Urban Life

I think it’s silly that liberals are getting all worked up about tuning of diesels. 🏭

Emissions standards are good from the factory but may not be practical or desirable in all areas. Some parts of the country have unhealthy air, and they have annual emissions inspections for automobiles and other restrictions. Plenty of other locations are rural and have relatively pure air, where the emissions equipment is good to have but not essential for clean air purposes.

Many diesel pick up truck owners install tuners and remove emissions equipment. Tuners can improve fuel economy, reliability and performance. They can make it better to tow heavy loads or for tractor pulls, or for the fun of rolling coal. It’s not to say stock emissions don’t have a place anywhere but for those who choose to disable controls outside of pollution control areas, so be it.

Some pollution crosses air basins and people drive from one community to the next. Even the most backwoods farm kid might drive into a city’s air basin with their dirtier emissions than stock truck. But that doesn’t matter because they are a minority, and their one vehicle is balanced out by many cleaner vehicles on the road. Most fleet vehicles will never be modified and even the majority of most truck owners will not be bothered to buy a tune or take off unnecessary emissions equipment.

And while you can model the impact of these emissions and make enormous sounding numbers on the impact to the environment, such numbers rarely take into account overall urban emissions or that many vehicles are operated outside of emissions basins. A much more important stragety should be to focus on new vehicles from the factory and emissions compliance in air basins that are currently not in compliance.

Now I understand that liberals and Joe Biden’s administration is looking for as many ways as possible to punish rural residents and conservatives who didn’t vote for them to the greatest extent possible. But government power shouldn’t be used to punish your political enemies.