Tim Campbell
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 Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject: Judge Blocks Hybrid Taxi Requirement |
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Judge Blocks Hybrid Taxi Requirement
By Sewell Chan
Judge Paul A. Crotty, who blocked the city’s attempt to require taxi
owners to switch to hybrid vehicles. (Photo: Andrea Mohin/The New York
Times)
Updated, 3:40 p.m. | Dealing a sharp blow to the Bloomberg
administration’s attempt to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions, a federal judge on Friday blocked New York City from
requiring owners and operators of yellow taxicabs to switch to more
fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that operate on a mixture of gasoline
and electricity.
The 26-page ruling [pdf], by Judge Paul A. Crotty, bars the city from
implementing the hybrid-cab requirement, which was to take effect on
Saturday and would have resulted in a virtually all-hybrid fleet by
2012. Taxi owners had maintained that fuel economy and vehicle
emissions standards were the principal purview of the federal
government.
The hybrid-cab requirement was a centerpiece of Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 package of environmental initiatives. In a
statement on Friday, he said, “We are very disappointed in the
decision and we are exploring our appellate options.”
The mayor made it clear that he strongly disagreed with the ruling,
which he said could cripple efforts by other cities to combat air
pollution. “The decision is not a ruling against hybrid cabs,” he
said, “rather a ruling that archaic Washington regulations are
applicable and therefore New York City, and all other cities, are
prevented from choosing to create cleaner air and a healthier place to
live.”
The city has 13,237 yellow taxicabs. Nearly 1,500 of them are already
hybrids as a result of voluntary efforts; a fraction of those hybrids
are attached to medallions that were specifically auctioned for use
with alternative-fuel vehicles.
The rule that was to take effect on Saturday was adopted by the Taxi
and Limousine Commission on Dec. 11, 2007. It would have required that
all new taxicabs coming into service achieve a fuel-efficiency city
rating of 25 miles per gallon or higher, rising to 30 m.p.g. by Oct.
1, 2009. (The gasoline-powered Ford Crown Victoria, which in the late
1990s supplanted the Chevrolet Caprice as the workhorse of the city’s
taxi fleet, gets about 12 to 14 m.p.g.)
Because all taxicabs must be replaced every three to five years under
city rules, the new regulations would have resulted in a virtually all-
hybrid fleet by 2012.
In their lawsuit, filed in September, taxi operators — led by the
Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the owners of 29
large fleets that control 3,500 yellow cabs, about a quarter of the
fleet — said that the hybrid vehicles, which are more fuel-efficient,
were not designed to withstand the heavy wear and tear that cabs must
endure.
In his ruling, Judge Crotty, who was the city’s corporation counsel
from 1994 to 1997, under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, said he agreed to
block the city from enforcing the rule because the plaintiffs were
likely to succeed in their key legal argument — that the new
regulations were pre-empted under federal law, which reserve
regulation of fuel economy and emissions standards to federal
agencies.
Though Mr. Bloomberg is now a staunch advocate of the hybrid-cab
requirement, it actually took several years of prodding by
environmental advocates before the city moved to require the use of
more fuel-efficient vehicles.
In 2003, the city authorized the taxi commission to sell additional
medallions — the valuable licenses that are the exclusive right to
operate a cab — provided that at least 9 percent of the new medallions
went to hybrids or to cars powered by compressed natural gas.
Over the next two years, the commission failed to approve any hybrids
for use as taxis, saying that the existing models did not have
sufficient interior room and did not meet other city guidelines. In
2005, the commission began approving hybrid models for use as taxis;
there are now 10 types of hybrid and clean-diesel vehicles approved
for use as city cabs.
But it was not until last year that the Bloomberg administration fully
embraced the hybrids. Mr. Bloomberg announced his broad PlaNYC 2030
program on April 22, 2007. A month later, on May 22, 2007, he
announced that the taxicab fleet would become fully hybrid by 2012.
The hybrid-taxi rule has been bitterly fought by taxi owners. Earlier
this year, Ron Sherman, president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of
Trade, said in a statement that “small, light passenger hybrids should
not be used as New York City taxicabs, which clock upwards of 100,000
miles a year each and often run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” He
argued that the Taxi and Limousine Commission “has ignored the laws of
physics, which dictates that the larger the vehicle’s interior space,
the safer the vehicle’s occupants are in an accident.”
The other plaintiffs were the Midtown Operating Corporation, a garage
that leases taxis to more than 800 independent contractors on a double-
shifted daily basis; the Sweet Irene Transportation Company, which
owns and leases taxis; Ossman Ali of the Bronx, a self-employed
independent contractor who leases and drives taxis; and Kevin Healy of
Roslyn Heights, N.Y., a frequent taxi passenger.
Judge Crotty said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their
argument that fuel economy standards were delegated to federal
agencies under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, but he said he
did not agree with their argument that the city was trying to
improperly regulate tailpipe emissions and supplant the federal role
in enforcing the Clean Air Act.
The full text of the mayor’s statement on Friday is below:
We are very disappointed in the decision and we are exploring our
appellate options. The decision is not a ruling against hybrid cabs,
rather a ruling that archaic Washington regulations are applicable and
therefore New York City, and all other cities, are prevented from
choosing to create cleaner air and a healthier place to live. The sad
irony here is the laws being relied on by the plaintiff, the Clean Air
Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, were designed to
reduce air pollution and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which
is exactly what moving to fuel efficient cabs will do. The courts are
not the only way we can reach our goal of a cleaner fleet of taxi
cabs. I’ve instructed the T.L.C. to develop a program with strong
incentives for the use of fuel-efficient vehicles and heavy
disincentives for use of the inefficient vehicles of a past
generation. Additionally, we will be working with our Congressional
delegation to produce legislation to update the outdated laws,
originally written in the 1970s, to reflect the current realities of
environmental stewardship. Greening the taxi fleet is a major priority
and we are going to use every mechanism at our disposal to make New
York a cleaner, healthier city. Taxis are a part of our public
transportation system; they must be part of the solution to air
pollution, not a contributing cause of the problem.
Mr. Sherman, the president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade,
said in a statement:
Millions of people who ride taxicabs and the thousands of drivers,
owners and other participants in the New York City taxi industry can
breathe a sigh of relief today as this ill-conceived hybrid taxi
mandate, which had not properly taken safety, comfort, availability
and other issues into account when it was rushed through last year,
will not go forward as planned. By granting this injunction, the court
has affirmed what numerous groups, associations, state and city
legislators, former T.L.C. commissioners, drivers and others have
argued for a long time.
M.T.B.O.T. has always preferred that this issue be settled out of
court. However, after exhaustive efforts at the T.L.C., we were given
no choice and were compelled to advocate on behalf of the safety of
our passengers and drivers. Now that the court has ruled in our favor,
and indeed — in the taxi passengers’ and taxi drivers’ favor — we look
forward to working with the Taxi and Limousine Commission and our
colleagues in the taxi industry to ensure the continuity of safe,
effective, comfortable taxi service for the riding public, ensure a
strong and healthy industry and achieve a fuel-efficient, safe,
comfortable taxi of tomorrow.
Joshua Nachowitz, policy director of the New York League of
Conservation Voters, said in a statement:
Judge Crotty’s decision is an unfortunate setback for New York City’s
ambitious climate change programs. It is disappointing that the court
has ruled in the narrow interests of taxi cab fleet owners instead of
the broad interests of the millions of New Yorkers who suffer from
pollution and who are threatened by climate change.
Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to ‘green’ the city’s fleet of over 13,000
yellow cabs is an integral part of the city’s overall sustainability
efforts. Replacing the exceptionally dirty Crown Victoria with clean,
economical low-emission vehicles is an important milestone on the
city’s road to dramatic greenhouse gas reductions. Fighting climate
change will require sacrifices from all New Yorkers. Yellow cab fleet
owners should be no exception. We are dismayed that this industry has
failed to recognize, as countless other businesses have, that
sustainability is in its own best interest.
Judge Crotty’s extraordinarily strict reading of the Clean Air Act is
also damaging to all local governments that are attempting to address
the climate crisis. After eight years of tragic inaction in
Washington, the burden falls on state and local governments to take
action on this vital issue. Today’s ruling will immeasurable
complicate these vital efforts.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/judge-blocks-hybrid-taxi-requirement/?hp |
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