A new law passed by Governor Gavin Newsom requires gardeners and landscaping designers to replace their gasoline-powered work equipment with tools that use batteries or plug into electrical power.
“This law is going to affect small businesses a lot, it may force us to get out of gardening, and only large gardening companies will survive,” said Salvador Candía, who during 10 years he has earned his living as a gardener .
The new law of Assembly members Marc Berman of Menlo Park and Lorena González of San Diego, was announced with great fanfare as a landmark legislation to phase out the sale of small equipment that depends on gasoline in California.
This piece of legislation that will take effect on 2024, affects all the equipment used by gardeners such as zacat cutting machines e, chainsaws, leaf blowers and guiros.
“How are manufacturers going to invent batteries that are as powerful as the Gasoline? “They don’t have strength and they don’t cut well. You don’t get the same quality of work. This is even more complicated for those of us who cut palms. ”
He also said that he sometimes has to work on ranches located in the hills, where he works for several hours at a time. “What am I going to do if a battery runs out and I have nowhere to plug it into the electricity supply. It will be a waste of time and a headache. ”
Candía’s greatest fear is the economic factor. “We are going to have to charge customers more, and who knows if we can buy that new equipment, which will surely cost double or triple. And even if they subsidized us, we would have to make a disbursement that we do not have. ”
In conclusion, he emphasized that the gardeners will pay for the broken dishes of this new law because they will have to invest much more in equipment expensive they do not know if it will have enough power to work. “The big companies will be the winners.”
He added that it is good that they want to protect their health, but asked that they offer them powerful batteries and not take them out of business.
Berman and González assured $ 30 million in the state budget to create an incentive program that helps businesses of landscaping to transition to non-polluting equipment.
“By signing the AB law 1346, the Governor made a commitment to the clean energy of the future that protects the health of all Californians, including workers who face disproportionate health risks from air pollution, ”said the Assemblyman Berman, who thanked the governor for signing this legislation, which he said protects people and the planet.
Assemblywoman Lorena González said that small gasoline machines are not just bad for our environment but contribute to the climate crisis, can cause asthma and other health problems for workers who use them.
“It is time to phase out the super pollutants and help the little ones businesses to transition to clean alternatives. ”
The AB 1346 will require that the Resource Board California Air Force (CARB) establish requirements for small machines to emit zero pollutant emissions for 2024. They usually produce high levels of nitrogen oxide, reactive gases and particle pollution that adversely impact human health, causing lung cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, asthma and other respiratory ailments.
A CARB study of 2018 found that gas-fired tool operators can potentially doubling the current risk of cancer due to volatile organic compounds.
“AB 1346 will reduce toxic pollution in California neighborhoods by addressing emissions from leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small off-road engines, ”said Daniel Barad, policy advocate for Sierra Club California. “This bill is another important step toward breathable air and a livable climate in California.”
The measure was consulted with the Bay Area Gardeners Association, California Landscape Contractors Association, American The Green Zone Alliance and the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP), the latter organization was the only one to oppose it.
The Bay Area Gardeners Association, consisting of no more than proposed law after it learned there would be funding, through a public process.
At least the law allows landscape designers and gardeners to continue to use their gasoline-dependent equipment until It only applies to new equipment that is sold after 2024; and according to the creators of this law, the greatest burden falls on the manufacturers, apparently not end users.