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Transport Topics Online will be closed Friday and Monday for the Christmas holiday. Please check back on Tuesday, Dec. 28, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

After several years of anticipation throughout the trucking industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration finally in October released their joint proposed rule to regulate greenhouse gases for the commercial transportation sector.

Safety and compliance issues were in the spotlight for the trucking industry in 2010, and technology providers subsequently sharpened their focus on products and services aimed at helping fleets cope with increased government scrutiny.

The year began with hopes the Obama administration and Congress could end their stalemate over the highway bill. But like 2009, this year is expected to end without a new long-term reauthorization agreement.

The speed limit for cars and trucks on the Ohio Turnpike will go from 65 to 70 miles an hour starting April 1, a change that the state’s trucking industry opposes.

Automakers and engine manufacturers are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its plan to allow fuel stations to sell gasoline with 15% ethanol, the Associated Press reported.

An index of leading economic indicators by the most in eight months, the New York-based Conference Board said Friday.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration opened its CSA safety-monitoring system to public view for the first time last week, after a federal court rejected a lawsuit seeking to keep the system closed.

The National Industrial Transportation League expressed “profound disappointment” over an investigation by the Federal Maritime Commission into numerous U.S. importer and exporter complaints of “perceived malpractices” by ocean carriers that caused supply-chain service disruptions and rate and surcharge increases from in 2009 and 2010.

Trucking companies finally gained some traction in 2010 as the economy stabilized and demand for freight hauling increased.