New York City may have reached the end of the road in its efforts to curb emissions from the city's ubiquitous taxis:
The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider an appeal by the city on its longstanding effort to mandate fuel emissions standards in New York City's taxicabs, using up the legal options for a policy that had twice been struck down by lower courts.
The city's plan, which would have penalized taxi owners who did not use hybrid cars, had been rejected by lower-court judges as a de facto regulation of emissions standards — a power that, under existing laws, belongs to the federal government. A group of taxi owners brought the original suit against the plan in 2008.
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An early proposal tried to encourage the use of hybrid cars by setting a minimum fuel efficiency standard of 25 miles a gallon for taxis, far higher than the 16 miles a gallon achieved by the current workhorse of the taxi fleet, the Ford Crown Victoria. That plan was rejected by a judge.
A second effort tried to skirt the ban on local regulation by setting up financial incentives: In exchange for using hybrid vehicles, taxi owners would be allowed to charge higher leases on their cabs. Owners who opted not to buy hybrids would have to charge less.
But the same judge, Paul A. Crotty of Federal District Court in Manhattan, rejected that proposal too, writing in a 2009 opinion that the incentives amounted to "a de facto mandate" and thus fell under the same legal issues. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit later upheld that ruling, which city lawyers had hoped could be appealed to the Supreme Court.
I wonder if other cities are facing the same challenges?
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