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Green energy waste: LEED’s a loser

Home - by - October 29, 2012 - 13:30 America/New_York - 14 Comments

Marathon Pundit

Last week USA Today ran a series on green energy. There was a lot of wading through the reeds in the paper’s thorough investigation. One reed was LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building certification program that has been adopted by 13 federal agencies and most of the states.

Has LEED made a difference in saving energy? No. But it has been a boon for consultants and self-anointed green experts.

From USA Today:

LEED’s growth has been driven partly by the building council itself, a 13,000-member non-profit chiefly run by architects, builders and building suppliers. Many specialize in — and profit from — the type of design the council certifies and promotes. The council collects up to $35,000 in fees for each LEED certification.

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The most popular LEED option — earned in 99.7% of the buildings — has no direct environmental benefit but generates millions of dollars for the building council by giving one point if a design team has a LEED expert. People become experts by passing a LEED course and paying $550 to $800 to a non-profit that the building council created in 2007.

The building council gets 5% of those fees — $3.3 million from 2008 through 2010, council tax records show. The council rewards the inclusion of LEED experts to encourage building designers to learn about LEED.

More than 90% of the buildings got points for using indoor paints, adhesives and flooring that aim to protect occupants’ health by emitting fewer contaminants. Widely used, the materials add little cost or effort and have no impact outside the building.

What else? Well, 26 percent of the LEED buildings are federally-owned–so you are paying for this largess and transfer of wealth to the hardly-impoverished consulting class.

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» 14 Comments

  1. Buffalobob

    October 29th, 2012

    Is this another algore carbon credit type scam?

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  2. Stirrin the B.S.

    October 29th, 2012

    The fuggin green movement is nothing but a fake, phony profiteering scam. And if you examine who the majority of beneficiaries are – I’ll bet you can’t guess….they’re…..democraps! That’s right, shock of all shocks.

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  3. 4inchtoenails

    October 29th, 2012

    I am a LEED accredited professional and a consulting engineer – and it is my professional (and anonymous) opinion that it is complete and total BS. It doesnt make me or my firm a penny extra. The countless hours of documentation and bureaucratic crap you have to go through to get anything certified eats up any profit that is to be made. It costs building owners (taxpayers for public buildings) TONS of money. Beware!!! It is being adopted as CODE in many states/cities as we speak.

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  4. pissedpatriot30

    October 29th, 2012

    Wait, wait, wait…. but the lights in the bathrooms turn off AUTOMATICALLY if no one is in there…. C’mon. Think about the kids…

    How many light bulbs NOT running will it take to recoup

    $16,000,000,000,000,000.00 in savings? (I think that’s enough zeros??)

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  5. jwm

    October 29th, 2012

    It creates nothing.
    It improves nothing.
    It costs a fortune for a nod of approval without which nothing gets built.
    Sounds like green energy.

    JWM

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  6. dba_vagabond_trader

    October 29th, 2012

    A vast corporate crony scheme that makes the little people feel good. Because in the end its all about the emotional connection with librals.

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  7. beachmom

    October 29th, 2012

    My husband has been in the construction/contracting business for about 30 yrs. He works for one of the world’s largest engineering firms and they love this crap. He says it is probably the biggest hoax ever pulled on the construction industry.
    But many of those who are LEED certified where he works don’t want to admit they were taken in.

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  8. Stirrin the B.S.

    October 29th, 2012

    @JWM – you forgot one other criteria to green energy:

    Without federal subsidies there would be no green industry.

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  9. Jethro

    October 29th, 2012

    The company I work for manufactures consumer and industrial products. All of our new designs must meet “sustainability” goals as designated by Kalifornia and other states. Things like “smart” power supplies that switch to “sleep” mode when the product is not in service.
    I asked my boss (VP of R&D)what sustainability meant. He spouted off the typical mumbo jumbo you would think was attached to environmental regulations. I then asked him if he had ever heard of UN Agenda 21 and Maurice Strong. He hadn’t. I told him to look it up.
    I’m surprised I am still employed…

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  10. 4inchtoenails

    October 29th, 2012

    Beachmom – I hear ya! I was (forcibly) taken in. You have to be to survive in this industry!

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  11. beachmom

    October 29th, 2012

    @4inchtoenails, my hubby never got certified. He refuses. He’s a cost estimator so he can avoid it.

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  12. 4inchtoenails

    October 29th, 2012

    @beach – I’m a mech eng. Tell him to watch out for ASHRAE 189. It’s LEED with authority – now mandatory for most govt work… Florida is adopting it… When it becomes law you can say goodbye to small businesses… I hate it.

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  13. hit a nerve, boy

    October 29th, 2012

    i KNEW that shit was BULL shit from the very beginning

    it’s a scamnation- and hey what about this

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    *** stack ‘em and pack ‘em for Agenda 21 ***

    how green is my greensburg… ever see the CRAP they threw at greensburg kanass… they got two-storey houses with HALF a GEOdome attached to it – it’s more efficint except that it SUX to look at it

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  14. Sumdumguy

    October 29th, 2012

    We have a LEED building at work- the carpet is made from recycled horse crap ( at least it smells and looks like it.) it has sticks embedded in the room number signs(!) so you know it is green. It has waterless urinals so the plumbers are there almost every day. What a frickin scam.

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