In the auto industry, where being biggest or fastest has always mattered most, the startling new benchmark for bragging rights is being greenest. That's what Ford Motor Co. chief executive Jacques Nasser seemed to be suggesting last week when he announced that beginning this fall, the company's popular F series pickup trucks will pollute the air no more than its cars do today. Just a year ago, Ford said it was cleaning up its sport-utility vehicles' emissions. Now Nasser says the 2000 model trucks will meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations mandated for the year 2004--without costing consumers a nickel more.
The...