WASHINGTON — President Trump has pardoned a diesel mechanic from Wasilla who was convicted of removing pollution-control equipment from diesel vehicles.
Trump granted full clemency on Friday to Mackenzie Spurlock, co-owner of Matanuska Diesel.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan celebrated Spurlock’s pardon. He and other critics of the anti-pollution equipment say it often fails in temperatures lower than 12 degrees, sometimes leaving drivers with a vehicle that could only go 5 miles per hour.
Sullivan sponsored a bill that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to rewrite its rule to accommodate cold-climates. At a hearing in March, Sullivan said the D.C. lawyers writing the rules don’t feel their impact.
“It's the truck drivers, mechanics, equipment operators, farmers out on remote highways doing the hard work that keeps our communities supplied and our economy moving,” Sullivan said.
Spurlock was accused of disabling emissions equipment on pickup trucks and a van — 20 vehicles in all, his attorney wrote, at about $1,500 per job. His pardon was announced along with those of seven other men convicted of Clean Air Act violations. They either removed required devices from diesel vehicles or sold equipment to do the conversions.
Anti-pollution advocates oppose weakening the law that reduced smog in American cities. At the March hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the pollution-control equipment for diesel vehicles dramatically reduced emissions of nitrogen oxide, or NOx.
“NOx causes lung disease, reproductive issues, birth defects, kidney problems, nerve damage, autoimmune disease, and cancer,” he said.
Spurlock did not respond to a phone message left at his shop.
He was charged in 2023, pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to five years probation. The pardon restores all his civil rights.
