The NJ legislature is coming after your gas-powered leaf blower

2021-12-28 00:57:56 By : Mr. Steven Han

When you have people willing to twice elect a progressive governor like Phil Murphy, some Democrats in the legislative branch feel emboldened. They’ve come up with a terrible save-the-planet idea that will affect a lot of homeowners if it passes.

They want to ban gas-powered leaf blowers.

State Sen. Bob Smith’s S4273 would ban the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers statewide within a year of passage. Then would ban the use of any remaining ones after four years.

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Proponents of this garbage argue that these machines produce high rates of pollutants and point out the level of carbon monoxide put out by a car’s tailpipe over 8 hours is produced by a gas-powered leaf blower in just 1 hour. Yet the New Jersey Landscape Contractor Association notes machines like these must adhere to all federal emissions requirements before they can be sold.

A second bill in the Assembly, Assemblywoman Lisa Swain’s A6238, creates a rebate program for purchasing electric or battery-operated leaf blowers.

What an overreach. I’ve heard from friends in the landscaping business and generally from people in the know that electric leaf blowers aren’t as powerful and can be just as noisy. Noise has been cited as a reason several New Jersey towns banned or limited gas-powered leaf blowers recently.

Princeton banned them for most of the year. Montclair did the same. Summit passed a pilot program banning them. So the momentum is there.

This is a bad idea. It will serve as a great inconvenience to property owners and is another unfunded mandate to burden small business owners. Landscape companies forced to get rid of equipment and replace it with electric versions will be expensive and that expense will be passed on to the customers.

Haven’t New Jersey politicians made our state expensive enough as is? Will they not be satisfied until we are all on public assistance? And why only gas-powered leaf blowers? If this is truly about pollutants why aren’t they going after gas-powered everything else?

The more progressive this state gets the more disgusted I become.

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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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