What I find ironic is the Diesel emission cheating has allowed NOx pollution to skyrocket in Europe which causes terrible localized air pollution but lowers their CO2 emissions (vs using Gasoline engines) and lowers their crude oil import needs. So companies that promote Diesel Engines can claim to be lowering CO2 emissions at the cost of very polluting NOx emissions.
This is the key for understanding how those involved in implementation could do it without feeling terribly guilty: instead of "shit, my boss is ordering me to poison the air" they could look at it in the much more cheerful way of "yay, together we can get our planet-saving CO2 reduction features past those annoying regulations that make it so hard for us". If there are two ways to tell a story, people invariably choose the one that puts them in a better light. Inner discourse is no exception.
