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BOSTON — Volvo Trucks joined the argument over allowing longer, heavier trucks on U.S. highways, saying Congress should allow them on the interstate system to relieve congestion, increase productivity, conserve fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Details of the Environmental Protection Agency’s record $10.5 billion fiscal 2010 budget proposal — a 37% increase — quickly set off a partisan debate in Congress last week over the agency’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

SAN DIEGO — A “perfect storm” of a weak economy, high fuel prices and governmental missteps have led to a 70% drop in new-truck sales in North America, according to Jim Hebe, senior vice president of North American sales for Navistar.

The Obama administration last week issued a renewable fuel standard proposal aimed at growing the supply of biofuels and for the first time requiring them to meet emission-reduction targets.

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.

A federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking many of the provisions in the clean trucks plans of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, including the controversial ban on independent drayage owner-operators at Los Angeles.

Oil closed the trading day Wednesday near $51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following an Energy Department report that showed gasoline inventories declined last week, Bloomberg reported.

The California Air Resources Board has adopted a low-carbon fuel regulation that targets cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s transportation fuels by 10% by the year 2020.

The California Air Resources Board said it is now enforcing the identification and reporting requirements for California-based transport refrigeration units on trucks, trailers, shipping containers and rail cars assigned to terminals in the state.

Most Transport Topics readers have experienced the current downturn firsthand — dwindling freight demand, fluctuating fuel prices, clean-engine mandates and downward-spiraling leading indicators.