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California adopted diesel engine regulations for 2005 and 2006, effectively closing an unregulated gap and creating an environmental “law of the land” for truck makers.

Sadly, the secretary of energy in Washington, D.C., doesn’t have a call-in show. If he did, maybe a tough critic could set him straight, because the lack of a national energy strategy is killing us.

California, where the whole emissions thing started, is at it again. And not just for new trucks of the future, but for trucks and buses already on the road. They could eventually get — gasp! — particulate traps, the expensive, heavy and bulky devices first feared in the early 1990s, when exhaust emissions rules seemed impossible to meet.

The differences in the diesel retrofit programs that have been announced in Sacramento, Calif., and Washington, D.C., revolve around money. While the federal government is unable to say how many dollars will actually be available to clean up commercial fleets and municipal transportation, the California government has mandated millions of dollars to help trucking companies retrofit truck engines to meet air-quality standards.

Yossi Sheffi will step down as chief executive officer of Logistics.com and hand the reins over to John Lanigan, a former Schneider National executive.

Layoffs and job eliminations among major truck manufacturers topped 11,900 this year as companies cut back production to try to match costs with falling orders.

In an effort to prevent Nasdaq from following through with plans to delist @Track Communications from the SmallCap Market, the company has requested a hearing with Nasdaq’s Listing Qualifications Panel.

The price of diesel fuel dropped 2.3 cents last week following, but not keeping pace with, a steep slide that took the price of crude oil below $30 a barrel for the first time in four months.

A possible government shutdown was averted when congressional Republicans and the White House met Dec. 7, and agreed “to continue talking” about four appropriation bills, including the Labor Department’s plan to institute its controversial ergonomics rules in 2001.