Kohler Company has agreed to pay $20 million in civil penalties as part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, and the state of California over engine emissions.
In addition, Kohler will retire what the EPA referred to as “unlawfully generated” hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen emission credits that total 3,600 tons.
Under a separate agreement over claims in California, the company agreed to a $200,000 civil penalty and will fund a program to supply $1.8 million worth of solar-battery generators for low-income residents in areas with wildfire risks that are subject to public safety power shutoffs.
One of the Kohler Company’s brands, Kohler Power, manufactures gasoline, diesel, and gaseous-fueled engines supplied to equipment manufacturers in the agricultural, commercial and industrial, construction, and lawn and garden markets. At issue was the manufacture and sale of millions of small spark-ignition (SI) engines used in lawn mowers, ride-on mowers, commercial landscaping equipment, and generators, according to the EPA.
Those engines didn’t conform to the emissions certification applications that Kohler was required to submit to the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the agency said. “More than 144,000 of the engines were also equipped with a fueling strategy designed to cheat emissions testing standards, commonly referred to as a ‘defeat device,’” the EPA noted.
In December 2015, Kohler Company disclosed to the EPA and the CARB that it had been using the wrong test cycle for many of small SI engines — and regulators’ subsequent investigation found that millions more engines were noncompliant, the EPA said.
Regulators said that noncompliance included:
“Kohler voluntarily disclosed some of the violations, mitigated the emissions, and agreed to new procedures to ensure future compliance,” CARB executive officer Richard Corey said.
The company released a statement saying, “It has always been Kohler’s intent to comply with relevant regulations,” the Associated Press reported. “Kohler Engines is committed to designing and manufacturing quality, compliant products.”
Assistant attorney general Jeffrey Bossert Clark from the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said on Thursday, “Today’s settlement holds Kohler accountable for flouting federal law, and evens the playing field for others in the regulated community who invest in compliance programs designed to prevent illegal and harmful emissions to the air.”
