Kansas City area business sold illegal automotive engine ‘defeat devices,’ spoiled air
Voodoo Diesel, a Raymore company that provides parts of for diesel vehicles, Jeeps and ATVs, admitted in legal filings to selling parts for illegal “defeat devices” that render clean air emission control devices ineffective.
As such, the company violated the federal Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday. It was ordered to destroy all parts that could be used to create a “defeat device.”
“Modifying auto emissions impedes. . .efforts to implement air quality standards that protect public health,” Wendy Lubbe, acting director of EPA Region 7 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, said in a statement. “The EPA is committed to enforce the law against businesses involved in these illegal and harmful practices.”
Voodoo, whose listed address is 208 S. Sunrise Drive but is described by the EPA as an online retailer, entered into the consent decree on Dec. 21. Two other companies, Banghart Diesel Performance of Wahoo, Nebraska, and Black Widow Diesel of Center Point, Iowa, entered into similar agreements for violating the act.
The EPA originally called for Voodoo to be assessed a civil fine of $236,740, but because of the company’s inability to pay, it was assessed no fine, other than conceding its wrong-doing and being forced to destroy the inventory used to bypass emission controls. The other two companies were fined a combined $86,000.
According to legal documents, Voodoo — between 2018 and 2020 — sold or installed 173 parts to be used to create the devices that bypass emissions controls. Without the controls, vehicles spew out toxic substances such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that “contribute to serious public health problems,” the EPA noted.
Problems include premature death, aggravation of asthma, bronchitis, lung and heart diseases. Numerous studies, the EPA noted, have linked diesel exhaust to an increased incidence of lung cancer.
The office of the Missouri Secretary of State shows that Voodoo Diesel was registered as a business in 2017 and is owned by G & S Enterprises of Missouri, LLC., of Harrisonville, which itself was registered in 2016 out of Buffalo, Wyoming.
Attempts to reach a representative of Voodoo Diesel were unsuccessful.
