Comment submitted by Mike Hartzog

I strongly agree with the EPA’s proposal to roll back these overly strict rules. Diesel vehicles have been garbage and very unreliable since the 2007.5 models with all these complicated, government-mandated emissions systems that won’t keep our vehicles running. 2007.5+ diesel trucks continuously fail and now have very short shelf lives. We should have the right to repair our own vehicles without the government telling us how. That said, the EPA should put any final decision on indefinite hold since it seems likely that we could go back to Tier 2 standards and still achieve a healthy environment without the trillions of dollars in costs to Americans. After all, the big 99 percent cuts in the key pollutants were already knocked out by the time we hit Tier 2. Every round of tighter rules since then has just piled trillions in extra costs onto regular Americans while delivering smaller and smaller environmental gains. The juice is simply not worth the squeeze. The Office of Advocacy for the Small Business Association estimates about $195 billion a year in diesel emissions repair costs that get passed straight on to us in our real costs of living. There are many americans who have to choose between fixing their truck with these expensive components to stay in compliance, KNOWING it will fail again later, or to fix it the way they see fit for a fraction of the cost, and it will not have to be addressed again. Many americans are faced with parking their trucks at the dealerships for 6+ months on end, while still making payments on a vehicle they can't use, to wait for these problematic components to become available again because most are on indefinite backorder. We have to stop this madness, and the EPA’s proposed rule is a good place to start.