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Aggressive fuel economy research and development funded by the federal government will reduce fuel consumption of long-haul trucks by 30%, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate committee Thursday.

Trucks as heavy as 100,000 pounds are now traveling on all interstate highways in Vermont, thanks to action last month by state legislators and Gov. Jim Douglas (R).

Gasoline’s national average price fell 1.4 cents over the past two weeks to an average $2.72 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.

The Jan. 4 Opinion piece, “Workers’ Comp and Our Aging Workforce,” has to be the most biased article I have ever read.

Usually in Washington, as elsewhere, something has to be broken, or at least underperforming, before some branch of the government moves to repair or replace it. That being the case, you might ask why the Department of Transportation is looking to tinker around with its hours-of-service rule.

When passive radio frequency identification began its rise almost a decade ago, hopes ran high that the new technology, which offers hands-free operation and doesn’t require a direct line of sight, would help to free the shipping industry from labor-intensive bar-code tracking, which often requires handheld devices to read labels and is consequently much prone to human error.

American Trucking Associations said last week it filed a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to force the agency to issue an overdue regulation covering the documents and other materials fleets need to maintain to verify drivers’ logbooks.

Trucking industry officials have filed comments opposing the California Air Resources Board’s plan to initiate a statewide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Backers of the current driver hours-of-service rule far outnumbered opponents in the first of four scheduled public hearings held by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as it reviews the much-contested regulation.

The rate of fatalities in accidents involving trucks fell 12.3% in 2008 from the previous year — the largest year-to-year drop on record — to its lowest level on record, according to an American Trucking Associations analysis of Department of Transportation data.