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In February, the administration repealed the scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to public health — a finding that underpins many federal climate regulations.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.
