This is one of the more mystifying stories in the increasingly bizarre world of government. Two Russian immigrants won taxi medallions based on a willingness to use alternate fuel vehicles to save New York City pollution and to save money. The Taxi commission
fought against them. WTF?
On Wednesday evening, six Ford Escapes - medallion numbers 9V10, 9V11, 9V16, 9V17, 9V22 and 9V23 - hit the road without fanfare and became the first hybrid vehicles to be used as taxicabs in New York City.
There was no news conference or celebration to mark the event, though it heralds a new era in city transportation. The sport utility vehicles, which run on a combination of gasoline and electricity, look almost identical to regular Ford Escapes. The city intends to close the sale on 12 more hybrid medallions in two weeks.
The complicated story behind this development involves a long battle between three Russian immigrant business partners and the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission.
It began in June 2003, when the City Council ordered the commission to sell special medallions, to be used with natural-gas or hybrid vehicles, as a pilot project.
At an auction in October 2004, Evgeny Freidman and his partners, Mamed Dzhaniyev and Vladimir Basin, placed winning bids on 18 medallions and put down a $450,000 deposit...
... They had no time to celebrate, though. What should have been a simple deal soon became unbelievably complicated: The commission failed to approve any new alternative-fuel vehicles for use as cabs and eventually refused to take their money. The men, who know a good deal when they see it, did not want to lose this one, and so they complained, fought with the commission and, in April, filed suit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
According to that lawsuit, the men had sought to have the Ford Escape approved or to be allowed to convert several Ford Crown Victorias to use natural gas. The taxi commission tried to back out of the deal, saying that federal approval would be required for the natural-gas conversions.
The Council, angered by what it saw as dithering by the commission, passed a bill in June that compelled the commission to approve at least one alternative-fuel vehicle for use as a taxicab. The next month, the commission complied, approving six hybrid models, including the Ford Escape, for use by any medallion owner, not just the three Russians...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/nyregion/04taxi.html