Volkswagen Pays Millions For Using Software In Its Diesel Vehicles To Beat Strict Emissions Tests
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pennsylvania will receive a more than $30-million portion of a settlement with Volkswagen addressing environmental harm caused by the automaker's emissions device on diesel vehicles.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says his prosecutors showed the serious harms caused by Volkswagen's emissions device, and, in his words, its "conscious cheating that resulted in excessive, illegal amounts of pollutants fouling the air across the Commonwealth."
It's part of a $157 million settlement agreement between the automaker and the Attorneys General of 10 states, including Pennsylvania.
They contend VW used software to beat the states' stricter emissions tests in diesel vehicles.
Shapiro says Pennsylvanians purchased or leased 23,000 Volkswagen vehicles "on the promise they were good for the environment, and the opposite was true."
The Department of Environmental Protection will decide how best to use the settlement funds.