Representative Jerry Newton (D-Coon Rapids) and Representative Heather Edelson (D-Edina), introduced new legislation that would adopt a California-style ban on the sale of new gas-powered lawn equipment in Minnesota by January 1, 2025. The bill applies to lawnmowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, lawn edgers, string trimmers, and brush cutters if the engine is smaller than 25 horsepower.
According to Bob Vila’s website, this would effectively outlaw any push-mower that is gas-powered, and it would impact most riding lawnmowers, which use engines topping out at 24 horsepower, as well.
The Hippies were bushy too!
California = one big stinky bushy hippy tripping on drugs.
Hippies are people who sell soap, but don’t use it.
Next they will come for your gas powered margarita blender.
This is the same place that keeps electing the likes of llhan Omar. Don’t expect it to get any better.
Ilhan Omar won the 2022 General Election 74.3% to 24.5%.
She almost lost the Democrat Primary to Don Samuels a long term old line DFL politician. Don is a former Minneapolis City councilman and African American that opposed the defund the police movement, and the Mpls City Charter Amendment that would have eliminated the MPD. He also sued the city to make them hire the number of police required by the City Charter. Minneapolis has about 550 officers, and the population numbers require 741 officers. The mayor fought the lawsuit all the way to the MN Supreme court and lost at every level.
She won 50.3% to Samuel’s 48.2%.
@Sentient – Sure, there are plenty of things most of us personally find offensive regardless of practicality. Search your own household inventory for things you believe are “bees knees” and then wait for your neighbours to decide you don’t need it in the future. AKA firearms perhaps? Maybe just that cool Road Runner you invested 60K to cruise around on weekends.
The list is endless until “you will own nothing and be happy”.
Sarcasm alert. Fight fire with fire. Save the world by forcing the fashion industry to cut all textile production by half. Plow under half of all vinyards in favor of growing real food. That ought to catch their attention.
That is why most lawn service companies will have to have gas generators on their trucks, to keep all the electric powered devices going. Then they’ll ban gasoline generators.
It’s so stupid…it’s the way the industry is going already. I bought my first electric push mower, and I have to say it’s way nicer. But I’m only running it for 20 minutes at a time.
More virtue signalling from the left. Put a ban in when they can see the way things are going, then pat themselves on the back when the market achieves what their law would before the law would achieve it. That’s what they did with the light bulbs.
Can’t wait for the customer’s reaction to work for an hour, recharge for two hours, work for an hour………………….
Yep, I like my battery powered push mower, chain saw, pole saw and ice auger. But no way will I go for a battery powered ATV, riding lawn mower, snowmobile and especially, not ever ever, a truck. If the governments just let the market alone, most small things will go battery powered because it makes sense. But larger? ICE all the way.
I’d bet that the train chemical burn released more into the atmosphere than every one of those little motors in the country over a year of time.
Well, I’m all for a 25 HP still legal lawn mower. Crank my snow blower up to 25 HP too, I’ll send the snow 3 blocks over….
Instead of smaller and more efficient, forced bigger and wasteful.
I’m sure 25hp riding lawnmowers would sell well too. Leaf blowers might be a bit too heavy though.
If I were a manufacturer of small engines or garden equipment, I’d slap an “Estimated 25 HP” sticker on all of my engines and add the actual HP rating to the part number (ie: xyz-4hp).
How ’bout one of these? More than 25hp by a margin…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=666v4d8tYU8
The East German Trabant had a 25 h.p. two stroke engine. Oh, the sights and sounds!
They make riding leafblowers as well. They used them at my last apartment complex. I dreamt of smashing both the blower and the operator to death with a hammer when I worked nights.
How the hell are they going to know if your small gasoline motor is 25HP or not? All they advertise is displacement these days. It PMO to no end.
It will be the retailers that comply … and the nosy neighbours who rat out those who buy out of state.
They will also be banning engine driven Zambonis next year.
I predict a great business opportunity for border town small engine sales and service businesses. You will probably see them set up just outside the MN border like all the Fireworks stands on the South Dakota and Wisconsin borders, or the Sportsbook Gambling Casinos in Iowa and Wisconsin.
If I had a MN based small engine business near a border, I would open a new business across the border, and think about closing my MN site.
“I’m no greenie but honestly the noise and stink of gas powered blowers and lawn mowers irks me to no end.”
This winter, as they all watched from the warmth & security of their living rooms, coffee mugs in hand, my urban neighbours likely had few issues with the noise & stink of either the gas powered snowblower or gas powered leaf blower I was using to clear off their sidewalks & walkways, often times in -24° C temperatures.
This kind of crap is why I moved from Commiesota to South Dakota in 2020. After 36 years of fighting the leftards, I crossed over into friendly territory. Commiesota can go to hell.
Have fun with that push reel!
They work great if your lawn is as smooth and level as a snooker table. So that eliminates every property within 1000 kilometres of me.
I guess we’ll all be outlaws sooner or later.
This push to battery powered devices is both foolish and dangerous.
First of all, the production of cobalt and lithium for batteries is devastating to the environment. Secondly, the damn things don’t work. Last night I was amused by the spectacle of one of my more prosperous neighbors trying to clear 4″ of light, fluffy snow from his driveway with a shiny, new, battery-powered snowblower. It was pathetically anemic, so it’s no surprise to me that he also pays for a snow removal service.
More importantly, the potential for dangerous garage fires is becoming enormous and needs to be confronted. The snowblower in question requires an enormous 15 Amp/hour, 56 volt battery pack in order to produce substantially less power than a 180cc gas engine. Now imagine thousands of suburban garages filled with aging, neglected, but very large batteries for the usual clutter of lawn mowers, weed whackers, hedge trimmers, and other power tools that home owners typically have.
After these tools have been around for a few seasons, intense, inextinguishable garage fires will become commonplace.
Virtue signalling is more important. Rent seekers make more money that way.
I have a commercial lawn care company. Last summer I was looking at a new push mower. The sales guy says “you should get our commercial electric model”. I mentioned I mow 20+ yards a day, the battery won’t last. He said “no problem, here is a vest of batteries that you wear and pretty well lasts the day “. I enquired how much that weighs, he said “only 18 lbs”. I asked how much for the vest? Only $1,100.00 plus the mower. I said it’s 36 degrees Celsius and 60% humidity, no thank you and triple the price…
Unbelievable
Another unthinking doofus who can’t think past the end of their own entitled feelings. He think’s it’s perfectly fine to threaten people with the guns of the State, just so he can be more comfortable. ‘Don’t annoy me, or I’ll have you killed.’
I was a bachelor with no driver’s license (bad eyesight) up until eight years ago, when I got married late in life. For some of the time as a bachelor I tried electric power lawn mowerrs of different types. All I can say is that they are a pain to use. Bought a gas mower eight years zho and it works like a chatm.
I’m sure one of the companies will come up with a jet turbine leaf blower that produces at least 25hp in short order, just to annoy these busybodies….
A shop vac Blows too!
Yup.
More horsepower.
Gang Green are evil,the evil of people who are so stupid they are a menace to all around them.
The kind of stupid that never tires of messing with other peoples businesses.
50 Hp gadgets will serve us all so much better,remove all those pollution control add ons and let the leaf blowers scream.
And keep that 350 Hp “Wood Chipper” idling along,as you await the pleasure of meeting an enforcer of such idiocy.
Grind them bones,to paste.
You are enhancing,fertilizing and protecting the environment.
And “they” volunteered.
OTOH … I am JUST NOW listening to my neighbor’s Guatemalan gardener running his gas powered leaf blower at speed-11 right next to my window. And what will really bake your noodle is that it’s been raining HEAVILY for the last 24hours. Every leaf is glued to the ground. Gawd Damned leaf blowers!
Green is the new Red.
Each jurisdiction seems to be feeding off the other.
Be it state (Canada – provincial) or municipal.
Gang Green are all networking with each other, smug as shit, as they ban everything.
And this isn’t going to plateau.
If anything, it’ll accelerate.
I’ve had corded electric mulching lawn mowers for the past 35 years, only because I find it more convenient. Plug it in and go. No raking,. No maintenance. They’re slower but that’s not an issue for me.
I also have an electric chain saw for use inside my shop. Nowhere near as good as my big gas powered Stihl chainsaw that I use outdoors.
And I have a gas powered garden tractor with front end loader and rototiller attachment as well as two gas powered walk-behind rototillers. And a tiny corded electric rototiller for going between the rows.
My wife’s car and my pick-up are both gas powered.
My point being – there’s a place for electric powered implements and vehicles if people want them. There’s no reason to require them.
I’m “jealous”
… an “indoor” chainsaw!? I’m not gonna ask … hahahaha ha ha
Minnesota, huh? Well then, how about including snow blowers? Or do gas engines only harm the environment in the summer?
A lawn fetish?.. Expand the patio and put in a raised garden or two.. Reduce the size of the lawn you keep..
I don’t mow often.. It can get long so I open up the side of my mower.. I never mulch because its hard on the engine.. Put on eye protection and fire up my 6.5 HP ICE and deal with the chore with 50% cutting passes.. My lawnmowers last 25 years..
A lawn in a pain in the rear end at the best of times.. When they are not banning weed killer they are banning the tool used to cut the weeds.. Lets crawl around on our hands and knee’s pulling out weeds and throw around 50 dollars worth of seed every season.. Then they ration water because why would you not?.. Lawns are a pain in the rear end..
If they are not dead they are dying or being taken over with weeds.. Neighbors who rent with 4 to 6 feet tall flowering weeds in their backyard.. Crownland that Justin Trudeau is going to mow because they sure aren’t..
To think I’m looking forward to spring to do it all again..
Hm. Emergency generators? Snow blowers? Snow machines, ice augers? Outboard motors? Chainsaws? Wood chippers? Yeah. Let’s take a vote on wood chippers – they’re real handy. Where was that movie Fargo set, again?
When you can’t take a tree down with a Stihl 024, Minnesota is no longer Minnesota.