How to make a 4,685 pound truck use 25 percent less fuel? By turning it into a 3,985-pound truck, at least according to Ford.

The automaker has said that, in an effort to improve fuel efficiency, it is considering using aluminum instead of steel for key parts of its F-150 truck lineup, cutting about 700 pounds from the vehicles’ weight. The proposal is part of the fight among automakers to meet tough new federal fuel efficiency standards, which will be phased in starting in 2017. By 2025, the standards will require automakers to double efficiency.

The standards were controversial when President Obama announced them last year. In the end, however, the president managed to get 13 major automakers to back the proposal in principle, though automakers have still pushed for significant changes to how the proposal will be implemented.

Obama’s rules require only that newer car models use less gasoline; They don’t say how. They do not require that the new models help reduce oil consumption in general or be better for the environment. The Ford F-150 redesign may not do any of those things.

While aluminum parts help reduce a car’s fuel consumption and emissions, aluminum production generates about 10 times more carbon dioxide than steel production, according to a 1999 MIT report. The report found that, once raw material production is taken into account, aluminum-bodied cars actually produce higher emissions than light-steel ones. Each aluminum-based car would have to be on the road for 32 to 38 years for the final vehicle’s lower emissions to make up for the difference in emissions during production, according to the report.

Aluminum car assembly also consumes more energy, since aluminum, unlike steel, is not magnetic. Automakers must use huge, electricity-hungry vacuum cleaners to move aluminum parts, while steel parts can be easily picked up with magnets.

The aluminum industry claims that the metal’s potential sustainability shortcomings are offset by its recyclability. Two-thirds of the aluminum ever produced is still in use today, according to the Aluminum Association, an industry group whose mission is to “aggressively promote aluminum as the most sustainable and recyclable automotive, packaging and construction material on the market today.” “. (1)

However, there are only a limited number of soda cans to crush and turn into car parts. While the Aluminum Association touts the fact that 1.56 billion pounds of used beverage cans were recycled in 2008, the transportation industry consumed more than 6 billion pounds of aluminum that same year. Further growth in demand could see recycled aluminum accounting for a much smaller portion of total consumption. Novelis, the world leader in rolled aluminum sheets, is already tripling its US production of the type of aluminum used by the automotive industry.

An increase in demand could also cause an increase in prices. Aluminum prices have recently been at a two-year low due to oversupply. Ford’s proposed use of aluminum in its F-Series trucks could go a long way toward changing that. At one point, Ford’s F-series truck sales represented 5.5 percent of all US vehicle sales; While sales have since declined, the company still sold nearly 600,000 of the vehicles last year.

If aluminum prices rise, beverage fillers may become more reliant on plastic, which is, of course, made from petroleum. Less oil would go to cars, but more would go to soft drinks. Fewer aluminum cans produced would also mean fewer cans going back for recycling.

I don’t know what net effect Ford’s switch to aluminum would have on the environment. The administration was similarly in the dark when it pushed through the new fuel standards without knowing how automakers would achieve them. The new standards may end up being a good thing. Maybe not. Only time will tell.

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1) The Aluminum Association, “About the Association”