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Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) this week introduced a bill that would replace the diesel and gas tax with a carbon tax, the latest congressional proposal aimed at boosting transportation dollars ahead of the reauthorization of a major highway law this spring.

U.S. retail diesel will average $2.85 per gallon this year, the Department of Energy said, lowering its most recent forecast by 22 cents.

Oil extended losses to trade below $45 a barrel amid speculation that U.S. crude stockpiles will increase, exacerbating a global supply glut that’s driven prices to the lowest in more than 5½ years.

Diesel’s national average pump price declined 8.4 cents to $3.053 a gallon, a four-year low, the Department of Energy reported Jan. 12.

WASHINGTON — Environmental officials from California and the East Coast said during a Transportation Research Board panel here that trucks still require special attention because of diesel emissions, even though such output became much cleaner from 1998 to 2010.

California’s cap-and-trade program extended its reach to diesel fuel and gasoline on Jan. 1, creating no immediate price change but a great deal of concern about the workings over time of a highly complex system.

Diesel prices began the new year the same way they finished 2014, with the U.S. retail average falling 7.6 cents to $3.137 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Jan. 8 he does not think there is sufficient support in his chamber to approve an increase to the federal fuel tax.

The trade deficit narrowed in November as U.S. petroleum imports sank to the lowest level in more than five years.