{"id":48367,"date":"2023-04-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48367"},"modified":"2023-04-27T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T12:00:00","slug":"colorado-may-follow-ca-in-banning-gas-lawn-equipment-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48367","title":{"rendered":"Colorado may follow CA in banning gas lawn equipment in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colorado is considering a regulation that would ban noisy, polluting gas-powered lawnmowers and leafblowers in the state as of 2025. It\u2019s similar to a California rule which goes into place in 2024<\/a>, but Colorado\u2019s goes even further and would ban government and commercial use, along with sales.<\/p>\n

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Gas-powered lawnmowers and leafblowers are surprisingly big polluters because most run on two-stroke engines. Two-stroke engines are smaller and cheaper than four-stroke engines but are also tremendously more polluting because they exhaust tiny particles of unburned fuel into the air.<\/p>\n

A commonly cited statistic states that running a two-stroke engine for an hour emits as many harmful air quality pollutants as much as driving a passenger car 1,100 miles. Cars still emit more global warming pollutants, but for air quality, two-stroke lawn equipment is much worse.<\/p>\n

For this reason, many air quality agencies see these \u201csmall off-road engines\u201d as low-hanging fruit for regulation. Colorado already offers vouchers for the exchange of dirty lawn equipment<\/a>, giving monetary incentives to residents and businesses to upgrade to cleaner, easier-to-maintain electric lawn equipment. Even though this comes at a cost to the government, there\u2019s so much air quality benefit that it\u2019s a good use of public money.<\/p>\n

To say nothing of the noise pollution those engines cause, which is even more disruptive given the recent trend towards work-from-home for many professionals.<\/p>\n

So Colorado\u2019s Regional Air Quality Council is thinking about implementing a ban on the use of these dirty engines, which could go into place as early as 2025. The ban would likely go into effect statewide and affect not only sales of handheld gas-powered units but also a government and commercial use ban, though residential users would likely be exempted from the ban.<\/p>\n

While a two-year timeline for implementation seems rather sudden, RAQC believes that by sending this signal now, commercial operators would have time to start replacing their units early. Since these units are used all day long, they often have a pretty high turnover rate. If businesses start replacing their gas-powered equipment now, they won\u2019t suddenly have to replace everything the day the ban goes into effect.<\/p>\n

Plus, Colorado\u2019s Northern Front Range \u2013\u00a0the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, the region that includes Denver and areas north of it, which is the area the RAQC is in charge of \u2013\u00a0is in \u201csevere\u201d nonattainment of EPA pollution rules<\/a>, which means they have to work fast to get into compliance before a 2026 EPA deadline.<\/p>\n

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Lawn & Garden contributes 36% as much ozone as *all vehicles combined* in Colorado\u2019s most populous areas or 29% as much as all oil & gas operations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A ban on small lawn equipment is a lot easier to organize than large regulations on cars or on the state\u2019s oil & gas industry (which is concentrated north of Denver), which both face organized industry opposition. Though, there is work happening on both<\/a> of those<\/a> separately.<\/p>\n

RAQC is considering putting a minimum size on the commercial ban and exempting very small businesses. It would also likely not apply to larger equipment, like ride-on mowers, as these typically have a longer service life and use four-stroke engines and therefore are paradoxically less polluting than their smaller handheld cousins.<\/p>\n

And while residents likely wouldn\u2019t see a ban, the benefits of switching to electric lawn equipment are significant for residential use. Since we spend so much of our time in residential areas, the benefits of better air quality and lower noise pollution are even more important to attain in those areas.<\/p>\n

So, commercial gardening services working in residential areas would be affected by the ban, but your neighbor wouldn\u2019t have to stop using their old weed whacker two times a month \u2013\u00a0but they might want to, for their own health.<\/p>\n

Enforcement is still an open question, but this is one reason RAQC is thinking about recommending this ban statewide rather than just in the Northern Front Range area. It\u2019s easier to standardize the ban over a larger area than have a patchwork of local or regional rules.<\/p>\n

The RAQC is a government-created board comprised of government leaders and local elected officials. The board recommends plans to Colorado\u2019s Department of Health and Environment\u2019s Air Quality Control Commission and writes the state\u2019s implementation plans for air quality.<\/p>\n

While the plan has not been officially proposed or voted on yet, the board seems to be in agreement that this regulation would be an easy way to reduce harmful pollutants at a low cost and is likely to recommend implementing something similar to what is being discussed. The board\u2019s official vote should happen in the next couple of months, after which it moves on to the Colorado government to implement as a regulatory process.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in Colorado (or anywhere else that has air), check out\u00a0Electrek<\/em>\u2018s \u201cGreen Deals\u201d<\/a>\u00a0section, where we periodically post green tech deals. You\u2019ll 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, too. And check with your state\u2019s clean air regulator to see if any rebates are available \u2013 here\u2019s Colorado\u2019s page<\/a> (and here\u2019s California\u2019s<\/a>), but there may be incentives available if you live in another state too.<\/p>\n

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FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Colorado is considering a regulation that would ban noisy, polluting gas-powered lawnmowers and leafblowers in the state as of 2025. It\u2019s similar to a California rule which goes into place in 2024, but Colorado\u2019s goes even further and would ban government and commercial use, along with sales. Gas-powered lawnmowers and leafblowers are surprisingly big polluters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}