Suspend diesel regs, then do it right
Let there be no doubt: Soot, of the type produced by diesel engines, is hazardous to the human lung. We are all well advised to drastically limit our exposure.
That said, the California Air Resources Board has so thoroughly botched its efforts to regulate diesel emissions, the time has come to suspend rules aimed at cleaning up the estimated one million heavy-duty diesel trucks operating in California, due to go into effect in January 2011.
The problem is not the science supporting the Statewide Truck and Bus rules; no credible evidence suggests soot is anything but toxic to the respiratory system. The problem is a political fumble born of institutional dishonesty and arrogance so profound it boggles the mind.
California's new regulations, toughest in the nation, have been terminally compromised by revelations that the researcher who crafted a compelling study of diesel's damaging health effects falsified his academic credentials.
Hien Tran, the researcher in question, fabricated his doctoral degree from UC Davis, and at least one CARB board member knew about it, but kept quiet.
Big deal, some might say. Soot causes lung problems and a phonied-up resume doesn't change that.
"There's been an effort in some quarters to say (the agency) cooked the books ..." Dr. John Balmes, a board member and professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I don't think the science changed at all, not one iota."
But as pointed out by CARB board members Ron Roberts, a San Diego County supervisor, and Dr. John Telles, a Fresno physician who originally voted in favor of enacting the rule in December 2008, even the slight odor of impropriety invites a backlash of cynicism toward future clean-air initiatives.
"Failure to reveal this information to the board prior to the vote not only casts doubt on the legitimacy of the truck rule but the legitimacy of the (clean-air agency) itself," Telles told the Union-Tribune.
In an era when the opposing sides of assorted political and social issues wield competing scientific studies like clubs, it's more important than ever for legitimate policy-making bodies to be meticulously forthright and above-board. Critics are watching them, double-checking their numbers and reading their e-mails. There's no room for fraud, even fraud as relatively minor as Tran's might have been.
CARB needs to step away from any research that Tran conducted, compiled or reviewed and start over with a clean slate: Researchers beyond reproach weighing peer-reviewed studies beyond reproach.
Only then should the CARB board be given the opportunity to decide if these regulations, or regs like them, are appropriate. CARB's work is too important for the agency to abide the taint of anything remotely resembling fraud.
