Got Gas?

[556mikemike]

So how much are members if that commission invested in manufacturers of electric lawn mowing equipment?

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Bingo! The only green initiatives those fools really have is padding their pockets with dollars.

 

[taskswap]

Bizarre! 25+hp engines are inclusive of nearly every tractor in USA. Tractors that mow roadsides and medians are usually 75-125hp. Did you mean less than 25hp?

Nope.

The rule applies from June to August. During this time, state agencies will not be allowed to use gas-powered lawn equipment with engines of 25 horsepower or less.​

It's for weed whackers and small mowers. Small 2- and 4-stroke engines contribute way more to pollution/poor air quality (which is a big problem in the Denver area) than most people realize. The state wanted to improve air quality but didn't want to force something on private citizens (that probably wouldn't get passed anyway). So instead it mandated that it will reduce its OWN usage of this equipment.

25+hp engines, especially older ones, do tend to run pretty dirty, but there are way less of them in use than there are gas-powered weed whackers, and especially with diesels, you can improve air quality almost as much with better fuel as you can with any other method. So if you care about air quality, they're not a useful target for improvement (right now).

It also makes a ton of sense because these engines also have short lifetimes so they get replaced at regular interval and auctioned off already, so people can't even really complain it's going to raise equipment purchase costs (by much anyway - electric tools do cost more, but also have longer lifetimes so that's probably a wash.)

This is a good bill being made fun of because of the click-bait headline.

 

[CorbLand]

Bizarre! 25+hp engines are inclusive of nearly every tractor in USA. Tractors that mow roadsides and medians are usually 75-125hp. Did you mean less than 25hp?

It excludes it meaning that the only engines that are prohibited are 24 or less.

 

[taskswap]

It excludes it meaning that the only engines that are prohibited are 24 or less.

The really dumb thing to me is that it’s for 3 months out of the year…are agencies going to have two sets of mowers?

No. It's an escape hatch that stops the agencies from having to replace every string trimmer they own all at once. Those three months of the year are the months with the worst air quality - you can literally see the yellow haze over Denver now in the summer - it reminds me of LA in the 90s. The other months aren't so bad, so if an agency just needs to clear a front walk one last time before winter, it can use its gas equipment for that.

Seems slightly silly at first, but even the electric tools will have limited lifetimes so getting a little extra life out of their old gas equipment in the "shoulder season" will further reduce the overall cost-impact of the initiative.

 

[CorbLand]

No. It's an escape hatch that stops the agencies from having to replace every string trimmer they own all at once. Those three months of the year are the months with the worst air quality - you can literally see the yellow haze over Denver now in the summer - it reminds me of LA in the 90s. The other months aren't so bad, so if an agency just needs to clear a front walk one last time before winter, it can use its gas equipment for that.

Seems slightly silly at first, but even the electric tools will have limited lifetimes so getting a little extra life out of their old gas equipment in the "shoulder season" will further reduce the overall cost-impact of the initiative.

How does it prevent them from replacing them all at once? If I have 10 gas powered ones and can’t use them from June to August, I have to go buy 10 electric ones to replace those for 3 months of the year…

 

[*zap*]

How is the Denver are producing the energy to recharge the batteries?

 

[DangerRanger]

I’m pretty pro ev in general but I want the whole thing to be addressed and thought about. Where the energy comes from is important.

There is an efficiency increase with electric where the electricity is produced in large scale with more efficient means vs small engines. The electric motors themselves seem to have far less energy waste than piston based engines (atleast gas).

I don’t care for mandates though. I also understand it doesn’t work for everyone, though residential lawn care is not usually a scenario in which someone has to do extensive long duration work.

I quite like my push ev mower and ev trimmer. When I bought my husqvarna gas rider ev riders were not affordable enough for it to make sense, I will say my ev stuff has been far more reliable aside from a lemon pressure washer. I imagine my next rider will be ev whether gas exists or not. Aside from dirt bikes I prefer ev in applications where it makes sense (I commute in ev but have a truck for hunting/long trips/heavy hauling)

Ah rambling. I like ev, I don’t like the government. I hope we focus on clean ways to provide energy to these electric vehicles and don’t just phone it in.

I don’t have much issue with a city changing its own protocol to ev. It seems This isn’t a ban on co residents owning or using anything, just the public facilities switching to ev for lawn care and maintenance.

 

[mt100gr.]

I just hope those good people in Fort Collins continue building internal combustion Walker mowers! I'll burn the gas!

 

[Iowafarmer]

So would that include your parkway between the public sidewalk and the curb that’s public land

 

[Axlrod]

I went electric grass trimmer 10+ years ago, chainsaw 3 years ago and lawn mower 3 years ago. For me they work WAY better. I went through 4 gas trimmers in the 10 years before I had electric, had the same elec. one for the past 10 years.
The electric, push the button and go, clean it off put it away. Gas, more maintenance, hard starting etc.

 

[SandyCreek]

No. It's an escape hatch that stops the agencies from having to replace every string trimmer they own all at once. Those three months of the year are the months with the worst air quality - you can literally see the yellow haze over Denver now in the summer - it reminds me of LA in the 90s. The other months aren't so bad, so if an agency just needs to clear a front walk one last time before winter, it can use its gas equipment for that.

Seems slightly silly at first, but even the electric tools will have limited lifetimes so getting a little extra life out of their old gas equipment in the "shoulder season" will further reduce the overall cost-impact of the initiative.

seems silly because it is silly.. now you have to replace all of the gas equipment with electric and batteries all to in the end net nothing.

 

[cnelk]

Just think of all the public entities [City/County/School Districts] that now have to purchase new/alternative equipment, just for the summer months.

Our taxes just went up.... Again.

 

[taskswap]

Those municipalities were doing that anyway. Most only own these smaller pieces of equipment for a few years because that's the service life of small 2-stroke engines. Private citizens might jolly one along for a decade with careful maintenance but municipalities absolutely do not bother with that, which is why these come up on GovDeals and Municibid every month. They are doing this right now today and nobody is running around saying "but the taxes...."

There's a 4-pack of gas-powered spray misters up there now if anybody wants a spray mister. https://municibid.com/Listing/Details/62615334/4-SOLO-452-Spray-Misters-DSS3519 I see this literally every week or two, much more at the end of summer as they clean out their inventory. (Note the manufacturing date from one of the photos - they were only 4 years "old," which means they're being sold 3 years from when they were probably bought.)

If anything, this could end up saving money in the long run. These electric replacements are more expensive and the batteries cost even more. But after that their service lives are measured in decades - you only need to replace the battery every 2-3 years, which gets longer every year as battery tech gets better, and the batteries are cheaper than the gas-powered replacements they already buy today. What's more, they will no longer need to buy 2-stroke oil, spark plugs, air filters, etc. In the long run this will almost certainly save money.

Your taxes will go up because that's the nature of government and taxes. You will not be able to measure the difference THIS measure makes in what you pay.

 

[rtkbowhunter]

...and the Kalifornia cancer has fully metastisized.

 

[doc holiday13]

How is the Denver are producing the energy to recharge the batteries?

Propane powered generators.. DUH!!!!

 

[flathead#2]

Some people love them some Govt. overreach.

 

[Hnthrdr]

From what I have heard is Denver is going to let a lot of its “green spaces” brown out this summer, no planting flowers either. So the city can have more money to take care of the illegals and drug addict homeless that aren’t even from Co… so really guys don’t worry you don’t have to mow burned up sod…

 

[7mm-08]

Fair warning don't be the guy that takes this into the weeds.

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Damned funny warning, for sure. Love the humor.

 

[Beendare]

CA is doing the same.

plus they want all commercial landscape maintenance companies and Farmers to convert to electric equipment.

These politicians are clueless as to the cost involved and how much thiswill drive up Food costs and maintenance cost to consumers.

 

[william schmaltz]

I went electric grass trimmer 10+ years ago, chainsaw 3 years ago and lawn mower 3 years ago. For me they work WAY better. I went through 4 gas trimmers in the 10 years before I had electric, had the same elec. one for the past 10 years.
The electric, push the button and go, clean it off put it away. Gas, more maintenance, hard starting etc.

Good thing know. How big is your yard? It takes me about an hour and things get pretty long, so I’m a bit concerned about having enough battery to finish the job. Being able to mow at 10PM instead of having to skip supper after a long day of work to get mowing done and not disturb neighbors sounds REALLY awesome. And not having all the damn noise for myself and when hauling a kid around with me. I regret not buying an electric weed trimmer when I bought new a few years ago.

I have a good friend (who oddly enough works at a refinery) that tried an electric snow blower last winter. First storm was over a foot. He was video documenting the whole process and it was a hoot. Was bragging how quiet it was an so on. He made it to the end of the driveway and had used up one battery. The second battery barely got him back up the driveway and loaded back onto the trailer to return the thing. It was rather comical.