actually make good on our promise to consumers that they know what they are buying and they are going to get the emission reductions and clean vehicles they are intending to purchase. under president obama's leadership the epa and dot historic greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards are cutting carbon pollution that you'll our changing climate and they are saving families money at the pump. we know fuel efficiency cells, there is no question about it. it is the number one factor that consumers think about when they are going to buy a car. the auto industry has come back from the brink because it is feelning and selling more -- fuel-efficient cars that consumers want to purchase. as 2009 the auto industry at it 250,000n 200 the --

jobs. more cars are being made on american assembly lines and have been made in the past 12 years. we also know that when you tate f distantuel -- fuel efficiency we are not delivering what is promised by the law. we are making the car more attractive to consumers than it would otherwise the. that tells the market in favor of those who don't play by the ands to those, disadvantages those who do. that simply is not fair and it is also not legal. by enforcing our laws to protect our health we also protect consumers and promote a vibrant economy. , you have tons understand about our fuel efficiency program works. gas credits.house

that is our currency for our legal compliance. the program is a fleetwide averaging program. -- when they go above standards they can earn credits. if they fail to meet those standards they had use those credits to balance the ledger. that is why companies buy and sell credits to make sure they are income clients. if a company fails to pull their weight, if it undercuts the integrity, it will undercut the integrity of the program, and we don't get the emission reductions the law guarantees. is what today's case is all about. actdai and kia violated the in over one million cars and if suvs they sell.

they claimed 4.7 5 million credits they did not rightfully earned. tons ofllion metric greenhouse gas emissions would have been unaccounted for if we had not caught this and taken swift action. here is how this closes the gap. pay a feed kia will and invest to prevent future violations. we are forfeiting $200 million of credits. longer sell them or use them. we take these violations in this case seriously. this is the largest penalty we have ever assessed under the clean air act. why is it so serious? it is a rough luncheon of the unfair market advantage hyundai and kia captured by overstating their fuel economy ratings.

the clean air act grants epa the authority and the responsibility to regulate harmful carbon pollution that feels climate change. while we are committed to writing small roles that a reasonable -- mark rules that are reasonable, we are equally diligent and enforcing those rules so the adoptions we need to protect public health are actually protect it and forvered to read not just fuel efficiency, but we can do this for many other sect or's, including the power sector. -- many other sectors, including the power sector. can,an stop worrying, we and we are. with that, i am happy to take questions. thank you.

>> 1.2 million cars on the road. >> to be clear, the cars do not violate the emission limits. certifiedimproperly or incorrect information was provided to the epa. there was no valid certification of those cars. the companies have corrected economyta, there fuel figures as well as the greenhouse gas emission figures. they are paying a penalty, giving up credits, and fixing their system going for word. carsis doesn't address the themselves. >> the cars will remain on the road. they were not over the limit. the problem was they were misrepresented as having better fuel economy than the actually had.

>> why no rebates for consumers? the rebatepy for program? >> they have a rebate program that has been effect resulting in several hundreds of millions of dollars going to the consumers. consumers have brought multiple class actions against the company that are pending. through those two forms we expect consumers to get robust relief. >> there are three other companies that have had to restate mileage in much the same way as hyundai and kia. where does enforcement stand with those? >> i don't think i am in a position to give you the exact status of all of those. i think it is important to remember that this settlement is about epa having a robust audit process. so that if you look at this, we misstatement of the fuel economy very early in

the model year, that we were first regulating under this rule . we have the company go out and restate fuel economy standards the way we believe they should have been before the end of 2012. this is about doing good auditing, to doing good enforcement, to looking closely. what you see is by far the most egregious case. with a number of models where 1.2 million inicles were sold and those 2012 and 2013, and they vary in terms of misstatement of fuel economy by between 1-6 miles per gallon. we have caught other discrepancies. have note been no -- been systemic in nature or resulted in which the companies have done their testing systematically.

they have not been anywhere near the egregiousness of what we are talking about today. they acknowledge the settlement but suggested that these misrepresentations were not actually intentional and that it epa regulations that tripped them up were confusing, and i am wondering, it sounds as if the justice department alleges they deliberately escorted -- girded -- skirted obligations. >> we are alleging that they overstated fuel economy. the most important thing, in addition to the 300 million they both retiring those credits and not achieving the money that they represent, and in the direct fine, this is also about them changing the way the they actually do their business internally in both of these companies. we believe the way in which they

did their testing was systemically flawed. >> willful misconduct? >> it was done in a way that would have made it inconsistent with the way that they should be inconsistentonomy, with normal engineering practices, inconsistent with how any other company has been doing this. ashley point is i am not claiming you had knowledge at what point and time but the program is that it was not set up as it should be and as a result of that it ended with fuel economy standards that allow vehicles to be certified. >> did that mean you are ruling out criminal charges? settlement deals entirely with civil liability. we have nothing in the settlement dealing with criminal liability nor can we comment on any ongoing law-enforcement.

let me point out more specifically what kinds of problems. talking about. one was the use of not the average data from the test but the best data. 2 was testing the cars where there fuel economy was best. using the wrong tire sizes. turning around the other direction and testing a headwind. that speaks to the kinds of problems that we saw with hyundai and kia that resulted in the ms. measurement. this ms. measurement. >> can you talk about, are there systemic problems in the auto industry of playing by the rules? >> they are issues we have

identified. there is a willingness on the part of the justice department to aggressively look at that industry, and others as well where we find violations. >> can you update us on the status of the investigation? in dealing with this, but foundety flaws -- we nyssa -- ntsa to be an effective agency. >> the regulatory scheme we have in place is a sound one. have made these discoveries and held these companies accountable means that the american people are safer, that consumers are detected. we have the mechanisms in place to detect the issues that we

have. it also points out that companies have to make sure that they have within themselves a culture of compliance, and that that growshe things from these kinds of announcements. >> it was disclosed over the weekend that a decision was made to restrict the airspace over theuson, missouri during protests. was the justice department involved with that decision? given your earlier comments about inhibiting news coverage, what is your opinion on that? i don't know an awful lot about what the nature of the request was and how impacted news coverage and helicopters and things of that nature. what i will say is the transparency is always a good thing. the american people need to whatstand what happened, was happening, what is happening in ferguson. anything that would artificially

inhibit the ability of news to do what they do is something that needs to be avoided. >> over the summer, president obama said that we should not prejudge the investigations in ferguson. last week you said there would be whole scale change. did you prejudge the investigation before its conclusion? >> no. i'm aware of the investigation that we have ongoing. comments i made are consistent with the briefings i have received. [indiscernible] the faa was complicit in certain targeted flight restrictions. if you were a news helicopter, you could not come in. if you were on approach to an airport, you are ok. is that actionable by the justice department? >> i don't know. i'm not sure. , don't know all of the facts

what the nature of the request interactionnd of there was between the faa and the requesters. anything the justice department is specifically looking across a map, any red flags you are already seeing the cause you concern? >> -- that cause you concern? >> we will be sending monitors all around the country to make sure the american people have access to the ballot talks. we will be releasing a list later on today of the jurisdictions to which we will be sending monitors, and we will be very mindful of any anomalies that are reported. about how youou know the numbers the car companies used were in error? do you just audit their numbers? >> we do selective and random auditing. the challenge here was that there is a reliance on car

companies themselves providing us data on certain characteristics of the company so that when we do those audits and testing, we can do it consistently across each model year that we are actually certifying. in this case, we selectively audited this but we went upstream and we looked at what the companies were doing and we identified that the companies internal testing that provided characteristics which were critical for us to then repeat those tests were being done in a way that we felt was significantly tilting the scale to overstate fuel efficiency in ways that were systemic and unlike any other car company. we also take a look at what consumers are saying. we have a website called omy.gov that we manage with the epa and department of energy that allows people to ask questions, and they actually

complained sometimes when they feel they are not getting good results, and that allows us to also do some more selective auditing as a result of that. it's a give-and-take, but one in which we feel that through our auditing process and in this case it shows we were able to catch it pretty early on, identify what that discrepancy was, and take action to correct it. the november 2012 [indiscernible] today you are saying 1.2 million. does that mean overstatements continue beyond the date -- >> it was model year 2012 and 2013. model years 2013 come out in 2012 rate -- 2012. this identifies both those model years as part of the settlement. in addition to making these systemic -- they are spending $50 million additional.

making those internal changes, and also on significantly increase a more robust auditing for us in future years so we can make sure this is actually going well. >> is there evidence that other auto companies failed because they were touting 40 mpg? should the rivals become considered as a result of these overstatements? >> that is not something within the scope of this agreement. we are here just to enforce the companies and their behavior. >> thank you. >> thanks for coming. >> thanks very much. one more question? [indiscernible] sorry, guys. i couldn't resist. [inaudible] >> can you tell us what aspects

of the justice department are you examining [indiscernible] >> we are in constant contact with the white house about the possibility of executive action when it comes to immigration changes, the need for comprehensive immigration reform is something which is obvious. we will see what the president will actually do at an appropriate time. all the actions that are contemplated have been run through the justice department. we are interacting with the white house as we speak [indiscernible] [laughter] mentioned this might show that you can also enforce the clean power plant. -- plan. can you go on about how that enforcement would take ways, how would you aduit -- audit? >> it is two different sections

under the clean air act. they're both fairly intricate ways of us making sure we can get carbon pollution reductions in a way that are reasonable and affordable. we use that through a credit trading system in the transportation sector, which makes sure that cars can perform as people need them. they can be the wide variety of in differentrest types of vehicles and we can still get those reductions. in the power sector, it's not too dissimilar, looking at tremendous flexibility as we propose the clean power ruled to allow states to figure out what their energy mix is today. we have a cost effective and affordable reductions -- know what the cost effective and affordable reductions are. there is many similarities in the approaches we are taking. one is looking at where each auto manufacturer is and what

they can do and in this case, each state. this is a way of showing that although we are providing significant flexibility, epa under the clean air act is going to achieve these reductions because they are federally enforceable and we put in place the kind of programs we need to ensure compliance. [inaudible] [laughter] >> thank you. in september, attorney general eric holder announced he would be stepping down from his position at the justice department. at the white house today, president obama announced his choice to replace the outgoing attorney general by nominating new york federal prosecutor loretta lynch as his six at her. ms. lynch has overseen cases in new york that have dealt with and politicale corruption. the announcement by the president is 10 minutes.

have a seat, everybody. good morning. as president, i rely on my cabinet every day to make sure we are not just getting the job done, but we are making progress for the american people. in a country that is built on the rule of law, there are few officers more important than that of attorney general. the attorney general is the people's lwayer -- lawyer. the president is position is responsible for enforcing our federal laws, including protecting our civil rights, working with the remarkable men and women of the justice department, the attorney general oversees the vast portfolio of cases including countered -- counterterrorism and voting

rights, public corruption, and white-collar crime, judicial recommendations, and policy reviews, all of which impact on the lives of every american and shaped the life of our nation. september,ack in when he decided to step down, i'm enormously grateful to eric holder for his outstanding service in this position. he is one of the longest-serving attorney generals in american history, and one of our finest. eric brought to this job a belief that justice is not just an abstract theory, but a living, breathing principle. it is about how laws interact with the daily lives of our people, whether we can make an honest living, whether we can provide for our families, whether we feel safe in our communities and welcome in our own country. whether the words the founders 238 years ago apply to everyone of us in our time. isnks to eric, our nation

safer and freer and more americans, regardless of race or religion or gender or creed or sexual orientation or disability receive fair and equal treatment under the law. i could not be prouder of eric. i could not be prouder that today i can nominate someone who shares that commitment to justice under the law is my nominee for the next attorney general, u.s. attorney loretta lynch. [applause] i also want to thank the chair of the senate judiciary committee for being here on a saturday to show his support. [applause]

it is pretty hard to be more qualified for this job than loretta. career,ut her 30-year she has distinguished herself as tough, as fair, an independent lawyer who has twice headed the most prominent offices in the country. she has spent years in the trenches as a prosecutor, aggressively fighting terrorism, financial fraud, cyber crime, all while vigorously defending civil rights. a graduate of harvard college and harvard law school, loretta rose from assistant u.s. attorney in the eastern district of new york to chief of the long island office, chief assistant u.s. attorney, and u.s. attorney. she successfully prosecuted the bombrists who plotted to the federal reserve bank and the new york city subway. she has boldly gone after public

corruption, bringing charges against public officials in both parties. she has helped secure billions in settlements from some of the world's biggest banks accused of fraud and jailed some of new york's most violent and notorious mobsters and gang members. one of her proudest achievements was the civil rights prosecution of the officers involved in the brutal assault of the haitian immigrant. only lawyert be the in america who battles mobsters and drug lords and terrorists and still has a reputation for being a charming people person. [laughter] that is probably because loretta does not look to make headlines. she looks to make a difference. she is about substance. i could not be more confident that loretta will bring her signature intelligence and passion and commitment to our key priorities, including important reforms in our criminal justice system. she has consistently proven her leadership and earned the trust and respect of those she serves.

since 2010 she has been a member of the committee of the u.s. whorneys across the nation advise the attorney general on matters of policy, and she has served as chair of that committee since 2013. it is no wonder that the senate unanimously confirmed her to be the head of the u.s. attorney's office in two separate situations, once under president clinton and once under my administration. it is my hope that the senate will confirm her a third time without delay. her career,ge in loretta has followed the principles of fairness, equality, and justice that she absorbed as a young girl. she was born in greensboro, north carolina, the year before students there sat down at a whites only lunch counter, helping to spark a movement that would change the course of this country. the daughter of a school librarian and a fourth-generation baptist minister, which meant she knew when to be quiet. [laughter] intimidating,le

being the daughter of a librarian and a minister. on her father's shoulders to his church, where students would meet to organize anti-segregation boycotts. she was inspired by stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper in the 1930's who helped folks in his community who got in trouble with the law and had no recourse under the jim crow system. i know if he were here today, he would be just as proud of her as i'm sure her husband, stephen, is. i want to thank stephen, loretta's stepson, ryan, stepdaughter kia, and her other family members who came here today. agreeingiate you guys to share her with the american people little bit longer. loretta has spent her life fighting for fair and equal justice. i can think of no better public servant to be our next attorney general. let me introduce to you ms. loretta lynch.

[applause] >> thank you, everyone. president, for that kind introduction. most importantly, thank you also for your faith in me and asking me to succeed and attorney general whom i admire and to lead the department that i love. -- thisets to displace place, this room, this podium, this moment by themselves. must thank attorney general eric holder for your support and your friendship over the years, as well as by leading by example and always pushing

this department to live up to its name. i went to thank chairman leahy, senior officials of the department of justice, and members of the cabinet for being here today. colleagues in the u.s. attorneys committee and throughout the department, on whose strength and wisdom eileen every day, thank all of you as lean on every i day, thank all of you as well. to my beloved office, you have twice now given me the privilege of being able to serve you and to focus on nothing but the protection of the american people. it has been a joy. it has been an honor. i will carry you with me wherever i go. of course, to my wonderful family. several of whom are here with me today, all of whom are always with me in love and support. most especially my parents, who could not be here today but are watching, whose every thought and