Martin Winterkorn may deserve to go to jail. If he knew of the Volkswagen scandal from the start, that's obvious. If he didn't know anything about the emission rigging, he deserves to face the stiffest charges possible for a level of malfeasance and mismanagement that is off the charts.
If he knowingly broke federal laws - and he says he didn't - his role in the ensuing aftermath, which includes everything from customer lawsuits to speculation that the scandal potentially threatens the viability of the world's biggest automaker, should be exposed.
The fact that his recent resignation came with a $60 million parachute is equally sad and sadistic.
He assuredly was not alone. The investigation will most certainly focus on what Winterkorn and other VW executives know about how VW managed to cheat U.S. emissions testing for years and when did they know it.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that two high-ranking VW executives - Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi's chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, who developed Porsche's award-winning Le Mans racing engines - are now the focus of the company's internal investigation that has dropped the company's value by 43 percent in less than three weeks.
The cheating scandal has generated opinions from leaders all over the globe. It's especially important locally, considering the investment we have made and the benefits we have reaped since VW came to town several years ago.
The fallout is still coming - Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., weighed in on the matter Monday at a law enforcement convention in town this week.
"I know they want to build a base here," Corker told this paper's Mike Pare on Monday. "They want more market share and I hope everybody in Chattanooga understands that's where they are."
With all of this, the underperformance of the EPA in this mess raises troubling questions about another federal regulatory agency funded with more than $8 billion of our tax dollars in 2014 alone.
The Environmental Protection Agency, by its own name, is a valued and integral part of our future. If we have learned nothing through history, it's clear that without reasonable regulations, the greed of a few will always cost the needs of the many.
So the EPA, or a body with the intent of protecting the environment, certainly has a role.
Jay GreesonBut, like so many other governmental agencies at almost every level, where's the oversight? And more importantly, where's the protection?
This is not an attempt to cover VW's sins - remember, we think ol' Marty and Co. should be wearing stripes and making tag plates rather than automobiles - but a near-decade long scandal of deception should certainly cause us to question those developing the tests that were so easily circumvented.
Plus, if VW execs were so certain they could get away with a billion-dollar scam, it's hard to believe they are the only super-smart folks using their protractors and slide rules to line their pockets.
To compound the EPA's failure in this matter is that without the efforts of some West Virginia University students - who were trying to prove the positives of the clean diesel movement - VW would still be whistling while its deception worked.
This comes at a time when the EPA is coming under fire for expanding its reach under the Clean Water Act.
Where's the outrage about the federal mismanagement of our resources?
The EPA is protection of the people the same way the NCAA is about protection of student-athletes. As long as that fits into the agenda, then both of them are happy to oblige.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. His "Right to the Point" column appears on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Follow him on Twitter at @jgreesontfp.