By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

In its waning days, the outgoing Bush administration is promoting oil-shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming by passing midnight-hour regulations that would open public lands to oil-shale exploration, leasing and development. In November, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management put these regulations into effect to develop an oil shale program that the bureau says could add 800 billion barrels of oil from land in the Western United States.

In response, earlier this week, 11 environmental groups notified the administration and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of their intent to file federal lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act. The BLM has 60 days to respond. The environmental groups, which include the Sierra Club, the Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity, among others, want the administration to consider the effects that commercial oil-shale development will have on endangered species. [Read more →]

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Plenty of Hollywood celebrities profess their love of the environment and their green lifestyles. That ardor extends to their children’s clothes, but of course just any old socially conscious onesie won’t do. Thus, the rise of ultra-trendy kiddie clothing lines with an environmental bent.

Tiny Revolutionary T-shirts have shown up on the children of Sheryl Crow (with son Wyatt, left), John Travolta, Matt Damon, Courtney Cox and more. The makers say their kiddie T-shirts are “100 percent sweatshop free and earth-friendly” organic. Because a big chunk of the cost of a T goes to organizations such as Africa Aid and Hands to Hearts, these simple shirts can cost as much as Mommy’s Calvin Klein T ($40). And they’re funny, too. Among their cuter offerings are the Ghandi T proclaiming “Be the Change you Want to See in the World,” and the “More Milk, Less War” T-shirt.

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Just like you hunt for that Energy Star tag when examining a fridge or washer, people in California can now duck under the hood of any new 2009 model car to get an at-a-glance emissions rating.

The Environmental Performance sticker, mandated to begin on Jan. 1 for all new model cars, will include two scores, one rating the car’s smog emissions and the other its greenhouse gas output. The air pollutants for the latter include carbon dioxide emissions, which make up the greatest volume of greenhouse gases. Gas engine cars emit nitrous oxides, methane gases, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and other emissions. [Read more →]