RI Trucking Companies Charged With Conspiracy for Tampering With Emission Monitoring Devices
Monday, January 30, 2023
Two Rhode Island trucking companies -- and their owner -- have entered plea agreements admitting guilt in tampering with federal emission monitoring devices on their fleet of trucks.
North Kingstown companies M&D Transportation and Diesel Tune-Ups of RI and owner Michael Collins were sued last week in federal court by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island.
“From on or about September 5, 2014 and continuing to on or about August 27, 2019, with the District of Rhode Island and elsewhere, defendants COLLINS, DIESEL TUNE-UPS, and M&D, conspired with each other, and with others known and unknown to the government, to tamper with and render inaccurate federally mandated monitoring devices on commercial diesel vehicles in violation of the Clean Air Act, and to defraud the United States by impairing, impeding, obstructing, and defeating the lawful function of the EPA to implement and enforces emission standards for diesel vehicles,” wrote U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha in the 12-page suit filed in federal court.
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About Regulations — and Circumvention
“The Clean Air Act regulates 'mobile sources' which include motor vehicles and engines and nonfood vehicles and engines. Pursuant to U.S.C.§§ 7521-7554 and the regulations promulgated thereunder, the EPA established standards limiting the emission of air pollutants from various classes of motor vehicle engines. Heavy duty diesel engines are one such class and are subject to the emissions regulations found at C.F.R. Part 86, Subpart A. 42, U.S.C. § 7521 (a)(3),” according to the lawsuit.
“To meet these emission standards, vehicle manufacturers design and install certain hardware devices as components of an emission control system to manage and treat engine exhaust. This reduces the level of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and non-methane hydrocarbons that are emitted into the air from tailpipe exhaust and keeps those emissions within regulatory limits,” the lawsuit continues. “For diesel engines, such emissions control devices include diesel particulate filters (DPF), exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems and diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems.
The lawsuit goes on to explain how businesses and individuals have attempted to circumvent the federal regulations.
“Persons seeking to evade the Clean Air Act’s pollution controls have developed methods of modifying or removing emission control systems. These modifications are often marketed as improving the fuel economy, horsepower, torque, and other characterisics of Diesel engines,” the lawsuit writes.
The lawsuit then goes into how such methods were achieved.
Charges and Guilty Plea
The lawsuit charges Collins and the business of one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and to Defraud the United States — and alleges that the defendants engaged with a “foreign national” to tamper with the computerized systems so “alterations of and malfunctions in the emissions control components would not be detected.”
Counts two through six pertain to “tampering with a monitoring device and methods/aiding and abetting” as it pertains to the Clean Air Act.
In the plea agreements, the companies agreed to the following.
The plea agreement signed by Collins stipulates the following.
Neither Collins nor the U.S. Attorney's Office responded to request for comment.
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