Mid-Year Review of Congress’ Progress on Pro-Trucking Policies

Futures in New York fell as much as 1.1 percent, after losing 3.6 percent in the previous two sessions. U.S. crude stockpiles last week rose to the highest level since December, while gasoline reserves expanded at four times the predicted rate. Meanwhile, data for November showed the shale boom drove U.S. output to a record. U.S. stockpiles of oil stored in tanks and terminals rose by 3.02 million barrels to about 423 million, the fourth increase in five weeks, according to the Energy Information Administration. That compares with a median estimate for a 3 million-barrel gain in a Bloomberg survey. Gasoline inventories expanded by 2.48 million barrels, more than the 600,000-barrel average estimate. Click Read More below for additional information.

Crude gains have been buoyed by a dispute in Libya over oil-marketing rights that is hindering the North African nation’s export capacity. In Libya, the supply of up to 780,000 barrels of crude a day is at risk, according to analysts at Commerzbank. Separately, the energy market has been reacting to threats from the Trump administration this week, who indicated that the White House would look to sanction countries that don’t reduce their imports of Iranian crude to “zero” by Nov. 4. Iran currently exports around 2.4 million barrels a day of crude. Click Read More below for additional information.

American Trucking Associations joined an event at the White House highlighting new public-private initiatives designed to grow the trucking industry’s workforce and bolster the U.S. supply chain. Nine professional truck drivers and nearly two dozen CEOs from ATA-member companies were in attendance. ATA President and CEO Chris Spear issued the following statement prior to the event: “Investing in our workforce never stops. It’s a constant. Our industry needs an additional 80,000 commercial truck drivers if we’re to meet consumer demand. We welcome the support of all elected officials as we recruit and train more talent into this critical industry. Recognizing our dedication to training and safety, the Departments of Labor and Transportation have worked quickly and efficiently in approving ATA as a registered apprenticeship sponsor. This long-sought designation provides our member companies valuable new tools and resources to help recruit and train the next generation of trucking talent."