EPA · ECHO, read editorially Compare

Volkswagen diesel fleet vs Deepwater Horizon / Macondo well

Two real, published enforcement settlements, lined up. Every figure below is public record; the head-to-head is computed at build time over those real numbers. Penalty bars share one log scale, so they read across the gutter.

Head to head · real figures only
  • Larger settlement Volkswagen AG $14.7 billion vs $5.5 billion
  • More recent case Volkswagen AG 2016 vs 2015
  • Regulatory program differ Clean Air Act vs Clean Water Act
Clean Air Act · 2016 Public record

Volkswagen diesel fleet

Volkswagen AG · Nationwide (imported vehicles)
$14.7 billion
settlement · log scale, $16.5M to $14.7B

Defeat devices that cheated emissions tests on ~580,000 U.S. diesels.

The October 2016 partial settlement totaled about $14.7 billion, including a $2.7 billion environmental mitigation trust and $2 billion for zero-emission-vehicle investment. A separate 2017 resolution added a $1.45 billion Clean Air Act and customs civil penalty on top of criminal fines.

Source: U.S. DOJ / EPA / CARB consent decrees, 2016-2017

Clean Water Act · 2015 Public record

Deepwater Horizon / Macondo well

BP Exploration & Production · Gulf of Mexico
$5.5 billion
settlement · log scale, $16.5M to $14.7B

The largest Clean Water Act penalty in U.S. history.

For the 2010 blowout that discharged millions of barrels of oil, BP agreed to a $5.5 billion Clean Water Act civil penalty - part of a record $20.8 billion global settlement with the United States and five Gulf states.

Source: U.S. DOJ / EPA consent decree, 2015 (entered 2016)

Both cases, in numbers
Field Volkswagen AG BP Exploration & Production
Program Clean Air Act Clean Water Act
Operator Volkswagen AG BP Exploration & Production
Location Nationwide (imported vehicles) Gulf of Mexico
Year 2016 2015
Settlement / penalty $14.7 billion $5.5 billion
Source U.S. DOJ / EPA / CARB consent decrees, 2016-2017 U.S. DOJ / EPA consent decree, 2015 (entered 2016)

⇆ Swap sides · All cases & states

These are landmark settlements, not live ECHO facility records. Day-to-day compliance metrics - quarters in noncompliance, formal-action counts, last inspection - are not part of a settlement figure; they join per facility from the ECHO Exporter (loadFacilities() in src/lib/source.ts). See the Methodology for what is real versus illustrative on this site.