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The Obama Administration is asking Congress to approve a nearly $10 billion Environmental Protection Agency budget that would shift $20 million in California truck diesel emissions retrofit grant funding to a nationwide diesel emissions reduction program that also includes funding for rail and marine diesel emissions reduction projects.

The U.S. retail diesel average price fell 3.7 cents a gallon to $2.833 last week, the largest one-week decline since July, the Department of Energy reported.

California environmental regulators are considering several options to delay some requirements of the state’s diesel emissions regulation to provide “short-term relief” for truckers feeling the effects of the recession.

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.

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.

Stronger freight demand in the waning days of 2009 is fueling expectations that publicly traded carriers will report better performance when they begin disclosing fourth-quarter results this week, industry analysts said.

The national diesel average declined 0.9 cent to $2.87 last week as pump prices moderated after a sharp spike the prior three weeks, the Department of Energy reported.