US President Donald Trump has pardoned 11 people, including nine convicted of violating the Clean Air Act by tampering with or disabling emissions control systems on diesel trucks.
The pardons come months after the Trump administration
rolled back key environmental regulations, including repealing the scientific
finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and eliminating
federal tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks.
According to the White House, all but two of the recipients
had been convicted of offences related to vehicle emissions under the Clean Air
Act.
Most were found guilty of modifying or removing federally
required emissions control equipment or selling aftermarket devices designed to
bypass pollution controls — practices prohibited under US environmental law.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump defended six of the
recipients, saying they had been unfairly prosecuted under former President Joe
Biden’s administration.
“It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six
people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being
sent to, prison, for ‘fixing their car. I am setting them all free, right now!”
Trump wrote.
The White House said the pardons were intended to “relieve
consumers of burdensome emissions” regulations, arguing that some of the
recipients modified vehicles in “good faith” to help customers avoid expensive
emissions-related repairs.
The White House also described those granted clemency as
victims of “the previous administration’s wrongful and unnecessary regulations
on emissions controls”.
Among those pardoned were Joshua Davis, Matt Geouge,
Jonathan Achtemeier, Tim Clancy, Ryan and Wade Lalone, Barry Pierce, Aaron
Rudolf and Mackenzie Spurlock.
Ryan and Wade Lalone, who pleaded guilty after operating a
business that sold aftermarket modifications for semi-truck emissions control
systems, were said by the White House to have acted to reduce repair costs
associated with emissions requirements.
The pardons add to a series of environmental policy
reversals under Trump’s second administration.
In February, the administration repealed the scientific
determination that greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to public health — a
finding that underpins many federal climate regulations. It also scrapped
federal tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks.
The president also granted clemency to Adam Kidan, a
businessman who served a prison sentence after being convicted of wire fraud
alongside former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2006.
Jack Harvard, former mayor of Plano, Texas, who was
convicted of bank fraud in the 1990s, also received a presidential pardon.
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