Misleading article headline and misleading thread title. He is not being forced to crush the truck, he is choosing that over the other options despite the State willing to give him time extensions for the work needed.
I do understand your intent to have a discussion, no complaints there whatsoever.
He is either lazy and/or he does not want to spend the ~10K to get it compliant. If he thought he could get a few grand out of the truck after putting the equipment in and selling it, he would be doing it. He probably cannot sell it out of state at this stage. Crushing it is a better story though, for social media.