Tag Archives: EPA

Pickup a Dismissal

Trucking along

A federal judge has recently dismissed a class action lawsuit that exposed the existence of emissions defeat devices in Ford Super Duty pickup trucks. Originally filed in 2018, the “cheat” devices, which were apparently embedded in the engine control module software of 2011–2017 F-250 and F-350 pickups with the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8, have allowed the trucks to pass emissions tests. About 500,000 trucks were impacted and the original lawsuit sought $4.2 billion. Since 2018, over 25 claimants have dropped claims, which likely contributed to the judge’s decision. Continue reading →

Memphis to Clean Itself Up

Welcome to Memphis

In what might be the government equivalent to a friendly “take a shower, bro” at the gym, the city of Memphis, Tennessee has agreed to spend $250 million over a decade to fix and update its sewer system as part of a settlement.  Apparently, the occasional overflow of untreated sewage was becoming a big problem in Memphis.  Gross.  The federal government, in particular the EPA, undertook litigation to force Memphis to fix these problems.  On Monday, Memphis settled, paying a $1.29 million civil penalty (half of which will go right back to unrelated Memphis-bettering infrastructure projects) and agreeing that raw sewage is disgusting and probably shouldn’t be spewing out willy-nilly from time to time.

As to what extent these $250 million improvements will go is unclear.  At least part of it will be to develop a “comprehensive fats, oil, and grease program”, which makes you wonder why there wasn’t one in the first place.  This article shows images of a person actually kayaking through backed-up foamy white sewage sludge byproduct.  In light of that repulsive fact, maybe the best course of action would be to have the TVA come in and toss a dam in there to fix everything up.