EPA hits Harley-Davidson with $15 million fine

[Angel Eyes]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2016/08/18/harley-davidson-epa-emissions-settlement-defeat-devices/88944648/

Harley-Davidson has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar fine and fund environmental remediation efforts after allegedly selling aftermarket devices that allowed motorcyclists to cheat U.S. emissions standards.

The Milwaukee-based manufacturer will pay a $12 million civil penalty and $3 million toward environmental efforts in a deal with the Environmental Protection Agency after the agency accused the company of selling about 340,000 "super tuners" that bolstered power but also raised harmful emissions.

The company agreed to offer to buy back all of the devices, cease selling the tuners and destroy them.

Since it's merely an offer to buy back the super tuners, I suppose the buyers are not required to hand them over.

One wonders what this might bode for other makers of competition parts.

[Fitz]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2016/08/18/harley-davidson-epa-emissions-settlement-defeat-devices/88944648/

Since it's merely an offer to buy back the super tuners, I suppose the buyers are not required to hand them over.

One wonders what this might bode for other makers of competition parts.

The key issue, I think, is that other competition  / performance part makers clearly mark them as "for competition/off road use only" and Harley didn.t Additionally, Harley pushes them hard onto people buying bikes knowing full well the bikes are gonna be for street use. Given the stock tuning of the bikes (lean as hell to pass CA emissions because Harley doesn't want two of every model), the bikes NEED a tune to run right.

I looked at my screamin eagle tuner, and I see no such mark. Whereas on other products I have, either the product itself or the packaging is clearly marked

[HankB]

I'm sure Harley owners will be lining up in droves to return the devices and degrade the performance of their bikes.   

[Scout26]

Just wait until the EPA closes the "For Competition/Off-Road Use" loophole....

[HeroHog]

Just wait until the EPA closes the "For Competition/Off-Road Use" loophole....

They already have. They are claiming that "once an EPA engine, always an EPA engine" and it can't ever be modified for off-road use!

[dogmush]

They already have. They are claiming that "once an EPA engine, always an EPA engine" and it can't ever be modified for off-road use!

I suspect EPA agents enforcing that will see interesting places only seen before by revenue agents.

[MechAg94]

It sounds like the settlement is a non-admission thing.  They didn't want to try to fight the EPA's assertions in court.

[230RN]

So how does that work?

I guess every sale is a separate offense, and possibly every day it is in use is also a separate offense?

So the potential total fine is probably huge enough to put the company out of business, yes?

So if they "settled" for only 15 mil, what was the total fine amount?

And would the company have had to defend against every single individual criminal charge, which may number in the thousands, and maybe more if each day "in use" is another separate offense?



Terry

[Mannlicher]

just another example of .gov using it's complete and total power to push a progressive social agenda.  This has nothing to do with pollution, but has everything to do exercising power for it's own sake.

[KD5NRH]

I suspect EPA agents enforcing that will see interesting places only seen before by revenue agents.

Then they'll use the EPA SWAT teams.

Yes, they have them.

[Fitz]

just another example of .gov using it's complete and total power to push a progressive social agenda.  This has nothing to do with pollution, but has everything to do exercising power for it's own sake.

Yep

[brimic]

Then they'll use the EPA SWAT teams.

Yes, they have them.

Its a dangerous job, and they bleed just like anyone else.

[markdido]

Is this the same EPA that released a million gallons of toxic sludge into the Animas River?

I assume they fined themselves then, right?

[Fitz]

Is this the same EPA that released a million gallons of toxic sludge into the Animas River?

I assume they fined themselves then, right?

They just saved a step and increased their funding

[Regolith]

I suspect EPA agents enforcing that will see interesting places only seen before by revenue agents.

Better stay away from Copperhead Road...

[230RN]

Reminds me of the lines from "Rocky Top Tennessee."

Corn don't grow at all on Rocky Top
Dirt's too rocky by far.
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top,
Get their corn from a jar

Once two strangers climbed on Rocky Top,
Lookin' for a moonshine still.
Strangers ain't come down from Rocky Top,
Reckon they never will.

[zxcvbob]

Reminds me of the lines from "Rocky Top Tennessee."

Corn don't grow at all on Rocky Top
Dirt's too rocky by far.
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top,
Get their corn from a jar

Once two strangers climbed on Rocky Top,
Lookin' for a moonshine still.
Strangers ain't come down from Rocky T
op,
Reckon they never will.

"Well I wonder where the Louisiana sheriff went to?
You can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou!
'bout forty-five minutes southeast of Thibodaux, Louisiana..."

[Bob F.]

Wonder if this has anything to do with some folks blaming the lack of violence at the RNC on the presence of bikers?

[230RN]

Wonder if this has anything to do with some folks blaming the lack of violence at the RNC on the presence of bikers?

Nowadays something like that isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Seems like lately, a "conspiracy theory " is something to be examined, rather than just casually dismissed out-of-hand.

Terry

[Hawkmoon]

I'll just drop this here ...

http://nypost.com/2016/08/21/american-journalism-is-collapsing-before-our-eyes/