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The sudden run-up of U.S. retail diesel fuel prices moderated last week, as the average price rose just 0.7 cent to $2.808 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported. Fleet executives, however, said the respite isn’t easing their cost pressures.

WASHINGTON — A cap-and-trade climate bill would dramatically increase the cost of diesel fuel by as much as 88 cents a gallon, an American Trucking Associations official told a Senate committee last week.

U.S. diesel prices continued to surge as the national average rose another 9.6 cents a gallon to $2.801 last week, the highest level in nearly a year, the Department of Energy said.

WASHINGTON — The first vice chairwoman of American Trucking Associations joined a pair of Republican senators to decry the climate legislation being debated in Congress, saying it will amount to a huge tax increase on fuel.

The Port of Long Beach and American Trucking Associations last week reached an out-of-court settlement of ATA’s federal lawsuit challenging portions of the port’s Clean Trucks Plan. The agreement will simplify the registration process for carriers moving containers at the port.

Forward Air Corp. said late Wednesday its third-quarter profit fell to $3.8 million, or 13 cents per share, from $12.1 million, or 42 cents, a year ago.

You can’t watch television these days without hearing some railroad company advertising the “green” benefits of moving freight from the road to rail. The most often heard is the claim by one major railroad that “one ton of freight can be moved 436 miles on one gallon of fuel.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said last week its clean diesel efforts have produced $500 million to $1.4 billion in public health benefits.