In the coming days Congress is expected to enact, for the first time, statutory authority clarifying what deems a person to have undertaken all appropriate inquiry to satisfy a defense to Superfund (CERCLA) liability. A “Transaction Screen” may well satisfy the appropriate inquiry standard. Transaction ...

The last promulgated regulations in Washington State would have required the reporting of 2009 Greenhouse Gas emissions before the end of 2010. The new proposed rule, still in a public comment period through October 14, 2010, mandates reporting start in 2013 for 2012 emissions. At ...

With a portfolio of more than 362 million leasable square feet, the real estate industry took notice when on September 9, 2010, the U.S. General Services Administration, as part of meeting requirements under Executive Order 13514, declared its long-term goal of reaching a “net zero ...

This is a version of my guest blog posting on Shari Shapiro's widely viewed blog on legal issues related to green building, available at www.greenbuildinglawblog.com. Building green is the law in Baltimore City. And while the mandatory requirement for all to build green has been ...

Regional Priority Credits were introduced into the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® 2009 rating standards. A year after their roll-out as a major enhancement of the larger LEED v3 system, Regional Priority Credits (Regional Credits) are little utilized and arguably, little understood. The stated intent ...

On July 8, 2010, the General Services Administration released its Recommendations for Vendor and Contractor Emissions concluding “that it is feasible, if employing the recommended phased approach [beginning in 2011], for the Federal Government to track and reduce its scope 3 supply chain [greenhouse gas] ...

State and local governments across the country are responding to the fact that Americans overwhelmingly want “government to try to reduce future global warming” through green building which “government should encourage with tax breaks” (.. above all other possible solutions). National Science Foundation Poll In ...

A green building costs less than a conventional building. Despite public perception to the contrary, today here is no statistically significant difference in construction cost between LEED® and non LEED building. And the LEED building will have energy cost savings, on average, of more than ...