Good news, diesel tuners, deleters, and HD truck buyers who have had it up to here with emissions controls. After years of prosecutions and massive fines, the US Department of Justice has decided it's not interested in sending you to jail anymore. The Deputy Attorney General has said that the DoJ won't be going after emissions tampering, and it will even drop some active cases.
No More Criminal Cases For Emissions Cheats
Removing emissions devices from cars and trucks has been illegal for about as long as those emissions controls devices have existed. The federal Clean Air Act required the devices, even if some owners didn't want them because of repair and reliability concerns, and because they wanted more power.
In 2020, EPA National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives gave the branch money to chase down emissions violators. That included massive companies releasing industrial-grade levels of pollution, but it also allowed the EPA to go after shops that were illegally modifying diesel trucks.
As a result, the EPA resolved 172 civil enforcement cases and 17 criminal cases. It addressed more than 539,000 violations of the Clean Air Act. Diesel tuners bore some serious punishments, with Rudy's Performance Parts in North Carolina hit with a $10 million fine, Spartan Diesel facing $1.2 million. There were many criminal charges brought, and one tuner in Wyoming was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, though he was later pardoned by President Trump.
It wasn't only diesel tuners, though. Cobb tuning, well known in gas car circles, especially with Subaru, paid a civil penalty of $2.9 million and agreed to stop selling defeat devices to come into compliance with the act. But, now that the DoJ won't pursue criminal cases, is it open season for tuners looking to delete emissions devices like catalytic converters, diesel particulate filters, and exhaust gas recirculation? It's complicated.
It's Still Illegal, But Now It's Just A Fine
Emissions defeat devices are still against the law. Violating the Clean Air Act can still result in civil penalties, and the DoJ will still work with the EPA to pursue those. But the EPA's focus could change. It might continue to pursue large-scale violators, like the civil enforcement that led to a $1.7 billion settlement from Cummins and the billions that Volkswagen paid after Dieselgate.
It's also important to know that this new directive isn't clear or overly official. The news came through a social media post by the DoJ Environment and Natural Resources Division. There is nothing regarding details or even an official announcement on the federal website.
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
