Last modified on September 7th, 2022 at 12:20 pm

US EPA Memorandum on Tampering Impacts

The Air Enforcement Division (AED) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the emissions controls have been removed from more than 550,000 diesel pickup trucks in the last decade. As a result of this tampering, more than 570,000 tons of excess oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 5,000 tons of particulate matter (PM) will be emitted by these tampered trucks over the lifetime of the vehicles. These tampered trucks constitute approximately 15 percent of the national population of diesel trucks that were originally certified with emissions controls. But, due to their severe excess NOx emissions, these trucks have an air quality impact equivalent to adding more than 9 million additional (compliant, non-tampered) diesel pickup trucks to our roads. This Report describes these estimates in greater detail and explains AED’s underlying analysis.

View the Report