpipe emissions.