ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
I cannot find a single un-polaraized opinionated article on this but you'll have to take my word that trump pardoned fellons convicted by the FBI and EPA of "violating the clean air act". Most were convicted under his previous administrations "Diesel Compliance Initiative" not long after making the EPA part of the DOJ giving them guns. I can't speak for the people pardoned (nor can I really find any true information on these people) but the information you find will blanket label these people as criminals, charge them with a felony of 5 up to years in jail for having a chat at a diner about "taking that damn dpf off my work truck it cost too much" (im serious most of these guys including at least one that was pardoned was charged with CONSPIRACY to tamper with emissions equipment). The only people I know personally that served a prison sentence were charged of conspiracy.
AP News
Trump pardons former Abramoff partner, 9 people convicted of violating vehicle emissions controls
President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned 11 people, including a former business partner of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and nine people ident...
 Like bitcoin/crypto and other administrative state markets the EPA does not release information including emissions targets that allow the aftermarket to comply. There is no regulation - you just can't modify your vehicle. They're supposed to allow you to submit a "reasonable basis" claim after being investigated but they aren't obligated to look at it, but you can try to fight it in court - except that the EPA has never lost a court case on consumer vehicle emissions. There are plenty of guys who took this too far by deliberately removing emissions equipment despite knowing the would probably be prosecuted (you get a culpability line item btw), or turning up the smoke. Simply irresponsible, disrespectful sure. But guess what, there is no definition for a defeat device, there never has been and there never will be because it's the only magic wand the EPA has to put anyone they don't like in prison. If you want to have an argument over greenhouse gases, carbon emissions etc. Give me numbers, give me quantities, give me something to work with. I'm not a regulate me harder daddy person, but you can have both. Don't leave it to the administrative state to decide what's a bad greenhouse gas and a good one. Because we still can't seem to decide (as a state) what a greenhouse gas actually is and which ones are "the problem" (greenhouse gas stuff was just changed again and trump is being blamed for it.

Replies (12)

ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
I think EGR is a cool technology, but yes it's been a complete failure in terms of complexity and reliability. By that I mean diesel engine produces a significant like an order of magnitude more NOX compared to spark ignition engines because of the excess air in the cylinder that becomes superheated (at any load under 100%). Since we can't throttle them, filling the chamber with inert gas is a clever and nearly free thing to do. Except it's really hot, too hot and full of particulates that clog up all the egr equipment. Same for DPF imo. All engines (not just diesels) spit out lots of nasty carbon strings carbon loves long contiguous streams. The EPA has somewhat proven these carbon strings are pretty nasty to humans. They have not prove that enough of the bad carbon strings come out of the tailpipe to contaminate our water supply, hurt plant growth, etc. The equipment is expensive, half baked, unavailable right now, and simply talking about touching out loud will send you to federal prison for up to 5 years.
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ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
Like I said i can't speak for these people in particular. I also don't trust that the "right people" were pardoned but that's not my call to make. Generally speaking I don't think there should have needed be pardons because they shouldn't have been in prison. It was his policy in his 2016 term that put them there in the first place. If all you were able to convict someone of is a conspiracy - like literally a statement of a guy talked about doing X but the rest cannot be proven, why is someone in prison? That's just a blanket. Sure almost all of these were plea bargains but if you had concrete evidence someone committed a crime why is talking about it even on the list of things able to be bargained, reduce the sentence. Id have something different to say if they said - removing X equipment on personally owned pickup trucks is illegal **because** Y. They cannot they simply say well touching anything on our car is _probably_ illegal so don't do it. They won't say "well all that matters is that X quantity of Y must not be present at the tailpipe". it's generally known among the community that such emissions components exist and removing them will trigger alarms in the ECU preventing operation without software workarounds. But there is no clear reason why. They're calling us bootleggers without the prohibition part. Which btw these "regulations" don't apply to them. They will arrest you and put you in the back of an SUV without emissions equipment because they know it's too unreliable. Hell they will even show up to your shop with a license and ask you to remove the equipment yourself, but you so much as work on a modified vehicle owned by a civilian without reporting it - straight to jail. And don't even get me started on "penalties", "culpability multiplier", and "inflation surcharges" for non-criminal cases.
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YODL's avatar
YODL yodl@nostr.land 2 weeks ago
From what I've read from you on the subject in the past it def sounds messed up. Didn't realize it was trumps fault they were in trouble in first place...that's a twist
ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
Yeah more or less. He appointed the administrator at the time and personally approved the compliance initiative set by the administrator. In previous administrations it was a revolving door for revenue. Like most regulated industries just have 1/4 extra profit stashed away to pay for annual legal fees, pay them penalties and "Hey see you next year have a good day!" kind of thing. Then he made them part of the DOJ giving them power to pursue with criminal powers.
ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
It's such a weird spot to be in. I never wanted to have an opinion, figured the government would stay out of the way so long as I stayed out of the way. And honestly man some of these guys _were_ doing stuff they knew was wrong and falsifying documents. In my specific situation which was not criminal thankfully, we were the scapegoat for the "classic truck idnustry". While I was a lowly employee my name was on everything. And it was purposuly ambiguous. They couldn't say "you can sell that!" So we were told "screw them they can't legally tell you to shut your product down without charging you". Just that you get sent an RFI via email directly. Then you are forced to self report, you're not told what you did wrong just that we think you "defeated emissions" What say you sir!?! That you're required to prove your innocence based on your own self report. The worst is that you are required to throw every company you work with under the bus too. That's how they got us. They got one of our dealers then followed the chain to the dude with the computer.
Matt - Top American Spook's avatar
Matt - Top American Spook matt@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
I know a couple delete bros. One is a Sheriff's deputy, funny enough. It's a pretty broad issue these days where you pay for a thing and all its maintenance, taxes, fees, etc and still dont own it. Land, houses, vehicles.
Matt - Top American Spook's avatar
Matt - Top American Spook matt@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
And I think some of the rules probably are good intentioned (like issues with corrupting water supplies that run through your land, etc). We probably shouldn't just have a free for all and go to court for the same property rights issues over and over. But it has gotten ridiculous and intentionally vague
Default avatar
npub1pzlu...lnh6 2 weeks ago
It's a shame we don't have better electric rail logistics in this country. It could resolve many of the issues with OTR trucking.
ChipTuner's avatar
ChipTuner ChipTuner@gitcitadel.com 2 weeks ago
Yeah this the line of property rights and public heath is here I won't dispute that. What is true though is that the lines are ambiguous because there is not agreement because there probably lacks some real science and so long as this benefits the administrative state there will never be. It's likely something like this -> all NOx is bad. and all carbon particulates are probably bad so we should stop making them to be safe. But then we can't use combustion with atmosphere... If we can't use combustion then we can't do most things that require energy right now. So that's not realistic. The environmentalist goal post is close to 0 and the property rights doesn't care.
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