Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s edict marks the first time the DOJ has taken formal steps to scale back environmental crime enforcement since Trump first took office just over a year ago. In a memo reviewed by the media, Blanche wrote that he made this decision “to ensure consistent and fair prosecution under the law, and to ensure the best use of the Department’s resources.” Yeah, buddy. I’m sure. By CBS News:
Although the Trump administration took drastic steps in 2025 to roll back environmental regulations targeting greenhouse gas emissions, many of those actions focused on regulation or civil enforcement, as opposed to criminal environmental enforcement.
In justifying the decision, Blanche cited a new and untested legal theory that conflicts with the conclusions of both federal prosecutors and Environmental Protection Agency lawyers, according to internal government documents reviewed by CBS and multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The theory states that the violations cannot be prosecuted as crimes under the Clean Air Act, and can only be prosecuted as civil violations.
When asked for comment on the memo, a Justice Department spokesperson pointed to a social media post made late Wednesday afternoon. It said the department was “exercising its enforcement authority to discontinue pursuing criminal charges” under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with the software associated with emissions control equipment.
The memo comes just a few months after Trump pardoned Tony Lake, a Wyoming diesel mechanic who spent several months in federal prison for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by disabling emissions control systems in a number of diesel trucks. It came after a Wyoming Senate Republican claimed the case was an example of the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of prosecution.
Blanche’s order could potentially impact more than a dozen ongoing criminal cases across the country targeting companies and individuals who allegedly sold after-market emission control devices, as well as more than two dozen ongoing investigations, according to two sources familiar with the case and court filings.
Several of the pending criminal cases, including two in different Pennsylvania counties, were indicted in 2025 during the first year of Trump’s second term, the lawsuits show.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate air pollution levels caused by vehicles.
To comply with these regulations, car manufacturers are required to install emissions control systems to reduce the levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.
Tampering with those systems is illegal, but a robust black market exists for after-market emissions manipulation systems, as removing or tuning them can help increase horsepower and improve mileage.
A study conducted by the EPA in 2020 found that emissions controls had been removed from approximately 550,000 diesel pickup trucks over the past decade, leading to the release of 570,000 tons of excess nitrogen oxides.
You know, I really don’t get it. What’s the point of rolling coal anyway? It won’t make your wife love you, or your boss respect you, or your father finally be proud of you. Plus, it makes your own truck dirty and smelly, and you waste expensive fuel. Is it just about owning the libs? That can’t be true, right? Maybe it’s that simple.
In the end, it just slowly kills the planet and makes everyone’s day a little worse, but that’s kind of the underlying mantra of this administration, isn’t it?
#Cheating #rolling #coal #emissions #longer #criminal #offense #Donald #Trumps #America #Jalopnik