Attorneys for an environmental group have recommended that a maximum $4.4 million in Clean Air Act penalties could be assessed against the Diesel Brothers reality TV stars for rigging diesel pickup trucks to foil pollution controls.
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment urged U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby in court documents last week to impose penalties up to that amount against the truck builders for illegally modifying or selling 20 trucks and selling “defeat devices” to truck owners nationwide.
But attorneys for the Diesel Brothers disputed the number of violations that were committed and argued that significant penalties would “devastate” the local businesses operated by the defendants. They said penalties are justified for $581,000 at most.
The group sued after seeing the Diesel Brothers promoting smoke-spewing modified trucks on their Discovery Channel show, now in its sixth season.
Defendants include David Sparks, known on the show as “Heavy D”; Joshua Stuart, “Redbeard”; and Keaton Hoskins, “The Muscle.”
Sparks in the owner of Diesel Brothers affiliated companies including B&W Motors, doing business as Sparks Motors in Woods Cross, and Diesel Power Gear, the online merchandizing arm. Those entities also are defendants in the suit.
Diesel Brothers’ court filing said stiff monetary penalties would force B&W Auto/Sparks Motors into bankruptcy and overall would “devastate” the Sparks entities.
The defendants also contended the doctors’ group lacked legal standing to call for penalties on many of the violations because most of the trucks and defeat parts went to out-of-state buyers.
https://www.standard.net/news/environment/million-in-penalties-possible-against-diesel-brothers-for-clean-air/article_6ea07615-7b50-54fd-873a-ec6a848a6422.html
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