Green Daily

An opinion article yesterday in the Boston Globe highlighted the success of the two-year old Boston Clean Air Cabs program. Under the program, hybrid cabs reduce air pollutionave almost 70 percent on fuel costs.

And the cool part? Due to rising fuel costs, the cabbies are saving money on gasoline - about $40 per shift on fuel. The reporter notes that if the driver has two shifts a day, six days a week, for 50 weeks a year, they could potentially save about $25,000 per year in fuel costs.

But out of the 1,800 licensed taxis on Boston streets, only about 50 are hybrids (hence the sign I saw last week at Logan Airport that said you must specifically request a green cab - they're not readily available). Why? Simple: most of the fleet is comprised of old Crown Vics from local police departments, for about $7,000 each. Hybrids are tough to find used, and are purchased for about $25,000.

In the meantime, Bostonians will have to look toward legislation that will encourage energy-efficient city programs, and introduce incentives that will make it worthwhile to purchase the hybrids. Boston leads the way in many avenues of environmentalism, including being a leader in single-stream recycling, introducing it in tons of neighborhoods in and around the city.