You’d think after the huge scandal that was VW’s Dieselgate that the automotive industry as a whole would have learned something. A multi-billion dollar corporation getting hit with billions in fines wasn’t scary enough it seems, as diesel emission cheating keeps happening, albeit at a smaller scale. The latest bust is out of North Carolina.
The Drive reports that the Department of Justice and the EPA hit Aaron Rudol, owner of North Carolina-based Rudy’s Performance Parts with a $2.4 million fine. Rudol pleaded guilty on September 10 for “conspiring to violate” the Clean Air Act. Through his shop, he installed and sold diesel emissions cheating devices on vehicles at his shop. From the DOJ:
Rudolf, sole owner and chief executive officer of Rudy’s, previously pleaded guilty for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by tampering with monitoring devices on approximately 300 diesel trucks, which involved the installation of defeat devices on those trucks.
According to the Department, between 2014 and 2019, Rudol manufactured and sold over 250,000 of these emissions cheating devices. The devices had “parts such as plates that block a vehicle’s exhaust gas recirculation system and pipes that replace pollution treatment components in a vehicle’s exhaust system.”
Justice is a long time coming for Rudol. In 2022, the Justice Department filed suit against him on behalf of the EPA. Because of this suit, along with the violations and failing to respond to DOJ requests, Rudol has to pay another $7 million in civil penalties ontop of the $2 million fine.
In a statement, Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance called the agreement and settlement a message to any other shops engaging in the practice.
For too many years, companies like Rudy’s have installed illegal defeat devices to evade the public health protections of the Clean Air Act, to the detriment of communities across America. Today’s announcement demonstrates that EPA will vigorously pursue criminal and civil penalties until this blatant illegal behavior comes to an end.
While small shops across the country have engaged in the cheating practice, the last few years have shown that even some automakers are also still gaming the diesel emissions, even after the mess that was Dieselgate. In 2022, Hino Commercial Trucks was found to have falsified diesel engine emissions data. Later that year, Stellantis was hit with over $800 million in criminal charges and civil penalties for falsifying diesel emissions on Grand Cherokees and Ram trucks. Then earlier this year, Toyota was found to have engaged in emissions cheating for diesel engines that power the company’s Land Cruiser and HiACE vans.