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BOSTON — Volvo Trucks joined the argument over allowing longer, heavier trucks on U.S. highways, saying Congress should allow them on the interstate system to relieve congestion, increase productivity, conserve fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Details of the Environmental Protection Agency’s record $10.5 billion fiscal 2010 budget proposal — a 37% increase — quickly set off a partisan debate in Congress last week over the agency’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

SAN DIEGO — A “perfect storm” of a weak economy, high fuel prices and governmental missteps have led to a 70% drop in new-truck sales in North America, according to Jim Hebe, senior vice president of North American sales for Navistar.

Lofty goals for the widespread use of clean alternative fuels at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., are running into market realities as drayage operators ignore liquefied natural gas engines and instead buy less-expensive diesel trucks.

The Obama administration last week issued a renewable fuel standard proposal aimed at growing the supply of biofuels and for the first time requiring them to meet emission-reduction targets.

Twenty-seven years ago at a bankruptcy sale, New England Motor Freight bought 22 acres at the Port of New York & New Jersey for just over $1 million.

The average price of retail diesel in the United States slipped another 1.6 cents last week to $2.185 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported, even as crude oil hit a five-month high.

If you have any doubts about the future direction of fuel prices, pay attention to what’s happening today.

BOSTON — Volvo Trucks North America said the United States should adopt a policy of allowing longer, heavier trucks on the nation’s highways as a way to increase driver productivity and to conserve fuel.