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The average retail price of diesel fuel remained relatively stable for a second week, dropping 1.8 cents to $2.296, the U.S. Department of Energy reported.

Forward Air Corp. lowered its fourth-quarter earnings guidance, citing “severely worsening economic conditions” in the second half of the quarter.

Cummins Inc. unit Cummins Emission Solutions said it will partner with a technology company for 2010 engine controls and that it will close a Wisconsin plant.

A top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said last week that the agency has “absolutely no intention” of granting the request by truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. for a two-year delay in implementing 2010 federal diesel emission standards for new heavy trucks.

The average price of U.S. retail diesel fuel rose last week for the first time in more than three months, inching up 2.3 cents a gallon to $2.314, the Department of Energy reported.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate Lisa Jackson said she was “open to discussion” of a carbon tax to limit greenhouse gas emissions and would immediately begin a review of the Bush administration’s denial of California’s request to regulate those emissions from automobiles.

The Bloomington, Minn., School District closed all of its schools Thursday because biodiesel fuel gelled and clogged in the district's buses, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune reported.

Consumer prices fell 0.7% in December led by declining energy costs and slowing the declines of previous months, the Labor Department said Friday.