The focus of much dialogue and debate in the public eye over climate change and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) tends to focus on industrial emissions of pollution for manufacturing or the production of electricity. Emissions from transportation sources (like trains, planes, and automobiles) and from the heating, cooling, and lighting of buildings themselves are less readily visible, yet each constitutes roughly a third of America's total greenhouse gas emissions. In The Quiet Revolution Revived: Sustainable Design, Land Use Regulation, and the States, Sara Bronin correctly focuses on the importance of facilitating the creation of "green" buildings, and identifies what she sees as significant barriers, at the local level, to the implementation of greener buildings.

While agreeing with Bronin's objectives, we feel that The Quiet Revolution Revived could benefit from consideration or reconsideration of three particular areas: (1) the article's conflation of "green building" regulation and "land use" regulation; (2) transportation energy related to building location; and (3) recent federal, state, and local efforts that are addressing all of these issues in ways consistent with what we see as Bronin's intent. Our intent here is less to critique the article than to provide other information that interested readers should know about reducing GHG emissions related to buildings. In short, we think there are both times when localities will lead states and times when states need to step in to facilitate important policy objectives. In this case, there are other vehicles to achieve greater GHG reductions that do not require even a "quiet revolution" in order to have a tremendous impact.