Yellow Cab Cooperative Praises New Clean Fuel Standard Announced by Governor Schwarzenegger

SAN FRANCISCO--Yellow Cab Cooperative, which operates San Francisco’s largest fleet of cabs, praised Governor Schwarzenegger’s ground-breaking announcement today that he will issue an executive order to reduce the level of carbon in all transportation fuels used in California passenger vehicles.

“Yellow Cab is strongly committed to operating the cleanest-running, most fuel-efficient vehicles possible and we are very supportive of the Governor’s action,” Yellow Cab President Nate Dwiri said. “More efficient fuels and vehicles make good business sense by reducing fuel costs and they make good environmental sense, which is important to our customers and our community.”

Dwiri also praised the Governor’s market-based approach to implementing the new standard that he said will create more competition in the alternative fuels market and help companies like Yellow Cab reduce the cost of converting to clean, energy-efficient vehicles and operating them. Fuel is among the biggest operating costs in the cab industry.

The Governor’s new Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which he is expected to sign into law in the next couple weeks, calls for reducing the amount of carbon in passenger vehicle fuels by 10 percent by 2020, and is designed to reduce gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Dwiri said Yellow Cab already has begun moving its fleet to cleaner-burning, high-efficiency vehicles. More than a quarter of Yellow Cab’s 470 vehicles either uses hybrid electric technology or operates on cleaner-burning compressed natural gas. And Yellow Cab plans to continue expanding its use of these environmentally friendly technologies.

“The natural-gas powered cars that Yellow Cab operates are up to 90 percent cleaner than cars run on petroleum-based fuels,” Yellow Cab General Manager Hal Mellegard said. “They also produce 25 percent less carbon dioxide than the equivalent gasoline powered vehicles. And our hybrid vehicles operate with near zero emissions.”