There’s been a lot of attention given to the “Climate-gate” odyssey that began when a British university server was hacked and emails stolen from a climate research unit. As bloggers continue to unearth the truth about this, the right-wing has not stopped using the stolen emails to bolster their stunning claim that somehow, the mountain of evidence for global climate change is somehow the product of lies. It’s typical wingnuttery: when you encounter a truth that undermines your arguments, claim it’s not a truth at all.

Unfortunately, this nonsense has arrived in California. As the Fresno Bee reports, some members of the California Air Resources Board want to suspend controversial truck emissions rules because one of the authors of the report lied about his academic credentials:

California Air Resources Board member Dr. John Telles of Fresno voted for the landmark regulations a year ago. But months later he found out that the lead author of a report on health effects of soot falsely claimed to have a doctorate in statistics from University of California at Davis. Hien Tran later confessed that he obtained an online degree from Thornhill University, state documents say.

“Failure to reveal this information to the board prior to the vote not only casts a doubt upon the legitimacy of the truck rule but also upon the legitimacy of [the California Air Resources Board] itself,” Telles wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to Ellen Peter, the board’s chief counsel.

In an e-mail to Telles, board chairwoman Mary Nichols said she was aware before the vote that Tran had misrepresented his credentials. She downplayed his role — noting his work was reviewed by others — but said “it was a mistake not to have informed you and the rest of the board about this issue.”

Peter also responded to Telles, telling him in a letter that the board met procedural requirements and the “legitimacy of the truck rule is not undercut.”

Telles is now joined by another CARB member, Republican San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts. But Telles and Roberts’ claims are simply nonsensical and absurd. The fact is that it doesn’t matter what Tran’s academic credentials are, or whether he was honest about them. The only thing that matters is the science.

Since neither Telles nor Roberts have been able to point to any specific flaws in the report itself, there is absolutely no reason CARB should suspend the truck rule. Instead Telles and Roberts are engaging in the same distortions that the “Climate-gate” promoters are, which is to argue that one misstatement somewhere invalidates the entire argument for regulatory action on climate change.

We are entering truly dangerous waters when climate change deniers are engaging in such deeply misleading tactics as these. Intellectual honesty means little to them; they’ll do anything to block the implementation of AB 32 and other similar measures.

The Fresno Bee reports Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing CARB and the truck rule, which is one of the few welcome and rational things this governor has done. Let’s hope he and Mary Nichols continue to stare down the deniers and ensure the truck rule is implemented as planned.