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The Trump administration is proposing to open almost all U.S. coastal waters to oil drilling, including those off California and Florida where activists have fought for decades to spare delicate ecosystems from oil spills.

WASHINGTON — To the Environmental Protection Agency, the trucking industry and clean air advocates, semi-trucks outfitted with glider kits represent a new front in the debate over government regulation. And this week happens to be a key week for deciding how and whether trucks like these can continue to be made and sold.

A panel set up by Missouri lawmakers wants Missouri voters to raise the state’s gasoline tax by a dime per gallon to help maintain one of the nation’s most extensive highway networks.

Trucking firms are revved up for 2018, with predictions of tight capacity and strong demand for freight hauling setting the stage for an anticipated big year ahead for the industry, and indicators pointing to a potentially sustained period of business expansion in the United States and around the globe.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel inched up 0.2 cent to $2.903, as oil climbed over $59 a barrel to the highest level since June 2015 amid forecasts of tighter supplies.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel slipped 0.9 cent to $2.901 a gallon. The cost of trucking's main fuel dropped in all regions, except New England (up 2.4 cents) and the Central Atlantic (unchanged).

2017 was a year of anticipation for the freight transportation industry, leading up to the long-awaited Dec. 18 mandate for broad adoption of electronic logging devices to track hours of service.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello (right) looks back on the 2017 year in trucking, calling it a "transition year" and expecting better things ahead for 2018. His interview with TT's Joe Howard is part of our Dec. 13 LiveOnWeb program, "2017 Year in Review."

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is sticking with its neutral stance on whether to increase federal fuel taxes to finance big-scale transportation projects, infrastructure policy adviser D.J. Gribbin said Dec. 12.