In St. Louis Park, Minn., it is city policy to make sure that new and remodeled municipal buildings are built to "green" standards. How green? For two new fire stations, it means high-efficiency boilers, energy-saving windows, lights that switch off when rooms are idle and state-of-the-art handling of storm water. But city officials won't take the ultimate step of seeking LEED certification for its fire stations. They said it costs too much.

"It's like being a Minnesota Star City; it doesn't mean much," St. Louis Park Mayor Jeff Jacobs said. "We've done a lot of the things that LEED certification does, but we don't have to pay the fees." (More at StarTribune.com . . . )