Government

Ethanol and biodiesel production is expected to surge in the next few years as government officials in Europe and the United States set higher targets for consumption and maintain subsidies for producers, a panel of experts predicted at a forum on biofuel policies and trade organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Paccar Inc., the parent of Kenworth Truck Co., will temporarily shut down production at Kenworth’s Chillicothe, Ohio, plant, the Chillicothe Gazette reported.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved an amendment that would prevent Mexican trucking companies from gaining unrestricted access to U.S. highways until American truckers are afforded the same access in Mexico.

The trucking industry is willing to pay higher fuel taxes as long as the money is spent to improve the highway infrastructure, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With sales of heavy trucks expected to drop sharply from last year, OEMs and suppliers at the Mid-America Trucking Show shifted tactics, emphasizing new features and markets in an effort to keep customers interested.

Garner Transportation Group co-founder and former American Trucking Associations Chairman Vernon Eugene Garner died Tuesday, following a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 69.

An index of leading economic indicators fell last month by the most in more than a year, the New York-based Conference Board reported Thursday.

It seemed like such a simple and logical plan: As the nations of North America removed obstacles to the free flow of goods between them, the barriers impeding the trucks that move those goods also would be torn down.

Just a day after it said it would be sold for $38 a share to a group headed by its chief executive officer, transportation firm EGL Inc. said it had received a competing offer for $40 a share from another investment group.