On Thursday, the House Committee on Climate, Energy & Environment passed House Bill 2067, which would establish a rebate program for electric leaf blowers with a bipartisan vote of 10-2. This new incentive program could whack away at the large amount of air and noise pollution caused by gas powered leaf blowers and encourage the switch to cleaner and quieter electric leaf blowers.
In 2023, Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center and OSPIRG Foundation, released a report, Lawn Care Goes Electric: Why it’s time to switch to a new generation of clean, quiet electric lawn equipment, which provided an analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data from their National Emissions Inventory. The report found that lawn and garden equipment in Oregon emitted an estimated 374 tons of harmful “fine particulate” air pollution in 2020 – an amount equivalent to the pollution emitted by more than four million typical cars over the course of a year. To put that in perspective, there are 3.2 million passenger vehicles currently registered in Oregon.
All of this unnecessary pollution imposes a significant health cost. The pollutants emitted by gas-powered lawn equipment include fine particulates (PM2.5), ozone-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and air toxics such as benzene, 1,3-butadiene and formaldehyde. Exposure to these pollutants in our air is linked to health problems including asthma attacks, reproductive ailments, mental health challenges, cancer and even premature deaths.
The good news is that cleaner, quieter electric lawn equipment is capable, affordable and readily available. Electric lawn equipment has emerged as an attractive alternative to highly polluting gas-powered tools. Electric lawn mowers, leaf blowers, trimmers and chainsaws are easy to find at local retailers. Electric lawn equipment is often comparable in quality and performance to gas-powered equipment, is far quieter and produces reduced vibration – making it healthier and safer to use.
To help with the intial higher initial price tag for electric leaf blowers in particular, House Bill 2067 would create an incentive program for commercial operators to help them afford the switch to quieter, less polluting electric leaf blowers.
The bill now heads to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means for consideration.
