91��Ƶ

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.

Two senior House Democratic leaders last week introduced a sweeping greenhouse gas bill that includes a cap-and-trade program and would expand motor carriers’ use of SmartWay technologies.

Rising oil prices and growing distillate demand pushed the U.S. national diesel average 7.3 cents higher to $2.09 last week, the first increase in more than two months, the Department of Energy reported.