Colorado is considering a regulation that would ban noisy, gas-polluting lawn mowers in the state starting in 2025. It’s similar to a California rule set to take effect in 2024, but Colorado’s goes even further and would ban government and commercial use. along with sales.
Lawn mowers and gas leaf blowers are surprisingly big polluters because most of them run on two-stroke engines. Two-stroke engines are smaller and cheaper than four-strokes, but they are also enormously more polluting because they exhaust tiny particles of unburned fuel into the air.
A commonly cited statistic states that running a two-stroke engine for one hour emits as many pollutants harmful to air quality as driving a passenger car 1,100 miles. Cars still emit more global warming pollutants, but for air quality, two-stroke turf teams are far worse.
For this reason, many air quality agencies view these “small off-road engines” as low-hanging fruit for regulation. Colorado already offers vouchers for dirty lawn equipment trade-ins, giving residents and businesses monetary incentives to upgrade to cleaner, easier-to-maintain electric lawn equipment. Although this comes at a cost to the government, there are so many benefits to air quality that it is a good use of public money.
Not to mention the noise pollution these engines cause, which is even more disruptive given the recent trend towards working from home for many professionals.
So the Colorado Regional Air Quality Council is considering implementing a ban on the use of these dirty engines, which could go into effect in 2025. The ban would likely go into effect statewide and it would affect not only sales of gas hand-held units, but also a ban on government and commercial use, although residential users would likely be exempt from the ban.
While a two-year timeframe for implementation seems rather sudden, RAQC believes that by sending this signal now, commercial operators would have time to start replacing their units early. Because these units are used throughout the day, they often have a fairly high turnover rate. If companies start replacing their gas-powered equipment now, they won’t have to replace everything suddenly the day the ban goes into effect.
Additionally, Colorado’s Northern Front Range, the eastern end of the Rocky Mountains, the region that includes Denver and areas north of it, which is the RAQC’s area of responsibility, does not meet EPA pollution standards “severely,” meaning they must work quickly to meet them before the EPA’s 2026 deadline.
A ban on small lawn equipment is much easier to organize than major regulations on cars or the state’s oil and gas industry (which is concentrated in north Denver), both of which face an organized industry opposition. However, both are being worked on separately.
The RAQC is considering putting a minimum size on the trading ban and exempting very small businesses. Nor is it likely to apply to larger equipment such as ride-on mowers, as these tend to have longer lifespans and use four-stroke engines and are therefore paradoxically less polluting than their smaller handheld cousins .
And while residents probably wouldn’t see a ban, the benefits of switching to electric lawn equipment are significant for residential use. As we spend much of our time in residential areas, the benefits of better air quality and less noise pollution are even more important to achieve in these areas.
So commercial gardening services working in residential areas would be affected by the ban, but your neighbor wouldn’t have to stop using his old weed trimmer twice a month, but he might want to, for their own health.
Enforcement is still an open question, but that’s one of the reasons RAQC is considering recommending such a statewide ban rather than just the North Front area. It is easier to standardize the ban over a larger area than to have a patchwork of local or regional rules.
The RAQC is a government-created board made up of government leaders and local elected officials. The board recommends plans to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment’s Air Quality Control Commission and drafts the state’s implementation plans for air quality.
Although the plan has not yet been officially proposed or voted on, the board seems to agree that such a regulation would be an easy way to reduce harmful pollutants at a low cost, and is likely to recommend implementing something similar to the ‘is arguing. The board’s official vote should take place within the next two months, after which it will go to the Colorado government to implement as a regulatory process.
If you’re in Colorado (or anywhere else with air), check it out Electrekin the “Green Deals” section, where we regularly post deals on green technology. You’ll find deals on electric lawn equipment quite often, so save yourself a few bucks while helping to save the lungs and ears of your neighborhood. And check with your state’s clean air regulator to see if rebates are available—here’s the page for Colorado (and here for California), but there may also be incentives if you live in another state.
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