Environmental Bureaucrats continue driving diesel trucks off the road

by CalWatchdog Staff | October 15, 2012 11:09 pm

[1]Oct. 16, 2012

By Warren Duffy

Whether traveling interstates or two lane back roads of our nation, on any given day one can find diesel trucks traveling to stores, warehouses, etc. They are loading and unloading of pallets of food, clothing, plants, auto products, sporting gear and myriad other merchandise for consumer consumption.

Yet, the environmental bureaucrats in both the state of California and the federal government appear bent on proving that truckers operating diesel trucks are villains who must be taken off the streets across America.

It all began in California when “Dr.” Hien Tran, employed by the California Air Resources Board, issued a 2008 report[2] claiming diesel fumes released “particulate matter,” killing 3,500 Californians who had inhaled the tainted air the year prior to his report.

CARB pushed this research, constructing a sheaf of new environmental laws that are choking the state’s diesel truckers, as well as other diesel-powered machinery owners with upgrades mandated in the millions of dollars.

One problem. “Dr.” Tran’s doctorate degree turned out to be a phony[3], thus putting his statistical reporting as more than questionable. Yet CARB continues to back Tran’s findings and keep him on staff as a pollution specialist. Though having removed his title of “doctor,” Tran’s reported earnings in 2011 were $87,492.52.

EPA meddling

Enter the U.S. EPA.  Lisa Jackson, administrator of the federal bureaucracy, appeared before Congress in 2011 testifying[4], “Particulate matter causes premature death. It’s directly causal to dying sooner than you should.” To what extent was the EPA willing to go to prove such statements?

If one heard of human beings paid $12 per hour to breathe concentrated diesel truck exhaust fumes for hours at a time, it would seem absurd.  Isn’t this America, where such things would never be brought before the citizens of our country. But think again.

The experiment referenced above did take place as a research project sponsored by the EPA on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  “That EPA administrator Lisa Jackson permitted this heinous experimentation to occur under her watch shocks the conscience,” said Steven Milloy[5], lawyer and Johns Hopkins-trained biostatistician.

Milloy filed a lawsuit against the EPA in a US District court in Virginia and a complaint against the three scientists with the North Carolina Medical Board. The suit claims that, under the Freedom of Information Act, evidence was collected[6] that showed the EPA paid 41 human guinea pigs to breathe exhaust fumes that were more than 21 times greater than the levels the EPA claims are “permissible.”

When it comes to diesel trucks, environmental bureaucratic boards have a proclivity to “shoot first and aim later.”  Whether it is the EPA using human beings to breathe diesel truck exhaust fumes through a tube or CARB issuing mandatory regulations gained from statistical data of an employee falsifying his qualifications, the end result is always the same.

As the socialist experiment of picking winners and losers continues in this environmental chess game, they will sink to nothing to get this commerce — already subject to so much unreasonable and unnecessary regulations and expense — off the highways and out of work.  While the attacks continue, consumers will experience these costs incurred by the trucking industry passed along through increased prices for food, clothing, gas, construction, etc.

Who really is the villain?

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2012/10/15/environmental-bureaucrats-continue-driving-diesel-trucks-off-the-road/

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