It’s point-counterpoint in today’s argument over the value and success of the LEED green-building rating system. THE USGBC responded to USA Today‘s critique of LEED, which was posted earlier today, with its own statement. In commenting on the article, USGBC president and CEO Rick Fedrizzi pushed back on writer Thomas Frank’s assertion that the rating system “often rewards minor, low-cost steps that have little or no proven environmetnal benefit” by saying that “many of the green building strategies the USA Today article is critical of are the very things that have brought thousands of large commercial real estate buildings, owners, and operators into the green building discussion … The costs of individual LEED credits are irrelevant because the market learns to deliver green buildings at little or no added cost.”

Read the full USGBC statement here.