The Freedom Tower

The talk of the town yesterday was naturally about all of the 9/11 tributes and remembrances that occurred everywhere I went. It was both somber and sobering. Waitresses, bus drivers, the counter girls at McDonalds and everybody else almost everybody, every where I went had the Twin Towers and the people who died their on their minds and in their hearts. These weren’t patriot gestures. They were human responses to a very recent tragedy, attacks not seen on our shores since December 7, 1941 when an American community was attacked and we were plunged into World War II.
The governor of New York used the day to announce a set of new energy and environmental measures that will be used in the design and redevelopment of the World Trade Center properties, including the Freedom Tower, the World Trade Center Office Towers2,3 and 4 and the World Trade Center Memorial and Memorial Museum.
The governor said yesterday the buildings will all go up to achieve the “U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” This means the buildings will be 20 percent more efficient than the New York State Energy Conservation Construction Code. Developers also agreed to use fuel cell technology to increase efficiency and to provide clean, on-site electric power. The fuel cells will provide 4.8 mega watts of electric power, the largest fuel cell installation in the world.
The price of progress is always high, in this case, hundreds of stories high.