The issue of exhaust emission policies in Europe was heavily stimulated by a West
German proposal in 1983 to introduce the new US-emission standards. In 1980 United States passed a federal law enforcing stricter emission standards which required all new automobiles to have installed three-way-catalysts from 1983. The German proposal produced serious controversies between EU member countries about exhaust emission-standards and catalytic converter technology. The TWC’s illustrates some of the problems of designing functional policies crossing resorts, and illustrates the ambiguities of political expectations to a ‘technical fix’ and the non-linear relations between intentions and consequences.