One more thing...

Last week, the Washington DC Economic Partnership awarded the DC City Council an Innovator award for passing Green Building Legislation. A few months back, Mayor Fenty announced a "Green Collar" environment-related workforce development initiative. And this is among the many "Going Green" initiatives trumpeted by the WDCEP.

It isn't green for the DC Government to demolish a usable house, one that would house a family, and as importantly, generate income and property tax revenue for the city.

Think of all the embodied energy lost in the demolition. And the discarded materials in the wastestream.

A green government would evaluate its decisions and act green in every way possible.

So what is the explanation for the demolition of the Jesse Baltimore house in the Palisades?

Also see "Going Green? Easy Doesn't Do It" from the Post. From the article:

The hard facts are these: If we sum up the easy, cost-effective, eco-efficiency measures we should all embrace, the best we get is a slowing of the growth of environmental damage. That's hardly enough: Avoiding the worst risks of climate change, for instance, may require reducing U.S. carbon emissions by 80 percent in the next 30 years while invoking the moral authority such reductions would confer to persuade China, India and other booming nations to embrace similar restraint. Obsessing over recycling and installing a few special light bulbs won't cut it. We need to be looking at fundamental change in our energy, transportation and agricultural systems rather than technological tweaking on the margins, and this means changes and costs that our current and would-be leaders seem afraid to discuss. Which is a pity, since Americans are at their best when they're struggling together, and sometimes with one another, toward difficult goals.