The New York Times has an item today arguing that lawmowers are now a much greater risk to our air quality than automobiles are, since the latter?s emissions have been dropping steadily due to technological innovations and prior regulations. Specifically, the paper stated, a gas-powered lawnmower used normally each year generates a level of pollution equivalent to that from 43 new cars, each driven over 12,000 miles. And retiring just 4,000 gas-powered mowers would reduce air pollution by 20 tons per year ? equivalent to the amount generated by oil refineries over a two-day period in Los Angeles.
Phoenix and Los Angele are now offering bounties to homeowners who turn in old gas-powered lawnmowers in order to purchase cleaner battery-driven ones. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to expand the LA program to the whole state.
Two reasons to cheer: 1) finally people are getting a more accurate perception of what?s going on with automobile emissions, and 2) a buy-back program for lawnmowers is a voluntary approach that, if handled right, might well generate enough air-quality benefit to justify its cost.
