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The latest group to throw in its veritable two cents on Portland’s plan for the Oregon Sustainability Center is Fox News. The major network today posted , which takes a critical look at the center’s economics. In addition, the network posted , which asks whether green buildings save as much energy as they claim to.

While I agree with the network that the economics of the project are shaky at best, its conclusion that green buildings are a sham when it comes to energy savings is unfair. The blogger cites a study from the Washington Policy Center that compared the energy use of a new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified school and a new school without LEED certification. The study found the non-LEED building used less energy. But buildings that aren’t LEED-certified can certainly still use other practices that reduce their energy consumption. I have reported on LEED buildings delivering less-than-stellar energy performance, but I found that performance relates more to how a building is operated post-construction than the failure of green building techniques.

The blogger also claims that green buildings rely on an abundance of glass for natural lighting and that they lack insulation. Anyone who has seen a knows this is false. And most of the architects I have spoken to say that abundant glass facades are an outdated green building technique. Most new green buildings rely more heavily on high performance building envelopes than glass for day lighting.