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Clean Energy Fuels Corp. said two California environmental agencies awarded grants totaling more than $11 million to further the development of natural gas fueling stations and vehicles.

The U.S. retail diesel average rose 3.7 cents last week to another record, $4.764 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported, while the price of crude oil posted its largest single-day drop in 17 years on July 15.

Behind this year’s surge in trucking company failures, brought on largely by the double-whammy of slow freight and skyrocketing fuel prices, is another ominous trend: a sharp increase in the number of motor carriers asking larger competitors to buy them out.

It has been a year of retrenchment for most, but not all, of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada, as fleets scramble to cope with record fuel prices and weak freight demand.

Prices paid to U.S. producers jumped 1.8% in June, led by surging fuel costs, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

Despite fuel prices zooming toward the outer edge of our galaxy, ours is a nation of crowded highways and busy people who don’t like trucks getting in their way.

American Trucking Associations asked Congress to implement a comprehensive plan to address the soaring price of diesel fuel and ensures an affordable fuel supply for the nation’s 3.5 million truck drivers.