KMK Law Real Estate Blog

The US Green Building Council recently released its "Top Ten Pieces of Green Building Legislation in the 111th Congress."  Interestingly enough, only one of these pieces of legislation has actually been passed into law, and that is the often discussed American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (see our previous summary of that legislation).

The House of Representatives' American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES, also commonly referred to as "Cap and Trade") likely will never become law.  I "attended" a webinar hosted by LexisNexis last week entitled "Global Climate Change Law:  New Implications for Businesses, Attorneys and Clients."  As discussed there by Bradley Marten, Managing Partner of the Seattle based law firm Marten Law PLLC, the more likely outcome is that the cap and trade model that gets passed by the Senate, if any, will be much more limited than ACES.

The fact that Congress is contemplating so much green building and energy efficiency legislation is a step in the right direction for green building advocates, but this list reminds me that there are still many details to be worked out.