Cheating VWs Are Cleaner Than Ethanol

With the Iowa caucuses less than two weeks away, here’s a newsflash: The corn-ethanol mandates, which are always a pivotal issue in that state, are more deadly than the emissions from those cheating Volkswagens. Four times more deadly, to be precise.

By now, most Americans are probably aware that Volkswagen AG, the world’s second-largest automaker, is facing legal woes both in the U.S. and abroad for installing software on its cars that allowed the vehicles to defeat emissions-control tests. Two weeks ago, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the German company for violating the Clean Air Act by outfitting more than half a million cars with the software. In the U.S. alone, VW could face fines of as much as $90 billion.