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County ponders green building legislation
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Related Topics: Howard County
Howard County (Map, News) - The Howard County Council is considering green building legislation that has both the carrot and the stick.
But the stick part is less common among jurisdictions around the country adopting green bills.
“Those are still very much in the minority,” said Jason Hartke, manager of state and local advocacy at the U.S. Green Building Council, referring to measures that mandate green construction in private buildings.
The carrot in Howard County Executive Ken Ulman’s green legislation is tax credits for buildings that achieve certain higher levels of certification in nationally accepted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, techniques.
The stick is a requirement that all new public buildings and private buildings of a certain size to be LEED certified on a basic level.
As the council has been parsing through the bills, the issue of mandates versus incentives has been a major piece of the debate.
Most jurisdictions around the country adopting green legislation require it for municipal buildings and include incentives for private buildings, Hartke said.
Montgomery County and Washington, went a step further by passing laws requiring green certification in public and private buildings.
Measures that go beyond requiring green standards in municipal buildings “have kind of been initiated at local level and are community based decisions that really involve stake holders and community,” Hartke said.
Howard County Councilman Greg Fox, R-District 5, a vocal opponent of government mandates, said he is working on changes to make the standards required only for public buildings.
The Howard County Chamber of Commerce has also spoken out against mandates, but supported the legislation with a few changes.
Council Chairman Calvin Ball, D-District 2, said the legislation may be “a mandate that is palatable” if some of the concerns are addressed.
Green building consultant David Pratt, of Lorax Partnerships LLC, called the legislation “very powerful.”
“It demonstrates true leadership,” he said.
smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
2:16 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 27, 2007 re: "Amicus Green Building makes being green easy"
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8:34 AM MST on Tue., Oct. 30, 2007
re: "Fairfax County planners mull how to foster green buildings"
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3:15 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 29, 2007
re: "Fairfax County planners mull how to foster green buildings"
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Would be Amicus Customer said:
Amicus is totally unprofessional and unreliable. For green building products, go to Capital Building supply. I have been trying to buy cotton insulation from Amicus for a while, but they are not open about their prices, and are difficult to reach due to their capricious operating hours (they are a shoddy mom-and-pop operation). They did not even remember to bring their price list to the Green Convention. After they bragged to me about their huge inventory of this product, I went down there, and lo and behold, they have been out of stock for several months. This is their core product, and they don't have it. I browsed their other products, and it is a lot of Chinese made junk and stuff with dubious environmental value (an inflateable rubber balloon to reduce the capacity of your toilet tank?). Plus, there is an annoying dog roaming their warehouse, which is a nusiance to people like me with allergies, and is a poor example of environmental responsibility.
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Man What said:
Regardless of the possible detrimental effects of illegal workers, a healthier environment is a healthier environment. You may as well complain about attempts to improve education, fight violent crime, or prevent government corruption. Not every effort can be spent on chasing people out of the country when there are so many other issues at hand.
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Examiner Reader said:
I can not believe our Fairfax County officials are taking their valuable time to be get involved in fostering green buildings while the illegals aliens in are community are driving up the cost of living for tax paying legal citizens of this county. It's time to get involve in the effort to remove ALL illegal aliens from the county, state and the country.
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