The California Air Resources Board Scandal-It Gets Worse

"I'm not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. (Now gimme one of them knives.)"




Nichols (r) with Katzenjammer
"He's not really a scientist, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."



Mary D Nichols "explains" how she kept information from the rest of the board regarding the fraudulent qualifications of Hien Tran. (Hat tip to Kill Carb.com)

In a previous posting, I described how the California Air Resources Board (CARB) relied on a research study by one Hien Tran to pass a drastic regulation requiring that diesel vehicles and trucks have engine overhauls costing thousands of dollars. It turns out that this "researcher" of the CARB had a fraudulent resume including a phony claim of a PHD from UC-Davis. Turns out Tran really has a PHD from a diploma mill in London called Thornhill University-run by an American fugitive on the lam for serial child sex charges. In his study, Tran claimed that his 2008 research documented 3500 deaths in California the previous year from diesel particulate matter in the air. How anyone can document such a claim is beyond me, but the board accepted his findings and passed the regulation in December 2008 based on his "study".

Now we learn that the head of the CARB, Mary D. Nichols, had become aware of Tran's fraudulent resume long before the board voted on the regulation-and never told her fellow board members.

The above video shows Nichols in December of 2009 "explaining" her faux pas-made with "honest intentions".

Following her speech, fellow board member Dr John Telles stated that the findings and study of Tran must be subjected to a full review in order to protect the integrity of the board. He wrote a letter to the CARB legal chief, one Ellen Peters, who responded that there was no violation and thus no reason to suspend the regulation.

(After all, Tran DID stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.)

And guess what? According to the New York Times article below, Nichols was once being considered for head of the EPA under the in-coming Obama administration!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/us/politics/19web-nichols.html

Well why not? After all, she was an EPA honcho during the Clinton administration and was subsequently appointed by our own Governor Katzenjammer to head up CARB. Nichols is a committed environmentalist, yet her husband was a lawyer for Exxon during the Exxon Valdez legal Godzilla. Her financial statement reveals that Nichols and her husband own all kinds of stocks in oil and coal. So go figure!

But the questions beg; why must we be saddled with this ridiculous bit of regulation when the person who did the study is a fraud? Is it because Tran's findings were precisely what the activist Nichols wanted them to be? Why did Nichols not inform her fellow board members of Tran's deceit until months and months later? Was it because she did not want the study discredited?

Why does Mary D. Nichols still have a job? Governor Katzenjammer's desk is up to the ceiling with letters demanding he fire her. Silly me. Why should Nichols lose her job? Even Tran kept his job!!!

Back in the good old days, somebody would be going to jail.