Hybrid taxi fleets: Congress may have to step in

WASHINGTON — Why in the world should Congress be considering a Green Taxis Act?

It's because New York — plus Seattle, Boston, San Francisco and several other cities — want to switch their taxi fleets over to all-hybrid vehicles. But they've run into a big legal snag, and Congress may have to come to their rescue.

Switching cabs to hybrids promises some potentially stunning gains.

Take carbon emissions. In New York City, taxis alone account for 1 percent of total carbon emissions; switching them to hybrids would be the equivalent of taking 35,000 cars off the road.

Second, there's gas consumption. A standard taxicab such as the V-8 powered Ford Crown Victoria gets about 14 miles to the gallon. But some hybrids, running on a combination of gasoline and electricity, get as much as 36. The hybrid advantage is especially high among taxis because they so often find themselves idling or creeping along in traffic, generating pollutants all the time. Hybrids don't need internal combustion energy in that situation.

In New York, where the typical cab is driven 80,000 miles a year, the Crown Victoria consumes about 5,700 gallons a year, the leading hybrids about 2,200 gallons. If we want to curb American oil consumption, what better starting point?

Finally — and arguably most significantly — there is the health issue. Most vehicles are worrisome smog generators. Their tailpipes emit not just carbon dioxide but also nitrogen oxides, benzene and particulates. The public pays the price in heightened levels of asthma, other respiratory diseases, and increased susceptibility to cardiac incidents — triggering personal tragedies and drains on public health budgets.

So what's the hang-up, slowing down hybrid conversions across the country?

Taxi-fleet owners, who lease out their cabs to individual drivers, flinch at the original hybrid purchase price (often several thousands dollars higher). The hybrids' big savings end up in the pockets not of the fleet owners but of the drivers, who buy their own fuel.

So in 2008, when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg set fuel standards designed to convert all of the city's 13,237 taxis (its legendary "yellow cabs") to hybrids by 2012, he was immediately challenged.

The city's Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the fleet owners, went to court, arguing that only the federal government has the power to regulate emissions and fuel efficiency. The federal Clean Air Act and a companion environmental law of the 1970s, they argued, pre-empted states or local governments from regulating in this field.

A federal judge in New York ruled in favor of the fleet owners. Bloomberg was not pleased, declaring:

"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."

Then the city passed an incentive program to encourage yellow-cab owners to convert to hybrids, and was again slapped down by the court.

Now the case is before the U.S. Court of Appeals and there's a new player — the Obama administration. It has entered the fray with a "friend of the court" brief vigorously defending the right of New York — and Boston in a parallel case — to set rules for its own taxicab fleets.

And there's another new player: Congress. The Green Taxis Act, permitting cities to move forward without pre-emption roadblocks, has been introduced by two New Yorkers — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Jerrold Nadler.

The legislation, Nadler argues, would "finally empower New York City and other cities to make their taxi fleets greener and more sustainable."

Gillibrand adds: "As a mother with an asthmatic child, I believe this bill is a win-win for our children and our efforts to combat climate change."

There's even a "Buy American" angle — the still-dominant Crown Victoria is manufactured in Canada, but the leading hybrid alternative — the Ford Escape — is produced in the Kansas City area.

The big question, of course, is whether the Green Taxis Act will attract enough attention to achieve passage in a busy and distracted Congress.

Narrow parochialism might stymie it. Rohit Aggarwala, Bloomberg's director of long-term planning and sustainability, says word has filtered back from some Capitol Hill circles that "it's a joke because no one outside of New York thinks taxis are important."

That would be sad: Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., all have definite interest in the clean-taxi program. Big fleets await cleanup in Houston, Miami, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, Phoenix and St. Louis as well. Cumulatively, smaller cities' fleets add up to big numbers.

If we Americans can't give our cities a green light on this straightforward reform, then our health and climate futures are indeed dim.

Neal Peirce's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com