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Vice President Al Gore plans to issue proposals on Thursday to immediately deal with surging oil prices, a Gore presidential campaign spokesman told reporters, Reuters said.

Diesel fuel prices rose two cents a gallon to a new record again last week against a backdrop of rising economic concern that could finally overcome White House resistance to tapping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The wave of fuel price protests by truckers and their allies that swept across Europe in recent days staggered the economy of several countries, threatened others and posed a direct challenge to government leaders and their tax policies.

Six diesel engine manufacturers have asked the federal government to allow them to install a computer program in model 2003 engines that would shut off pollution control equipment to prevent engine damage under certain driving conditions.

The 14-year-old commercial driver license program is getting a 16-point major tune-up mandated by Congress, with federal regulators now crafting the details of the revisions.

The National Industrial Transportation League has endorsed a code of ethics that, if followed, would have truck drivers spending more time on the road and less time waiting at loading docks.

The White House made it clear to Congress last week that it does not want the transportation appropriations bill to prohibit funding for the hours-of-service rulemaking when the bill lands on President Clinton’s desk.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which represents the men and women who enforce trucking safety on the highway, wants the Department of Transportation’s hours-of-service rulemaking to go forward, but without the mandate for onboard data recorders.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have embarked on a three-year, $18 million project to produce a database of statistics on the causes of truck crashes across the country.

Freightliner Corp. has authorized its dealers to begin inspecting some 45,000 trucks, tractors and buses that are equipped with a potentially defective antilock braking system which has been recalled by Bendix Corp.