Cummins, an Indiana-based company that manufactures and sells engines, has been hit with a $1.675 billion penalty for intentionally selling defeat devices that could bypass emissions sensors, a direct violation of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Department of Justice writes. It’s set to be the biggest ever penalty for a violation of the Clean Air Act, and it’s the second-largest environmental penalty.
Cummins is said to have installed emissions defeat devices in hundreds of thousands of Ram pickup trucks. Between 2013 and 2019, Ram allegedly built and sold 630,000 2500 and 3500 pickups that featured defeat devices between 2013 and 2019. It also allegedly included auxiliary emission control devices on an additional 330,000 2500 and 3500 pickups for 2019 to 2023 model-year trucks. (We’re using “allegedly” here because, while Cummins has admitted to some wrongdoing, it hasn’t explicitly admitted to the full scope of the issues.)
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1963 to place limitations on the manufacture of engines for vehicles; the whole goal was to force these manufacturers to build components that comply with emissions limits. That also means those manufacturers can’t equip their engines with “defeat devices,” which render emissions control sensors inoperable.
Cummins came to an agreement with the Justice Department; it will pay a massive $1.675 billion fine to compensate for its failings.
From a statement by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland:
The types of devices we allege that Cummins installed in its engines to cheat federal environmental laws have a significant and harmful impact on people’s health and safety. For example, in this case, our preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides. The cascading effect of those pollutants can, over long-term exposure, lead to breathing issues like asthma and respiratory infections.
The only larger environmental penalty came as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, when BP dumped 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the span of 87 days.