Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality is offering the public to view an update in the way it is spending millons of dollars in settlement money from Volkswagen.
The DEQ announced the new update for public review and comment of its Volkswagen Settlement Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP).
The BMP is a high-level plan describing how Oklahoma intends to utilize its state funding allocation to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from the transportation sector. Oklahoma received $21 million through a nationwide trust to spport projects to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from states transportation sector.
If you remember, VW agreed to spend up to $14.7 billion to settle allegations of cheating emissions tests and deceiving customers. Volkswagen offered consumers a buyback and lease termination for nearly 500,000 model year 2009-2015 2.0 liter diesel vehicles sold or leased in the U.S., and spend up to $10.03 billion to compensate consumers under the program. In addition, the companies will spend $4.7 billion to mitigate the pollution from these cars and invest in green vehicle technology.
DEQ is updating the BMP primarily to change Oklahoma’s priority counties based on the most recent National Emissions Inventory data and to re-allocate the Reserve Flex Funding to our two most successful programs: the On-Road program for medium/heavy-duty trucks and shuttle/transit buses and the Clean Diesel (DERA) school bus program.
Due to these changes, DEQ is providing this updated BMP for public review and comment from May 15 to June 15, 2024. A full list of changes to the BMP can be found on the DEQ website: https://www.deq.ok.gov/air-quality-division/volkswagen-settlement/ and all comments can be submitted to the VW Settlement inbox: vwsettlement@deq.ok.gov
