Many months ago, I told you that New York City was working on greening its taxi fleet, which is part of the PlaNYC initiative to get the city more environmentally friendly (I notice, too, that I mentioned Mayor Bloomberg’s term limitation in that post…haha, he changed the law so he could keep being mayor). Part of the overall plan with the taxis was to make it mandatory that all cabs are hybrids by 2012. And last week, a federal judge said no dice to that.

The judge, Paul A. Crotty, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an injunction to stop the city from enforcing the rule because, he said in a written order, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in a key legal argument —that only the federal government has the right, under existing laws, to set fuel efficiency standards. [nytimes.com]

Mayor Bloomberg says he is “disappointed” that “archaic” Washington laws are preventing these measure from going into effect (and, no, those are no sarcastic quotes…I’m quoting a statement). The Mayor has not yet decided if his office will appeal the decision, or perhaps create an incentive-based program to get cabs green a different way that isn’t mandatory. Or, if I’m not mistaken, California is suing the federal government right now about fuel standards, which could affect New York. But I’m simply too lazy to look into that.

The rules that would have taken effect would have made it mandatory that all cabs get 25 miles to the gallon. takepart here for an interesting government website where you can find cars that meet that standard. You know, in case you’re looking for a new car, and want just the facts, ma’am (side note: I’m quoting the movie Dragnet, and not the show, because that movie is severely underrated).