EA PREREQUISITE: MINIMUM ENERGY PERFORMANCE - ASHRAE 2010 is a necessary move for LEED 2012. I like the reduced options. Very simple and straight forward.
EA Pre: Fundamental Refrigerant Management - Do we really need this still?
EA CREDIT: OPTIMIZE ENERGY PERFORMANCE: Seems like a logical increase, it is good that the increments were backed off. They were too aggressive for this next step. The extended options for Option 2 depending on size are also an improvement over the last version.
EA CREDIT: DEMAND RESPONSE: This is a great new credit. The old LEED did not have an avenue at tackling peak demand. This is perfect.
RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION: I like the 1% minimum threshold for Renewables, and as many thresholds as you can get. It seems that this should be something that most projects should seek to engage in and those that do should be rewarded because these are expensive points and important for the green economy.
EA CREDIT: ENHANCED REFRIGERANT MANAGEMENT: Essentially the same as before. No comment.
EA CREDIT: GREEN POWER AND CARBON OFFSETS: I like the move to 50% and 100%, make much more sense than 35% and 70%. What I hate is having these tied to the Energy Model. The energy model is always changing during the 4 reviews so you have to buy the green power at the very end when the owner doesn't want to spend it and you have to have this conversation 15 times. It was great the way CI did it… 32 kw x the square footage got you 16 kw per year for 2 years for 100% of the project and you got the credit and the ID point and you were done! There should be a way to make this THAT simple for every project. Bascially, the USGBC should publish the CBECS list in the reference guide, you pick your project type, do the math and you can get these points the day you finalize the floor plan.