FUEL SAVINGS: Truckers want to slow down

   WASHINGTON  _ Struggling with record diesel prices, the
trucking industry's main trade group on Thursday introduced a plan
to reduce fuel consumption and emissions over the next decade
mainly by having its members slow down.
    The American Trucking Associations, whose members include FedEx
Corp., UPS Inc. and Con-way Inc., says adherence to a handful of
new proposals will reduce fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons
and carbon dioxide emissions _ the main culprit of climate change _
by 900 million tons for all vehicles over the next 10 years.
    The recommendations are:
    _ Limit the speed new trucks can travel to no more than 68 mph
and reduce the national speed limit to 65 mph for all vehicles.
    _ Reduce engine idling.
    _ Increase fuel efficiency through participation in an
Environmental Protection Agency partnership program.
    _ Ease congestion by improving the nation's highways, through a
fuels tax increase if necessary.
    _ Use more productive truck combinations.
    _ Support national fuel economy standards for trucks.
    Congress repealed the national speed limit law in 1995, and 32
states now have limits of 70 mph or higher on some parts of their
highways, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
But the ATA has yet to find a federal lawmaker to champion its
cause of reducing the national limit.
    ``Our proposals are practical, reasonable, and doable,'' ATA
President and Chief Executive Bill Graves said in a release, adding
that the program continues environmental advances made by the
industry over the last 25 years. ``But there's no doubt that
today's skyrocketing diesel prices give us an added incentive to
roll it out across the industry, and for Congress to provide the
support the program needs.''
    Diesel prices rose about a penny overnight Thursday to match the
record high of just over $4.25 a gallon set last week, according to
AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. The average price a year
ago was about $2.91 a gallon.
    Truck drivers, who haul 70 percent of all freight in the U.S.,
recently protested rising fuel prices at the U.S. Capitol and
elsewhere, and have urged Congress to end large oil company
subsidies and release fuel from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
among other things.
    The ATA has said it now costs more than $1,000 to fill a typical
tractor-trailer, and that the nation's 3.5 million truck drivers
are on pace to spend a record $135 billion on diesel fuel this
year, up $22 billion from 2007.