The once-greater State of Minnesota is apparently trying to play catch up to the wokesters in California with a new bill introduced in the state House that would ban gasoline powered lawn and garden tools.
The bill was authored by Democrat state Reps. Jerry Newton of Coon Rapids and Heather Edelson of Edina and would take effect on January 1, 2025 with a prohibition on "fossil fuel powered" lawn and garden tools that requires "new lawn and garden equipment sold, offered for sale, or distributed in or into Minnesota must be powered solely by electricity."
The common tools covered by the ban would be "equipment powered by a spark ignition engine rated at or below 19 kilowatts or 25 gross horsepower" such as a lawnmower, leaf blower, hedge clipper, chainsaw, lawn edger, string trimmer, or brush cutter.
So what is #Minnesota up to? Banning the sale of lawnmower and other lawn implements. pic.twitter.com/2pPKSQvYKz
— Cara Schulz (@cara_schulz) February 14, 2023
While plug-in or battery-powered hedge trimmers, lawnmowers, or leaf blowers may be a tenable option for those like Reps. Newton and Edelson who live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities or don't have much of a yard, most residents in the rest of Minnesota would find non-fossil fuel powered lawn tools useless for their properties. And likely put a serious dent in the profitability of lawn and garden service companies who wouldn't be able to do as much per day due to downtime needed to recharge their tools or the cost of needing twice the amount of equipment to do the same amount of work as gas-powered tools.
As a writeup in the Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment notes of the proposed ban on "fossil fuel powered" equipment:
According to Bob Vila’s website, this would effectively outlaw any push-mower that is gas-powered, and it would impact most riding lawnmowers, which use engines topping out at 24 horsepower, as well.
While electric leaf blowers or hedge clippers may work fine for urban and suburban dwellers, these tools are entirely insufficient for anyone who needs to do serious work out in the country. Felling trees or cutting firewood on a wood lot with a battery-powered electric chainsaw? Give me a break.
This legislation wisely leaves snowblowers off the list of contraband, but its introduction demonstrates that urban and suburban liberals have no idea how rural Minnesotans live their lives, and it suggests that they don’t care to learn.
It's hard to imagine hunters (such as those in this writer's family back home in Minnesota) would be able to find a plug for their electric chainsaw while miles deep into grouse country in order to chop some trees for fire, shelter, or other needs. The only option would be to plug their "green" electric chainsaw into a gas-powered generator which defeats the entire purpose while also illustrating one part of climate warriors' shortsighted do-goodism. All that electric equipment relies, unsurprisingly, on electricity...which comes from generation plants that are often powered by fossil fuels.
But for the Democrats in control of the Minnesota state House and Senate, pushing policies that are the norm in California and sound like something President Joe Biden would approve of in his crusade to end fossil fuels — regardless of their impact on Minnesota's businesses and residents — is apparently just fine.