When gas prices started to climb this summer, taxi drivers began to grumble about the rising cost of business. Now that Hurricane Katrina has sent American gas prices skyrocketing to $3.50 a gallon and higher, New York City taxi drivers are demanding a special emergency gas surcharge.

If the drivers get their wish, passengers would have to pay an extra $1.50 a ride, whether for four blocks or four miles. The additional fee would come a little more than a year after the largest fare increase in the city’s history, which was unanimously approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission and implemented in May 2004.

It remains unclear if the emergency surcharge will actually come to pass, but the commission’s chairman, Matthew Daus, said it’s worth discussing.

“We’re worried about it,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview. “We’re going to discuss it at the next board of commissioners meeting.” That session is Thursday.

The president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, Fernando Mateo, met yesterday afternoon with Mr. Daus, asking for the commission to tack the $1.50 surcharge onto each fare, regardless of the distance traveled. The surcharge, as he envisions it, would remain in place unless the price of gas falls below $3 a gallon. If the price of gas rises to $4, Mr. Mateo said there should be a $2 surcharge.

“The surcharges we are looking for should start immediately,” he said. “With the high cost of gasoline, it’s almost impossible for us to make ends meet. … We’re not looking to rip you off.”

Mr. Mateo wears many hats. Besides his advocacy of the drivers, he is a businessman, the president of the group Hispanics Across America, a leading Bush fund-raiser who spoke at the Republican National Convention, and a Bloomberg campaign worker focused on outreach to Hispanic groups.

He said he plans to submit a formal petition to the commission by Tuesday, two days before its scheduled board meeting.

The director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, said her group, which represents drivers of yellow cabs, is also planning to submit an official petition to the commission by Tuesday requesting a surcharge.

“We absolutely think it’s necessary, and you know, drivers have really been taking a tremendous loss due to the increase in gas cost,” she said in a telephone interview. “They’re the only ones in the industry that suffer because of the gas cost. Garages and the brokers don’t pay for the gas cost. It comes out of the drivers’ pockets 100%.”

Ms. Desai said her group estimates that drivers are losing between $60 and $90 a week because of the increased cost of gas.

“The rising gas costs, since May of last year to now, have essentially wiped out the fare raise for drivers,” she said.

Mr. Daus denied that drivers are earning no more now than they were before the commission approved the first fare hike since 1996. “We built in a cushion to deal with rising gas prices,” he said.

When the fare increase was implemented, it gave the drivers an extra $42 a shift on average, he said. Before this week’s hurricane, they were making $36 more than they were making before last year’s fare increase.

“Still, even with what’s happened over the last year, they’re still making on average $36 more than they did before the fare increase,” he said.

He said a fuel surcharge is not out of the question, but said there is no history of such fees in New York, though there is in other parts of the country.

Ms. Desai said the Taxi Workers Alliance has petitioned twice, once in 2001 and once in 2003, for the commission to pass a rule allowing it to activate a fuel surcharge in emergencies.

“They ignored our warnings, and as a result, drivers continue to suffer,” she said.

Yesterday, drivers said they were, in fact, suffering.

“We’re not trying to make money on it,” Robert Sullivan, who has been a driver since 1969, said. “We’re trying not to lose. You don’t want to go to work and lose money.”

A cabby who was stopped at a light outside Macy’s, Hashem Kari, said the fare hike of a year ago is “almost nil now” because of rising fuel costs.

New Yorkers had mixed feelings about the possibility of paying more every time they hail a cab.

“We’re getting charged enough already. We’re not getting a break,” an event planner, Stella Inserra, said. “It’s already plenty. Everywhere you turn.”

Ms. Inserra, who said she takes cabs about three times a week, typically when she’s going home late at night, said the extra cost would be “another nuisance” but added: “It’s not like we have a choice.”

A Manhattan resident who is looking for a job, Thamar Haigler, said her mother is a driver.

“It’s hard for her to make a living as a driver,” Ms. Haigler said. “I know it’s rough.”

She said she doesn’t take taxis unless she’s running late, but she said: “I wouldn’t mind paying $1.50 more. … If gas prices are going up, then why not? These people have to make a living.”

A man who works in retail, Jim Gresham, said he would understand a surcharge, given the rising cost of gas, and wouldn’t mind paying. “When I do take a cab,” he said, “I’m usually expensing it anyway.”

It’s not just cab drivers who are expressing concern about rising gas prices.

Today, the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, is scheduled to call on Albany to give the city the authority to set a per-gallon tax rate on gas, so that gas taxes here don’t climb as gas prices continue to rise.

Meanwhile, a Queens member of the council who is chairman of its Committee on Transportation, John Liu, plans to announce legislation to prevent price gouging by gas stations.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said the Department of Consumer Affairs was closely monitoring gas stations to make sure there is no price gouging.

“The bottom line is it’s very expensive, and incidentally, the city buys a lot of gasoline too,” the mayor said. “It’s expensive for everybody even if you don’t have a car. You’re paying for part of it.”