I never used to follow news of all the car choices Europeans have between fuel-efficient vehicles, because it just made me mad: They have so many choices and we have so few.

But last week, Big Auto itself revealed that it shared my fury. GM's Lutz asked that we "Tear down this wall!" referring to the wall of NHTSA regulations keeping fuel efficient European model cars from Americans. Lets bring home our own fuel-efficient cars for our American consumers, he demanded.

I suspect a deal has been struck between GM and Washington to standardize NHTSA and ECE rules, and Lutz just leaked it.

The desperation of an auto industry in its last throes coincides with the desperation of a Democratic congress unable to get clean energy bills past a Republican wall.

Think laterally. What would you do?

Change regulations so automakers can bring home the low-carbon goodies they build elsewhere. Call it  America's Freedom to Choose Act. Getting our huge smudgy carbon footprints 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 would be easy if we drove like Europeans. This would be win, win, win.

So I think what Lutz said last week is the inside dope. We will finally open up the American market to fuel-efficient cars. And now as I hunt for good news for wannabe low-carbon drivers, I click on the news from Europe. I like Ford's Ka, which comes in diesel and gasoline, both at under 120 g/km CO2.

The original Ka is popular over there even used -- it got 46 mpg, and the new model cuts fuel consumption 20 percent. The diesel version gets 56 mpg. When was the last time you got 56 mpg? There's even talk of a hybrid version at 60 mpg.

Both Ford and GM are among the best at building low-carbon cars for Europe. The new Ka will be shown at the Paris show, and although no mention is made of American sales yet, I really can't see why not.

From Autoblog