VW to pay $33 million to settle Maryland suit
Maryland has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Volkswagen AG and two of its affiliates for using devices in cars that violated the state’s environmental laws.
The $33.5 million settlement announced Wednesday includes a $29 million civil penalty. Under the arrangement, Volkswagen also agrees to introduce additional battery electric vehicles in the state.
The “defeat devices” installed in vehicles enabled them to pass emissions tests. But under actual driving conditions, vehicles with the devices installed emitted up to 40 times the allowable limit of nitrogen oxide.
Maryland Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles says the settlement is a “silver lining” of the Volkswagen scandal.
The state filed the lawsuit against Volkswagen in July 2016.
Michigan wins supplier over Tennessee offer
The state of Michigan has approved a $1.6 million grant to an auto parts manufacturer expanding its northern Michigan plant to help entice the plant expansion in Michigan rather than a rival site offered in Tennessee.
The Michigan Strategic Fund approved the grant to Plastic Trim International Inc., which plans to invest up to $16.1 million and create 210 jobs at its plant in Baldwin Township. The investment will add more than 42,000 square feet of space and upgrade technology.
The subsidiary of China-based MINTH Group US Holdings Inc. manufactures trim, molding, and decorative parts for General Motors, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Nissan, and BMW at the plant.
The agency says Plastic Trim chose Baldwin Township for the investment over a competing site in Tennessee. Baldwin Township has offered the plant a 50 percent tax abatement.
Drugmaker Takeda agrees to buy Shire
Japanese drugmaker Takeda has reached a tentative agreement to buy Ireland-based Shire for $64 billion in one of the biggest pharma deals to date.
Shire focuses on rare diseases, a field that has become of increasing interest to pharmaceutical companies as patents on established drugs expire and competition from generic versions increases. While it is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Shire has large operations in the U.S., where it gets over two thirds of its revenue.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. has, like many Japanese companies, been expanding overseas to compensate for slowing growth at home. Last year it bought Ariad Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass. It is valued at about $41.6 billion and makes almost half of its sales in Asia, and about a third in the U.S.
Shire says its shareholders would own about 50 percent of the merged company, whose shares will trade in Japan and the United States. Both companies have until May 8 to complete due diligence.
Utility may pay for failed nuclear plant
The South Carolina House on Wednesday insisted a utility cut its rate by 18 percent to eliminate a fee customers are paying for two nuclear plants that were abandoned before generating a watt of power.
The few members on the losing side of the 104-7 vote warned their colleagues that they were playing a dangerous game of chicken with the state Senate, which passed a 13 percent cut for South Carolina Electric & Gas customers last week.
Now a conference committee of senators and House members has to come up with an agreement or there may be no rate cut at all. The General Assembly has seven more working days this session.
“I hope if we roll the dice, it is really worth that extra 5 percent,” said Democratic Rep. Russell Ott of St. Matthews.
But other House members said they owed it to ratepayers to assure they pay nothing more for the two mothballed reactors at the V.C. Summer Plant in Jenkinsville.
“If somebody steals 10 apples from you, and you get six back, that’s not right,” said Republican Rep. John McCravy of Hodges.
Gov. Henry McMaster’s renewed vow to veto any cut less than 18 percent complicates the issue. The Senate might not have enough votes to override a veto of a lesser cut. During last week’s debate it appeared there wasn’t majority support for the full cut either, which would take about $27 off the average customer’s monthly bill.