°®¶¹´«Ã½

DALLAS — America’s rediscovered prowess in oil production is shaking up old notions about the impact of higher crude prices on the U.S. economy.

Kern County, California’s third largest by surface area, has earned an overall C on an infrastructure report card developed by the region’s American Society of Civil Engineers division.

BERLIN — Dozens of European countries are backing a plan to increase the use of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels to cut the continent’s carbon emissions.

BRUSSELS — European Union regulators have opened an in-depth investigation into whether automakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen colluded to limit the development and rollout of car emission control systems.

Electric vehicle charging continues to surge, a move that will only hasten the adoption of electric cars and other vehicles such as commercial trucks. ChargePoint, which manages a network of EV charging locations worldwide, has pledged to build out 2½ million public charging ports by 2025, with roughly half of those in North America and half in Europe.

The California Air Resources Board is awarding two grants topping $90 million to the nation’s two busiest ports — Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, respectively — to develop a Zero Emission and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities project.

The nationwide average price of diesel fuel increased by one penny to $3.268 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Sept. 17.

Diesel fuel still has a large role to play in achieving greater emissions reductions in heavy-duty trucks, experts said during a recent conference in San Francisco. Separately, they urged more in-use testing of engines to verify the gains, and increased use of renewable diesel, which is chemically similar to petroleum diesel, but cleaner.

Add oil tankers breaking down at sea to the list of things shipping companies are worrying about as they brace for a once-in-a-generation overhaul to the kind of fuel the industry must consume.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has set a goal of phasing out electricity produced by fossil fuels by 2045 under legislation signed Sept. 10 by Gov. Jerry Brown.