VINDICATED: Researcher punished for exposing climate fraud beats UCLA

The College Fix ^ | March 12, 2015 | Matt Lamb

[VRW Conspirator]

School says it’s purely a financial decision – trial ain’t cheap

Scientific research at universities is supposed to involve inquiry into established theories and hypotheses.

That is, unless they question environmental regulations.

One UCLA science researcher, a 34-year veteran of the school, found himself out of a job in 2011 after examining the data underlying diesel regulations proposed by a California regulator and exposing the shoddy credentials of a lead author of that regulator’s report.

James Enstrom secured victory in a two-and-a-half year legal battle against UCLA last week when the school agreed to settle the case.

The school is paying the “diesel particulate matter” expert $140,000, reinstating his title as “Retired Researcher,” and restoring his access to UCLA resources, “effectively” rescinding his termination, according to the American Center for Law & Justice, which represented Enstrom.

Enstrom had challenged the validity of a California Air Resources Board study on diesel particulate matter and mortality in the state and the regulations that followed. He denounced the research as a faulty reading of data.

UCLA retaliated against Enstrom after he “became an aggressive and lone critic at UCLA of air pollution research,” escalating in 2008 after he testified in California Senate hearings, according to a lawsuit filed by the center in 2012.

It accused the school of initiating “a series of actions designed to silence and ultimately terminate Dr. Enstrom.”

jamesenstrom.DailyBruinEnstrom exposed fraudulent behavior in the studies on which the board relied, including that of the lead author of a 2008 report. Hien Tran “admitted he purchased” a magna cum laude Ph.D. for $1,000 from a “diploma mill associated with a fugitive pedophile,” according to CalWatchdog.

It’s “the standard MO” of the regulatory board to use “unverified studies to gin up regulations” in the state, according to Lois Henry, a Bakersfield Californian columnist who covers California politics, in a column last month.

After blowing the whistle, Enstrom found his position’s funding cut, as detailed in a 2010 letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to then-Chancellor Gene Block.

“Every day that the case continues is a deeper violation of academic freedom and freedom of speech and a more thorough chilling of faculty speech at UCLA,” FIRE said. The availability of an appeals and grievance process “does not absolve you or UCLA of the moral and legal responsibility to immediately reverse the decision not to rehire Enstrom.”

An April 2011 letter from the Academic Freedom Committee of the Academic Senate also sided with Enstrom, calling the school’s failure to reappoint him “a violation of academic freedom.”

In an email to The College Fix, Enstrom pointed to the importance of the Secret Science Reform Act, currently under consideration in Congress, which would require public disclosure of “materials, data and associated protocols” as well as “computer codes and models,” so that results can be understood and research replicated.

Speaking about the settlement, UCLA told The Daily Bruin that it did not target Enstrom for his political beliefs.

It said that “Enstrom’s presence as a researcher for decades, despite his minority positions defending diesel emissions and tobacco, demonstrates” that UCLA promotes academic diversity.

A spokesman told The Fix that UCLA settled the case because it would cost “far less than the legal costs of a trial.” Enstrom’s settlement includes “some other incidental campus services, such as eligibility for parking and email, associated with his retiree status.”

College Fix reporter Matt Lamb is a student at Loyola University-Chicago.

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IMAGE: alobos Life/Flickr

[VRW Conspirator]

Comments?

[A CA Guy]

Just remembering the old emails about falsifying climate data that was leaked a couple of years ago.
How does anything they say about man made anything hold and validity?

[gaijin]

CARB enviro-kook BOUGHT his PhD, he's paid $100,000 yearly to peddle his unsupported bilge.

[Triple]

The left gets the knives out for anyone that tries to spoil their party.

[A CA Guy]

Just keep bringing up the emails where they are talking of falsifying all the research.
Remind people of their BS for the government dollars.

A lot of these research creeps are on the government research dole.

[Excellence]

So the diesel regs will be reversed?

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

” a “diploma mill associated with a fugitive pedophile...”

cue George Costanza: “Was that wrong?”

[Raycpa]

So anybody else that they fire is guaranteed 140k?

[A CA Guy]

104k is not a lot for where this researcher was.
He still lost a ton of dough had they not cut his position.

[abclily]

OK!! Everybody pay attention!

Lesson for today:

1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.

2. The sun is a ball of fire that controls the climates of all its planets.

3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.

4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.

5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.

Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?

[Triple]

I think they are traitors to Science for politics and money.

[Raycpa]

It is still high price to have public to let other disgruntled employees know what you’re willing to settle for. At a minimum they should have required a confidential settlement.

It sounds more like they knew they were losing and wanted to settle.

[publius911]

The school is paying the “diesel particulate matter” expert $140,000, reinstating his title as “Retired Researcher,” and restoring his access to UCLA resources, “effectively” rescinding his termination, according to the American Center for Law & Justice, which represented Enstrom.

I find the "settlement" inadequate. Settlements in NYC to incompetent teachers who are warehoused, do not teach, remain on the "educational" payroll far exceeds that.
Also there is no punitive damages for an outright fraud. The California State regulations based on that fraud still exist! What kind of a settlement is that?

I understand the limitations of the expenses that the American Center for Law & Justice was willing or able to underwrite but, for example, had I known about this lawsuit, I (and a few hundred thousand normal outraged citizens) would have happily contributed a modest amount monthly to send a clear message to educational Institutions which participate in out and out fraud.

There is no mention of back pay for the last 4 years, either.

[17th Miss Regt]

Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?

By passing laws. (I like easy study questions.)

[A CA Guy]

For prestige, power, politics and money advantage for sure.

[A CA Guy]

They didn't want the press.

These colleges like USC and UCLA get donations in the many billions a year, so this 140k a year is nothing and the alumni I assure you have lots of free lawyers at the top of their field ready to do what ever the college needs for close to free.

[Gasshog]

California, you are screwed.

[OldNavyVet]

As I've written recently ...

My working years, after my Navy days, had me doing considerable aerospace failure analysis work.

Along the way, I went to night school to learn various technologies, one of which being refrigeration.

Later, some jerk at UC Irvine got a Nobel Prize for claiming that refrigerant R-12, upon release into the atmosphere, went UP to eventually destroy the ozone layer.

One fact about R-12 is ... upon release, it's heavier than air and drops like a rock.

The refrigeration teacher happened to be a shipyard worker, and he revealed to us the critical fact that released R-12 could fill up a ship's hull ... push out the air ... and kill humans that go into an R-12 contaminated hull.

I retired from Aerospace as a senior engineer.

True story.

Pass it along.

[stboz]

So the diesel regs will be reversed?

Not a snowball's chance in hell. Too many brain-dead Californians who believe the claptrap diesel rules or just don't feel enough pain to care.

[windcliff]

George Costanza—Marine Biologist.