California bans the SALE of gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers after 2024

[Doug Garson]

Semantics huh.

Viable to me means, capable of completing the job in an efficient manner.
So no, a small machine may complete the task but the time lost and additional wear and tear plus the additional fuel on an undersized machine makes it less viable.
A larger machine as you described, is just as bad, thus making it also less viable.

The machine (whatever it is) should be as closely sized to the job it's intended to do within reason.
I don't mow my field with my 21" push mower, it would takes hours, overwork the machine and burn lots of fuel. that mower is for the lawn.
I mow the field with the 60" mower and my tractor but I can't use it on the lawn due to maneuverability, weight, and size.
The right sized tool for the job
Not too difficult a concept to grasp.

The law in CA leaves those in the middle of the extremes with less, and yes more expensive, options.

(Fuel is either battery or gas, you need to recharge batteries and you electricity isn't free)

OK but as stated earlier, the ban is only on the sale, not the use and don't commercial grade machines have useful life spans of 4 to 5 years so there is lot's of time to fill in the gap.
Does your definition of an efficient manner include any consideration for the environmental or health impacts?

[Bill Dufour]

Not sure about mowers but tractors have actual legal test methods to rate horsepower. Not like Sears air compressor and lawn tractor hp claims. There may be a race to claim reduced hp to get under the limit.
Interesting with the 25-35 Hp exemption. I do not remember if it is 25 or 35 hp and up tractors are retroactively smog lawed. No way a 50 year old diesel will meet tier 4 laws.
Bill D
edit: 25 hp and up must meet tier 4 standards regardless of build date.
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fac...t-requirements

[Doug Garson]

Why do you think Toyota, the largest car maker in the world didn't jump on the EV craze?Because we're not ready, the technology isn't there to make it a smooth transition. They didn't see the need to suffer from all the turmoil a gap in the system would cause. While they've continued to make hybrids ubiquitous, they also research and develop battery only tech (they have 3 models available.

Yes Toyota is the largest car manufacturer with about 10% of world sales but EVs represent 18% of world sales. Toyota thinks hydrogen is the future and world wide sale of hydrogen vehicles fell 30% last year while EV sales rose 35%. So, no guarantee Toyota has made the correct decision.

[Stan Calow]

I had one of those air-pump equipped smog motor cars in the '70s. It was a POS that got 11 mpg. Imagine if, the Big Three carmakers had before then, had the foresight to start working on smaller more fuel efficient and cleaner engines, like their world competitors had been doing fro years. Would they have done anything without government intervention, or would the free market have them sold out to Toyota, Fiat, & Volkswagen during the first energy crisis. Old thinking needed the push of representative government.

And I remember why. People forget what smog looked like and how the brown clouds over most cities, especially LA, had us choking. No telling how many people had disease and early death from that air pollution, and those numbers not included in auto-makers cost/benefit analysis. Costs just passed on to the public.

I think the answer to gas powered lawn care vs electric is to change the way we live so to make lawn care unnecessary, not just replace one expensive energy source with another. And any argument that just assumes that oil prices are going to stay low forever with the right politicians, is foolishness.

[glenn bradley]

Interesting in 30+ posts, there have been few if any posts on the benefits of eliminating gas powered landscape equipment.

When the next leap in battery tech occurs it will be less of an issue. Any professional lawn care person can tell you that an electric blower is not a 700 MPH blower. This development is yet another attempt by our current governor to prove to the other states that we are as crazy as they say we are. When you want to wear shorts and sandals for Christmas, surf in the morning, and ski in the afternoon you have to pay a price. Sometimes with your dignity.

[Pat Germain]

I think the answer to gas powered lawn care vs electric is to change the way we live so to make lawn care unnecessary, not just replace one expensive entry source with another. And any argument that just assumes that oil prices are going to stay low forever with the right politicians, is foolishness.

This!

When I lived in Virginia, my next door neighbor had a really nice back yard with lots of trees, flowers and a big vegetable garden. He didn't want to bother with his front yard. One day he brought home what looked like a tennis ball can. The label read, "Meadow in a Can" and had a shaker top. My neighbor simply walked around his front yard and shook out the contents. Then, "Ka-Boom!" his front yard was covered in wild flowers and many other plants. I thought it was cool. I don't recall it lasting very long, but I think he was onto something.

[Edward Weber]

I'm all for eliminating about 1/2 of the lawns for other forms of flora.

[Doug Garson]

I often wonder what those who have acres of lawn to maintain use them for. I can understand having acres of grass to feed livestock or horses but then you don't need to cut it. So for those of you with acres of lawn, and spend thousands of dollars a year to maintain, what do you use it for?

[Tom M King]

Here it's rental lake house properties where people expect nice lawns on the lake for kids to play on between the house and the lake, golf practice area, ideal surface on our type of ground for riding horses-less trouble to cut grass than keep dust down and drag sand riding rings, and the ideal and expected surface for large groups of people to attend outdoor weddings on, plus a couple of dog yards. We have very little around our house, but if we let it grow up in woods it would be impossible to keep the bug pests at bay. We have about 10 acres under short grass, and I can't think of a better surface for that ground for what it's used for. None of it is just there for the way it looks.

That doesn't include the pastures that still need to be clipped or trees and weeds would take over. It needs to be maintained too, but nothing like a lawn. We only needed to feed our horses a few bales of hay each the past few Winters as our Winters are getting shorter. Pasture grass is not something to ignore or you end up with stuff growing that won't nourish the horses. There is no happier horse than one grazing on good grass. They don't just eat anything like other animals.

[Malcolm McLeod]

This!

When I lived in Virginia, my next door neighbor had a really nice back yard with lots of trees, flowers and a big vegetable garden. He didn't want to bother with his front yard. One day he brought home what looked like a tennis ball can. The label read, "Meadow in a Can" and had a shaker top. My neighbor simply walked around his front yard and shook out the contents. Then, "Ka-Boom!" his front yard was covered in wild flowers and many other plants. I thought it was cool. I don't recall it lasting very long, but I think he was onto something.

…then the HOA fined them, the city cited them for ‘failure to maintain’, and the neighbors stopped inviting them the neighborhood Christmas party (for wrecking property values).

[Doug Garson]

Funny how society insists that a boring, pristine, golf course like lawn which requires substantial use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer and water and is a wasteland for wildlife is good, while a more natural planting of native wildflowers, ornamental grasses and shrubs which require minimal maintenance and helps wildlife thrive is bad.

[andrew whicker]

I don't think people think flowers etc are bad.. i assume they think flowers and other perennials are hard to maintain.

Every year since I've owned me house (8 years) I've torn out more and more lawn to replace with flowers and plants.

I get all kinds of compliments. And it's super fun to watch the bees gather pollen. It's fun to see the changes season to season. And my oldest plants basically out compete all the weeds at this point so in my strip between the road and the sidewalk I don't hardly have to weed!

Weeding my cactus garden however is literally painful.

Lawns are nice for dogs and laying around in, but even then you can use clover etc and let it look a lot more natural.

I can't imagine having a turfed out lawn. It would be so boring.

However I can't imagine the money it would cost to landscape an acre. But it would be fun to nip away at year after year.
.

[Tom M King]

We have wild woods 20 feet from one side of our house and on the other side of a shop. Plenty of wildlife thriving. We have two herds of deer, some of everything, and just last week a Mama red fox was sitting out beside my shop watching four half grown kits playing. When clipping one of the trails yesterday, I gave a turtle laying eggs a wide berth in the middle of one of the wide trails. I don't think it would work out too good in cities.

Sorry, too late to right a phone picture:

[Bill Dufour]

What seems really bad to me is the lawns in the middle or right next to a busy road. Does the city really want little kids running on that lawn in the middle of the main street and lawnmower people running across traffic to get there?
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

For some reason on facebook I see a lot of ex military truck things for sale. Most are diesel. I very much doubt any of them were ever street legal. questionable bumpers, no smog stuff, never crash tested, no air bags. Even the headlights and brake lights probably do not meet standards.
Not a question if they could meet the standards just the maker never bothered to perform all the required tests to get a certificate. I understand crash testing requires 10-20 complete vehicles to be totalled by some independent lab.
Bill D