Worst-of-the-worst in energy efficiency earn LEED's highest rating

LEED apparently stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.  An article in the Washington Examiner notes, "LEED applicants are scored from 0 to 100 based on 110 possible points, a little less than one-fifth of which have to do with energy use."

EXography: Worst-of-the-worst in energy efficiency earn LEED's highest --- and meaningless --- rating | Washington Examiner:

Many of the D.C.'s government buildings are among the least energy-efficient of all comparable buildings nationwide — yet received prestigious LEED certifications, suggesting those awards risk a false sense of environmental achievement.
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Judging by its energy usage, the School Without Walls in the District of Columbia may actually have no walls: It scores a 16 out of 100 on the EnergyStar scale, which ranks buildings by energy efficiency against others of the same type. The score indicates that only 16 percent of schools nationally are worse when it comes to energy efficiency.
That ought to be a wake-up call for the District that it should look for ways to make improvements. But if the city, like many others, has bought into the marketing and hype, there is no need to do anything but rest on its laurels: According to the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program, the school is apparently a green success, boasting a “gold” certification.
Many buildings certified with LEED's highest seals of approval, administered by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, are actually some of the worst-performing buildings in the country in terms of energy efficiency, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of data provided by the District of Columbia on city-owned buildings.

You'll be rewarded if you read the entire article at the Washington Examiner with some interesting interactive graphics.

The analysis confirms similar findings by the Examiner in New York City.

It should be noted that after those NYC findings it was noted energy intensive tenants tended to be in LEED buildings - which makes the interactive graphic in this Washington report particularly useful.

If a government somewhere is mandating government buildings purchase a certification for something, Ontario can't be far off that position.
From Infrastructure Ontario:

To further support the government’s green energy objectives, the government has mandated that the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating "certified" is the minimum standard for new construction and major renovations of government facilities.

I found the Washington Examiner story following @Stevesarden on Twitter