Driverless taxis run by artificial intelligence use less fuel than conventional ones, but the wider climate impacts are unclear. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming the global economy. Companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars each year in these technologies. In almost every sector, AI is being used to drive operational efficiencies, manage complexity, provide personalized services and speed up innovation.

On this 54th Anniversary of America's first Earth Day celebration, it is a time to reflect on how we moved from a consensus on the urgent need for environmental protection across the country to woefully underestimating the need for action about climate change.

As the world turns its attention to the environment we share on this Earth Day, the tide of public opinion is turning toward decisive climate action. Statewide carbon-neutral goals, emerging carbon credit markets and incentive programs for renewable energies are quickly becoming the new reality.

April 22 marks the 54th celebration of Earth Day. Unfortunately, there should be much more to celebrate five decades later. 

A federal district court has overturned the Biden administration's climate rule that required states to track and set reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on highways.

In a sweeping judgment late Monday, Judge Benjamin Beaton of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ordered the Federal Highway Administration to stand down on the rules, which the agency finalized in November. The ruling represents a major victory for the State of Kentucky, which challenged the regulations alongside 21 other states.

The Biden administration on Friday announced a regulation designed to turbocharge sales of electric or other zero-emission heavy vehicles, from school buses to cement mixers, as part of its multifront attack on global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency projects the new rule could mean that 25 percent of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest on the road, and 40 percent of medium-size trucks, like box trucks and landscaping vehicles, could be nonpolluting by 2032. Today, fewer than 2 percent of new heavy trucks sold in the United States fit that bill.

The Environmental Protection Agency today announced a final rule the agency said sets stronger standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles beginning in model year 2027. Major trucking organizations reacted, saying the industry has already done plenty to reduce pollution, and the new rules will be expensive, and overly burdensome, especially for small trucking businesses.

The Biden administration finalized long-awaited regulations targeting emissions generated from heavy-duty vehicles, including trucks and buses, the latest salvo in President Biden's sweeping climate agenda.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday its final automobile tailpipe emissions standards allow additional time for the automotive sector to scale up supply chains for electric vehicles and other alternative fuel powertrains in the latter half of the decade than it would have under a previous proposal.

The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized one of the most significant pieces of its ambitious climate agenda: the strongest new tailpipe rules for passenger cars and trucks that will decisively push the US auto market toward electric vehicles and hybrids.

But in a concession to automakers and labor unions, the rules will be phased in more slowly than originally proposed and will give automakers more choices for how to comply.