Wyoming’s junior U.S. senator and the speaker of the state House of Representatives both support the idea of a pardon for a 65-year-old mechanic who is in federal prison for deleting emissions systems from diesel engines.
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, outright supports the efforts of Troy Lake’s family to secure a presidential pardon for him, her senior communications advisor Joe Jackson told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
“Senator Lummis is very supportive of a pardon for Mr. Lake,” wrote Jackson in an email. “She believes that this was a miscarriage of justice by overzealous prosecutors who need to focus more on illegal immigration and keeping our communities safe.”
Lake was convicted in June 2024 of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. That was after years of deleting or helping to delete emissions controls on diesel engines, including fire trucks and commercial trucks.
Lake’s diesel shop was successful before truckers, business owners and others started approaching him about engines that wouldn’t run, or that would break down despite being brand new, his wife Holly and son TJ told Cowboy State Daily last month.
He started removing the emissions systems.
As the systems became more sophisticated, so too did Troy Lake’s technology and work. And he became a go-to advisor for the procedure regionally, court documents say.
He was sentenced in December to one year and one day in federal prison, and ordered to pay $52,500 in fines. He reported to the prison Feb. 10 and remains at the FCI Florence correctional complex in Colorado, where he’s instrumental to the prison’s diesel shop.
‘Pardon Him Right Now’
The Wyoming Legislature does not influence EPA regulations or federal law, though it can craft resolutions — essentially position statements — to send to federal bodies.
Of its top two leaders, one adamantly supports a pardon for Troy Lake, while the other one was silent on the issue.
“Trump should pardon him right now,” said Wyoming House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett. “The punishment does not fit the crime. He was treated differently than others who were doing the same thing.”
Often, people who act or conspire to delete emissions systems are fined, placed on probation, or both.
The federal prosecutor who argued at Troy Lake’s sentencing said the judge should make an example of him.
“This should never have been a felony,” Neiman added.
Cowboy State Daily sent text message requests Wednesday and Thursday to Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, who did not respond by publication time.
Gov. Mark Gordon’s spokesman did not respond by publication time to a Wednesday email request for comment.
More Guarded
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who are Wyoming’s other two Republican congressional delegates, gave more guarded answers regarding the Lake family’s pardon effort.
“The power to pardon is the president’s alone and he will have to make this decision,” said Barrasso in a Thursday email statement.
Still, he added, Barrasso is working on the issue in his own arena.
“Republicans in Congress are working with the Trump administration to roll back red tape, including excessive and harmful EPA regulations,” he said.
Hageman gave similar thoughts.
“I appreciate President Trump looking at the over-criminalization brought by the previous administration,” she wrote, referencing her time as an attorney “fighting the heavy handedness resulting from burdensome regulations.”
“The Trump administration understands that unelected bureaucrats should never have been given these arbitrary powers,” Hageman added. “I trust we will see that philosophy come to bear in the decision currently in front of them.”
What An Outpouring
Holly Lake on Thursday told Cowboy State Daily that she and her family have been overwhelmed by community members voicing support for the pardon cause since news of her husband’s incarceration broke.
As for the pardon effort itself, “We haven’t been told no. About all the news we get is that it’s still moving forward,” she said, adding that she has seen signs of people working behind the scenes to help.
“We can’t even begin to verbalize the gratitude we feel toward everybody,” Holly Lake added.
These Buses Though …
Though Troy Lake is in prison, he’s still working on diesel equipment.
He just got three of the prison’s transport buses back into running condition, according to Holly.
In the case of these buses, their emissions systems were breaking them down, she said.
Troy Lake found a Band-Aid-style fix for the diesel engines — one that doesn’t involve deleting the “real problem,” lest he incur any more felonies, said Holly Lake with a wry laugh.
Even as President Donald Trump inches toward rolling back some EPA regulations, deleting diesel emissions systems remains a federal felony.
Sentencing
At Troy Lake’s sentencing hearing last December, Colorado U.S. District Court Judge Regina Rodriguez chided Troy Lake for the sheer volume of deletes in which he'd been involved — at least 340.
She also said the issue that day in court wasn’t whether the law is righteous or environmentally helpful.
“Whether you agree, disagree, believe that it really has an effect on the environment is not fundamentally the issue here at the end of the day,” said Rodriguez. “It’s whether or not it was illegal conduct. He knew it was illegal conduct and he was the one who was at the top of this conspiracy.”
Multiple of Troy Lake’s customers, conversely, told Cowboy State Daily in July that his decision to break the law saved people’s businesses and curbed potential highway hazards.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
