Automobiles

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

The Energy Department’s in-house number crunchers say recent gasoline price spikes can’t really be laid at the feet of crude oil prices, which generally play a big role in what drivers pay at the pump.

Instead, a brief Energy Information Administration report Monday explains that several factors, such as refinery outages (both planned and unplanned) and growing global demand for petroleum products, account for most of the rise.

These factors have driven an increase in the difference between crude oil prices and wholesale gasoline prices, which is called the “crack spread.” The EIA says the growing gap accounts for “most” of the roughly 45 cents-per-gallon rise in gasoline prices between Jan. 1 and early last week.

Washington, D.C., is reportedly changing its moniker on license plates issued to drivers in the city to "District of Columbia."

The Washington Post reported Friday that the change has been ordered by Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray. 

A spokesman for Gray, who has staunchly advocated for D.C. statehood, told the newspaper the license plate change was a statement about the capital city's desire for independence from congressional control.

“Under the charter that establishes Home Rule in the District, we are the District of Columbia, and the plates should match that,” Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said, according to the paper.

“This is the District of Columbia, and to a lot of folks, in their minds, that is what we are: We are D.C.,” Ribeiro continued.

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

A coalition of industry groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reconsider a lower court’s finding in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 decision to allow sales of the high-ethanol fuel blend known as E15.

In a petition to the High Court, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and several groups representing the food industry are seeking to overturn January’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The appellate court sided with EPA’s permitting the sale of E15 – gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, rather than the standard 10-percent blend – for cars made after 2001.

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

The 44-cent jump in prices over the past four weeks was the largest since 2009, AAA said.

Two Republican senators voiced their opposition to Chinese companies buying hybrid carmaker Fisker Automative Inc.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

German automaker BMW is recalling 500,000 cars for an electrical cable problem.

Chrysler is also recalling 278,000 of its Ram trucks.

One in 4 bicycle accidents are caused by drivers, according to a study.

National Football League player Da'Quan Bowers has been arrested for allegedly attempting to carry a gun through a security checkpoint at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.

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