‘Defrauding’ the United States – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

An interesting story broke the other day about Hino Motors — a subsidiary of Toyota that makes commercial vehicles such as heavy trucks and diesel engines — “defrauding” the United States because its diesel engines “emitted” more than the regulatory apparat of the United States (EPA) says are allowed.

The amount of these “emissions” is not specified. Or, more finely, explained in context.

It is likely they are of a piece with the “emissions” that forced VW to recall every vehicle (11 million of them) it sold with a “noncompliant“ diesel engine back in 2015, when the federal apparat decided it had to go Inspector Javert on VW to get rid of the low-cost/tremendous range (700 miles on a full tank) diesels the company was selling up to that time — because of the embarrassment the existence of these vehicles presented when juxtaposed with the battery powered devices — electric vehicles — that were just beginning to be seriously pushed by the apparat. (RELATED: EV Slowdown: Limits of ‘Technology Forcing’)

It was essential to get these VWs off the market because VW was the only car company that offered diesel engines in affordable vehicles such as the Golf and Jetta and Beetle, all of which cost less than $25k and could go 50-plus miles on a gallon of fuel (which all by itself reduces “emissions,” a fact that did not matter to the apparat). (RELATED: The Imminent Death of Volkswagen)

The handful of other car companies that also offered diesel engines were almost entirely luxury brands such as Mercedes and BMW and Audi, which only offered them in expensive models and for that reason did not present an embarrassing point of comparison with $50k-plus battery-powered devices from Tesla, et al. (RELATED: Longing for the Era of Economy Cars and Real Fuel Efficiency)

The lie that was sold at the time was that VW’s diesels “emitted” what was styled — repeatedly and in exactly the same way by seemingly every media outlet — “up to 40 times” more than the allowable amount specified by the apparat. 

The “up to 40 times” part was technically true. The part they omitted — deliberately, because there’s no other way to account for this gross misrepresentation of the degree of the asserted offense — is that it was “up to 40 times” of a fraction of a percent. Kind of like the way testing positive for COVID — “the cases” — was conflated with everyone being not merely at risk of catching a cold but at risk of dying.

The same is almost certainly the case as regards Hino’s diesel engines. They are probably as “clean” as VW’s TDI engines weren’t “dirty.”

The problem is they’re still diesels — and diesels are an affront to the electrification agenda. In this instance, specifically with regard to the (forced) electrification of trucking and other commercial forms of transportation. 

Diesels have the range for that, while devices do not. There is no way any commercial operation is going to voluntarily electrify its fleet. Therefore, alternatives to electrification must be forced off the market.

If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

Because nothing has changed.

“Companies who intentionally evade our nation’s environmental laws, including by fabricating data to feign compliance with those laws, deserve punishment and will be held criminally accountable,” said the EPA’s acting enforcement chief, Jeffrey Hall. Mind, the election has happened and it is no longer the Biden Thing’s EPA apparat that is pursuing Hino (and therefore Toyota) like Inspector Javert did Jean Valjean.

This is emanating from — being emitted by — the Trump administration’s EPA. Lee Zeldin — who replaced Michael “Red Guard” Regan as head apparatchik of the EPA after the Biden Thing was sent mumbling-shuffling off to stare vacantly at the ocean on the Delaware shore — is allowing the Javert-like persecution of Hino (Toyota), which implies that he approves of it. 

Thus, Hino (aka Toyota) must pay $1.6 billion in penalties, which is interesting not just because of the sum but also because of the — ahem — “victim.” 

As in the VW case, not one actual human victim of Hino’s “crime” was brought forth. As in the VW case, it was the government’s authority that was affronted — and the penalties for that are always far more severe than those applied when someone is actually harmed. They are severe even when no one is harmed, which is really the take-home point here.

Though that’s not exactly accurate in that many people have been harmed — by the persecution of Hino (Toyota). Who do you suppose will pay the $1.6 billion? It will come out of the pockets of Toyota shareholders and customers, who will be given the bill in the form of lower returns and higher prices. 

“Hino said in January it booked an extraordinary loss of 230 billion yen, or about $1.54 billion, in its second quarter results in October to cover the expected litigation costs.”

That’s not counting the other $1.6 billion imposed by the apparat. 

It will be paid by those purchasing goods moved by commercial conveyances made more expensive by dint of “noncompliance.” And by the costs of compliance.

Wasn’t Trump’s election supposed to result in a change in direction?

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