NYC ruling clouds Boston bid to regulate cabs

In a 37-page ruling, US District Court Judge Paul A. Crotty said the New York City effort would preempt federal jurisdiction over mileage and emission standards.

The decision heartened Boston cab drivers and owners who are challenging the city’s mandate that owners of 1,800 cabs go green by 2015, asserting that the cost could drive them out of business.

But supporters of the push for hybrid cabs said the cases were fundamentally different.

“This is very good news,’’ said Raphael Ophir, a Jamaica Plain cab owner and one of the plaintiffs in the federal suit seeking to block the move. “In many ways, ours is the exact same claim: whether the city has the power to regulate fuel efficiency.’’

Paul H. Merry, a Boston lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, said that while the two cases are different, both assert that the cities are overstepping their jurisdiction by attempting to regulate fuel efficiency. The Boston suit contends that the rule is unreasonable because it forbids taxi owners from buying used hybrids, as well as other vehicles with comparable mileage.

Boston officials, who did not return calls seeking comment yesterday, have said the hybrid requirement will help the environment by reducing carbon emissions and ultimately save the taxi industry and passengers money by improving fuel economy. They say the city has agreed to phase in the requirements and boost passenger rates to ease the economic burden on owners.

While Boston cab drivers hailed the ruling as bolstering their cause, supporters of the city’s requirement said it was specifically crafted to withstand legal scrutiny.

The cases are very different, said George Bachrach, head of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, who has testified at city hearings in support of the rule.

While New York’s regulations were primarily presented as public health measures, Bachrach said, Boston’s have been framed as commercial policies, more typically an area of local oversight. More companies are voluntarily purchasing hybrids for their fuel economy and socially responsible appeal, realizing they can quickly recoup their initial investment, he said.

Hybrid taxis are becoming increasingly popular as eco-friendly, although cab drivers often resist them as too costly.

But Crotty’s ruling thwarted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to encourage taxi owners to switch to hybrids by reducing lease rates for cabs without hybrid or clean-diesel technology. In October, Crotty struck down a city requirement that taxicabs achieve at least 25 miles per gallon on similar grounds.

The incentives, Crotty ruled, “have the preempted effect of mandating that taxicab owners purchase only taxicabs with hybrid or clean-diesel engines.’’

The head of the city’s Law Department said the Bloomberg administration was disappointed by the ruling and would explore its legal options. About 16 percent of the city’s 13,000 taxicabs are hybrids, which are powered by both gasoline and electricity, or clean-diesel vehicles that emit far less pollution than previous models.

But locally, owners and drivers said Boston’s rule, which is being phased in for replacement vehicles, is Draconian. Peter Sheinfeld, a Boston taxi driver and owner, denounced it as the latest in a “huge array of regulatory impositions on the industry.’’

But critics of the conversion push, Bachrach said, are standing athwart history.

“At the end of the day, this is inevitable,’’ he said. “Those who oppose it are just shifting sands against the tide.’’

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.