Green Hands USA: America Volunteers

The city of San Francisco recently celebrated becoming the "Greenest Taxi City in America." Since 2008, the city's taxis have reduced gas consumption by 2.9 million gallons per year and lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tons annually, according to numbers released by the city, the state of California, and Ford Motors.

"Cutting global carbon dioxide emissions is one of the most crucial issues of our time," former city Taxi Commission President Paul Gillespie said at a recent event, "The San Francisco taxi experience has shown that taking aggressive, collaborative action at the local level can be both profitable and effective."

San Francisco has, in recent years, switch many of its taxis to vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied propane gas (LPG). It has also acquired efficient vehicles from Ford, which represent 67% of the taxi fleet in the city.

California's Green Taxi Law, which was enacted in 2008, calls forgas consumption and greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced 20% by this year. "When I announced this goal, many people didn’t think it could be done,” said California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. "The clean taxi program has shown that aggressive action is possible at the local level to make major reductions in carbon emissions, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate a new green economy. Now we are here today recognizing San Francisco as the 'Greenest Taxi City in America.'"

Things are apparently only going to get better: even more CNG and LPG vehicles are due to hit the streets soon. While they aren't the hybrid or all-electric vehicles most people think of when going green, they are greener than gas-powered vehicles, and a great step toward making the city greener.