The DOJ has declared it won’t pursue legal charges against people who delete diesel trucks or give them tunes to remove emissions equipment. Does this mean it is legal to remove them?
Not exactly.
Why delete diesel emissions equipment?
First, why would diesel truck owners delete or remove emissions equipment in the first place? This equipment removes pollutants from the air.
The simple answer is many see these systems as reducing the reliability of their diesel engines as well as reducing the performance of the engines in terms of power and fuel economy. For these owners, the truck is their livelihood and the emissions equipment causes them increased costs to operate their trucks as well as can cause increased repair time.
When faced with thousands in repair costs versus removing a part, many diesel truck owners opt to remove the part.
They also argue over the proposed scientific benefits of the emissions equipment and challenge the conclusions the equipment serves any benefit. Plus, if the U.S. Military and first responder vehicles get waivers to not use emissions equipment, why do consumers and commercial business have to use it? It all seems unfair to them.
DOJ Won’t Arrest Diesel Delete Shops or Tuners Anymore
On a post on X, the DOJ announced it will no longer enforce the Clean Air Act emissions law as it relates to diesel emissions equipment.
“Today, the Justice Department is exercising its enforcement discretion to no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices in motor vehicles.“
“DOJ is committed to sound enforcement principles, efficient use of government resources, and avoiding over-criminalization of federal environmental law. In partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOJ will still pursue civil enforcement for these violations when appropriate.“
This comes on the heels of the pardon of Wyoming diesel mechanic Troy Lake.
Civil Enforcement?
Wait, what is civil enforcement you ask? If you read the DOJ’s tweet closely at the end, you will see where they say civil enforcement can still happen.
It turns out you can turn you neighbor in for deleting their diesel truck. There is an EPA hotline for this and the diesel truck owner has to prove their truck has the equipment on it.
Another way to do it is to sue a company like what happened to diesel influencer Dave “Heavy D” Sparks when he got sued by a Utah Physicians group and lost. Many people think the DOJ came after him. They didn’t. It was a civil lawsuit.
What Does The EPA Say About This?
This leads to the natural question, where is the EPA in all of this? Why don’t they just stop mandating the equipment in the first place and trucks would be shipped without the emissions equipment on it?
New EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has made it clear there are no plans to do that. The proposed rollback and deregulation day are focused on Greenhouse Gases. These are different than the criteria pollutants that diesel emissions systems target. Basically, global warming versus smog.
Instead, the EPA has worked on small changes to diesel exhaust fluid and is considering a change in relation for heavy-duty diesel equipment such as in semi trucks and machinery.
What’s the bottom line?
So is it legal then? The fact is the law hasn’t changed. Is the DOJ going to enforce it for the next 3 years? Nope. Could the next President’s administration DOJ change its mind and enforce the law? Yup.
How can that be? We have seen this very scenario of enforcement and non-enforcement happen before over the last several administration changes. Unless Congress changes the law and severely reduces the role of the EPA to basically not oversee air quality as a public health concern, it is hard to see a future without emissions equipment.
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