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NY Times

Last year the United States government fined Harley-Davidson $15 million for selling devices that shut down its motorcycles' emissions controls — and said part of that money would go toward a project to reduce pollution from wood-fired stoves.

On Thursday, the Trump administration said Harley-Davidson was no longer required to fund the antipollution program, knocking $3 million off the company's bill.

The move followed a decision last month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to halt a longstanding practice under which polluters could be compelled to pay for environmental or community projects, in addition to fines and direct compensation to victims.

To settle claims from the Gulf oil spill, for example, BP was required to spend billions on coastal restoration projects that were not directly related to spill damage. Critics have long said the practice effectively creates ”slush funds" for favored organizations or causes.

Mr. Sessions had said only future cases would be affected by his decision to end the practice. Department officials declined to comment on why the Harley-Davidson settlement, in a case brought by the Obama administration, was being revisited.

The willingness to reopen cases has raised the prospect that other recent settlements could also unravel. As part of a $14.7 billion deal to settle claims arising from its diesel emissions cheating scandal, for example, Volkswagen is financing electric vehicle charging stations across the country, and funding efforts by states to cut pollution from old diesel engines.

Under the original settlement with Harley-Davidson, it would have paid $12 million in civil penalties and funded a $3 million project administered by the American Lung Association of the Northeast to upgrade wood-burning stoves. A new consent decree, proposed Thursday in federal court, keeps the $12 million penalty but scraps the $3 million in project funding.

Now, a bill working its way through Congress could make Mr. Sessions's policy law. The bill, sponsored by Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, would prevent the government from using settlement money from civil cases for purposes other than direct victim compensation or remediation, like cleanups of environmental disasters.

Didn't know this practice went on. Not really against it personally, but I can see it people on both sides not agreeing.