THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

We posted perviously on a truck dealership that was able to avoid costly pollution controls because they installed rebuilt engines that are exempt under a convenient loophole.The dealership was a benefactor of a local university that generated a favorable study on the pollution created. Now the the university is asking the federal government to ignore the study.

The president of a Tennessee state university, under fire for an academic study on truck emissions that was paid for by a local trucking company, has asked federal officials to disregard the study, at least for now, in its review of pollution regulations that could benefit the company.

In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, Philip B. Oldham, the president of Tennessee Technological University, warned that “experts within the university have questioned the methodology and accuracy” of the study, and that an investigation was being conducted into its findings.

The letter was dated Monday and sent to Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A., as well as Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, who had pushed Mr. Pruitt and the E.P.A. to approve a change in regulations that would exempt certain heavy-duty trucks from a requirement to install modern emissions control systems.

One of the main beneficiaries of such a change would be Fitzgerald Glider Kits of Byrdstown, Tenn., the country’s largest manufacturer of so-called glider trucks, which are equipped with rebuilt engines that do not have modern emissions controls. The company paid for the study, and had offered to build a new research center for Tennessee Tech on land owned by the company.

The study, which concluded that pollution from glider trucks was no worse than from trucks with modern emissions controls, was cited by Mr. Pruitt when he announced in November he would make the regulatory change requested by Ms. Black. Last June, Mr. Oldham had signed a letter endorsing the study.

The Obama administration had moved to eliminate the exemption for the glider trucks, given the health threat associated with their emissions. The E.P.A., in its own analysis, estimated last year that gliders emitted nitrogen oxide levels during highway operations that were 43 times as high as those from trucks with modern emissions control systems.

The E.P.A., in a written statement Wednesday, said that Mr. Pruitt’s move to exempt the glider trucks was based on a legal determination that the agency did not have the authority to regulate them, not the findings of the Tennessee Tech study.

“E.P.A. did not rely upon the study or even quote directly from it,” the statement said, adding that the agency “only noted the existence of the study,” and its findings, when Mr. Pruitt moved to exempt the glider trucks.

So Dirty Little Pruitt has been forced to seek another excuse for allowing the filth to continue being spewed. Dirty Little Pruitt should be glad all people do is yell insults at him when he flys.