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September 13, 2000 10:18 AM, EDT

Trucking’s largest lobbying group asked President Clinton to release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve on to the market “to protect a strong U.S. economy and the men and women who work hard every day to deliver it.”

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American Trucking Associations President Walter B. McCormick Jr. wrote in a Sept. 5 letter to Clinton that the high price of diesel fuel and other warning signs “point to an increasingly grim situation” in the fall and winter months ahead.

McCormick said analysts agree that inventory levels for crude, diesel, heating oil and natural gas are too low. He warned that spikes in the price of fuel this year might rival those of last year.

McCormick’s appeal to the president had been preceded by other ATA contacts with administration officials. Also, McCormick, Chief Economist Bob Costello and other ATA officials have testified before House and Senate committees on the need to provide the trucking industry with relief from high prices.

For the full story, see the Sept. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. .