WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders today wrote to Volkswagen Group of America President and CEO Michael Horn requesting additional information about VW’s emissions cheating scandal. The letter follows Horn’s October testimony to the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee as well as yesterday’s revelation by the EPA of an expanded investigation into Volkswagen Group’s diesel automobiles. The bipartisan leaders are seeking additional information about the “defeat devices" designed to skirt emissions controls.
The committee is investigating Volkswagen’s installation of these devices and how their use went undetected for so long. Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) and subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO), signed the letter.
Full text of the letter follows below:
Dear Mr. Horn:
Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency identified additional Volkswagen models that violated prohibitions against “defeat devices," issuing a new Notice of Violation. Given this information we write to follow up on yesterday’s allegations and on your testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on October 8, 2015, to request additional information to assist the Committee’s investigation into Volkswagen’s use of software to circumvent emissions controls in certain model year diesel passenger cars.
We appreciate your commitment to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation and understand that Volkswagen continues to collect and produce documents responsive to the Committee’s Sept. 29, 2015 request. In the interim and in light of yesterday’s news, we ask that Volkswagen provide some basic facts and clarifications regarding the software installed in certain make and model year vehicles and how such devices affect the operation of the vehicles by Nov. 16, 2015, as follows:
1. A detailed description of any software that served effectively to defeat emissions controls functions, including but not limited to what components of the engine it affects and how, for each of the make and model year vehicles identified by the Environmental Protection Agency in their Notice of Violation (NOV) dated Sept. 18, 2015.
2. A detailed description of any difference or variation in how the software functions in individual make and model year vehicles, or generations of vehicle technology.
3. A detailed description of any additional make and model year vehicles, including but not limited to those identified by the EPA in the most recent NOV, which VW knows or suspects also contain a previously undisclosed auxiliary emissions control device (AECD), in any form, and whether the AECD affects compliance with emissions control standards. For each make and model year vehicle, or generation of vehicle technology, please explain the status of VW’s assessment of the AECD, how it functions in the vehicle and an explanation of how it differs from the previously identified defeat device.
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on “Volkswagen’s Emissions Cheating Allegations: Initial Questions" in October. The leaders also requested documents from VW and information from EPA to assist the committee’s ongoing investigation. Related Items
* Letter to Volkswagen Regarding Emissions Issues
* Committee Leaders Comment on EPA’s Allegation that Additional VW Models Implicated in Emissions Cheating
* ICYMI: Rep. Blackburn Talks VW on Bloomberg TV
* Committee Begins Getting Answers from Volkswagen and EPA on Emissions Cheat
* Volkswagen Emissions Cheating Allegations: Initial Questions.
* Volkswagen Set to Testify TOMORROW
* #SubOversight Schedules Volkswagen Hearing for October 8
* Committee Leaders Request Documents from Volkswagen as Investigation Continues
* Letters to Volkswagen and EPA Regarding Volkswagen Emissions Issues
* Upton, Murphy Announce Hearing on Volkswagen Emissions Issues
See Also
* Letter to Volkswagen Regarding Emissions Issues
