广播听力: San Francisco Moves toward Green Cabs

The city of San Francisco is encouraging green transportation. The use of hybrid and electric cars is being backed with the installation of charging stations throughout the city.

Our reporter Li Dong has the details.



As an initiative to boost green transportation, San Francisco has now changed more than 55 percent of the city's cabs into hybrid cars that run mainly on electricity.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is behind the initiative to make taxicabs green.

"Today we are announcing that already 55 percent of all of our taxicabs are running on renewable fuels and are clean and green."

According to the San Francisco Department of the Environment, most of the San Francisco Bay Area's greenhouse gases come from vehicles, and that's a key motivator for cleaning up the city's fleet.

With a range of 100 miles when fully charged, the car has an operating cost of about 2 cents per mile, according to the company.

Range is a key concern for electric car owners, who need to be sure that they won't deplete their batteries and get stranded. This means partnering with other local governments to create a regional network of chargers.

Gavin Newsom says he'd like to work with the public utilities commission to make electric vehicles an energy-storing part of the grid.

"As mayor I've