Any congressional bailout of the distressed U.S. auto industry is not intended to be "life support," but doing nothing "is not an option," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

The average price for gasoline in the United States dropped below $2 a gallon on Friday to the lowest level since Oct. 14, 2004, the AAA motorist group said.

Sales of many high-end luxury cars are bucking the trend of plummeting car sales, and their makers and industry watchers at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week are confident that they will weather the industry downturn just fine.

Oil prices steadied on Friday, after falling more than 7 percent the day before, as stock markets recovered from early lows caused by continuing economic gloom.

The European Union's executive body said Thursday that the bloc should try to obtain its fair share of oil, gas, minerals and fish exposed by the melting of the Arctic ice cap.

A.P. Moller-Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping firms, said on Thursday it was re-routing some of its huge merchant fleet to avoid the Gulf of Aden because of piracy.

Chrysler hopes to restart merger talks with General Motors if the government comes up with a bailout package for automakers, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

Oil prices dropped more than 7 percent to below $50 a barrel on Thursday as a bearish U.S. jobs report intensified concerns of a long and deep global recession and further crushed fuel demand expectations.

As Capitol Hill wrestles with a bailout of the Big Three Detroit automakers, CNBC decided to look into the Senate representation of the U.S. automotive manufacturing base. What follows is a state-by-state compilation of auto plants:

U.S. oil demand for the first 10 months of 2008 fell at rates not seen since the recessions of the early 1980s, the American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday.

OPEC is worried by the worsening world economy and the falling oil price, which has wiped close to $700 billion from its coffers, OPEC President Chakib Khelil was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

President George W. Bush has been briefed about increasing attacks by Somali pirates off east Africa, and the United States is consulting with other U.N. Security Council members on ways to combat the threat, the White House said Wednesday.

Oil fell below $54 on Wednesday to its lowest since January 2007 after an unexpectedly large build in U.S. crude inventories underlined falling demand.

A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia on Tuesday, and another ship was captured in the perilous waters off the lawless state.

If the US auto industry is to survive, it will have to undergo a major transformation—slashing operations,  focusing on fewer models, shedding dealerships and making better cars, analysts say.