A fuel loophole big enough for a Ford F-150

As the Democratic presidential race heats up, we can be thankful that climate change has returned to the political arena. It was all but invisible in 2016.

Curbing carbon pollution from cars is one of the issues that climate-savvy candidates have seized upon, and for good reason: Transportation has surpassed electricity generation as the leading contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says that, by 2030, all new cars sold in the United States should be fully electric. Other candidates have endorsed the Green New Deal, which calls for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector “as much as is technologically feasible.”

Correcting the corrosive regulatory flaw that has allowed gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups to dominate American auto sales should be one important step toward cleaning up our car fleet. In 1975, Congress created two separate standards for automotive fuel economy — one for conventional passenger cars, the other for “light-duty trucks.” Cars were to attain a fleetwide average of 27.5 miles per gallon by 1985. Pickups, vans and other trucklike vehicles were held to a much lower bar of 19.5 miles per gallon.

In the 1980s, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFE, for cars seemed to be working. Conventional sedans, hatchbacks and station wagons were still the norm, and many of those vehicle models became smaller, lighter and more fuel-efficient.

Soon enough, though, the auto industry began to exploit the separate standard for light-duty trucks. By the early 1990s, what began as a trickle became a whole new generation of bigger, heavier vehicles that bore enough resemblance to trucks that they could evade the strictures of car-focused mileage standards. SUVs were on the ascent.

The Obama administration revamped the CAFE regime, for the first time pairing federal fuel economy standards with corresponding limits on carbon dioxide emissions. This sent an important policy signal that the carbon footprint of our automobiles is at least as consequential as their fuel consumption.

Obama’s reforms, however, had their drawbacks. Not only did the preferential treatment of light trucks over cars persist, but vehicle size became the key factor driving both car and truck standards: the bigger a vehicle’s “footprint,” the more lenient the standard. This has given automakers a perverse incentive to concentrate their business on larger, more profitable vehicles that are subject to weaker fuel economy requirements.

Ford Motor Co. has been clear about its abandonment of the conventional passenger sedan. In April 2018, its CEO revealed that the company would shift nearly 90 percent of its sales to trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles by 2020. All that will be left of its passenger fleet is the Mustang and a new crossover called the Focus Active. Dan Becker, who directs the Safe Climate Campaign at the nongovernmental Center for Auto Safety, puts it bluntly: “With the new size-based standard, Ford can say, ‘All we are going to do is make F-150 trucks.’ As long as Ford meets the standard for the F-150 based on its footprint, that would be kosher.”

Late last year, General Motors announced that it would idle several North American factories, including assembly plants for the Chevy Cruze, Buick LaCrosse and plug-in hybrid Volt. Like Ford, it was banking on higher profit margins from SUVs and trucks.

All in all, the future is not looking bright for fuel-efficient American motoring. In 2018, SUVs and other light trucks reaped a staggering 69 percent of all new car sales.

As part of their climate-change positioning, various Democratic candidates are calling for a nationwide shift to 100 percent carbon-neutral electricity. Even without electrifying our cars, we’ll have a tough time meeting this goal any time soon. With a car fleet dominated by oversize, overweight SUVs and pickups, making a clean switch to electric-powered vehicles will be an even bigger reach.

If we’re serious about shrinking the United States’ carbon footprint, we will need to put our automotive fleet on a crash diet. Are any of our presidential prospects prepared to take us there?