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Features

The Volkswagen diesel scandal was driven by carbon obsession

One-eyed environmental policy created the conditions for this fraud – and other damaging problems

3 October 2015

8:00 AM

3 October 2015

8:00 AM

What fun it is watching again all those smug Volkswagen ads on YouTube, featuring men in mid-life crisis revving up their Golfs and Passats. German carmakers vie with French farmers for their sacred status in the European Union. That it has taken US authorities to sniff out the company’s cheating on emissions tests doesn’t say much for European environmental law, which is good at telling us we can only have low-powered kettles, but apparently unable to sniff out high emissions from overpowered diesel cars.

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