By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 16, 2026 – For the second time this week, US Sen. Dan Sullivan has moved a major Alaska-focused bill through a Senate committee, this time advancing legislation intended to prevent diesel engines and heavy equipment from losing power or shutting down during extreme cold.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Sullivan’s Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act on Wednesday by a 10-9 vote, sending the measure to the full Senate for possible consideration.
The vote came one day after Sullivan’s Bycatch Reduction Act cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. That bill seeks to reduce the effects of trawl fishing on salmon bycatch and Alaska’s seafloor habitat.
Sullivan’s bycatch bill clears Senate committee 22–4; four Democrats vote no
Sullivan introduced the Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act, S. 3135, on Nov. 6, 2025, with Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis as an original co-sponsor. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Curtis of Utah later joined as supporters. Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich introduced the House companion, H.R. 6250.
Before approving the legislation Wednesday, the committee adopted an amendment in the nature of a substitute by voice vote. Committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito said the revised language was offered as the base text in response to feedback received after the original bill was introduced.
Sullivan and Begich team up to keep Alaska’s diesel engines running in extreme cold
The legislation directs the Environmental Protection Agency to revise Clean Air Act regulations governing diesel-powered highway vehicles and nonroad equipment operating in freezing conditions.
Modern diesel engines use selective catalytic reduction systems and diesel exhaust fluid, or DEF, to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. But DEF freezes at approximately 12 degrees Fahrenheit. In prolonged extreme cold, sensors and emissions-control components can register faults even when the engine itself remains operational.
Those faults can activate federally required “inducement” systems that automatically reduce engine power — known as derating — or eventually shut the engine down.
In Alaska, such a shutdown can be far more than an inconvenience. It can disable a snowplow, truck, ambulance, piece of construction equipment or other essential machinery in remote areas where winter temperatures routinely fall well below zero.
The Sullivan bill would allow manufacturers of covered diesel vehicles and equipment to suspend emissions-related derating or shutdown functions when temperatures are at or below freezing. It also contemplates year-round exemptions from certain DEF-system requirements for vehicles and equipment operating primarily in exceptionally cold regions.
Supporters, including Alaska Department of Transportation officials, have argued that the existing rules create safety and operational hazards for truckers, farmers, snowplow operators and government fleets working in harsh winter conditions.
Opponents, including Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the committee’s ranking member, and environmental organizations, contend that the EPA has already provided manufacturers with enough flexibility.
But administrative guidance is not a durable substitute for regulations specifically designed to address the realities of operating diesel equipment in Alaska and other cold-weather states.
The committee held a legislative hearing on the bill March 11. Wednesday’s markup advanced the revised version, but the measure has not yet received a vote by the full Senate and must still be scheduled for floor consideration.
Still, the vote marked Sullivan’s second committee success in two days on legislation written around distinctly Alaska concerns: protecting Alaska fisheries from bycatch and ensuring that essential diesel equipment continues operating when temperatures plunge.
5 thoughts on “Sullivan scores second Alaska legislative win in two days as cold-weather diesel bill advances”
Sullivan is a joke. Why isn’t he pounding the table to get the SAVE Act passed? Remember Sullivan supported and voted for Thune as Senate majority winner where he has blocked the conservative agenda from day one. Sullivan is a loser and a scumbag just slightly better then murky.
Dan Sullivan is one of the top two Senators ever elected in the State of Alaska. Certainly, the best Senator since Ted Stevens. Tim Smith is one of those idiots that will cut off his nose to spite his face. I may not agree with Senator Sulivan all the time, but I’m voting for him, as are all truly Conservative Alaskans who love their Country, and do not want to see it destroyed by the freeloading Commie/Demoncats. Tim Smith seems to be enamored with Mary Peltola, and if so, he should vote for her and her benefactors on the east coast; Lying Chuck Schumer, Wormy Cory Booker, the fake Indian Pokahantus etc. And then after he votes for the Schumer Shill; Airhead Mary, Tim needs to slice off his nose.
You are correct that peltola is an imbecile. Is this the political system you want? Electing the lesser of two evils? You need to grow up and grow a pair. Would the Founding Fathers settle for this crap? Trump did a 180 on us. Trump and his enablers (dan sullivan) have sold out to israel in their pathetic attempt to cover up their heinous sex crimes. What is this war with iran getting us? Wasn’t trump going to end the ukraine war in 24 hours? Instead of accountability the baby boomer rinos just want to keep voting for the home team no matter how egregious the betrayal. Just sad.
The democrats just blocked a multi billion dollar weapons transfer to israel. Really sad that the democrats are doing more for this country then the republicans.
Tim: Sometimes it is very much about the lesser of two evils. In this Alaska Senate election its clearly not between two evils – only one; Peltola and her evil American hating handlers. Go ahead and vote for Peltola, or you can choose not to vote at all. I hope you realize that if the Communist/Demoncats take the House and Senate and pack the Supreme Court, as they have promised to do, and add DC and Puerto Rico as States, as they have promised to do, and reopen the borders to another 20 million foreign dirtbags, you and your offspring may never have another chance to vote again………..ever……….Is that what you want? Tim – Go ahead and cut your nose off to spite your face.
I’ll give both Begich and Sullivan credit for the cold-weather diesel bill. Anyone who has run diesel powered vehicles or equipment in extreme cold knows how absurd it is to require DEF or other crippling systems for such weather. Whitehouse and other environmental extremists like him don’t care at all if operators die of cold exposure in the arctic. Their goal is simply to get rid of fossil fuels entirely, as quickly as possible. They literally have no plan beyond that.