National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $4.761; Month Ago: $4.204; Year Ago: $3.042. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $5.581; Month Ago: $5.370; Year Ago: $3.186.

Oil edged higher on Wednesday, nearing three-year highs reached the previous day, as rising U.S. fuel inventories and production weighed on an otherwise bullish market. Weekly data on Tuesday that showed a rise in U.S. crude inventories also subdued the oil price somewhat. The prospect of fresh sanctions on Tehran and disruption to the country’s oil flows has helped push the oil price to its highest since late 2014 this month.

The trucking industry applauded the Senate’s passage of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) of 2023, which would reauthorize the DERA program through fiscal year 2029 at $100 million annually. The bill will now be considered by the House of Representatives. DERA provides federal grants and rebates to help finance the voluntary replacement or retrofits of heavy-duty diesel vehicles and engines. By helping to upgrade tens of thousands of vehicles over nearly two decades, DERA is responsible for saving more than 520 million gallons of fuel. Replacing older vehicles is critical to protecting the environment because advancements in clean diesel engine technology have resulted in substantially lower emissions. In fact, it would take 60 of today’s trucks to emit what just one truck did in 1988. A newly manufactured truck produces half the CO2 emissions of one manufactured in 2010.