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comment by goobster
goobster  ·  1135 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: California set to become first state to ban gasoline-powered lawn equipment

Anyone who owns a leaf blower can eat a dick. There's nothing more American than using a gas-powered, unregulated, noisy fucking machine, to blow your garbage into your neighbor's yard for them to deal with.

Fuck leaf blowers and everyone that owns one. I've got a fucking rake and a broom.

But yeah... the regulation is petty and pointless and totally performative and does nothing to stop or reduce the carbon output of the 9 companies that produce more than 90% of the carbon emissions in the world. But it makes us liberals feel smug and superior, while the conservative fucksticks rake in the cash from the oil industry.





kleinbl00  ·  1135 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Dude. You know why people hate liberals? here is why people hate liberals.

    But yeah... the regulation is petty and pointless and totally performative and does nothing to stop or reduce the carbon output of the 9 companies that produce more than 90% of the carbon emissions in the world.

From the article:

    The agency estimates that the state is home to some 14.4 million SOREs in the residential and commercial lawn equipment sector.

From a casual internet search of "leaf blower emissions"

    Distilling the above results, the four-stroke Ryobi leaf blower kicked out 6.8 times more NOx, 13.5 times more CO and more than 36 times more NMHC than the Raptor.

    The two-stroke leaf blower was worse still, generating 23 times the CO and nearly 300 times more NMHC than the crew cab pickup. Let's put that in perspective. To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a Raptor for 3,887 miles, or the distance from Northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska.

Let's assume every lawn care motor out there is a brand-fucking-new teeny tiny 4-stroke Ryobi (they aren't). Let's assumed they're used one hour a year (they're not). One "green" leaf blower puts out the equivalent of 74 miles' driving in an F-150 from a CO2 standpoint, and 792 miles from a non-methane hydrocarbon standpoint. Times 14.4 million is the equivalent of eliminating a billion miles traveled.

California averages 340 billion miles a year. If those leaf blowers are used ten hours a year (and again, these are the Town Called Perfect leaf blowers) we just cut California's emissions by 3%. If they're used for an hour once a week (and they're not), we just cut California's emissions by 15%.

Is it going to save the world? No. Is it an actual good thing? Yes. Can... California effectively go after the "9 companies that produce more than 90% of the carbon emissions in the world?" Well, they can keep the 70cc two-strokes off one market, at least.

Have more coffee.

goobster  ·  1135 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I hear ya. And thank you for pulling up the actual numbers. 3% of ANYTHING in California is a needle-moving number, regardless of what it is measuring. So this is not just "performative legislation". I humbly take that back.

But it is also a rounding-error sized detail, when you look at the scope of the environment.

Shit... CARB standards exist for all 50 states now, because of California. Car manufacturers have now ALL committed to go fully electric in the next X years, because of California. Coal-fired power plants are shutting down everywhere because of California.

California has a vast amount of power, and when they wield it, they Make Shit Happen not just in CA, not just in the USA, but across the world.

All they gotta do is make an example of ONE of those companies - let's say Exxon - and the others will quickly fall in line out of fear for their necks and their bottom line.

Once Pelosi is gone, California can finally be unshackled from Boomer-land thinking, and be a leader and champion for change again.

kleinbl00  ·  1135 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I mean they're killin' leaf blowers. That's better than not killin' leaf blowers.

goobster  ·  1135 days ago  ·  link  ·  

AMEN.