California residents who hate the noisy drone of lawnmowers are in luck. In October, Gov. Newsom signed a bill aimed at phasing out the sale of gas-powered lawn equipment by 2024.
The engines in lawnmowers are small, but they release carbon pollution. And many gas-powered tools also emit other air pollutants that harm people’s health.
The California Air Resources Board estimates that running a commercial leaf blower for one hour can emit as much smog-forming pollution as driving a car more than 1,000 miles.
Dan Mabe is with the American Green Zone Alliance. He’s spent years informing homeowners and landscapers about the benefits of electric lawn equipment.
“Some are not health-related or noise-related at all. It’s just simply convenience of not having to deal with the gas, the tune-ups,” he says. “It’s just more simple and more convenient to use.”
He says many people are already going electric. And he hopes the new law provides an opportunity to get more people in California and beyond aware of the benefits and excited to make the switch.
“I think that it could be a transformative change,” he says.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media