Here’s what I love to hear, implementing a “green taxi law” in San Francisco for cab companies. Check out this story from Cnet.com
San Francisco instills the importance of keeping the city clean and green.
A fleet of fuel-efficient taxis on the streets of San Francisco have reduced gas consumption in the city by 2.9 million gallons per year and lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tons annually, the equivalent of taking 4,700 passenger cars off the road.
When Mayor Gavin Newsom sponsored a green taxi law in 2008 requiring San Francisco cab companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, many said the goal was impossible to achieve. But flanked by a collection of green cabs in front of City Hall on Monday, Newsom announced that 55 percent of the city’s taxis are now being run on alternative fuels including hybrids and compressed natural gas.
Almost two years ago, Mayor Newsom sponsored a green taxi law that required San Francisco cab companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
To aid in the transition to clean-powered vehicles, San Francisco developed a grant program called the Clean Air Taxi Grant to encourage cab companies to purchase alternative-fuel vehicles, giving $2,000 per vehicle on a first-come, first-served basis.
Mayor Newsom said that back in 2004, the initial participation of the Yellow Cab and Luxor Cab companies, which were the first cab companies in the United States to adopt hybrid vehicles, was an integral part of the implementation of the city’s green cab initiative, and that without their enthusiasm for the project, the clean taxi policy might have faced more obstacles, or even failed.
