EPA targeting companies for bypassing vehicle emission controls

In the past two years, the Environmental Protection Agency has fined companies millions of dollars across the U.S. for installing illegal mechanisms that bypass vehicle emission controls known as "defeat devices."

One manufacturer, Sinister Diesel, agreed on Aug. 1 to pay the $1 million after pleading guilty to conspiracy and the manufacturing and selling of illegal defeat devices over the past 10 years.

“More than 500,000 diesel pickup trucks in the United States – approximately 15% of U.S. diesel trucks that were originally certified with emissions controls – have been illegally deleted” according to the EPA.

The agency estimate tampering with one heavy-duty motor vehicle is equivalent to putting about 280 new vehicles on the road.

In July 2023, an Oregon company, Pure Addiction Diesel Performance LLC, was penalized over $148,000 for violating the Clean Air Act. In the same month, a company in Alaska, Doyon Associated LLC, was fined $117,000 for the same violations.

“The manufacture, sale and installation of defeat devices is against the law” Ed Kowalski EPA Region 10 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director said in a news release.

PARTS iD Inc. and PARTSiD LLC, based in New Jersey, paid a penalty of nearly $500,000 in October 2022 for selling devices across the country.

Some of the bigger fines were impose last year in Michigan, where two companies DieselOps LLC and Orion Diesel LLC were fined $10 million for selling the same “diesel defeat” after-market devices.