U.S. bans on gasoline-powered leaf blowers grow, as does blowback from landscaping industry

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The roar of the leaf blower has become an inescapable part of daily life in communities across America, leading towns and states to ban or restrict blowers that run on gasoline.

But the measures face blowback from the landscaping industry and some property owners who say that the battery-powered blowers favored by the legislation are costlier and not nearly as effective as the gasoline-powered ones.

“If you look at what this machines does, how loud it is, how much it pollutes, it’s not normal to be accepted where we live, where our children play,” said Jessica Stolzberg, a writer and crusader against gas-powered leaf blowers who helped get a ban on the machines enacted in her hometown of Montclair, New Jersey.

Since that ban took effect last October, “Montclair has been a healthier, cleaner, quieter community,” she said.

But the ban is being challenged in court by landscapers, she added.

Just as the push to move away from burning fossil fuels to power cars and homes is drawing opposition from business groups and numerous device owners, the move by government to force a switch to battery-powered leaf blowers has the industry complaining of increased costs and decreased performance under the new regulations.

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