Green Buildings Bloom in 2008

Call it the 'Al Gore Factor' or the 'George Bush Effect', but there are several reasons behind the renewed interest in the energy-efficient, low-impact buildings -- ranging from dramatic footage of melting icecaps to rising oil and gas prices, to the United States' dependency on energy sources from unstable regions of the world. There is now little disagreement that the U.S. needs to curb its appetite for fossil fuels in the years to come.