Harley-Davidson and EPA Square Off

EPA Drops the Hammer on H-D

Harley-Davidson have settled the lawsuit levied against them by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by agreeing to pay US$12 million for failing to comply with emissions standards as a result of selling its Screamin’ Eagle Street Performance Tuner. The unit enables owners to reprogram their bikes air/fuel/ignition mapping to accommodate performance modifications. In addition to the fine, the company will have to buy back and destroy approximately 330,000 units of the little wonder box, deny warranty on any bikes that have the unit installed and pay an additional $3 million toward projects aimed at mitigating air pollution through a project to, um, replace conventional woodstoves with cleaner-burning stoves?

The company maintains that their product was never meant to be used on the road and that the settlement is not an admission of guilt in this matter. Clearly Harley-Davison have had the book thrown at them so it will be interesting to see who else in the powersports industry gets this kind of treatment.

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