Fred Webber, the industry's top lobbyist, cast doubt on a long presentation on global warming by the staff of the state's air resources board at a hearing last month.
The board cited a variety of hazards from climate change, including rising sea levels threatening coastlines and fresh water supply, increasing asthma problems and poor crop irrigation because of the premature melting of mountain snow.
Webber called the topic "a big if."
William Ford has been outspoken in Detroit on environmental issues and has long said that global warming is a matter of concern. His company even published a newspaper advertisement in 2001 that simply said: "Global warming. There. We said it."
In a May interview, citing The Day After Tomorrow, a doomsday movie about the topic, Ford said, "If you look at where society is headed, whether it's the Kyoto compact, whether it's the Hollywood movie that's coming out this summer on global warming, all of those things will truly have an impact on the debate."
"I don't want Ford to be caught unaware or for us to be always saying, `No, we can't do something,"' he added.
This year, the company has feuded with environmentalists over its decision to stop making vehicles powered by natural gas and over plans, now abandoned, to destroy a few hundred electric-powered vehicles it had once leased to avoid any future liability issues.
At the same time, Ford has begun to market a hybrid electric version of its Escape sport utility vehicle, becoming the world's third automaker, after Toyota and Honda, to sell a hybrid that offers fuel economy gains of 40 percent or more.
Since becoming chief executive in 2001, Ford, 47, has been uneasily balancing his oft-stated environmental goals with a frequently bleak industrial task: righting his great-grandfather's company after a $5.5 billion loss that year. Since then, the company has recovered to post steady, if modest, profits, and Ford has said he wants to be more aggressive in setting long-range goals.
He and some other senior executives at the company -- though certainly not all of them -- see environmental initiatives as a critical part of the company's business strategy and are particularly concerned about Toyota's aggressive strategy to lead in fuel-efficient technologies as regulations around the world tighten.
"This is becoming an investment issue for two reasons," said John Casesa, an analyst at Merrill Lynch who recently hosted a conference call assessing the potential cost of complying with tougher car regulations worldwide.
"First, there is some evidence that there is natural market demand for more fuel-efficient, less polluting automobiles," he said.
"The second reason is that we are entering a world where we will have a more conservation-oriented energy policy and that will require companies to comply, or face the cost of not complying."
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