EPA to Tighten Standards on Lawn Equipment

Reader Contribution by Aly Van Dyke

Kiss your gas tank good-bye. Well, for your mower anyway.

By 2011, the EPA will require a 35 percent reduction in emissions produced from gas-powered lawn equipment with less than 25 horsepower.

There are some shocking statistics out there about the impacts of gas-powered lawn care equipment. One site I found said Americans use 800 million gallons of gas in one year spent solely on their lawns and that 17 million gallons are lost to spillage alone. The same site said running one gas-powered motor for one hour produces the same pollution as driving eight new cars at 55 mph for one hour. That’s nuts.

EPA officials say the regulations will save 190 million gallons of gas and 300 lives a year, though the changes will cost about $236 million.

Electric lawn-care equipment is already out there, though it is more expensive. According to an article in the Washington Post, electric mowers will cost 18 percent more in three years than gas-mowers do today.

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