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California moves toward ban on gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Georgina Rudkus, Oct 11, 2021.

  1. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    California moves toward ban on gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers - Los Angeles Times

    California moves toward ban on gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers
    BY PHIL WILLONSTAFF WRITER
    OCT. 9, 2021 6:32 PM PT

    SACRAMENTO —
    California will outlaw the sale of new gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and chain saws as early as 2024 under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.

    The law requires all newly sold small-motor equipment primarily used for landscaping to be zero-emission — essentially to be battery-operated or plug-in — by that target date or as soon as the California Air Resources Board determined it is feasible. New portable gas-powered generators also must be zero-emission by 2028, which also could be delayed at the discretion of the state agency.

    Machinery with so-called small off-road engines also includes chain saws, weed trimmers and golf carts, all of which create as much smog-causing pollution in California as light-duty passenger cars, and reducing those emissions is pivotal to improving air quality and combating climate change, proponents of the law said.

    “It’s amazing how people react when they learn how much this equipment pollutes, and how much smog-forming and climate-changing emissions that small off-road engine equipment creates,” said Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), author of the legislation. “This is a pretty modest approach to trying to limit the massive amounts of pollution that this equipment emits, not to mention the health impact on the workers who are using it constantly.”


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    Berman said the state has set aside $30 million to help professional landscapers and gardeners make the transition from gas-powered equipment to zero-emission equipment, but an industry representative said that’s woefully inadequate for the estimated 50,000 small businesses that will be affected by the law.

    Andrew Bray, vice president of government relations for the National Assn. of Landscape Professionals, said the zero-emission commercial-grade equipment landscapers use is also prohibitively expensive and less efficient than the existing gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other small machinery. For example, a gas-powered commercial riding lawn mower costs $7,000 to $11,000, but its zero-emission equivalent costs more than twice that amount, he said.

    Another major expense will be batteries. Bray said a three-person landscaping crew will need to carry 30 to 40 fully charged batteries to power its equipment during a full day’s work.

    “These companies are going to have to completely retrofit their entire workshops to be able to handle this massive change in voltage so they’re going to be charged every day,” Bray said.
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    The National Assn. of Landscape Professionals is a bunch of crooked corporate operators that also opposed federal legislation for emission control devices on small engines in 2007. It would of cost $8 more to manufacture little mini cats for each small engine built and that was just too expensive for them... So sick of these fools! In some state they even go after people who mowing lawns / pull weeds in their neighborhood for not being "certified" by them (aka: pay dues) as a matter of state law.

    Meanwhile, your average mow and blow gardening service that stops by your house for less than an hour create more of the worst toxic engine pollution than you create driving your prius on a 500+ mile drive. As in the type of air pollution we were creating in the 1970's is where the landscaping industry still is! As if they're somehow forever exempt from air pollution laws?
     
    #2 PriusCamper, Oct 11, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2021
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Maybe sometimes extension corded tools would work, though they seem to be a neglected sector, hard to find.
     
  4. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Not hard to find. They still sell the corded string trimmer and the leaf blower that I got five years ago at Home Depot.

    I was at the local Home Depot a few days ago. They had a lot of new battery powered walk behind mowers, leaf blowers and trimmers. They are not carring but one or two gasoline models.
     
  5. burrito

    burrito Active Member

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    BS. No one is going to buy that many batteries. I foresee a crew showing up and plugging in their chargers on your dime while they do your house, then they'll swap batteries on the way to the next house.
     
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  6. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Not locally.
    I have a corded leaf blower, push mower, chainsaw, and weed whacker....all in regular use in my "city" house.
    The mower and weed whacker were cast-offs whose original owners went back to the REAL "wireless" life - but if you live in a subdivision and only have to keep up with a third of an acre's worth of real estate??

    They're GREAT!

    However (comma!)
    I also have 5 acres in the county....and cords only get you so far across the yard, and approximately ZERO PERCENT of the local landscaping companies are foolish enough to use cords and batteries for ALL of the reasons that should be pretty obvious.
    They don't mow, trim, edge, and whack weeds for the pleasure of working outdoors.....although that is a fringe benefit.

    They do it to make a profit.

    Battery powered lawn equipment faces even more of the square-peg, round-hole challenges that nettle BEVs.

    Buuuut hey....
    California.
    Go figure.

    Welcome to the land of unintended consequences.
    California utility companies already face mammoth capacity problems and one of them killed more people in a single incident than anyone has ever managed to do with a banned "assault rifle" and......they did so WHILE ON PROBATION for PREVIOUSLY killing people in like manner.
     
    #6 ETC(SS), Oct 12, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
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  7. privilege

    privilege Active Member

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    that's a pretty weak law, banning gas powered stuff. instead of walking in eggshells,

    they should have banned lawns and landscaping all together.

    you know, for the environments sake.

    oops, that would have an incredible effect on the environment, immediately.... but we all know this has nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with money
     
  8. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Actually...banning lawns and landscaping altogether IS something of a leftist talking point already.

    However (Comma!!)
    If you want to fit 18,000,000 people into a few coastal counties that really are not suited to sustain even a tenth of that number then things sort of get a little messy.
     
  9. privilege

    privilege Active Member

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    cool, it will be a really interesting science/social experiment when lawn (watering/fertilizing/mowing/etc) is banned over there.

    I'll just watch from way way way over here, and see how it goes for them.
     
  10. Colorado Boo

    Colorado Boo Active Member

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    Hey, I know, let's let environmental folks tell us we can do any fire mitigation work (removing old trees, etc.) from our forests and then sit and watch forest fires push over 90 million metric tons of CO2 up into the air! Oh, and let's also tell power companies they can't bury their cables, too, so their power lines also help start fires. But, yes, let's ban little 2-stroke engines and use batteries.
    The phrase, "stuck on stupid" surely fits for these California politicians.
    Speaking of which, 25% of California Democrats voted to recall Newsome yet he actually got 10% MORE votes in the recall election then he did when re-elected last time....how does THAT happen? (Ballot stuffing? Hundreds of thousands of dead people voting?)
     
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  11. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    "Ballot harvesting" did play a role, but Newsom survived the recall effort because (a) 60 percent of the people in the state ARE DEMOCRAT. They have a supermajority in the state legislature. Their congress critters are MOSTLY dems, and even their few repubs would be branded as wild-eyed liberals in most red states.
    Also (b) Newsom's principle opponent, Laurence Allen (Larry) Elder is a conservative talk radio host who, frankly, was unequal to the task of being not-Trump.
    The only two things most people outside the PRC know about him are that he's non-white, and non-dem.

    NATIVE Californians know him a little better than that. ;)

    Lastly (c) DiFi makes our President look young, spritely, and whip-smart, and she's like...a decade older than he is. She wasn't around when California became the 31st US state, but I'll bet her parents were. :unsure:
    Unlike vacancies in the House, which are required by law to be filled by elections, the U.S. Constitution allows states to choose how to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate.

    California (like most other states) does so by Goobernatorial appointment until the next regularly scheduled election. :eek:
    That's why so much money flowed into the PRC from the DNC, and quite frankly it was a fairly easy fight for them to win.

    Tough luck, Larry.

    The shocking part is that the recall happened AT ALL and that it shook things up so badly when it did.
     
    #11 ETC(SS), Oct 12, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
  12. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Like the zero new ICE car mandate, this only happens when CARB deems it feasible, and the car bit isn't looking feasible in the declared time frame. Then some localities already have ICE tool bans there.

    Propane tools are an option in California. Not zero emission, but they are cleaner than the 2-cycle engines on the majority of hand tools. Probably better to start with requiring 4-cycle for all tools first. They are made, but the lobby against this will also be against that.
     
  13. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    How much of California's power comes from hydro-electric reservoir dams ?

    If the present trend continues, some areas might have to choose between having water come out of their taps.......or electricity come out of the outlets......when the reservoirs drop so low that you can't have both.
     
  14. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Your lungs and your health is not political. It doesn't choose air breathed in and out by Republicans, Democrats or Independents.

    Like COVID, it is not selective. It will kill anyone that it infects.

    Nature will always survive. Humans need a set of narrow environmental conditions to survive.

    Forest fires are in the natural cycle of clearing undergrowth brush and biological debris. Humans living there must accept this risk.

    I stopped using fuel powered lawn tools three years ago. All the battery powered tools are less costly to maintain and much more convenient and easier to use.

    The freedom to choose does not extend to poisoning and killing others. If I shot my gun inside my house and killed a child next door, I'd be responsible for negligence and manslaughter.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i love it! i wish they would ban them here. the noise pollution is worse than the air pollution.

    there's one guy around here set up with electric zero turn mowers and solar trailers. he's made a go of it, as there are lots of people who appreciate the progressive thinking. but he is limited in the size of the lawns he can mow
    quiet-crew
     
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  16. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Switched to “full EV” lawn care products two years ago and have not regretted it.

    TIP: Voltage matters; get the highest you can. My 80v products (mower, trimmer, blower, & chainsaw) that replaced old 36v tech and 2-strokes have no issues with anything we can throw at them. I got extra batteries so I don’t have to utilize the 30 min quick charges that the system was designed for and instead let them cool off and charge at night (for free under my electric plan). IOW, I have no “range issues”. ;)
     
    #16 fotomoto, Oct 12, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
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  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I like that; let your yard go a bit feral, drive less (if practical), and so on.

    We planted (or allowed to grow) a veritable multitude of trees when we acquired our suburban house, over 30 years back, and the “lawn” is mostly moss now, Edge trimming, phttt…
     
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  18. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Yep.

    Trees are nice and all, but sometimes they come with a down-range cost.
    Some landscapers will try to pull one over on Ma Nature by planting "purty" stuff instead of letting native species be your guide....

    Even then....if things like FIRE, WIND, ICE etc are part of nature's plan?
    Your non-natural stuff may get in the way of "progress"

    Actual mileage may vary.....
    upload_2021-10-12_11-53-35.jpeg
    [​IMG]
    (look at any picture of SoCal in the early 1900's......if you know? You know.....)
    [​IMG]


    Very true, but people on free soil should not be held back just because 18 million of our fellow citizens decided to pack themselves into three counties whose weather patterns are dominated by temperature inversions.
    Weather doesn't care either.

    Covid didn't kill me.
    As a matter of fact, I don't think I would even be banned by Alphabet if I suggested that many people who got the Rona actually might have survived it.

    Maybe even MOST of them.....;)

    Very true, and using the same argument, if you ran over your neighbor's kid while backing out of your driveway in a privately owned passenger car, you would also be responsible.

    However (comma!!)
    I do not think that we should BAN ALL privately owned passenger cars just because a relatively small number of people are not talented drivers, OR live in places where cars are more dangerous to operate than they are in almost ALL other places.

    Again....
    ACTUAL mileage WILL vary
     
    #18 ETC(SS), Oct 12, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yeah, too many trees around here. and grass and flowers and shrubs. asphault, one and done
     
  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    One of neighbours replace the whole front yard lawn with river stone. I suppose if that caught on in a big way there'd stream beds getting stripped?
     
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