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Merkel Denies German Government Role in VW Diesel Scandal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells a government panel that Volkswagen AG’s diesel emission cheating was solely the company’s doing and not a failure of government to police the company.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells a government panel that Volkswagen AG’s diesel emission cheating was solely the company’s doing and not a failure of government to police the company.

Merkel says she first learned about the scandal through a media report when U.S. regulators revealed the cheating in September 2015. She ordered Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt to investigate and saw “nothing wrong” with his report.

Critics say VW’s ability to trick European regulators with illegal emission test software reveals a serious shortcoming in the ability of government to oversee the regulatory process.

Merkel also discounted accounts of a meeting she held with California officials in 2010 in which she acknowledges saying that German diesels were unlikely to meet tougher emission standards due in 2014.

VW’s so-called defeat device was used to enable its diesels to meet the new limits during tests but then emit as much as 40 times the allowable levels of nitrogen oxides under normal driving conditions.

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