Continued...

The symphony of summer begins and the low rumblings of everyone in the neighborhood grooming their lawn at eleven on Saturday morning, choked and revved until the burnt oil clouds give way to trimmers, then blowers, then clumps of wet grass making nice trails throughout the yard.

Before you know it, little Jimmy next door has his first asthma attack of the season, and Dorothy down the street almost chokes herself on an extension chord clearing brush from a forty degree slope she claims is her property.

I’m not too satisfied until my yard is perfect, but there is a point where a line has to be drawn, and not with an electric cord attached to a Black & Decker product or Quaker State leaking lines from an an out-of-date John Deere.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in only one hour of use, older gas-powered lawn mowers produce as much air pollution as a new car does in 11 hours.

Gasoline-powered mowers produce a cut that results in greater water loss and increased disease problems in lawns (iii). Although many are now made with 4-stroke engines (creating less pollution than 2-stroke engines), emissions are still a by-product that can be avoided.

Thankfully, there are regulatory controls in place to limit as much exhaust emissions from gasoline powered lawn equipment: any lawn mower older than 1996 has to comply to new exhaust emission standards.

We have taken aim in a positive direction, but our standards need to be reevaluated to hit our mark. A call for action is imperative, not only on The House floor, but in our own backyards.