Colorado air regulators will restrict the use of gas-powered lawn and garden equipment on public property, creating what is believed to be the first statewide policy in the nation designed to wean government agencies — and eventually professional landscapers and homeowners — from using the polluting machinery.
The new rules, approved Friday by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission, will prohibit the use of gas-powered push mowers and handheld landscaping tools such as weed trimmers and leaf blowers on all state-owned property between June 1 and Aug. 31.
The rules also will require local government crews and contractors to use electric-powered push mowers and handheld equipment in the summer on public property within the nine-county metro Denver/northern Front Range region that is in violation of federal air quality standards.
The restrictions will go into effect during the summer of 2025.
Finally, the commission directed the state’s Air Pollution Control Division to track the sales of electric lawn and garden equipment through 2025 to determine how the market is trending across the state. The commission also wants to consider in late 2025 whether gas-powered lawn equipment restrictions should be imposed on commercial landscapers or whether a sales ban should be instituted.
Gas-powered lawn and garden equipment contributes to the poor air quality along the Front Range because those tools release tons of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides — two key ingredients in the ground-level ozone pollution that is particularly bad on hot summer days, when that equipment is most likely to be in use.
A study released last year by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group found that gas-powered lawn and garden equipment created an estimated 671 tons of fine particulate air pollution in Colorado in 2020 — an amount equivalent to the pollution produced by more than 7 million cars in a year.
The report also said the machines contribute an estimated 9,811 tons of volatile organic compounds and 1,969 tons of nitrogen oxides to Colorado’s air each year.
Environmentalists have been pushing for increased use of electric and battery-powered equipment as the Front Range struggles to improve its air quality.
It’s unclear how much of those pollutants the new restrictions will eliminate, but Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate for CoPIRG, said it’s a good first step. Public parks and other spaces cover thousands of acres in the state so the new rules should lead to some pollution reductions.
“That’s the kind of equipment that’s in use day in and day out all summer long,” Schatz said. “You’re going to be able to go to your local park in the summer and not worry about fumes or obnoxious noise. It’s going to be significant for our health and our quality of life.”
The commission considered the proposed rules in December after reviewing plans submitted by the Regional Air Quality Council that would have created a sales ban along the Front Range, as well as a proposal from the Air Pollution Control Division. The commission chose the less-sweeping proposal submitted by the state agency.
Last year, the Colorado legislature created a 30% point-of-sale discount for consumers who buy electric equipment such as push mowers, snowblowers and trimmers.
This session, Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Weld County, proposed a bill that would scrap the 30% point-of-sale discount and replace it with a rebate that consumers would have to request.
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