Apparently, the Bush Administration has adopted a sophisticated new strategy for not dealing with global warming. From The New York Times:
White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail
The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.
The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.'s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.
The sad thing is that it looks like it sort of worked:
This week, more than six months later, the E.P.A. is set to respond to that order by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.
But, that's beside the point. The real dilemma I'm faced with here is deciding whether the White House's tactics are more reminiscent of a passive-aggressive disgruntled employee or a four-year-old. I guess they're a little of both.
Most people outgrow the "I can't see you, so you can't see me" thing by age 18 months or so.........
It is, basically, the ultimate in Denialism.
I'd like to know a bit more though, about who exactly was responsible for this. Presumably some person or persons at the White House actually read the offending e-mail, and made the decision to leave it in limbo, but other than some digs at the Spokesman Fratto, there doesn't seem to be much more information than that....
It is the executively privileged equivalent of "Lalalalalala-I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"