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California clean-air regulators propose to force all older highway trucks running within state boundaries to be retrofitted first with diesel particulate filters, costing $8,000 to $20,000 and more, and then with equipment that reduces output of nitrogen oxides, in a complicated, staggered schedule in effect from 2010 through 2022.

High fuel prices are dampening demand for diesel and gasoline, and more Americans will stay home this Fourth of July holiday than last year, a truck stop trade group said Thursday.

Two federal lawmakers joined the head of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut in calling for action to help relieve soaring fuel prices that are driving trucking companies out of business, the Connecticut Post reported Thursday.

The average price of a gallon of retail diesel dipped 0.3 cent last week, to $4.645, making June only the second month so far in 2008 during which the average did not rise, the Department of Energy reported.

Truckers protested high fuel prices in London and in India Wednesday, blocking streets and parking rigs, Bloomberg reported.

Oil closed at a record just short of $141 a barrel on Tuesday, following an International Energy Agency report said supplies may lag behind demand for the next five years, Bloomberg reported.

An executive with Pilot Travel Centers said the number of diesel fuel thefts has soared this year.

Large-scale manufacturing of 550-horsepower, 13-liter diesel truck engines that can run for a million miles is such a complicated endeavor that, since 1990, EPA has given engine makers some short-term wiggle room on hitting emissions targets through its averaging, banking and trading program.