EDITORIAL: VW settlement

A federal judge on Tuesday signed off on a $15 billion deal in the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Not surprisingly, the settlement includes a large chunk of cash that will likely end up in the coffers of leftist special-interest groups.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco described the deal as “adequately and fairly” compensating the owners of the Audi and VW diesel vehicles while also mitigating the environmental concerns.

Under the agreement, car owners may either have the vehicles repaired to meet federal emissions standards or sell them back to Volkswagen for the full trade-in price as of last September, when the issue surfaced. That will cost the company about $10 billion.

In addition, the deal includes “$2.7 billion for unspecified environmental mitigation and $2 billion to promote zero-emissions vehicles,” the Associated Press reports.

If the tendencies of the Obama Justice Department hold true, look for the money directed toward that last objective to become a slush fund for favored green groups. In a column last December, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel explained how it works.

“The Justice Department prosecutes cases against supposed corporate bad actors,” she wrote. “Those companies agree to settlements that include financial penalties. Then Justice mandates that at least some of that penalty money be paid in the form of ‘donations’ to nonprofits … many of [which] are liberal activist groups.”

This cynical formula enriched plenty of the administration’s political allies who profited from settlements the government reached with a number of big banks over the housing crisis. Now it appears the Volkswagen deal will provide the Justice Department with another lucrative pot of private-sector cash to spread around in the name of advancing a progressive political agenda.