The New York Times is reporting that the White House is in the midst of a pissing match with the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A) over the topic of greenhouse gases.  The disagreement is pretty standard Washington fare, and I’m not here to take sides.  But there is a digital element to this story that I find absolutely delicious.  A little background first.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the E.P.A must determine whether greenhouse gases are a pollutant and thus need to be controlled.  Hardly in a position to ignore Scalia, Kennedy and the rest of the Black-Robed Crew, the bureaucrats got to work, prepared their report and, as we do in this digital world, emailed a copy to the White House.  Here’s where it gets good.  The White House, obviously not too keen on whatever it anticipates the report concludes, told the dutiful bureaucrats at the E.P.A it won’t open their email, leaving the court-ordered report in “email limbo” and without “official status,” for the past six months, according to the Times.

It occurs to me: this might be the digital version of slapping your hands over your ears and chanting “La, La, La, La, La. I can’t hear you!”  What would we do without email?  In this case, I suppose the White House butlers would have ignored the persistent knocking of a scruffy bike messenger at the front door.    

Photo Credit: @Jon Randolph, ChicagoReader.com