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A federal appeals court has ruled that a legal challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “conflict minerals” reporting rule must first be adjudicated in a civil federal district court.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) signed a transportation budget bill Monday that will boost the state’s current diesel fuel tax by 2 cents beginning July 1, and the gasoline tax by 5.9 cents a gallon, effective Wednesday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has awarded a $743 million contract to raise the deck of the Bayonne Bridge by 64 feet to allow larger ships to pass underneath it, an upgrade that port officials said is critical for the port to remain competitive after a widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2015.

LAS VEGAS — The freight hauling industry will be busy finding ways to comply with 27 new congressionally mandated regulations expected over the next two years, according to Annette Sandberg, former head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

State transportation officials in Utah said Monday they will first conduct an analysis of speed-related crash data before deciding whether to increase the speed limit to 80-mph on three stretches of rural Interstates.

Low-carbon fuel standard legislation being debated in the Oregon legislature would cost truckers more than $7 billion a year in extra fuel costs and eliminate 29,000 jobs, according to the Oregon Trucking Associations.

American Trucking Associations told a task force attempting to revive the issue of climate change that it should consider legislation lowering the national speed limit for all vehicles to 65 mph and increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a longtime critic of the federal pilot program to allow Mexican trucks beyond the border trade zone, has asked the chairman of the House Transportation Committee to conduct an extensive review of the program.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for April 16 in American Trucking Associations’ appeal over what ATA has called “burdensome” requirements the Port of Los Angeles has put on fleets serving the port.

A group of shippers, brokers and small motor carriers told a federal court that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new carrier safety ratings are “confusing, ever-changing, mercurial and capricious in their effects on carriers.”