Should convicted diesel emissions removal shop owners be pardoned with laws changing?

A family is asking President Trump to pardon their husband and father in light of recent changes to emissions rules they see undoing his past diesel emissions removal crime.

His case isn’t the only one where a shop owner has had to pay substantial fines or had other such penalties.

Convicted diesel emissions removal shop owners

The family’s story was detailed in Cowboystatedaily.com chronicles 65-year-old Troy Lake who was convicted of removing diesel exhaust equipment from trucks.

This popular practice called “diesel delete” removes the diesel emissions equipment on diesel engines. He started doing this in 2004 when diesel particulate filters came out as a way to help truck owners who were facing expensive repair bills to get their trucks back on the road.

Over the years, his shop, Elite Diesel, invested over a million dollars in equipment and testing to develop the knowledge to bypass the emissions equipment.

After a Federal raid in 2018, the Lake family was in legal limbo waiting for whatever was coming there way.

The hammer dropped in 2023 with Troy Lake being sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison and fined $52,500 for violating the Clean Air Act. This felony charge has a maximum penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or a fine calculated by doubling any “gross gain” from the operation.

Court testimony revealed Troy Lake performed or helped with at least 344 deletes from 2017 through 2020.

His son TJ and one of Elite Diesel’s employees were not charged after some haggling with federal authorities.

Elite Diesel is a shell of its former self according to the online outlet.

They also chronicled another shop owner, Levi Krech, who owned a shop in South Dakota, that reached a plea deal for three year’s probation, a $20,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.

Both Krech and Lake said they weren’t deleting the diesels to make the air dirtier, they were trying to keep small businesses in business.

Small businesses can face upwards of tens of thousands of dollars in repair bills versus a few thousands to delete the equipment off their truck.

There is also bigger offenders like PPEI that was fined $3.1 million for Clean Air Act violations.

EPA changing emission rules?

The Lake family points to the recent announcement by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding as to why they believe President Trump should pardon Troy. They have written to the EPA urging them to recommended Troy Lake for a pardon.

The 2009 Endangerment Finding rescinds Green House Gas emissions rule and the so-called EV mandate. This was a plan to bring more electric vehicle powertrains, hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains to light-, heavy- and medium-duty trucks on the road.

Many people incorrectly think this was aimed at rolling back diesel emission rules. These systems use key components like diesel particulate filters, exhaust gas recirculation and diesel exhaust fluid that are popular items for that delete kits remove.

The EPA’s document on the proposed rule change states it will not be addressing those systems, “we are retaining and not proposing to reopen any criteria pollutant and air toxics standards for highway light-, medium-, and heavy duty vehicles and engines under CAA section 202(a).”

Criteria pollutants includes: carbon monoxide, lead, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

Particulate matter is a key one for diesel truck owners since the diesel particulate filter’s primary job is the removal of this pollutant. Modern DPF’s can remove up to 85% of the PM from the engine.

With the EPA stating quite clearly it is not going to reopen and it will retain the standards for PM emissions, there will be no change for diesel emissions systems or diesel engine parts.

Our take

Whether or not individuals and companies that violated the Clean Air Act by deleting diesel emissions equipment deserve a presidential pardon is clearly not up to us to decide. What is clear, is the EPA’s recent announcement is crystal clear that it has nothing to do with diesel emissions and focused primarily on GHG emissions and the EV mandate forcing transportation companies to purchase alternative fuel vehicles with electrified powertrains taking away the power of choice. That’s it.