The EPA has too much power.

The largest company in the diesel delete world is right here in Lake Charles and he was targeted by the EPA. Not the FBI. The EPA. He potentially faced prison but instead settled for $3.1 million in criminal fines

quote:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Justice have announced a settlement with Power Performance Enterprises, Inc. (PPEI), and Kory Blaine Willis, to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act’s prohibition against the sale or manufacture of devices that bypass, defeat, or render inoperative emissions controls. PPEI and Willis also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in federal court in Sacramento, California. Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and to violating the Clean Air Act by tampering with the monitoring devices of emissions control systems of diesel trucks. Under the criminal plea agreements and a proposed civil consent decree, PPEI and Willis agreed to pay a total of $3.1 million in criminal fines and civil penalties. Under the civil settlement, the company agrees not to manufacture, sell, or install any device that defeats emissions controls.

It says civil case but the fine is a "criminal fine" and if he violates any of what they laid out in the settlement then it turns criminal. It makes no sense

quote:
Under the Consent Decree, PPEI and Willis must not manufacture, sell, offer to sell, distribute, or install in a motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine any of the 323 subject products identified in Appendix A to the Consent Decree. The Consent Decree also requires PPEI and Willis to destroy subject products left in their possession or control. In addition, the Consent Decree requires PPEI and Willis to:

cease providing technical support for the subject products;
deny all warranty claims for the subject products;
instruct authorized dealers to no longer provide technical support or honor warranty claims pertaining to the subject products;
revise all marketing materials to strike any information relating to replacing, defeating, bypassing, or rendering inoperative any emission control;
not sell or transfer any intellectual property associated with the subject products;
notify authorized dealers and known customers of the subject products of the settlement using specified language that informs the authorized dealers and known customers that the products at issue violate the Clean Air Act;
notify PPEI and Willis’s officers and employees of the Clean Air Act prohibitions using specified language which explains the Clean Air Act’s defeat device prohibition;
require PPEI and Willis to offer to buy back all subject products possessed by each of PPEI and Willis’s officers and employees, which PPEI and Willis must then destroy; and
provide Clean Air Act compliance training for all of PPEI and Willis’s officers, employees, contractors, and consultants.

quote:
EPA estimates that the products PPEI and Willis sold between 2013 and 2018 may result in more than 100 million pounds of excess NOx emissions and 800,000 pounds of excess PM emissions over the anticipated remaining life of the diesel pickup trucks equipped with PPEI and Willis’s defeat devices. This enforcement action will prevent additional excess emissions that would have resulted from the continued sale of these illegal products.

He did that much "damage" and all they wanted was $3.1 million? Seems like they just wanted what money the guy had but didn't want to fine him so much he couldn't pay it. He is still in business but does mostly truck tuning now and does not touch the emissions.

This post was edited on 5/16/24 at 7:48 am