WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

I realize that there's absolutely no reason to be surprised by this, but somehow I still am.

According to today's New York Times, senior Environmental Protection Agency officials released a statement last week stating that in December The White House "refused to accept the E.P.A.’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". Hello? Are we still in kindergarten here? Most of us learn by the time we reach ages in the double digits that facts we don't like won't go away just because we refuse to hear them.

The NYT's report includes a scathing condemnation of the Bush administration’s failure to support the regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act or other environmental laws. It states that E.P.A. officials have accused the White House of pressuring the agency to water down and eliminate large portions of their original recommendations, which argued for tough regulation of motor vehicle emissions.

Read the full text of the article here, and leave your reactions in the comments below.