Council directs staff to craft incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles and taxi franchises

The Los Angeles City Council on Dec. 7 unanimously directed city departments to develop criteria and potential incentives to encourage alternative-fuel vehicle use in city contracting and taxi franchising.

Todd Campbell of the Coalition for Clean Air told the council the region suffers from poor air quality and urged the city to adopt contract incentives that reduce smog precursors and toxic emissions. "Supporting this measure will develop the necessary criteria to provide the mechanisms for us to get to cleaner fleets," he said.

Industry representatives also addressed concerns about range, performance and fueling infrastructure. David Heridan of Pickins Fuel Corp. described practical performance figures for dedicated compressed-natural-gas taxis: "That vehicle... has at least 150 miles of real world range. With an additional tank, it can go up to 300 miles," he said, and noted private investment can be used to build fueling stations.

Councilmember (Miss) Kanter said the motion asks several departments (Environmental Affairs, CLA, CIO and Department of Transportation) to report back with incentive-package options and how such incentives might be incorporated into taxi franchising. The motion does not itself set a preference program or penalties; it asks staff to bring proposals back to committee.

The council approved the directive by roll call (13 ayes). Staff were asked to return with concrete proposals and to consider how to design incentives without creating unfair bidding disadvantages for nonparticipating contractors.

Next steps: departments will prepare reports on incentive designs and taxi-franchise incorporation and bring options to committee for further action.