Why not both? People choosing excessively large vehicles for aesthetics shouldn't get a pass because some giant company happens to produce the fuel it uses.
How about car companies deciding to sell more oversized vehicles because they don't want to put in the engineering effort to meet fuel efficiency standards? As actually happened. Advertising shifted to SUVs.
Blaming individuals may be interesting morally but it makes for terrible public policy. It doesn't produce anything actionable. Imagine trying to fix ozone depletion with a voluntary labelling scheme and "blaming" people who use CFCs.
> How about car companies deciding to sell more oversized vehicles because they don't want to put in the engineering effort to meet fuel efficiency standards? As actually happened. Advertising shifted to SUVs.
AFAIK SUV sales replacing sedan sales is a trend that has been going on for decades[1]. Blaming it on "[car companies] don't want to put in the engineering effort" doesn't make sense.
The concept of "carbon footprint" truly is corporate propaganda and deflection.
That does not imply that individuals are morally entitled to overconsume.