The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday awarded the highest Energy Star ratings in the country last year to Los Angeles for its "green" buildings.

Los Angeles commercial property landlords are going green on a bigger scale than their counterparts in other cities, the EPA said.

The EPA said 262 buildings in Los Angeles earned the agency's coveted designation. Buildings which won the Energy Star award must use at least 35 percent less energy than average buildings and emit 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

San Francisco came in second in the country, to be followed by Houston, Washington D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle.

The sheer size of Los Angeles suggests it would have the most buildings going green, but size wasn't the only factor, EPA spokeswoman Maura Beard said.

"California often leads the country in being progressive in looking at the environment and looking at what they can do," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2009)