SACRAMENTO, CA -- The California Air Resources board voted Wednesday for the creation of a new diesel emissions report following the disclosure that the report's original author lied about his credentials.
After a nearly 10-hour meeting, board members made the decision shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Hien Tran, the statistician who wrote much of the report on the effects of diesel emissions, lied about having a doctorate from UC Davis. Instead, Tran holds a PhD from an online university.
At the meeting, board chairwoman Mary Nichols admitted to knowing about Tran's credentials before the regulations went into effect.
"The fact is this was a mistake on my part," she said. "I should have shared this information with my fellow board members as a matter of course."
However, Nichols said that Tran's academic history shouldn't matter because the report was scientific and true.
Other board members expressed complete disagreement.
"To me, that means the report is not acceptable," said Dr. John Telles. "Basically, this is a report written by a fraudulent person."
"The actions of Mr. Tran, of members of this board and members of this staff have done a disservice and have injured public trust," said Ron Roberts.
Tran was suspended from April until June and was demoted.
Tran's 12-page adverse action notice stated Tran's "dishonesty has opened the door to unnecessary criticism due to the impact the rules and regulations have on a variety of industries." The report's findings have considerable impact in industries like trucking and construction.
Truckers from the port of Oakland led a convoy to Sacramento Wednesday morning, protesting a new law based on Tran's report. Under the new regulation, 40,000 of the state's oldest and dirtiest trucks will be forced to reduce diesel emissions in the next few months.
Another 1 million trucks must comply by 2011.
While trucking companies admit that the weakened economy is leaving many trucks sitting idle, the industry is asking the California Air Resources Board to delay the law.
"It makes no sense to saddle the trucking industry with regulations that absolutely assures the collapse," said Richard Lee of Manley Trucking.
So far, the plea from the trucking industry has not been enough to detour the first phase of the new law. If the state fails to reach air quality standards mandated by the EPA by 2014, it could lose billions of dollars in federal highway funding.
Besides trucks, the board is looking at off-road emissions, mainly construction equipment, another move that will cost companies millions to meet new requirements.
At a Teichert Construction project in Yuba County, 60 pieces of equipment were hard at work Wednesday; equipment that has or will be retrofitted to meet the new requirements.
"We've spent well over $100 million," said Steve Mitchell of Teichert.
"We haven't hit bottom yet," said John Hakel of the California Association of General Contractors. "The state may be in a recession. We are in a depression."
Hakel, along with hundreds of others, came to Wednesday's CARB meeting to voice opposition.
"(Contractors have to spend) millions upon millions," said Hakel. "It's staggering how much they're going to have to do in the compressed time frame to be in compliance."
"Take a step back," said Mitchell. "Look at the implementation schedule for
wine this, and see if we can't do something that more reflects today's economic environment."
阅读(222) | 评论(0) | 转发(0) |
