Guest essay by Eric Worrall
California just banned the sale of gasoline powered backup generators, lawn mowers, small gas powered fire fighting pumps, and other small stationary engines, as part of their drive to reduce CO2 emissions.
Newsom signs law to eventually ban gas-powered lawn equipment in California
by: Associated Press
Posted: Oct 10, 2021 / 07:08 AM PDT / Updated: Oct 10, 2021 / 07:08 AM PDTCalifornia will soon ban the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers, a move aimed at curbing emissions from a category of small engines on pace to produce more pollution each year than passenger vehicles.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Saturday that orders state regulators to ban the sale of new gas-powered equipment using small off-road engines, a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment and pressure washers.
The California Air Resources Board has already started working on a rule to do this, a lengthy process scheduled to conclude early next year. But the law Newsom signed on Saturday removes any doubt, ordering the agency to apply the new rule by Jan. 1, 2024, or as soon as regulators determine is “feasible,” whichever date is later.
“Gov. .Newsom signing (this law) really sets a strong course to not only his commitment to transitioning to zero emissions but also to cleaner air and healthier lungs,” said Will Barrett, director of clean air advocacy for the American Lung Association in California.
…
Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/newsom-signs-law-to-eventually-ban-gas-powered-lawn-equipment-in-california/
A ban on gas powered lawn equipment would just be a serious inconvenience for most people, unless you have a very large lawn.
But the law bans a lot more than that.
AB-1346 Air pollution: small off-road engines.(2021-2022)
An act to add Section 43018.11 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to air pollution.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
AB 1346, Berman. Air pollution: small off-road engines.Existing law imposes various limitations on the emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and nonvehicular sources. Existing law assigns the responsibility for controlling vehicular sources of air pollution to the State Air Resources Board. This bill would require the state board, by July 1, 2022, consistent with federal law, to adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, as defined by the state board. The bill would require the state board to identify and, to the extent feasible, make available funding for commercial rebates or similar incentive funding as part of any updates to existing applicable funding program guidelines to local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to implement to support the transition to zero-emission small off-road equipment operations.
Read more: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1346
The text requires regulators to consider “… (E) Expected availability of zero-emission generators and emergency response equipment. …”, so there is no doubt they plan to cover backup generators and emergency fire fighting equipment if they can.
This is beyond serious. Imagine trying to fight the fire approaching your house, only to have a low battery light start flashing on your fire fighting water pump. Or someone who requires powered medical equipment, like oxygen generators or sleep apnea devices, struggling through an extended power outage without proper treatment for their health condition.
Gasoline powered equipment, barring a mechanical failure, works as long as you can keep it supplied with gasoline. But battery equipment needs power to recharge it. Where do you get more power, if the sky is covered with smoke or clouds, or the solar panels are covered in dust, snow or ash, and the power lines are down?
Obviously it is possible that regulators will embrace sanity on these issues, and provide sensible exceptions – but at this stage an outbreak of common sense is far from guaranteed.
These Greentard idiots just pushed the sale of those things for Californians across state lines to Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.
And destroying California’s small businesses one regulation at a time.
California has banned recreational gold dredging for a number of years now. This is the final nail in the coffin for anyone who was hoping that the ban might be rescinded.
The last time I checked, few landscaping companies or lawn mowing services use electric equipment. Some pols are going to get annoyed when their lawns don’t get mowed!
I use a battery powered hedge clippers because just cutting my bushes every few weeks during growing season can easily be done on one charge. But a commercial landscaper going to multiple jobs everyday, such a battery-powered device would need many battieres to get through a day’s jobs. And those big Li-ion batteres are expensive. So they all use gas powered hedge clippers, just like all their other powered tools.
The last house I owned that had hedges, the hedges averaged 8 feet tall, ran 40 yards down the side of the property and 20 yards across the front.
Clipping hedges took hours and if they had been ignored for too long, more than a day.
Around the same time, 1980s, I won a silly contest at Sears where my prize was a battery powered weed whacker.
Starting with a full charge, could, maybe, trim the flower bed edging along fifteen feet of flowers in my back yard. Older tall grass stems tended to snag the weedwhacker line, stopping the weedwhacker head from spinning and draining remaining battery power rapidly.
I gave that waste of space to a friend living in an apartment with a sand box sized green spot yard.
Perhaps you should try and again and see the difference that 40 years of battery improvement makes. I have an electric chainsaw that does everything I need it to in the garden without needing to be recharged. Plus the battery is modular meaning that (a) it fits multiple other tools and (b) you can easily buy a spare so there is always one fully charged and ready to go.
This seems a silly comment to downvote. There really has been a change in the quality and usefulness of battery powered tools in the last ten years. They are actually practical. the maintenance department at my plant hardly ever uses corded tools anymore. Sawsalls. Drills, Grinders. So nice not to have to string a hundred feet of power cord before you can start the job. Just walk to where you need to work and do it.
Again, using a battery powered tool for a job where time is not of the essence is understandable. However, you don’t want to take the risk that your battery will die in the middle of the job.
Idiot.
You obviously have a very small garden meaning you are an inner city dropkick and your opinion is as small and useless as your block.
Battery-powered tools have their place, but using them to take down trees quickly to create a fire break when the burning front is advancing on you is NOT one of them!
Cut down and dug out all the hedges too. Anything that is that high-maintenance does not last long at our house.
Yes, people aren’t so green that they would willfully ignore fitness to purpose.
I remember the old corded electric trimmers—invariably sooner or later the cords would get cut.
There is a reason for that. Go figure.
An expensive home development around a golf course wanted to get rid of the noise of landscaping equipment…the answer was fuel cell powered equipment…I am sure the costs went up but they could afford it. I am for the free market deciding…if someone wants electric…pay for it….no subsidy.
Milwaukee tools has a whole line of battery powered hand-held construction equipment. Massive rechargeable batteries. They are very useful on a small scale job sight. Fourteen Inch cement saw that can cut forty feet of six inch concrete on one charge. Same battery fits in various other pcs of heavy duty construction tools.
They are great when you don’t want, or need, to set up a generator and run a half mile of extension cord. Not so good on long sustained jobs where the tool has to function for hours and hours straight.
Imagine trying to fight the fire approaching your house, only to have a low battery light start flashing on your fire fighting water pump.
Out on our farm, the firefighting gear will all have neatly lettered signs on its gas tanks declaring ILLEGAL AND PROUD OF IT!
“…this has everything to do with destroying Western civilization to clear the path for a global government ruled by the self-proclaimed ruling elite, “
TOTALLY Agree…
this is the real reason that the billionaires are spending $$$millions on the proraganda of man made climate change…Power and Control…they own the media and therefore control the “news” that is presented.
I can only hope the real citizens of the USA come to their senses soon enough to shut this off…but I am becomming very skeptical
the reply was for the Jim Clarke statement…
This has zero to do with the climate or air pollution. This has everything to do with destroying Western civilization to clear the path for a global government ruled by the self-proclaimed ruling elite, with you as your slave. Imagine how lovely this world would be without these oligarchs. No imaginary climate change crisis. Now manufactured viruses. No lock downs. Very little debt. No hunger. Cures for most diseases. Freedom of speech. Freedom of travel, and so on. Almost all of our problems have been generated by a small collection of humans with a psychopathic desire for power and control. Gov. Newsome is one of them. You are not.
Because lawnmowers, backup generators, and fire pumps are major sources of CO2 emissions.
Leftists never need rational reasons to ban things.
Interesting timing, this comes out after the recall election and will be forgotten by the next election.
Remember, CA legalized and taxed (at 40%) Marijuana in the state but black market sales have never been better. They also passed a low carbon fuel tax to promote cellulosic ethanol but the technology never worked so they just collect the extra penalties in the price of gasoline.
A lot of Commenters have pointed out how easy it is to get around this but don’t be surprised when the state goes after the fuel which is less likely to be supplied by a black market vendor. I predict the state will go through with the ban, tax the fuel more aggressively and laugh all the way to the bank.
In simple terms, Newsom just told citizens of California to let their grass grow long, dry out and form incendiary paths to their houses.
Once again, leftist elites pass legislation that increases the burden to the lower classes.
How does California manage to elect governors that make Brown and Arnie seem almost sane.
The Nevada side of Lake Tahoe should start expanding their marinas now.
Soon, Californians will be banned from running their gasoline powered boats. So, Californians will move their boat registrations to marinas in Nevada.
Again, only people living in the lower economic tiers will be harmed.
Well Californians if you have had enough of the nonsense there, there are other states that would gladly welcome you on one condition, you leave all that California nonsense behind.
Nanci Piglosi has received several special Insider Stock Offerings that the average citizen does not get…one from Master Card….the old hag has gone from being worth over 100 million to over 300 million in the last 5 years. She is kin to Newscum. Just like the Klintons and Bidenos…another demrat crime family.
As a certain controversial web board poster correctly predicted:
“Soon they won’t be able to walk down the street.”
Where are the impact studies on the middle class, poor & small businesses…
I love my battery lawnmower. I will never go back to the gasoline mower ever again. The new ones are quite good. However, it requires electricity. Where is California going to get electricity when all their reliable sources of power are foolishly being shut down? You cannot cut your grass with an electric mower when the electric part is missing.
I suppose you could use one of those old timey rotary blades that you push around. What progress. Living like it is 1821 in 2021.
The battery powered mowers are sufficient for light to medium duty, on small to medium-sized lawns.
Progress is unqualified monotonic change: one step forward, two steps backward.
New technology is not always better. Sometimes it is a solution in search of a problem. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that it is “new.”
Yes, there are climate change refugees. But they are actually climate policy refugees in fact.
Gonna be hard to fight forest fires without chainsaws
Just wait until a Li-Ion battery pack on a chainsaw ignites and burns the forest.
Antisci
Just had a conversation with a friend of the family who said they were getting advising at the local college to go into geology medicine. It sounds like climate change mitigation studies. I need a ticket off this crazy planet.
I heard about that new field, but it was called Medical Geology.
Dr Stone, call your office- there’s a pet rock with covid.
Dr. Stone is a genius high school student in a Japanese Manga in an end of the world scenario where people were petrified and thousands of years passed. When he came out of his shell, literally, he has to try and use his knowledge of science to survive by building science fair type devices to generate power, move water, etc.
He’d do well in California.
When Kirk said “Beam me up, Scotty – there’s no intelligent life down here,” was he in California at the time?
Since they claim that there will be more and more wildfires “in a warming world” one may question the wisdom of limiting autonomous water pumps. I mean putting a fire pump on charge for a few hours may not be the best way to fight a wild fire. Assuming that the fire hasn’t already taken out the power lines.
As for the leaf blowers, they should just ban them outright. Damned stupid invention.
If you think leaf blowers are a stupid invention, you obviously don’t have much in the way of deciduous trees on your property.
For the longest time I never saw much use for a leaf blower. Raking/tarping or mowing/bagging usually takes care of the leaves just fine so why bother with a blower? But our side yard gets a ton of acorns from our neighbors old oak trees and nothing matches a leaf blower for getting those acorns out of the yard.
For several years after moving to the Midwest, I used a rake and tarp to move leaves from the front yard to the natural area behind my house. I have started using an electric leaf blower to gather up the large maple leaves in front and removing the hickory nut husks that the inconsiderate squirrels drop on the back deck. It saves a lot of time. And, I own a corded electric chainsaw. However, if I were a logger or fire fighter, I would consider a gas-powered chainsaw to be a necessity.
This is the same CARB that doesn’t care that there are a million motorcycles that have removed their smog equipment and probably pollute more than all the yard tools and generators.
Not only is Newsom out to destroy the power grid, he is forbidding you from having a viable back up system for when it goes down.
Maybe he wants everyone to transition to battery powered back up generators.
welcome to Hotel California
You can check in but you can never leave
looks like the Sierra Club members (dumb ?luney and P BrosXXn and there merry XXXXwhits) will be moving to Mexico or Oregon where they can still have there Gardeners and reliable power systems
Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man
“We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave!”
Hotel California, The Eagles, 1977
On a holiday in Italy, late one night (but not on a dark desert highway), I saw a sign for a Hotel California. I had to stay.
In the morning, I told my daughter that we’ll check out, and I hope we can leave. She had no idea what I was talking about. Luckily YouTube was available for education….
Excellent marketing!
These sorts of bans usually end up causing adverse effects. If you look at any poor country that suffers from poverty of any kind it’s usually the environment that suffers badly.
When I lived in the UK during the energy “crisis” of the 70’s, both the oil crisis and power crisis (Which was entirely manmade due to “industrial action”), my father used to “collect” wood pallets from a nearby industrial estate to burn in our fire as it had a back boiler so at least we had hot water for a part of the time. Luckily we had gas cooking facilities and a gas powered fridge.
CA is getting what it asked for by failing to recall Governor Hair Gel.
Time to build a wall to keep them all from migrating to the red states.
Just when you think the stupid can’t get any worse.
I guess CA doesn’t have any farmers using 25hp diesel irrigation pumps, or boaters with 25hp outboard motors….
If they do, they soon won’t.
“cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions” So no exhaust allowed. They don’t have an exhaust system that good anywhere.
open a shop at the border of Nevada … offer shipping …