NJ’s gas-powered leaf blower ban — What you need to know

🍁 NJ lawmakers may push ahead with a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers

🍁 State would incentivize local towns to write tickets

🍁 NJ may pick up 50% of electric blowers

New Jersey's proposed ban on gas powered leaf blowers is beginning to take shape and could incentivize local towns to punish violators.

The legislation has been bouncing around the Statehouse for months and has undergone several changes.

Initially, the intent was to ban all gas-powered leaf blowers. Period.

Fierce opposition from New Jersey's landscape industry and some residents has gotten a watered-down version of the bill now moving through the legislature.

Here's where the bill stands now

The law, sponsored by State Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex). Smith is also the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

When he first introduced the bill, he called blowers a "scourge on the local environment" and cited gas-powered leaf blowers as heavy polluters. Smith claimed a leaf blower produces more carbon monoxide in one hour than a vehicle would produce over eight hours.

The tool is also associated with health concerns, the bill says — due to the loud sounds emitted while in operation and the particles of pollutants it sends outward.

Phased in over time

Under the proposed legislation (S-217), the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers with a two-stroke engine would be banned two-years after the law was enacted.

Sales of the more fuel-efficient four-stroke blowers would still be allowed.

After four years, the use of two-stroke gas-powered blowers would be prohibited, and use of the four-stroke machines would be limited to non-residential areas, during four months of the year (March 15 to May 15, and Oct. 15 to Dec. 15).

New incentives to buy electric

In the latest version of the bill, the state would offer credits for up to 50% of the cost of a new electric-powered leaf blower.

That is a win for New Jersey landscapers, who claim the electric versions of the tool are expensive and far less efficient than the gas-powered versions.

Rich Goldstein, president of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, said if landscaping businesses are forced to make the change, many landscape companies would have to shell out more than $79,000 for equipment, plus the cost of chargers and additional batteries.

"I can tell you ... from experience, that what can be done in 20 minutes with a gas-powered leaf blower can take up to an hour and two batteries to complete with battery-powered blowers," Goldstein added. "And the price to use them is higher ... thus creating a much higher price for the consumer."

There has been no estimate what the credits will cost taxpayers.

Towns would be incentivized to write tickets

A big new provision in the bill would allow towns to keep the money for writing tickets to violators.

The fines can be steep.

While residential fines are now set at $25, the fines for commercial companies can go up to $1,000.

The original version of the bill called for a blanket $1,000 fine no matter who was using a gas-powered leaf blower.

Fine can only be written after a warning for a first offense.

Local towns already have the ability to pass their own bans on gas-powered leaf blowers, and some have.

Maplewood and Montclair already have year-round bans in place on the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. Princeton prohibits their use during most of the year.

Year-round local bans could still be passed on the local level.

Where does this legislation stand?

Right now, the bill is stalled in the Senate Budget Committee. It will likely remain there until questions can be answered about the what the state will have to pay in incentives for people and businesses to buy new electric-powered leaf blowers.

The legislature is currently on its' Summer break and will not return to session until the Fall.

There is no version of the bill in the Assembly.

The proposed law would need to pass both houses of the Legislature and receive a signature from the governor in order to become law.

Previous reporting by New Jersey 101.5's Dino Flammia was used for this article.

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