Chattanooga gas prices drop 13 cents a gallon

The average price of gasoline in Chattanooga fell by 13 cents per gallon in the last week, dropping to $2.89 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 170 local stations in Chattanooga.

Prices in Chattanooga are 39.5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 54.8 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. Fuel prices in Chattanooga also average 40 cents a gallon below the U.S. average of $3.29 a gallon, according to GasBuddy surveys.

The national average price of diesel has fallen 7.7 cents in the last week and stands at $4.38 per gallon.

“For the weeks ahead, tradition tells us to expect prices to move up eventually, but that could be at least be partially offset by inflationary data that continues to be hotter than expected,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said in a statement Monday.

Post office buys Ford electric vans

The U.S. Postal Service is buying 9,250 Ford Motor Co. electric vans and 14,000 charging stations as part of a move to switch its fleet to electric vehicles.

The service also is buying another 9,250 internal combustion vans from Fiat Chrysler in North America, now part of Amsterdam-based Stellantis. The Fiat Chrysler and Ford vehicles together will cost just over $1 billion.

The gas-powered vehicles fill an urgent need, the Postal Service said in a statement Tuesday.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford will start delivering the left-hand-drive E-Transit vans in November of this year, while Fiat Chrysler will start shipping the left-hand-drive gas-powered vehicles in December.

Contracts totaling $260 million for the charging stations went to Blink Charging Co., Siemens Industry Inc., and Rexall USA Energy Solutions, the Postal Service said.

Charging stations will be installed at several Postal Service facilities including sorting and delivery centers, starting in the third quarter of this year.

EPA sues chemical maker for emissions

Federal officials sued a Louisiana chemical maker on Tuesday, alleging that it presents an unacceptable cancer risk to the nearby majority-Black community and demanding cuts in toxic emissions.

Denka Performance Elastomer LLC makes synthetic rubber, emitting the carcinogen chloroprene and other chemicals in such high concentrations that it poses an unacceptable cancer risk, according to the federal complaint. Children are particularly vulnerable. There’s an elementary school a half-mile from the plant.

The former DuPont plant has reduced its emissions over time, but the Justice Department, suing on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the plant still represents “an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare,” including elevated cancer risks.

“The company has not moved far enough or fast enough to reduce emissions or ensure the safety of the surrounding community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

Denka, a Japanese company that bought the rubber-making plant in 2015, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A company spokesperson said in September that advocates described a crisis that “simply does not exist.”

Denka’s facility makes neoprene, a flexible, synthetic rubber used to produce common goods such as wetsuits, laptop sleeves, orthopedic braces and automotive belts and hoses. Chloroprene is a liquid raw material used to produce neoprene and is emitted into the air from various areas at the facility.

UK leader sells EU trade deal

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Belfast on Tuesday to sell his landmark agreement with the European Union to its toughest audience: Unionist politicians who fear post-Brexit trade rules are weakening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

The U.K. and the 27-nation EU announced Monday that they had struck a deal to resolve a dispute over Northern Ireland trade that has vexed relations since the U.K. left the bloc in 2020. The agreement will ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. that were imposed after Brexit to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbor, the Republic of Ireland.

The deal, dubbed the “Windsor Framework,” was hailed by London and Brussels as a breakthrough. But Northern Ireland’s British unionist politicians have yet to give it their blessing. Their support is key to restoring Northern Ireland’s semi-autonomous government, which has been toppled by the trade feud, leaving 1.9 million people without a functioning administration.

Sunak told the BBC the deal was “a huge step forward for the people of Northern Ireland” and he was confident politicians there would support it.

— Compiled by Dave Flessner