You Win Some, You Newsom

San Francisco mayor proposes strict green-building standards

Posted at 5:14 PM on 13 Dec 2007

San Francisco would have the most stringent green-building standards in the U.S. if the city Board of Supervisors adopts a new measure proposed yesterday by Mayor Gavin Newsom. By 2012, Newsom wants all new residential buildings over 75 feet tall, commercial buildings of more than 5,000 square feet, and renovations on buildings of more than 25,000 square feet to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. City government buildings are already required to meet the council's internationally recognized LEED standards. Newsom proposed a carbon tax last week, and he's not done yet; he promises, "We're going to be making a lot more announcements about reorganization around this priority [of greening] in the new term as well."

sources: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, The Examiner, San Francisco Sentinel, NPR
see also, in Grist: 15 Green Cities

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Comments: (1 comment)

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when will LA get it together?

This is so great! I can't help but notice that while Villaraigosa and Schwarzennegger are out lecturing others at international "green" conferences about their half-hearted (and half-assed) teensy pointless programs, Gavin Newsom is hard at work in his own city, actually making a difference.

LADWP is the most mercenary, rapacious and UN-GREEN utility this side of West Virginia. Their idea of "green" is not building codes, steeply tiered utility bills, incentives for conservation and local "green" generation of power, but rather total annihilation of hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness to build "green" power plants and lines.

I realize that the crack culture is still alive and well in LA, I guess I just hoped that the Mayor was not part of it. LA, here is your chance to one-up your main rival, and finally, finally, get with the program. Will you?

the greenest energy is that which you needn't ever produce.

by stopgreenpath at 10:19 AM on 14 Dec 2007

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