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Municipalities Move Forward with Mitigation Trust

By Doug MacGillivray posted 10-18-2017 12:15 PM

  
In 2015, Volkswagen was found to have cheated Environmental Protection Agency emissions tests by installing “defeat devices” in some of their diesel models. The Department of Justice found that Volkswagen violated the Clean Air Act by installing such devices, and ordered them to pay into a settlement fund to remediate the damages. This mitigation trust totals $2.7 billion and state governments will have the opportunity to receive funds from the trust.

In September, the Justice Department filed a motion in San Francisco District Court and submitted the final trust agreement document. The trust effective date was then set on October 2. Next, states must submit a certification document by December 1. This document must let the court know they intend to participate in the mitigation trust, as well as notify which state agency will manage the funds during the process. The obligation of states to create a mitigation plan has somewhat changed due to the final trust agreement. The states still must create the plan of how to spend the mitigation funds, but the latest trust agreement does not have a hard deadline.

States have begun in earnest to solicit input from stakeholders and ask for advice for draft plans. Roughly half are still in the very early stages. At this point, it is important for interested parties – particularly municipalities – to reach out to the relevant state agency and provide information and input on the mitigation trust and how it could best benefit their interests.

For questions on this article, please contact Doug MacGillivray of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at dmacgillivray@apga.org.

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