DC mayor Fenty wants federal OK for hybrid taxi fleet

DC mayor Fenty wants federal OK for hybrid taxi fleet

District of Columbia mayor Adrian Fenty and five other big city mayors want Congress to allow municipalities to require green taxi fleets.

They are pressing Congress for authority in the face of a federal appeals court decision last week that blocked New York City from mandating a hybrid taxi fleet — the latest setback in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's three-year effort to mandate cleaner cabs.

The cities pressing Congress want to “ensure that taxicabs and other for-hire vehicles in our cities are fuel efficient,” the mayors wrote in a letter to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV. They said requiring green taxis could save the cities 50 million gallons of fuel a year.

The five other cities are New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Las Vegas.

Last year, Boston cab drivers filed suit after the city required all cabs to be hybrids by 2015. A U.S. District Court blocked that law from taking effect and a trial is set to start in September.

New York's attempts to require hybrid cabs, in 2007 and in 2009, were also struck down at the U.S. District Court level.

The U.S. Court of Appeals last week upheld the lower courts ruling that barred the city from seeking to boost the number of hybrids, saying that Congress had granted full power over fuel efficiency regulations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — not to cities.

Congress must take action so that communities across the country can move toward hybrid taxi fleets,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, who has introduced legislation allowing major cities to mandate green taxis. “American car manufacturers would have no better showcase for new, efficient vehicle technologies than the streets of New York City and other major cities, she said when introducing the legislation. No action is expected on the measure this year, however.