Pardons, pollution and Phoenix: pick clarity over chaos

Cronkite News reports that the Trump administration has unwound criminal enforcement against diesel emissions tampering this year, and President Donald Trump followed in July with pardons for nine people convicted of selling or installing so called defeat devices that disable pollution controls. In January, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order telling federal prosecutors to drop pending criminal cases and stop opening new ones tied to emissions tampering, while keeping civil penalties on the table.

One of the pardons involved a business that took in $4.3 million over two years by remotely disabling software that monitors pollution control hardware on diesel trucks, according to Cronkite News. The shop charged up to $4,500 per truck. A Tacoma prosecutor said the tampered trucks spewed 30 to 1,200 times the pollutants of a legally configured vehicle. The owner served four months and paid a $25,000 fine before getting clemency.

Arizona is not a spectator to this fight. The American Lung Association says only three metro areas have worse ozone pollution than Phoenix. Medium and heavy duty trucks are just 6 percent of vehicles yet account for 59 percent of on road nitrogen oxide emissions and 55 percent of particle pollution, Laura Kate Bender of the ALA told Cronkite, citing a 2020 study. Our state sits astride two major freight corridors, Interstate 10 and Interstate 40, which means any national leniency shows up here in our air.

There is a kernel of adult policy in the DOJ memo. Before the Biden administration, Clean Air Act enforcement was generally handled as a civil matter rather than with criminal charges, Cronkite reported. Will Humble, former head of Arizona’s Department of Health Services, reminded Cronkite that shifting enforcement posture is discretionary. It does not change the Clean Air Act or regulations, and he expects no long term harm unless the next administration keeps the same course. In short, this is policy by memo, not by law.

But the pardons were not policy. They were a signal. Reserving criminal law for egregious fraud and violence is proper. Wiping the slate for nine people convicted of a clear cut federal offense invites the worst actors to treat fines and jail as a temporary cost before a friendly pen makes it all go away. It is a get out of smog free card, and it undercuts the very civil enforcement approach the administration says it prefers.

The economic frustration is real. One of the pardoned, Idaho’s Barry Pierce, told Cronkite that emissions system repairs can run $13,000, sometimes as often as yearly or every other year, and that small operators cannot absorb those costs. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to tampering with devices required under the Clean Air Act after his business removed emissions controls and reprogrammed onboard diagnostics to ignore the change. He now runs a diesel particulate filter cleaning operation to save owners thousands versus replacement. You can hear the grind of thin margins in his argument, and you can also see the public consequence when controls are bypassed. As the ALA’s Bender put it, preventable pollution follows when vehicles run without emissions controls.

So what looks like a Washington squabble is actually a competence test. Do we want clarity that lets manufacturers and truckers comply without hiring a fortune’s worth of lawyers, backed by steady civil enforcement for violators, or do we prefer whiplash, criminal swings, and political theater? Karen Bailey Chapman of the Specialty Equipment Market Association told Cronkite that aftermarket manufacturers have faced confusing EPA guidance about what crosses the legal line, and that living in perpetual fear of a federal knock is no way to build American small business.

Here is the encouraging part, again via Cronkite. SEMA has built its own emissions testing and compliance program to give consistent standards, and EPA told the group on July 1 that manufacturers can rely on SEMA testing to certify compliance with anti tampering rules. Bailey Chapman emphasized that the law is still the law. Defeating an emissions system remains illegal. That is the path grown ups should want. Clear, testable rules industry can meet, followed by prompt civil penalties when people cheat.

Arizona has already shown what steady rules and better technology can do. Cronkite notes Phoenix air quality has improved dramatically over three decades even as Maricopa County grew from roughly 2.2 million to 4.5 million residents. Humble credits the Clean Air Act and consumer driven vehicle improvements. Commercial trucks have not kept pace with private vehicles. That is where enforcement focus belongs. Not on a chaotic pendulum but on the highest emitters, the most mileage, the most impact.

Humble also warned that what one president can do, the next can undo. The memo can swing back the other way overnight. That is a lousy way to run an economy or a clean air regime. For a freight state like ours, the play is simple. Keep the handcuffs for the worst, willful schemes. Keep civil penalties real for the rest. Cement the SEMA style clarity so honest shops and fleets can comply without fear. Then keep Phoenix off the ozone podium. Less performance art. More performance standards.

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