Diesel Crisis in Germany

This morning, I sat and read over a couple of German news bits out of Focus News (the news magazine).  There is this one odd story which popped up over the diesel car crisis currently going on in Germany (that I've discussed in essays on various occasions).

This story starts out with a somewhat lesser known political figure within the FDP Party (usually getting 8 to 10 percent of the vote).  They have standing in the Bundestag and can force the CDU-SPD coalition government to answer questions.

This guy....Oliver Luksic....asked the German government IF "there is a "combination of fixed measurements and model calculations" or only model calculations"......that determine air quality and city driving bans going into place on diesel cars.

I checked Luksic's background....it's not in science....he's a business, economics and political guy.  Somewhere out there....someone fed him speculation and he flipped it into a question which the government had to answer.

Well....the German federal government came to admit (in facts)....in reaching a fixed measured level, they had to use models when talking about the distribution of diesel particles.  In other simple terms, they also admit....yes, there are different models to reach different facts.  Logically then, it's not a fact but a model suggesting it is a fact?  Well....yeah.

So Luksic makes this million-Euro quote: "Driving ban decisions are now based on model calculations that are reminiscent of weather forecasts."

All of this would lead you to think there is a national and standard model system.  Well...based on the commentary of the federal government answer....no, there is no national program.  In simple terms....there's a minimum of NINE different air quality situations used by the various German states. 

Yes, you could take sample X from one city, and deliver it to the authorities of Berlin-City....to reach conclusion one.  Then you take the same sample X to Munich to reach conclusion two.  And then you could take the same sample X to Hamburg to reach conclusion three.

In some way, Luksic has opened up a Pandoras Box and if you gaze into the mess, there needs to be a massive federal round-up of this mess, and the ban business needs a total revamp.  Most of the pubic (particularly those who own diesel cars).....will be furious that this was all model speculation and not driven by a standard process. 

How Luksic figured this out and forced them to answer the question?  Unknown.