On Saturday, California governor and climate hysteric Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1346 into law. The new law orders state regulators to ban the sale of any new small off-road gasoline-powered engines beginning in 2024.
Included in the ban are gas-powered lawn equipment, pressure washers, golf carts, and backup generators — pretty much any small engine that uses gasoline as a fuel source.
Without backup generators, California residents who experience the frequent blackouts that the state’s outdated and underpowered power grid will have to just rough it.
The new law states: “By July 1, 2022, the state board shall, consistent with federal law, adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, as defined by the state board. Those regulations shall apply to engines produced on or after January 1, 2024, or as soon as the state board determines is feasible, whichever is later.”
The bill’s author, Bay Area Democrat Marc Berman, calls the draconian new measure “pretty modest.”
“This is a pretty modest approach to trying to limit the massive amounts of pollution that this equipment emits, not to mention the health impact on the workers who are using it constantly,” Berman told the L.A. Times. “It’s amazing how people react when they learn how much this equipment pollutes, and how much smog forming and climate changing emissions that small off-road engine equipment creates.”
Berman claimed that running a small gas-powered engine for an hour was the equivalent of driving a vehicle 1,100 miles. The legislation provides no source for that claim.
It will also be amazing how people react when they can’t use their gas-powered water pump against an oncoming wildfire to save their home. It will also be amazing when people in need of powered medical equipment such as oxygen machines can’t rely on their gas-powered backup generators in the near-certain event of a power outage.
For that reason, according to State Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), the new law makes no sense.
“This Legislature hates fuel, which is very sustainable. It’s easy to access. And when the power is off, you can still use it. You can still run a generator to keep your freezer going, to keep your medical devices going. But when your battery’s dead and there’s no power on, you have nothing,” Dahle said.
GOP Senate Leader Scott Wilk accused Newsom and California Democrats of making life more difficult for California landscapers.
“Bad Dem bill #AB1346 makes life harder for landscapers,” Wilk tweeted. “Banning the sale of new gas powered leaf blowers & mowers? They’re not ‘super polluters,’ but massive wildfires fueled by poor forest management sure are. Why not address those instead of picking on the little guy?”
Andrew Bray, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Landscape Professionals, claimed the new law would be a huge burden on small landscaping businesses in the state.
“These companies are going to have to completely retrofit their entire workshops to be able to handle this massive change in voltage so they’re going to be charged every day,” Bray told the L.A. Times, also suggesting that the cost of running a zero-emissions lawn mower runs double the annual cost of $7,000-$11,000 of running gas-powered equipment.
The new law is expected to affect approximately 50,000 small businesses in the state. While California’s budget calls for $30 million to assist professional landscapers with making the switch to no-emission equipment, critics argue that isn’t even close to covering the full financial burden on small business owners.
It’s hardly the first unreasonable and unnecessary step that Newsom and California Democrats have taken in their war on fuel. In September of last year, Newsom signed an executive order ordering state agencies to “transition to 100 percent zero-emission off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 where feasible.”
In that same executive order, Newsom called for “all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035.”
At the time, Newsom said, “This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Governor Newsom. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse — and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”
Newsom is the epitome of a climate fascist, with “Mother Earth” eclipsing all else in importance. He seems to revel in signing unnecessary bills and issuing grand executive edicts in the name of halting so-called climate change. Does he realize (or even care) that these needless restrictions are harming the people of his state?
