The USGBC has been a code and rules enforcement organization for some time now. They are mush less about green, and more about policy, making up rules, following rules, and then revising the rules when the rules don't work out quite right.

The LEED Foundations Documents require that changes to LEED go through a specific vetting process. That did not occur with this latest enhancement. Instead the change is incomplete. The membership is expected to approve the change. The rules will be made up later by an unspecified committee. Only then will the membership find out what they voted on to approve.

Personally, it seems to me, that the USGBC's release of this latest enhancement is that they see another failed public review comment period coming. They evaluated where the highest resistance was coming from and decided MRc4 Option 3 might get them the votes they needed to pass LEED 4.

LEED v4 is all about getting the votes needed, with the previously proposed massive changes remaining in place. What they USGBC management needs to do, is what we did when we developed LEED v2 and v3--which I helped develop. That is, DO NOT impose a large number of changes with major LEED version changes. Limit the changes to something manageable by owners and teams. Table for future development new ideas that need to be carefully thought out. DO NOT write credits that parrot requirements that should be left to local code enforcement groups.