Judge gives red light to green cabs in NYC — because only the federal government, not the city’s Taxicab & Limousine Commission, has the authority to regulate emissions and fuel efficiency standards:
A federal judge blocked the city Friday from requiring all new taxicabs to be fuel-efficient hybrids, hampering Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious goal to make all yellow cabs green by 2012.The preliminary ruling, released a day before a Saturday deadline, decided the regulations were pre-empted by federal law.
Bloomberg said he was “very disappointed” and blasted the ruling for relying on “archaic Washington regulations” that keep New York and other cities “from choosing to create cleaner air.” He said the city was exploring options to appeal.
Last month, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, a trade association claiming to represent a quarter of the city’s cabs, sued to block enforcement of the rules.
The plaintiffs argued that only the federal government, not the city’s Taxicab & Limousine Commission, has the authority to regulate emissions and fuel efficiency standards.
What an amazing inversion of federalism.