Tom Linebarger sat in the corner office while Cummins rigged nearly a million diesel engines with defeat devices and hid auxiliary emission controls on thousands more. The company paid a record US $1.675 billion fine and another US $46 million to California regulators. Lives were choked by black smoke. Communities inhaled poison. Yet Linebarger still walks free.
He wasn’t some clueless bystander. As CEO from 2012 to 2022 he signed off on compliance reports, stood before investors and patted himself on the back for “sustainability.” All the while Cummins was gaming emissions tests decade after decade. Shareholder lawsuits accuse the board of deliberate concealment. Regulators called it knowing harm to health and environment. This isn’t civil flim‑flam. It smacks of criminal conspiracy.
Look at scale and duration: ten years of systematic chequebook justice at the expense of clean air. Compare that to Volkswagen. VW execs ended up in cuffs, their reputations shredded under conspiracy and fraud charges. Why the disparity? Cummins wrote a cheque and called it a day. Linebarger drew a salary and kept his freedom.
Internal investigations are worthless theatre. They clear the very people who cooked the books. You’d get more honesty from a paper tiger. Meanwhile citizens breathe fumes that science links to cancer and heart disease. This is calculated recklessness with people’s lives.
If anyone deserved a knock on the door, it’s the man who ran the show. A company can’t buy its way out of poisoning the air. Criminal intent isn’t erased by civil penalties. The law must mean something more than a slap on the wrist for corporate titans.
So here’s the question burning in every clean‑air lung and every boardroom that dared sleep on this: Why is Tom Linebarger not in jail?
Sources
• AP News – Engine maker Cummins agrees to pay $1.67 billion to settle claims it bypassed emissions tests
• California Air Resources Board – Cummins settles California certification procedure and emissions violations case for $46 million
• Bloomberg Law – Top Cummins execs hid emissions cheat scheme, investor suit says
• Law360 – Cummins faces shareholder suit after $2 billion settlement