With diesel prices at record highs, the trucking industry’s main trade group is urging President Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In a letter to the White House, American Trucking Associations President and Chief Executive Bill Graves said surging diesel prices “will greatly magnify our current economic slowdown and delay our economic recovery.”

According to the Associated Press, the ATA has also said the nation’s 3.5 million truck drivers are on track to spend a record $135 billion on diesel fuel this year, up $22 billion from 2007. Graves said it now costs drivers more than $1,000 to fill a typical tractor-trailer.

But Bush already rejected similar release request from some in Congress, AP said. Late last year, the Reserve contained 694 million barrels of oil and has a capacity of more than 720 million barrels. The White House has repeatedly said the reserve is to be used only to counter a severe disruption in supply, not in reaction to prices.

Trucks haul 70 percent of all freight and rising fuel costs could raise the cost of their cargo, including food, retail and manufactured goods, according to the ATA