EPA fines SC Diesel for emissions tampering

EPA fines SC Diesel

EPA fines SC Diesel in settlement action

SC Diesel is a diesel repair and performance dedicated shop located in Central Missouri. The shop advertises that it performs custom ECM tuning for Class 8 Trucks, Caterpillar and John Deere Equipment. They sell and install EDGE tuning products, SuperChips, AirDog, AFE, Quadzilla, Industrial Injection, Suncoast Transmissions, ATS Diesel Performance, PPE, EFI Live, Fabtech, Zone, Daystar, Mickey Thompson and many more.

Most of these products are designed to increase power but achieve that by changing air/fuel ratios and disabling or defeating the factory emissions systems which is illegal

On March 18, 2021 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with SC Diesel for their allegedly tampering with vehicle emission controls in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. According to EPA press release, SC Diesel LLC installed so-called “defeat devices” in at least 145 vehicles and separately sold defeat devices on at least 193 occasions.

“Modifying auto emissions controls is illegal and causes serious, harmful air pollution,” said David Cozad, director of EPA Region 7’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. “These practices also impede efforts by EPA, states and tribes to plan and implement air quality standards that protect public health.”

SC Diesel must pay a penalty of $10,000 and agree to stop disabling emissions controls in the future.

Defeating emissions control systems results in significantly higher releases of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, both of which contribute to serious public health problems in the U.S. These pollutants cause premature mortality, aggravation of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, aggravation of existing asthma, acute respiratory symptoms, chronic bronchitis, and decreased lung function. Numerous studies also link diesel exhaust to increased incidence of lung cancer.

EPA fines and the RPM Act

SEMA, the performance industry association represents the manufacturers of these performance delete/defeat devices. They claim that the EPA enforcement actions interfere with owner’s rights to race their vehicles.

However, in the vast majority of instances, these vehicles are not involved solely in competitive motorsports which is the ONLY exception allowed in the Clean Air Act. These emissions delete defeat and ECM tunes are being performed on street vehicles solely to increase power and get around emissions systems.

The RPM Act currently before Congress is an attempt to keep these devices in the market by claiming they’re used by owners to race. So far, all the EPA’s enforcement actions have shown that these devices are not used for competitive motorsports activities that would fall within that exemption.