Blog By: Nicholas Marini

On February 2nd, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new directive allowing farmers to repair their own farm equipment.[1] That may sound like something obvious to the average reader, but rest assured, it most certainly was not. For years, the EPA has allowed farm equipment manufacturers to utilize the Clean Air Act to justify limiting farmers’ right to repair the machinery they already owned.[2] This created a de facto monopoly for manufacturers on the repair of farm equipment they already sold, giving them the ability to charge exorbitant prices, an estimated $48 billion in excess of what would usually be charged for these repairs.[3] In 2023, advocacy groups began lobbying the EPA for clarity on whether the Clean Air Act could be used to prevent repairs.[4] Manufacturers used this confusion to restrict access to specialized tools and diagnostic software necessary to repair farm equipment which was otherwise easily available to farmers through their local repair shops.[5]

The Clean Air Act is a comprehensive federal law which gives broad sweeping regulatory power to the government in an effort to promote clean air and programs that support air quality.[6] This broad grant of authority allowed manufacturers to monopolize repairs by having vague emission repair requirements and anti-tampering technology.[7] While this practice was in place, the EPA declined to comment on the actual legality of these practices, resulting in a multitude of lawsuits against major farm manufacturers like John Deere.[8] In 2024, defendants in these cases, like Cade v. United States EPA, sued the regulatory body to compel an advisory opinion revoking the grounds manufacturers claimed their restrictions on the right to repair stemmed from, specifically John Deere.[9] In that case, the U.S. District Court of D.C. dismissed the complaint for lack of standing to sue the EPA, but cited a provision of the Clean Air Act related to enforcing right to repair requirements for road based vehicles like cars.[10] The court in that case deferred action to the EPA by rationalizing that their right to repair protections in place for road-based vehicles, like cars, justified their ability to resolve the same issue for non-road based vehicles, like most farm equipment.[11] This road versus nonroad distinction led to the dismissal of the complaint and put the onus on solving this problem squarely in the hands of the EPA and they had no requirement to follow through.

Notably, John Deere requested clarity from the EPA on this issue back in 2023.[12] According to the Small Business Administration, the effects of these guidelines will save farmers approximately $33,000 in repair costs per repair and another $3,000-$4,000 in time wasted from having to bring their equipment to manufacturers far away.[13] According to the EPA, the interpretation of the Clean Air Act by manufacturers like Deere was wholly inconsistent with the spirit of the law, as the usage of a broad generalized EPA grant of authority to regulate environmental harm caused by improper repair could not be utilized to justify a de facto government enforced monopoly on the repair of equipment and the environmental benefits were minimal at best.[14]

While there is still legislation pending to permanently give access to specialized tools and practices to better repair farm equipment, the guidelines from the EPA are a massive win for farmers’ ability to repair their own equipment.[15] What happens next remains yet to be seen.

[1] Press Release, U.S. Env. Prot. Agency, EPA advances farmers’ right to repair their own equipment, saving repair costs and productivity (Feb. 2, 2026), https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-advances-farmers-right-repair-their-own-equipment-saving-repair-costs-and, [https://perma.cc/KZ69-ELGP].

[2] Nathan Owens, US EPA: Manufacturers cannot use Clean Air Act to limit access to repair tools, software, Waste Dive (Feb. 3, 2026), https://www.wastedive.com/news/us-epa-manufacturers-clean-air-act-limit-repair-tools-software/811240/, [https://perma.cc/D6Z3-VQEE].

[3] Tyne Morgan, EPA backs farmers, affirms right to repair equipment, Farm J. (Feb. 2, 2026), https://www.agweb.com/news/machinery/epa-backs-farmers-affirms-right-repair-equipment, [https://perma.cc/JZ2W-PEZ6].

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] 42 U.S.C. § 7401.

[7] Owens, supra note 2.

[8] Id.

[9] Cade v. United States EPA, Civil Action No. 23-2227 (RC), 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125507 (D.D.C. July 17, 2024).

[10] Id. at *3.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Ryan Harahan, EPA affirms farmers’ right to repair equipment, Univ. Ill. Farm Policy News (Feb. 3, 2026), https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/02/epa-affirms-farmers-right-to-repair-equipment/, [https://perma.cc/NRJ9-D4SU].

[14] Supra note 1.

[15] Id.