The White House has refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, and has told EPA officials that the email they sent containing the document of their findings would not be opened, reports The New York Times. Apparently the email in question has been hanging in limbo since December 2007, according to EPA officials.

The document details the EPA's proposed response to the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and the environment, and the EPA has a responsibility to regulate them. Apparently, the White House has decided if they don't open the email, they don't have to abide by the suggestions of experts.

According to those who have accessed early drafts of the EPA's endangerment findings, the original conclusion was that the country could raise automobile fuel efficiency standards to 37.7 miles per gallon by 2018 without significant economic hardship. EPA officials, speaking under the condition of anonymity to the Times, said that over the past week the White House has put pressure on the agency to eliminate large sections of their analysis that support stronger regulation, including their finding that regulation of automobile emissions could actually produce $500 billion to $2 trillion in economic benefits over the next 32 years.

The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on regulating auto emissions is expected as early as today. As we've reported previously, documents that Congress has secured related to the case suggest that the White House intends to undermine the EPA's recommendations in the ANPR. EPA officials say that the ANPR out of the White House will be a watered-down version of their recommendations that looks at the legal and economic concerns related to declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant.