Gov. Heineman extends waiver for fuel haulers

LINCOLN – The whereases all add up to continued tight supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel, forcing longer trips to farther away fuel terminals.

So Gov. Dave Heineman on Thursday extended until Oct. 10 his waiver issued earlier this summer on hours of service for commercial truck drivers carrying motor fuel.

The extra service hours allow truckers to fetch and deliver fuel from farther away, in a regional fuel market bottleneck that some are calling the worst since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

In North Dakota, the Environmental Protection Agency waived summer gas standards so the state could import gasoline from Canada.

Supply shortages continued to