Remember when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Environmental Protection Agency had to decide and make public its decision on whether greenhouse gases should be treated as pollutants that constitute a danger to public health or the environment? Well, the EPA decided in December that greenhouse gases are pollutants, and as such, they must be controlled. Being a member of the executive branch of the U.S. government, the EPA sent its finding to the White House -- which, as reported in the New York Times today, refused to open the email.

I'm not sure there's much left to say about the scientific or policy merits of the White House position. There are some local-versus-federal issues at play here relating to whether the EPA allows states to set their own guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions. But those arise from, if anything, the severity of the climate change risk and the need to act quickly on the federal and international levels.

To my mind, this is more a tale of the wacky world of perceived "executive privilege" (this is the legal term the White House gave in explanation for its behavior) with which the Bush administration has undercut the morale and effectiveness of its own agencies. It's one thing to contest the EPA's decision; it's another to refuse to open its email. That sort of behavior reeks of the "head in the sand" bit that liberals love to trot out on any number of issues that the administration has left to the next president. And, I must say, the White House is doing a remarkable job of living up to the phrase.