"Unfortunately, dumb growth is alive and well across the country," said Blumenaur.

I wonder if it is practically feasible to go straight to Platinum LEED certification for all new structures.  Not that such functionality isn't to be desired, but I understand that attaining the certification itself does add significantly to the project cost for most buildings.  My brother's a LEED certified architect and many of his public clients opt for the gren functionality without the red tape overhead of the official LEED rating...

Dumb growth pertains more to land use decisions in general (sprawl) and street designs (non-grid, lacking sidewalks, etc.) that typifies the suburban situation where so many new residents tend to land, if only on a transient basis.  

The "environmental sense of place" is important to have in your mind first before planning how to live sustainably in any one area.  With this context it is possible to make location decisions and understand what is special and unique about the area in terms of its environment (the source of life sustaining activity) and quality of life from a human standpoint.

This is about more than highways, or air quality!

Moving toward sustainability with hopefulness, one revolution at a time.

A world without humans trying figure out what is best for the world voicing opinions full of ulterior motives and self interest. What we need is a supercomputer that has the all the complete life-cycle costs for materials and processes that way humans can stop bickering about which is better. Just ask the all knowing Super-Magi and you have your true CO2 and monetary cost and its implications on the economy and the environmental consequences for action or inaction.

But humans are arrogant and stupid as a species. We only learn from our mistakes after we make them. Will we have the luxury of debating whether to LEED or not to lead? What's left of our species in the future will look back on the past and say "our greed brought about this new holocaust" and the guy next to him will so, "no it wasn't me, it was you." I look to the future and wonder if we'll learn anything. I read about new bills going to senate for vote and I realize that half of our government wants to save us and the other half wants to save their wallets at the expense of everyone else. If how we dealt with out past mistakes is any indication for how we'll handle our future mistakes, then maybe the human race has gotten what it deserves. The next 10 years will determine our whether our species can redeem itself.