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U.S. fuel prices continued their steep three-month declines last week, even as the cartel of oil-producing nations announced a record cut in production in an attempt to lift global oil prices in 2009.

The California Air Resources Board has adopted two new rules requiring carriers to add expensive emission-control devices to their trucks and to use fuel-saving equipment endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program.

The world of trucking was turned upside down and shaken like a snow globe during 2008.

Consumer prices fell in November by a record 1.7%, led by steep declines in energy, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued its final rule requiring heavy-truck manufacturers to install onboard diagnostic systems starting in 2010 to alert drivers when engine emission systems are malfunctioning or deteriorating.

The average retail price of U.S. diesel fuel dropped for the 10th consecutive week, the Department of Energy reported, but the gap between diesel and gasoline price reached the widest spread since the agency began publishing diesel prices in 1994.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen the Nobel-prize-winning head of a California research institute and a former New Jersey environmental official to fill his cabinet positions heading the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

California regulators are considering a first-in-the-nation plan that would require almost all privately owned heavy-duty trucks in the state to install particulate filters to reduce soot emissions by 85%, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.