Ten U.S. states and the District of Columbia said Thursday they are challenging a decision by the Trump administration to drop a requirement that Harley-Davidson Inc (HOG) spend $3 million to reduce air pollution under settlement the Obama administration announced.
In 2016, the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer agreed to pay a $12 million civil fine and stop selling illegal after-market devices that caused its vehicles to emit too much pollution, and spend about $3 million to retrofit or replace wood-burning appliances with cleaner stoves.
The Justice Department in July cited a new policy by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and an ongoing review of the penalty by a government auditor in proposing to drop the $3 million penalty from the settlement. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan must still deicide whether to approve the revised agreement.
The Harley-Davidson settlement resolved allegations that Harley sold about 340,000 “super tuners” enabling motorcycles since 2008 to pollute the air at levels greater than what the company certified. Harley-Davidson did not admit liability, and said previously it disagreed with the government, arguing that the tuners were designed and sold to be used in “competition only.”
The Harley-Davidson settlement came amid greater scrutiny on emissions and “defeat devices” by U.S. regulators after Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) admitted to using illegal software to evade U.S. emissions standards in nearly 600,000 U.S. vehicles in September 2015. (Via Reuters)
DJT for bikers! Anything pro for bilkers is what I like to see!
If you live in Vermont, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, the District of Columbia, or Puget Sound you should write and email your state’s representatives to have your voices heard!
MAGA!
Ride safe.
Boss Hawg
In my opinion HDMC did everything by the book when selling Super Tuners. EPA never said HDMC could not sell Super Tuners. EPA said they must be used for closed course competition only. Along with race use only products HDMC produced over 100-street legal products, so consumers always had a choice. For example, HDMC produced the EPA approved Street Tuner and many EPA approved street legal performance kits as options for its customers. To develop and certify these street legal products cost HDMC many, many millions of dollars. Also, HDMC did not warranty race use only products, which in itself was a deterrent to installing race use products on street machines. All of this was per EPA rules and regs at the time. Did HDMC sell a bunch of Super Tuners? Yes, but HDMC followed EPA rules in doing so and the consumers made the decision, not HDMC to install them on street machines. Side note: When super tuned properly, most motorcycles will run at fairly low emission levels anyway.
EPA took a cheap shot at HDMC by fining them for selling products that were misused by consumers. EPA sought to intimidate the motorcycle industry, which is too small to effectively fight the humongous EPA machine. I applaud the current administration for reducing the EPA fines to HDMC. It was the right thing to do.
I would like to know which 10 states have a problem with this revision.
Ironic aint it ? When a company like VW does something like this all the Bubba’s rise up in protest . But when their beloved corporate crony M/C manufacture pretending to be made in the USA does it suddenly they cry foul
FYI Geezer .. try reading the facts rather than the fake news in regards to the EPA’s stance on the motor company’s flagrant attempts to circumvent the rule of law
Number6, please state your source, GeezerRider is absolutely right. Having worked for a number of Harley’s highest volume dealerships during the Super Tuner’s heyday, I can personally vouch for the fact that every one of the hundreds I sold was clearly marked as being for race application only, that their installation could void the vehicle’s warranty, and these warnings were also in every catalog, as well as on the Motor Company’s website. As a representative of the company, we were required to make consumers aware of the laws regarding their purchases, and the fact of the matter is that the vast majority did not care enough to deter them from purchasing it anyway, especially if they lived in a state without mandatory emissions testing. If anyone is to blame for all of these race tuners being installed on street bikes, it is the people who bought them in spite of the warnings, not Harley-Davidson. If Harley had not warned consumers, and instead decided at the corporate level to go ahead and sell devices that they knew violated EPA regulations (like Volkswagen did), then that would be an attempt to circumvent the law, but that is simply not the case here.
@Number6: What VW did was on vehicles they sold with the violation installed from the factory. What HD did was sell a kit that has been labeled race only and is installed well after it left from the factory by someone who purchases the kit. So maybe you should do some reading of your own as your comparison is not valid.
Bubba here saying unless you Nancy boys(number 6) get your facts straight you ought to shut up hahaha opera iron geezer and will are right on, USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA down with the epa , like a bad 60s movie one side vs.the other good bad but in this case the HDMC did everything correctly, hopefully the money grab on US manufacturing is coming to a end,
Yeah, clean air and water sucks!!
Down with the EPA
Most of the time a tuned, high performance bike will be more efficient and get better fuel economy than it did when it was stock.
Thank Goodness for an administration that has common sense.
Has anyone noticed that each state and area listed above seems to be Snowflake Territory?
At least they know that motorcycles aren’t the real problem. MAGA!
There’s a bigger issue here than the dissimilar Harley voltzwagon examples.
If the government or courts can come after companies for what customers do with their products then the entire workforce of America is that risk of having their employers go out of business because their customers decide to break the law
Case in point, admittedly extreme. If somebody buys a car and then robs a bank should the manufacturer be sued for something they did not do. Second example firearms. As we know the liberal courts and politicians are trying to use people who use firearms illegally as a way to sue manufacturers out of business and therefore nullify the second amendment.
Thank goodness there are still a multitude of other Tuners still on the market — many of which are better than the SERT ever was.
One should use at least 50/50 tires on this slippery slope!
Actually, I know a lot of people who DIDN’T ” rise up in protest ” bubbas and otherwise. Personally, I laughed when the VW story came out, and said, I don’t blame them. All over the “much admired by CARB and other militant greenies” Europe, these diesel cars and more models we don’t even have in the US are happily running around, fully compliant. It took the anti-everything CARBtards’ overly strict standards to snap the straw. When you are over reaching and strict, people and companies give up and say fuggit, “I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I want and you can’t stop me”. Ground a kid for life and they’ll just go out the window. Funny how a lot of VW owners decided to sell the cars back because the compliance “fix” would hurt the fuel mileage. I wonder if the pollution “saved by the fix” can be used as carbon credits for all the pollution the recent CA wildfires dumped into the air?
Thank you President Trump. MAGA!
Illinois has much bigger issues to deal with. The Chicago Dems have really been butt hurt since the Hill took the loss.
The spread and scope of the mission is beyond the abilities and capabilities of the E.P.A. The business/governance model that has been established exceeds the wasteful brain cells that run it. They have proven that under the guise of “doing good”, that they are an inept shakedown crew that is hellbent on greed at any cost.
Am I reading this right? WTF do wood stoves have to do with HD?
Talk about missing the point, only in this dysfunctional political era is this heralded. Corporate America reneging on what it agreed to do, not what any agency forced them to do, yep, got POTUS written all over it . . . And if Mexico’s footing the bill for the wall, why can’t a budget get through without billions of American’s tax dollars getting flushed on that boondoggle. Sorry for falling off the wagon and, despite different beneficiaries, another administration would be just as bad if not worse, at some point, people have to wake up and realize that the swamp isn’t being drained, it’s just accommodating a new invasive species.
it’s not corporate America, it’s a power-mad EPA