In other news, Senator Ted Cruz is leading the charge for a federal government shutdown. Again. Cruz intends to protest through the weekend and block approval of a continuing resolution to fund the government.
It remains to be seen what this will mean for his poll numbers.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush wishes people would pay attention to him and, to that end, he has called for deregulating virtually everything.
Regulatory reform starts with repeal of: Dodd Frank. #DitchTheRule. Carbon Rule. Coal Ash Rule. Net Neutrality. http://t.co/WMZFmGevK6
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 22, 2015
Everything must go!
Finally, the Guardian provides more context for the gravity of the Volkswagen cheating scandal. This is insane.
The rigging of emissions tests may have added nearly a million tonnes of air pollution by VW cars annually – roughly the same as the UK’s combined emissions for all power stations, vehicles, industry and agriculture. According to a Guardian analysis, the 482,000 non-compliant US vehicles would have released between 10,392 and 41,571 tonnes of NOx annually at an average US mileage, rather than the 1,039 tonnes the EPA standards would imply. Scaled to the 11m global vehicles, that would mean up to 948,691 tonnes of NOx emissions annually. Western Europe’s biggest power station, Drax in the UK, emits 39,000 tonnes of NOx each year.
I haven't seen any hard numbers or official estimates from government agencies but some experts in the field have floated estimates that Volkswagen's so-called "clean diesel" cars may have contributed to as many as 100,000 premature deaths globally. These 11 million cars were emitting up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.
Very few people in America drive diesel cars, but roughly half of Europe does.