San Francisco moved a step closer Wednesday to imposing the country's most stringent green building codes, regulations that would require new large commercial buildings and residential high-rises to contain such environmentally friendly features as solar power, nontoxic paints and plumbing fixtures that decrease water usage. City officials estimate that by 2012, the new green building codes could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tons and save 220,000 megawatt hours of power and 100 million gallons of drinking water. (San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday)
A clear case of the broken window fallacy.
FEE Timely Classic
Environmentalism as Though People and Facts Really Mattered by Christopher Lingle