Climate Column: A shift to cleaner air and quieter mornings
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NATASHA JULIANA
FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER
July 26, 2023, 12:03PM
Do you have a SORE? If you don’t, your neighbor probably does. Small off-road engines, appropriately called SOREs, are deeply wounding both people and planet. We’re talking about the ubiquitous use of gas-powered landscape equipment like lawn mowers, string trimmers, and leaf blowers. Ahh, the sweet sounds of Saturday morning!
The first time I used a leaf blower, I thought I was doing something wrong. Why was so much dust blowing up in the air and coating both my patio furniture and my lungs? And now that the leaves were on the move, where should I send them? Off the sidewalk and into the road with the hopes that a street cleaner will pick them up and deliver them to the landfill? Then I can buy expensive “mulch” in a plastic bag to spread back over the barren ground. Was this really a smart idea?
But it makes my front yard more beautiful to have a trimmed lawn and a leafless pathway, one might argue. The sign of a well-kept home is the absence of debris. Blow away any trace of nature and you are being a good neighbor. Or are you?
Petaluma resident Michael Shapiro is a writer who has covered the pain of SOREs for the Sierra Club, among other publications. In our conversation, he equated the necessary culture shift to that of cigarette smoke. “People have the right to breath clean air and not the secondhand smoke of your leaf blower.” Shapiro also pointed out that this equipment can reach 100 decibels, a noise level that could easily get the cops called for disturbing the peace if it was music from a party.
If you are reading this article, you probably have an interest in things like clean air and climate stability. Here are two fun facts to bring up at your next dinner party:
In just one hour, a commercial, gas-powered leaf blower emits pollution equal to driving a Toyota Camry 1,100 miles! (And all of that pollution is concentrated right outside your home.)
Gas leaf blowers, generators, and lawnmowers emit more air pollutants statewide than California’s 14 million cars! (So if you’ve already made the switch to a cleaner vehicle on the road, make sure you aren’t still a gross-polluter in your yard.)
Steve DeLue is part of G Street Action, a small group of civically-minded neighbors who asked, “What could we do to improve the environment in a substantial way at our age?” DeLue explains that with an average age of seventy, these old activists were looking for low-hanging fruit. Advocating for a move away from gas-powered leaf blowers seemed like a no-brainer. “If we can’t do this, what can we do?” he wondered.
G Street Action had a table at our Cool Petaluma Expo in May and collected 168 signatures in under three hours on their petition to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, which they presented to Mayor McDonnell. They’ve also made public comments to City Council, receiving strong encouragement from Councilmembers Janice Cader Thompson and Dr. Dennis Pocekay. (You, too, can add your support by simply emailing a general public comment to cityclerk@cityofpetaluma.org.)
With an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, the City of Petaluma could use the sizable impact this one small change could bring. Other cities have already established ordinances banning the use of some SOREs equipment, including Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Mill Valley, Palo Alto, Sonoma, Tiburon, and many others. And the City of Petaluma, itself, has already begun to make the transition, with the purchase of new electric landscape equipment for maintenance of city properties.
There are, of course, challenges to transitioning away from gas-powered equipment. In some cases, like the leaf blower, a shift in relationship to leaves or the revival of the good old-fashioned rake might actually be a cost savings. For all of our Cool Blocks out there, pooling resources to purchase shared electric equipment that can be passed around from neighbor to neighbor can save money and space in the garage. But for the many small business landscape companies in town, buying all new equipment is expensive and a leap of faith that the new technology will work just as well. Luckily, there are now high-quality options with strong financial incentives.
All of this got me wondering about my own landscape professional. Felix Lopez has been helping me out in the yard for almost fifteen years. His family owned and operated small business began in Petaluma decades ago and is now rebranding as La Costa Landscaping. It can be an awkward conversation to ask your long-time contractor about switching equipment. One person even told me they were “fired” as a customer by their gardener after asking them to use electric equipment. Using this article as an excuse to broach the topic, I asked Lopez what he thought about transitioning from gas to electric and, to my surprise, he exclaimed, “We’ve already ordered it!”
Turns out, the Lopezes have a longstanding relationship with Petaluma’s Larsengine Power Equipment, another family owned and operated business. Larsengine was the one to bring to their attention the upcoming 2024 statewide ban on gas-powered landscape equipment sales and took care of the ordering and application for the California Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive Project (CORE), which provides substantial incentives for small business or sole proprietor professional landscape services. Voucher amounts are based on 70% of Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) which means up to $400 off a backpack leaf blower, $1,250 off a walk-behind mower, and $12,500 off a ride-on mower!
It will take a few months to arrive, but the Lopez family business will soon have a new electric leaf blower, lawn mower, hedge trimmer, string trimmer, and chain saw! Plus a few extra batteries for backup power. Felix Lopez’s son, Carlos Lopez was excited about the transition, explaining that not only will the neighbors be happier with the quieter equipment, but they all will be healthier not breathing the fumes. He also looks forward to the added convenience of charging batteries at home rather than having to fill up at the gas station, a potential cost, time, and health benefit for the family. “The conversation about pollution has been around for a long time,” Carlos Lopez recognized. “Now it’s just about making the transition.”
Natasha Juliana is the Campaign Director for Cool Petaluma. She can be reached at natashaj@coolpetaluma.org For information on how to get involved, visit coolpetaluma.org
For more information, Sonoma Clean Power’s Advanced Energy Center website has a recorded webinar called Take Charge: Switching to Electric Yard Tools.