Fuel

The California Air Resources Board has adopted two new rules requiring carriers to add expensive emission-control devices to their trucks and to use fuel-saving equipment endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program.

U.S. fuel prices continued their steep three-month declines last week, even as the cartel of oil-producing nations announced a record cut in production in an attempt to lift global oil prices in 2009.

Diesel engine maker Cummins Inc.’s emissions subsidiary will lay off about 100 workers at a Wisconsin plant, effective immediately, because of the slumping North American truck market, the company said.

Consumer prices fell in November by a record 1.7%, led by steep declines in energy, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued its final rule requiring heavy-truck manufacturers to install onboard diagnostic systems starting in 2010 to alert drivers when engine emission systems are malfunctioning or deteriorating.

President-elect Barack Obama reportedly has settled on an experienced team to lead in environmental and energy policy areas, including two women reasonably well-known in trucking circles.

Truck manufacturers and truck-stop chains said their customers would find adequate supplies of urea around the nation when new heavy-duty diesel engines that utilize selective catalytic conversion hit the road in 2010 models.

The average retail price of U.S. diesel fuel dropped for the 10th consecutive week, the Department of Energy reported, but the gap between diesel and gasoline price reached the widest spread since the agency began publishing diesel prices in 1994.