Earth Day Idea

I think that ALL cabs should be converted to Hybrids, I mean think of how much that would cut down on emissions, gas use, etc, etc, etc.  I think there is a very easy way to do this too, get rich tree huggers to do it, they have plenty of money.  Get Clooney, DiCaprio and all their cronies to go in on it.  Lets face it celebrities are some of the biggest pushers of the "green" initiative and most of them have more money than 5 generations of their family can realistically spend.  So this initiative would be a very easy way for them to, put there money where there mouth is, so to speak.  And to make it so it's not a totally unfair and a total "handout" give them a substantial tax break for every Hybrid they purchase.  Think about it it's winner winner all the way around.  Pollution in cities down.  Check.  Tax bill for rich people down.  Check.  Tree huggers happy.  Check.  Car companies happy.  Check.  The last one is huge, I mean think about it if all the rich started throwing money at this initiative it would provide a pretty solid kick start to the auto industry, I mean there are something like 13,000 cabs in NY City alone.  Somewhere along the way someone will poke some holes in this idea because I came up with it and thought it through for all of 5 seconds, but hell seems like a lot easier and more practical than the whole "everyone turn off all your power for 1 hour starting.... now" or "don't anyone buy gas on Thursday April 23, 2009" ideas that are floating around.  The only hole I see is what to make the cabbies and cab companies do so they aren't getting a "free lunch," maybe make them pay for 1/2 or a 1/4, something like that.  I dunno, while I'm kind of opposed to handouts, I can't see a good way to make this change without someone getting a freebie.  At least with this we have a lasting impact on the environment and some pretty nice short term benefits as well, which I think can cancel out the freebie.