���ϳԹ���

While the air at the Port of Los Angeles is cleaner, the owners of than two-thirds of the 2,200 drayage trucks purchased with $20,000 in port emissions reduction incentive grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required minimum 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.

Congress should include comprehensive funding policies in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill both to modernize freight transportation and reduce diesel emissions, an environmental group said in a new report.

The average price for retail diesel rose for a third straight week, this time by 4.3 cents to $2.904 a gallon, to the highest level since November 2008, the Department of Energy reported.

The Transportation Department announced last week it will drop some materials, including paint and diesel fuel, from the list of substances the agency considers dangerous enough to require hazmat motor carriers to file detailed security plans.

Who is paying the legal costs for the Port of Los Angeles to pursue the “employee only” model? How much taxpayer money is being wasted on a lost cause that has been reviewed and re-reviewed in the courts?

California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District is offering incentive funding of up to $50,000 for the purchase of a diesel truck or up to $100,000 for the purchase of a natural gas truck, in return for scrapping an older Class 8 diesel truck, the agency said.

While U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson indicated last week that her agency was moving forward with plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, opposition to a Senate cap-and-trade bill seemed to be gaining enough momentum to block its passage.

Senate Democrats expect to pass an unemployment benefits bill soon that includes a provision retroactively reinstating a biodiesel tax credit through the end of the year, according to a spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

A proposed 5% biodiesel mandate has died in the Iowa state legislature, the Fort Dodge Messenger reported.