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Love them or hate them, the Diesel Brothers have generated a ton of popularity over the last few years. There have been a ton of eyes on this crew and unfortunately, it hasn’t always been enthusiasts. In fact, they are facing some steep penalties for violations against the Clean Air Act. We saw just a few hours ago that their penalties could possibly reach $4.4 million.
The Diesel Sellerz truck dealer in Woods Cross, Utah was found liable by a federal judge in March of 2019 for violating the Clean Air Act by selling diesel trucks equipped with “defeat” devices to foil pollution controls. There is banter back and forth between the attorneys from the Diesel Sellerz dealership and the environmental group’s attorneys about the charges they could face.
The Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment urged U.S District Judge Robert Shelby in court documents last week to impose these penalties up to that amount against the truck builders for illegally modifying or selling 20 or more trucks and selling “defeat devices” to truck owners nationwide. The attorneys for the Diesel Brothers are disputing the number of violations and argued that penalties this much would devastate the local business.
They are saying penalties are justified for $581,000 at the most. Yeah, it’s not $4.4 million but that is still an incredible amount of money.
After seeing the Diesel Brothers “spew” black smoke all over their television show on Discovery Channel, the group sued. The group’s doctor said that with the nitrogen oxide emissions from three trucks stripped off is equivalent to the combined emissions of 100 untampered trucks.
Seven Utah counties repeatedly have not met federal air pollution standards, especially on the Wasatch Front. The doctors’ groups say ozone and fine-particulate pollution emitted by diesel engines cause various health problems including cancer.
“The need for general deterrence is paramount,” the doctors’ group said in its recommendation for penalties, especially because the Diesel Brothers have a nationally broadcast TV show and millions of followers on social media.
“In the early days of the business, Sparks readily admits he did stupid things, and that he did not fully understand the impact his actions had on air quality,” according to the court filing.
“Sparks has since worked with the EPA to ensure compliance and has caused a bold disclaimer to be displayed at the beginning of every Diesel Brothers episode, to encourage its followers to not tamper with emissions control systems on their vehicles.”
All of this is still ongoing and we don’t have any concrete numbers of what will happen but one we do know is that they’re in deep water at this time. Stay tuned as we will try to update you as new details are released.
