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Canadian heavy crude has become so cheap that the cost of shipping it to refineries exceeds the value of the oil itself, a situation that may result in even more oil-sands producers shutting operations.

The U.S. oil market is displaying worries that stockpiles are going to run out of storage space, with futures being whipsawed as a growing glut counters economic stimulus measures.

The rapid plunge in oil prices could cut into sales of both tractors and liquid tank trailers as well as the trucks that haul fossil fuel extraction equipment, experts said.

Concerned over potential fuel shortages, American Trucking Associations and several other fuel marketing associations have sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a waiver of summer gasoline sale requirements.

A shipping company was ordered to pay a $1.65 million fine and given four years’ probation after one of its vessels was caught dumping oil bilge water into the Pacific Ocean, a short distance from the Golden Gate Bridge.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel fell 7.4 cents to $2.659 per gallon, the Department of Energy reported March 23 as oil prices went lower.

Economists are warning that the sudden halt of business activity in the United States caused by the COVID-19 virus will take a serious toll on the economy in the months ahead, and may send the country into a recession.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have teamed up to institute restrictions on social gathering places. Trucking Association of New York President Kendra Hems said it still is too early to tell what the restrictions’ impacts on the industry will be.

The nationwide average price of diesel fuel declined by 8 cents per gallon March 16, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.