Posted on 12/11/2006 6:42:59 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency granted California long-awaited permission Monday to slash emissions from lawnmowers and other small-engine machines, a change it will seek nationally next year.
The EPA waiver will allow the nation's most populous state, starting Jan. 1, to require highly polluting small engines to be sold with catalytic converters that cut smog emissions by roughly 40 percent.
"The emission standards we are considering would reduce smog-forming pollutants from lawn mowers by over 40 percent when fully implemented," said Bill Wehrum, EPA acting assistant administrator for air and radiation. "EPA approved the California waiver request because new, cleaner engines can safely reduce emissions."
Engines under 50 horsepower account for 7 percent of smog emissions in California from mobile sources, the equivalent of about 3 million cars. The engines also power pressure washers and small generators, but the bulk are on lawnmowers.
The EPA action Monday ended several years of political dispute driven by Republican Sen. Kit Bond, whose state of Missouri is home to two factories owned by Briggs & Stratton Corp., the nation's largest small-engine maker.
Briggs & Stratton had resisted installing catalytic converters on its engines, and Bond had sought to block California from instituting its regulation. The state has unique authority under the Clean Air Act to set tougher pollution standards than the federal government, once it gets an EPA waiver.
Bond backed off under pressure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., but he did succeed in blocking other states from being able to copy California's rule, something the Clean Air Act normally allows. Instead, he required EPA to write a national standard.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
waiting for the illegal alien lawn mower joke...
Why not just ban lawnmowers altogether?
cut back on their jalapenos?
I think fairly soon, the enviornment is not going to be of much concern to anyone.
Oh I can't wait to take the mower in every year to register it, proving it's been smog certified before doing so.
This has more to do with state revenue than anything else. Of course there will fees involved.
I'm really getting tired of this nickle and dime stuff.
I wonder if the little Honda OPE engines will also have catalytic converters?
It will, of course, require a new department of government employees to enforce this lunacy. If you are in California, for God's sake, get out. Run, don't walk.
We can always go back to those push mowers with no engines. Remember them? Let's see....one week to cut the front , one week to cut the back yard..then start over. Hmmmm....
If your lawn mower is OVER 50 hp, you don't need a converter?
Mine is only 30 hp nominally, but with nitromethane and a nitrous injector it peaks out at 56hp...
waiting for the illegal alien lawn mower joke...
Replace lawnmowers with goats and park your cars on the grass that has not been eaten by the goats. We simply need to learn more from the illegals.
Everybody get a cow or several people share a cow to eat their grass-but wait, their gas hurts the ozone.
Hey Got a HEMI???
It is only a mattter of time before some poor flaming sod will try to fill the tank while the cat is hot, spill a little gas,...and the lawnmower maker will be sued out of business...
Assault Lawnmower, about to be banned in CA.
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