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Mayor Mike Bloomberg chose a Queens taxi garage on Friday to unveil the City’s new plan to green its yellow taxi fleet.

The announcement follows an October court order that ruled the City could not legally require all taxis to meet a particular fuel-efficiency standard. Bloomberg wanted all taxis in the City to get 30 miles per gallon by next year but a federal law prevents states from setting gas mileage standards.

Hybrid cars use a combination of gas and electric for fuel and typically have greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions. Green taxis are at the center of Bloomberg’s environmental plan, which aims to cut the City’s carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030.

This time around, Bloomberg created a plan chock-full of economic incentives for drivers and taxi garage owners to drive and buy fuel-efficient hybrid taxis.

The new plan is two-fold. First, Bloomberg is working closely with the City Council to create legislation to extend the retirement schedule for hybrids. Currently, taxis are scraped after three years.

Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) stood by the mayor at the press conference and said, “We are going to get this done.”

Bloomberg also said he is working with U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) to move forward federal legislation, something California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is also advocating.

The second strategy Bloomberg is implementing is using economic incentives for hybrids.

A driver can save $15 in gas per 12-hour shift driving a hybrid, which has angered drivers who do not have access to hybrids. To even it out, Bloomberg lowered the rate a Taxi Garage can charge a driver to rent a non-hybrid and increased the rate for a hybrid so the playing field is level and taxi garages can use the extra cash to invest in hybrids when a taxi is retired.

Ron Sherman, president of Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, the group that sued the City when it wanted to set gas mileage standards, said he was troubled the City would try and run around federal law.

“The fact is that today’s hybrids are an unsuitable and an entirely unnecessary bridge to achieving a green taxi goal that balances fuel efficiency with safety and other important issues,” he said in a statement. “We disagree with the premise behind these disincentives that money or miles per gallon are higher priorities than passenger safety.”

When asked about the criticism, Bloomberg quickly noted the pollution spilling out of non-hybrid taxis.

“I think it’s more deeply troubling that they’re trying to kill our kids,” he said.

At Yakuel Taxi in Long island City, the company has committed to putting hybrids on the road and within a year will have an all hybrid fleet.

“As soon as we put hybrid taxis on the road, we knew we made the right decision,” co-owner Meir Yakuel said. “The drivers lined up to drive them.”

Currently 11 percent of the City’s 13,000 yellow cabs are hybrids, which all get more than 30 miles per gallon. The most popular taxi, a Ford Crown Victoria, gets 12 to 14 miles per gallon.