VW executive to testify on emissions scandal next week

The president and CEO of the Volkswagen Group of America will testify before a House committee next week on the emissions scandal plaguing the car manufacturer. 

The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday that VW’s Michael Horn and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official will testify before the committee’s investigative subcommittee next Thursday. 

{mosads}“There are serious issues raised by reports that Volkswagen installed so-called ‘defeat-devices’ in some of their diesel vehicles to circumvent decades-old rules in place to protect public health,” subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said. 

“The American people want to know why these devices were in place, how the decision was made to install them, and how they went undetected for so long. We will get them those answers.” 

Horn has publicly apologized on behalf of the German carmaker, which the EPA said installed software in several models of cars designed to get them around required emissions tests. VW could face up to an $18 billion fine for the violations, and the company is facing a criminal inquiry.

Horn is likely to face a blitz of questions from lawmakers, many of whom have launched a scalding, bipartisan rebuke of VW after the EPA announced its allegations in September. 

“The very notion of a carmaker intentionally violating our environmental laws is beyond belief,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Thursday.

“Reports of Volkswagen selling cars with devices aimed at skirting the law cannot, and will not, be tolerated. Attempting to deceive regulators and customers is a double whammy of betrayal. We will get to the bottom of this.”