San Antonio – President Obama says we have a “moral obligation” to tackle global warming. It’s why the federal government has imposed draconian fuel-efficiency standards that force automakers to build cars that average 54.5 mpg by 2025. It’s why Ford Motor Company has transformed its best-selling Ford F-150 pickup with aluminum body panels — at a cost of billions of dollars — in order to reduce mass and carbon emissions.
Ford unveiled the 2015 Ford F-150 to the media for a first test drive here at the end of September. And not once did the detailed, two-day company presentation mention global warming.
Instead, Ford touted the value of lightweight aluminum in increasing payload capability. It cheered aluminum for its better power-to-weight ratio. For helping reduce fuel costs. For its better handling.
If Ford did sell its truck as a moral virtue, it likely would be laughed out of dealerships by its customers.
“Global warming ranked near the bottom of Americans’ 2014 priorities for President Obama and Congress,” according to a Pew Research poll last month. It ranked well behind terrorism, ISIS, the economy, and so on. And it likely isn’t even on the radar of the demographic — small businessmen, Texans, blue collar workers — who buy and use F-150s.
Global warming is a costly con forced on Americans through the back door of government regulation. Because at the front door, global warming won’t sell.