★We Provide America★
★ ★ ★

The Diesel Freedom Coalition

We Provide
America.

Every gallon of milk. Every loaf of bread. Every beam, barrel, and bushel moves on American diesel.

Washington loaded our trucks with $30,000 of federally mandated hardware, 650 pounds of dead weight, and a lifetime of repair bills. The owner-operators, farmers, and fleets paying for it built this country. It is time to push back.

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Every Link In The Chain

Every Step Runs
On Diesel.

Field to fridge. Well to pump. The food on your table and the fuel in your tank both get there the same way. An American diesel engine moves them, every single link of the chain.

Every step runs on diesel.

Field To Fridge

  • 1.Hay Cutting5%
  • 2.Baling11%
  • 3.Hauling18%
  • 4.Dairy Farm26%
  • 5.Milk Transport34%
  • 6.Pasteurization42%
  • 7.Bottling49%
  • 8.Distribution56%
  • 9.At The Store63%

By the time a gallon of milk hits the shelf, 63% of its cost has been diesel.

Every step runs on diesel.

Well To Pump

  • 1.Exploration7%
  • 2.Drilling16%
  • 3.Hauling Crude27%
  • 4.Refining38%
  • 5.Distribution49%
  • 6.At The Pump58%

Diesel even powers the fuel that ends up in your tank. 58% at the pump.

72.7%
Of American Freight

Share of U.S. freight tonnage moved by trucks. Every link in the supply chain ends with a diesel engine.

Source: American Trucking Associations, 2024

14M+
Class 8 & Medium Trucks

Heavy and medium-duty diesel trucks registered in America. The circulatory system of the U.S. economy.

Source: FHWA Vehicle Registration Data, 2024

30M+
Diesel Powered Assets

Tractors, combines, generators, locomotives, school buses, and trucks. America runs on diesel, full stop.

Source: Diesel Technology Forum, 2024

The Compliance Tax

Washington Put A Meter
On Every Truck.

Every Class 8 on the road pays a federal compliance tax. Not a tax on fuel. Not a tax on income. A tax on the hardware bolted to the truck and the fuel that hardware forces it to burn. Owner-operators eat it. Fleets price it in. Families pay for it in the checkout line.

The weight is DEF fluid, aftertreatment boxes, dosers, and sensors. The burn is active regens, fuel penalties, and downtime at the dealer. It never stops adding up.

The Weight

  • ~650 LB of aftertreatment and DEF on every new Class 8.
  • 720+ LB on legacy pre-2017 trucks.
  • Equal to a full pallet of freight you cannot haul, every trip, every day.

The Burn

  • Up to 3 MPG lost to aftertreatment drag.
  • 2 to 3 percent of every gallon burned as DEF.
  • 0.5 to 1.5 gallons of diesel torched per regen, every 300 to 500 miles.

Per Year, Per Truck

$25,000

Source: ATRI 2024, Dealer Data

Over Five Years

$125,000

Source: DFC White Paper, April 2026

None Of This Is Needed

Eight Components.
$60,800 Lifetime.

This is the aftertreatment stack bolted onto every new Class 8 diesel. None of it makes the truck haul more freight. All of it fails. Every component is paid for by the operator, not the agency that mandated it.

  • DPFDiesel Particulate Filter$11,000+
  • DOCDiesel Oxidation Catalyst$4,500+
  • SCRSelective Catalytic Reduction$9,000+
  • DEFDiesel Exhaust Fluid System$7,500+
  • NOxNitrogen Oxide Sensors (pair)$2,500+
  • EGRExhaust Gas Recirculation$6,500+
  • HC7th Injector / Hydrocarbon Doser$1,800+
  • LBRDealer Shop Labor (full cycle)$19,000+

Lifetime Dealer Total

$60,800+

Source: OEM Dealer Pricing, Parts + Labor, 2026

Limp Home Mode

One Bad Sensor.
Dead On The Interstate.

A single $1,100 NOx sensor. That is all it takes. The ECM throws a code, the truck derates to 5 MPH inside 150 miles, and a loaded Class 8 becomes a road closure. Not a theoretical problem. A nightly one.

This is what the mandate actually produces. A truck that shuts itself down to protect a part the government said had to be there in the first place.

The Rule. 40 CFR 1036.111.

Federal law forces a progressive engine de-rate on any DEF fault. It is not a manufacturer decision. It is a rule the EPA wrote and bolted to every Class 8 ECU.

  • Warning lamp at the first fault.
  • 25 percent torque cut next.
  • 5 MPH limp mode in as little as 150 miles.

Federal law treats the truck as guilty until proven innocent. So it pulls you over for them.

$2,500

Highway Tow

$91/hr

Downtime Cost

$6,000

Per Incident

Source: ATRI Operational Cost Study, Owner-Operator Surveys 2024

Plastic For A Cleaner Planet

125 Million Jugs.
For The Planet.

DEF is sold as an environmental solution. The checkout counter tells a different story. 125 million plastic jugs of urea water a year, manufactured from natural gas, trucked cross-country, poured into exhaust streams, and thrown away. Ninety percent never get recycled. Americans throw out enough empty DEF containers every year to pave 1,100 football fields.

End the mandate and every jug on that pallet disappears with it. No new technology. No subsidy. Just the repeal of the rule that put it on the shelf.

125M

DEF Jugs Per Year

Integer Research 2024

47K

Tons of Plastic

EPA Plastic Waste Data

85K

Tons of CO2 from Production

EIA Urea Life-Cycle

90%

Landfilled, Not Recycled

NAPCOR Recovery Report

Dirt To Dead Metal

Foreign Mines.
American Bills.

Every aftertreatment system the EPA mandates starts thousands of miles from an American shop. Platinum, palladium, vanadium, cerium, copper-zeolite. The rare earth materials that make catalysts and sensors possible come out of foreign mines. China controls 60 to 70 percent of the global supply.

Mandated compliance means mandated foreign dependence. The part that enters the truck is already owned by a supply chain the United States does not control. Every DPF, every DOC, every SCR brick on every new Class 8 ships American money overseas.

Platinum

71%

South Africa

Palladium

38%

Russia

Rhodium

~80%

South Africa

Rare Earths

~90%

China

Refinery and factory: precious-metal washcoat sprayed onto ceramic, sintered, boxed, shipped. Then bolted onto the truck as DPF, DOC, SCR, and a DEF injector. Sticker hit per new truck, $30,000+. Average life: 200,000 to 400,000 miles before something fails. Then it starts over.

Replacement Cost Across The Stack

$42,800+

$11,000+ per DPF alone. Source: OEM Dealer Pricing, 2026

Eliminate The Mandate

None Of It Needed.
Delete The Rule.

Natural gas to ammonia to urea to plastic jug to heated tank to exhaust stream. Every step of the DEF supply chain exists only because the federal government picked a technology and wrote it into law. Remove that rule and the entire chain goes dark the next morning.

No new refineries to shut down. No factories to close. No infrastructure to retire. Just a ruling gone, and with it the pallets of urea, the heated lines, the dosers, the crystals, the tow bills, the downtime, and the 125 million gallons a year.

“Regulate the what, not the how.”

Diesel Freedom Coalition White Paper, April 2026

The Real Math

It Is A False Choice.
We Get Both.

Critics say cleaner air or operable trucks. Pick one. That is a false dichotomy. Clean air and reliable, durable, productive American diesel are fully compatible goals when the regulator measures the right thing.

Tailpipe Symbolism vs. Well-To-Wheel Reality

EPA measures pollution at the tailpipe. That ignores the upstream cost of mining rare earths, refining DEF feedstock, manufacturing aftertreatment hardware, hauling replacement parts, and burning extra diesel to push 650 pounds of dead weight every mile of every trip. Measured well-to-wheel across the full lifecycle, post-2007 mandate-compliant engines actually emit more total pollutants than the pre-2007 designs they replaced.

Reform delivers a real environmental win. Less fuel burned, fewer engine replacements, fewer DEF jugs in landfills, less foreign mining, less idling, less limp-mode stranding. Smarter engineering beats symbolic rules every time.

17%

Fewer Lifetime Pollutants

Net well-to-wheel reduction vs current mandate-compliant baseline.

20-25%

Better Fuel Economy

Real-world MPG gain when the aftertreatment burden is removed.

50%

Longer Engine Life

Pre-2007: 600,000 to 1,000,000+ miles. Post-2007: ~350,000 miles.

10-20%

More Horsepower

Power gain from removing EGR pumping losses and exhaust backpressure.

Source: Diesel Freedom Coalition White Paper, April 2026

Gratitude And Unfinished Work

Thank You,
President Trump.

The Trump Administration and EPA have taken historic steps. The February 2026 rescission of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. The March 2026 repeal of the DEF sensor mandate. President Trump and Administrator Zeldin deserve the diesel community’s deepest gratitude. They ended weaponized prosecutions of mechanics, delivered $13.79 billion a year in DEF sensor relief, and restored common sense to emissions regulation. We thank you. And we are not finished.

✓ Already Won
  • Feb 2026. The 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding rescinded.
  • Mar 2026. DEF sensor mandate repealed.
  • $13.79 billion a year. Combined savings from both actions.
  • Mechanics. No more Clean Air Act prosecutions for owner-authorized work.
Still Unfinished
  • EGR. Still federally mandated on every Class 8 diesel.
  • DPF. Still mandated. Still plugs with soot. Still fails.
  • SCR and DEF. Still mandated. 125 million gallons a year.
  • Hardware mandates. Still override performance. Still pick the technology instead of the outcome.
★ Built On Executive Action ★

EO 14147 · Jan 20, 2025

End Weaponization

Directs the federal government to correct past weaponization of law enforcement against political opponents.

EO 14219 · Feb 19, 2025

Repeal Burdensome Rules

Implements the mandate to repeal unlawful or burdensome regulations that exceed authority or harm small businesses.

DOJ Memo · 2025

Blanche Halt

Todd Blanche (ODAG) Memo halted Department of Justice prosecutions of diesel defeat-device cases nationwide.

EPA Action · Feb 2026

Zeldin Rescinds

Administrator Zeldin removed the 2009 Endangerment Finding on which every prosecution rested. The legal foundation is gone.

The runway is clear. Performance-based reform is now legally and politically open.

The Human Story

Troy Lake.
Pardoned By A President.

Four decades in the trade. A federal case over emissions controls. Two full presidential pardons. Now a national voice for common-sense diesel reform.

1983
Troy Starts in the Trade

Years inside Caterpillar. Time with their engineering teams. A foundation built on big iron and harder customers.

1996
Elite Diesel Service Founded

Opens the shop out of a pickup in Dubois, Wyoming. Mobile repair for ranchers, loggers, and owner-operators.

2022
Cheyenne Shop Opens

Elite Diesel plants its flag in Cheyenne after stops in Elko and Windsor. Full-service heavy diesel for the mountain west.

2024
Federal Prosecution

Charged under the Clean Air Act for conspiracy to disable emissions controls. Work done for customers who asked for it.

Nov 2025
Full Presidential Pardon

November 7, 2025. President Trump grants Troy a full and unconditional pardon. Civil rights restored.

Feb 2026
The Shop Is Pardoned

February 12, 2026. Elite Diesel Service itself is pardoned. Rare second action for the company. Troy becomes a national voice for diesel reform.

“I served seven months for fixing trucks the way my customers asked me to fix them. Two pardons later, I am still in this fight. Not for me. For every owner-operator who gets buried every time Washington writes another rule.”

Troy Lake · Elite Diesel Service · Cheyenne, Wyoming

The BillIntroduced March 25, 2026

H.R. 8079

The Diesel Truck Liberation Act

House Sponsor

Rep. Mike Collins

R-GA-10

Senate Companion

Sen. Cynthia Lummis

R-WY

What It Does

  • 1. Rolls back EPA 2027 emissions rule on Class 8 trucks.
  • 2. Protects repair shops from Clean Air Act liability on owner-requested work.
  • 3. Ends the DEF mandate on new commercial diesel chassis.
  • 4. Requires an independent cost review before any future diesel rule.
Read The Bill ↗
The Full Plan

Six Actions For EPA.
Performance, Not Hardware.

H.R. 8079 is one front. The Diesel Freedom Coalition is asking EPA for full-stack reform. Enforcement discretion now. Performance-based standards next. No more hardware mandates. Clear pollution limits. Market solutions.

01
National Enforcement Discretion Guidance

Direct EPA field offices to exercise discretion on emissions tampering enforcement for existing diesel engines during the transition. Stop the raids. Stop the prosecutions.

30 Days
02
Interim Performance-Based Standards

Set clear health-based limits at or below pre-2012 levels. Approximately 2.4 g/bhp-hr NMHC plus NOx and 0.10 g/bhp-hr PM, measured via PEMS in real-world operation. Let the market decide how to hit the targets. Stop using California ARB as a national benchmark.

90 Days
03
Joint Industry-Government Working Group

Mechanics, fleet operators, owner-operators, and manufacturers at the table with EPA. Finalize long-term targets with the people who actually turn wrenches.

6 Months
04
Approve Delete Kits and Tunes

Legalize modifications that meet performance-based pollution standards. End the black-market economy created by mandated failure-prone hardware.

Codify
05
Aftertreatment Relief for Small Businesses

Fast-track the reform already identified on the SBA list. The coalition projects $195 to $200 billion a year in direct small-business savings.

SBA List
06
Mandate Well-to-Wheel Reporting

Require EPA to publish comprehensive environmental data across the full lifecycle. Measure what is really burned, shipped, and buried. Not just the tailpipe.

Permanent

★ Where The Saved Fuel Goes

The world is scrambling for affordable energy. America is voluntarily discarding 25 percent of its diesel fleet’s efficiency. Reform delivers a national windfall. Lower prices at every checkout, recovered fuel directed into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and surplus exports sold to allies who need American energy more than China does.

Source: Diesel Freedom Coalition White Paper, April 2026

★ Read The Full White PaperTake Action
★ Take Action

Push Back.