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Posted on 01/10/2020 5:05:04 AM PST by karpov
The next frontier in California’s battle against pollution: lawn equipment.
State air regulators are laying long-term plans to phase out gasoline-powered devices like leaf blowers and lawn mowers, saying they can produce more noxious emissions than cars.
Plenty of Bay Area cities are already acting: At least eight have banned gas-powered blowers, and more restrict their use during times of day or up to a certain noise level. Novato may soon join the list.
“What I think we need to realize is that we have to do something different for climate change in the world,” said Novato Mayor Pro Tem Pat Eklund, who proposed a ban on gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers in December. “If not, we are going to see a different world than we do today. Every little bit is going to help.”
Such restrictions force people to use cleaner, quieter electric machinery instead. But they are not universally popular.
Jose Vaca, who owns Vaca Construction and Landscaping, which has locations in Novato and Petaluma, said he would have to buy up to five batteries — costing an average of $100 to $200 each — to finish jobs on large properties like homeowner associations or shopping centers. Electric leaf blowers would make tasks longer and more expensive, he said.
Vaca said he has already ended contracts in Mill Valley because of the city’s ban on gas-powered leaf blowers. If Novato implements a similar restriction, he’ll do the same.
“We would just start canceling more contracts and moving up north,” he said.
While cars produce more carbon dioxide, small engines can emit more of other problematic gases.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
i have no problem getting rid of obnoxious leafblowers.
I love my leaf blower.
I’ve cleaned entire olympic size tracks with it.
If you tried to take it from me or forbid me from using it, I’d be angry with you.
Landscaping services are going to double/triple their rates. Will be interesting how city parks departments are going to operate, and the cost factor for them over the next decade.
Hear,hear!
Gas powered or otherwise.
The insanity continues!!!!!!!!
Stupid; should have banned them on golf courses first.
All they do is move trash and debris from your property to another. A vacuum would be a better choice. Least that way it wouldn’t become airborne.
Soon they’ll have us all use scythes and goats to mow our lawns.
It’s a tool. Jobs need to be done. It’s the 21st century. Are you a Nanny stater??
First they came for the gasoline-powered devices like leaf blowers and lawn mowers, and I did not speak out...
They will get my Stihl backpack blower when they pry it from my cold dead shoulders.
I have freed myself from the tyranny and misery of 2 cycle engines. I simply threw them away.
My weed eater, leaf blower and lawn mower have batteries as the power source.
The fact I don’t have to pull and pull and cuss and cuss the small engine is life changing
Caveat: they don’t run for ever. The battery needs to be recharged at an interval that roughly coincides with my time for a rest
Mmm nope.
All my leaves are still right there on my lawn.
My blower blows cut grass back onto my lawn, it blows dirt from the dogs off my back porch back into the yard, and like I said I clean full size tracks with it so people can then skate on those tracks, which are outdoor.
Are people just going to assume what I do with my blower, and then tell me I can’t use it anymore?
No, I don’t think I’m going to have people do that.
CARB
The Radical Left wants this for the entire world.
Be afraid!
All of these communist bureaucrats need to be yanked out of their offices by their necks. Voting is so 2019.
As much as I like my battery-powered lawn equipment, no credible lawn service could possibly do all the jobs I see them doing in the more affluent parts of my town without gas-powered stuff.
I’ve cleaned entire olympic size tracks with it.What is an "olympic size track"?
And whose property do you blow your crap onto?
I bought a professional leaf blow. (I wrote down the model # of the unit a professional Mexican was carrying). Sent away to amazon for it. I haven’t seen it in years. Don’t know the make off hand. My kids do it for me. It’s in a shed I haven’t been in for about a year.
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