{"id":27788,"date":"2021-10-18T13:48:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T17:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=27788"},"modified":"2021-10-18T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T17:48:23","slug":"why-californias-move-to-ban-gas-powered-generators-and-lawn-equipment-could-leave-californians-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2021\/10\/18\/why-californias-move-to-ban-gas-powered-generators-and-lawn-equipment-could-leave-californians-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Why California\u2019s Move to Ban Gas-Powered Generators (and Lawn Equipment) Could Leave Californians in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"attachment wp-att-27789\" href=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=27789\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-27789\" src=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/california-blackouts_3-1024x538-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"802\" height=\"421\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcuse me,\u201d says your landscaper. \u201cThe mower\u2019s out of juice. Mind if I plug in?\u201d You look from the immobile machine to your half-cut lawn. \u201cOutlet\u2019s over there,\u201d you tell him. \u201cBut let\u2019s knock $20 off your fee? What are we up to now, 25 cents a kilowatt-hour?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the future. Welcome to California.<\/p>\n<p>The state, committed to net-zero emissions by 2045, is moving to ban sales of gas-powered landscaping equipment as early as 2024. This is not the first attempt. Politicians tried and failed to do the same in 2003. Since then, though, more than half of <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.arb.ca.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2021-03\/3.24.21%20Workshop%20Staff%20Presentation.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">homeowners<\/a> in the state have swapped out their consumer-grade equipment for \u201czero emission equipment\u201d (ZEE), meaning, battery-powered weed whackers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, and even lawn mowers.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"link-0\"><strong>Electric, Because It\u2019s . . . Quiet?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Many make the switch because, although lower-powered and less reliable (do batteries ever die at the <em>right<\/em> time?), battery-powered equipment is less noisy. That\u2019s what prompted Mayor Stewart Welch of <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-solutions\/2021\/06\/30\/electric-lawn-care\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mountain Brook<\/a>, Alabama to begin switching his town\u2019s tools over to electric. The bellow of leaf blowers disturbed his tennis game with a friend who, as chance would have it, had previously complained about the town\u2019s noisy equipment. The city has spent $18,000 over the last year outfitting its public works crew with electric trimmers, blowers, and more.<\/p>\n<p>According to Stanley Black &amp; Decker, sales of the company\u2019s electric yard equipment jumped <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-solutions\/2021\/06\/30\/electric-lawn-care\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">75 percent<\/a> between 2015 and 2020. But, although lots of people are making the switch of their own accord, they\u2019re not doing it fast enough, according to California\u2019s legislative assembly.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"link-1\"><strong>Stop and Recharge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The biggest holdouts are those who do landscaping for a living, and for good reason. I searched Husqavarna\u2019s site high and low for battery run time info for its 550iBTX, which one landscaper <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.husqvarna.com\/us\/leaf-blowers\/550ibtx\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">reviewed<\/a> as \u201cThe best electric blower on the market.\u201d For $469? Not bad, I thought. After lots of web searching about the battery, I gave up and contacted support. Turns out, it does not come with one. The lowest-priced option will cost landscapers an extra <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.husqvarna.com\/us\/battery-series-accessories\/battery-bli300\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">$300<\/a> and lasts between thirty and sixty minutes. The one the associate recommended, though, costs <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.husqvarna.com\/us\/battery-series-accessories\/bli950x\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">$969<\/a> (yes, more than double the cost of the blower) and \u201clasts up to 3.5 hours,\u201d he told me. That\u2019s if you run it in \u201cnormal\u201d mode, which is half the power of Husqavarna\u2019s <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.husqvarna.com\/us\/leaf-blowers\/360bt\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">$459<\/a> gas blower; boost mode saps the power faster and is about 33 percent less powerful than the gas blower.<\/p>\n<p>Some landscapers make electric work, and not just those whose equipment is paid for by taxpayers, as in Mountain Brook. Chris Regis, owner of Florida-based lawn care company Suntek, is able to charge customers between 10 and 20 percent more for all-electric lawn care. He <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-solutions\/2021\/06\/30\/electric-lawn-care\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">says<\/a>, \u201cThere are people who don\u2019t care and say, \u2018I just don\u2019t want the noise.\u2019\u201d All power to them. That\u2019s exactly how free markets work.<\/p>\n<p>Given the numbers above, though, it would take <em>a lot<\/em> of lawns to make up one\u2019s initial investment with only a 10 or 20 percent upcharge. But Regis\u2019s investment is far greater. He has outfitted the company\u2019s vans with solar panels for recharging batteries on the go\u2014each van costing about $100,000. Reflecting on how much longer the same work now takes him, Jimi Layne of Mountain Brook\u2019s crew <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/climate-solutions\/2021\/06\/30\/electric-lawn-care\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">asked<\/a>, \u201cAre we looking at dollars and cents?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"link-2\"><strong>\u2018Expensive and Unreliable, Please\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>That\u2019s an even more pertinent question in California, where energy prices are the highest in the continental US. (<a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/electricity\/monthly\/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">23.11<\/a> cents per kilowatt-hour, as of June 2021). Gas is more <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificresearch.org\/government-mandates-big-reason-why-californians-pay-more-for-gas\/?gclid=CjwKCAjwy7CKBhBMEiwA0Eb7agGA248ZFQMQrTv-Gq29zvqdJHYDu6zRlyFuOVToHIlD5VJgAnBSBBoCnRMQAvD_BwE\" rel=\"nofollow\">expensive<\/a> there, too, in large part because of penalizing <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/why-california-has-the-highest-gasoline-and-diesel-prices-in-america\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-toggle=\"popover\">policies<\/a>, but researchers predict electricity prices can only rise in the golden state, thanks to a host of factors. Prices are high, in part, because the size of the state increases transmission costs, as do <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2021-07-12\/california-flex-alert-power-grid-heat-wildfire\">wildfires<\/a> on <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/theobjectivestandard.com\/2019\/05\/liberating-public-lands\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">mismanaged public lands<\/a> that have knocked out critical infrastructure, requiring replacement.<\/p>\n<p>But the biggest contributor to high prices is the state\u2019s push to adopt wind and solar, which require big upfront investments but nonetheless necessitate a reliable backup for when the sun\u2019s not shining and the wind\u2019s not blowing.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\">\n<div id=\"om-fqmeg7lcejd7fy5oro5r-holder\">\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"om-lxkcubhhqwmdm0lkjkbp-holder\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This problem came to the fore in 2020 when, for two days, California\u2019s three big energy companies instituted rolling <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/08\/15\/902781690\/california-issues-first-rolling-blackouts-since-2001-as-heat-wave-bakes-western-\" rel=\"nofollow\">blackouts<\/a> across the state because the grid could not meet demand. It was a self-inflicted wound. Given the state\u2019s environmental restrictions, many coal-fired power plants are being <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.ca.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-12\/declining_reliance_coal_ada.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">decommissioned<\/a>, and thanks to irrational fears, they\u2019re not being replaced with clean, reliable <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2021-05-18\/california-climate-change-nuclear-power-plant#:~:text=Come%202025%2C%20the%20state's%20last,1989%20after%20a%20public%20vote.\" rel=\"nofollow\">nuclear energy<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, taxpayers are being forced to subsidize massive investments in \u201crenewables,\u201d and power companies make up much of the state\u2019s inevitable shortfalls by buying energy from more reliable, fossil-fuel plants in neighboring states. Unfortunately for Californians, on <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/business\/story\/2020-10-07\/report-a-combination-of-factors-led-to-californias-rolling-blackouts-in-august\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 14, 2020<\/a>, when the sun set and solar farms went offline, these companies realized they had miscalculated how big that shortfall would be. Western states were in the grip of a heat wave, and as Californians reached for the AC dials, they lost power altogether.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cS-lFe-Lrmk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"link-3\"><strong>A Deadly Mistake<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Losing power is no minor inconvenience, particularly when you live in what is naturally a desert, and especially when it\u2019s more than 100 degrees outside. It\u2019s not just that people can\u2019t charge their Teslas or their ZEE mowers. One 2020 study concluded that more than <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.lww.com\/environepidem\/Fulltext\/2020\/06000\/Estimating_the_number_of_excess_deaths.1.aspx?context=LatestArticles\" rel=\"nofollow\">5,500 Americans<\/a> lose their lives due to extreme heat annually. Climate-related deaths are a key indicator of low <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.c2es.org\/content\/climate-resilience-overview\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">climate resilience<\/a>, the ability of a locale to deal with extreme temperatures and weather. And, of course, climate resilience is directly dependent on <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zQY2a9\">plentiful, affordable, reliable energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But, increasingly, that is what California is doing away with in favor of expensive, unreliable energy. Unsurprisingly, the poor suffer the most. Research done in 2020 <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/news.usc.edu\/166707\/urban-heat-waves-los-angeles-vulnerable-communities-usc-research\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">shows<\/a> that many in Los Angeles can\u2019t afford air conditioners, and many who have them can\u2019t afford to run them because electricity prices are so high. In fact, accounting for cost of living, California has the highest poverty rate in the country, in large part <em><a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/freopp.org\/the-high-cost-of-california-electricity-is-increasing-poverty-d7bc4021b705\" rel=\"nofollow\">because<\/a><\/em> energy prices are so high. This, not in spite of the state\u2019s adoption of \u201ccheap\u201d and \u201creliable\u201d renewables, but because of it\u2014because solar and wind are <em>not<\/em> cheap <em>nor<\/em> reliable and require a backup that <em>is<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"link-4\"><strong>Cutting the Lifeline<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yet, with startling shortsightedness, the state assembly has sent Governor Gavin Newsom a bill that will effectively eliminate a go-to backup: gas-powered generators. The bill (<a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1346\" rel=\"nofollow\">AB-1346<\/a>) lumps gas-powered generators in with the offending landscaping equipment and all other \u201csmall off-road engines,\u201d referring to them as SOREs. It \u201cencourages\u201d the California Air Resources Board (the state\u2019s own sort of EPA) to \u201cadopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines\u201d and to consider \u201cexpected availability of zero-emission generators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such generators do exist, but they are <em>far<\/em> more expensive, generate <em>far<\/em> less power, and most need to be recharged after just a few hours. Consider the GOAL ZERO YETI 3000X. It costs <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goalzero.com\/shop\/portable-power\/goal-zero-yeti-3000x-portable-power-station\/goal-zero-yeti-3000x-portable-power-station\/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=shopping&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwy7CKBhBMEiwA0Eb7algLwWl2xWVauacOdW3LTjii_GfjPCx4iF52d-_dmEnlJf_zUXpeMhoCxuIQAvD_BwE\" rel=\"nofollow\">$3,400<\/a>, and an additional $250 kit enables you to use it as a battery backup for your home. After all that, you can power a single refrigerator for less than 2.5 days, and that of course drops if you want to power, say, a few lightbulbs. By contrast, a Duromax XP10000HX can power your whole home\u2014lights, appliances, and A\/C system\u2014continuously, running on either gasoline or propane, and it costs <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.duromaxpower.com\/products\/10000-watt-18-hp-portable-gas-electric-start-generator-with-co-alert\" rel=\"nofollow\">$1,400<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When the power went out last August, <a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/cS-lFe-Lrmk\">says<\/a> Collin Blackwell of Eldorado Hills, California, \u201cWe went out and bought an $800 generator, so that way we could have the fridge powered up in the garage at least and be able to have food and everything in the house.\u201d Mark Galloway of Cameron Park said he lives in a mountain community where losing power is fairly common. \u201cYou should have something, so having the backup generator and things like that\u2014I think it\u2019s on you to really take care of that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s something that you can\u2019t plan for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But, if AB-1346 is signed into law, going out and buying an $800 generator will no longer be an option.<\/p>\n<p>California legislators have not only cut ties with reality\u2014failing to see that they\u2019re heading for ever more blackouts\u2014they also want to cut their citizens\u2019 last lifeline to reliable power when these blackouts inevitably occur. California is committing energy suicide, and given that people rely on energy for just about everything, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised by the toll this will take on human life.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h5><a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"http:\/\/fee.org\/people\/jon-hersey\/\"><br \/>\nJon Hersey<br \/>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jon Hersey is managing editor of\u00a0<\/span><em><a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/theobjectivestandard.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Objective Standard<\/span><\/a><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0fellow and instructor at\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/objectivestandard.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Objective Standard Institute<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and Hazlitt fellow at <\/span><a class=\"keychainify-checked steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Foundation for Economic Education<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/why-california-s-move-to-ban-gas-powered-generators-and-lawn-equipment-could-leave-californians-in-the-dark\/\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cExcuse me,\u201d says your landscaper. \u201cThe mower\u2019s out of juice. Mind if I plug in?\u201d You look from the immobile machine to your half-cut lawn. \u201cOutlet\u2019s over there,\u201d you tell him. \u201cBut let\u2019s knock $20 off your fee? What are we up to now, 25 cents a kilowatt-hour?\u201d Welcome to the future. Welcome to California. The state, committed to net-zero emissions by 2045, is moving to ban sales of gas-powered landscaping equipment as early as 2024. This is not the first attempt. Politicians tried and failed to do the same in 2003. Since then, though, more than half of homeowners in the state have swapped out their consumer-grade equipment for \u201czero emission equipment\u201d (ZEE), meaning, battery-powered weed whackers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, and even lawn mowers. Electric, Because It\u2019s . . . Quiet? Many make the switch because, although lower-powered and less reliable (do batteries ever die at the right time?), battery-powered equipment is less noisy. That\u2019s what prompted Mayor Stewart Welch of Mountain Brook, Alabama to begin switching his town\u2019s tools over to electric. The bellow of leaf blowers disturbed his tennis game with a friend who, as chance would have it, had previously complained about the town\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3799,371,3342,3800,3801],"class_list":["post-27788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-bans","tag-california","tag-carbon","tag-gas","tag-generators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}