Trump pardons an Alaska diesel mechanic, reigniting a fight over emissions rules

President Trump has pardoned a Wasilla diesel mechanic convicted of stripping pollution controls from trucks — a move Sen. Dan Sullivan hailed as "righting a grave injustice," and one that critics see as part of a broader retreat from clean-air enforcement.

Mackenzie Spurlock, an Air National Guard veteran who ran Matanuska Diesel, was convicted over modifications his shop made to the emissions systems on Alaska trucks between 2020 and 2022.

The conviction cost him $32,000, his gun rights, and his plans to reenlist. Sullivan, who requested the pardon, argues the underlying rules are a poor fit for the state: the diesel exhaust fluid systems the federal government mandates can gel or fail in extreme cold, sometimes forcing an engine to shut down — a real danger on remote roads like the Dalton Highway, where a stall in a blizzard can be life-threatening.

But the pardon doesn't stand alone. It's one of several Trump has granted to people convicted of diesel emissions tampering, and the Justice Department has stopped criminally prosecuting shops and mechanics who disable pollution-monitoring equipment — one earlier pardon went to a mechanic who had defeated the controls on hundreds of trucks.

The EPA and federal prosecutors say enforcement protects public health and deters tampering, and environmental advocates warn the pardons erode both — including in the Alaska communities strung along heavy trucking corridors.

Sullivan and Sen. Cynthia Lummis have introduced legislation to carve out cold-climate exemptions from the fluid-system rules, which got a Senate hearing this spring.

For now, Spurlock has his rights back; whether the rules themselves change remains unsettled.