The days of filling up your lawnmower or leaf blower with gasoline may soon be a thing of the past. The state of California recently passed a law banning the sale of gas-powered lawn equipment by January 1st, 2024. The hope is by converting the state’s 16.7 million small engines to electric, it could help reduce the amount of pollution emitted into the air. California is providing $30 million to help people make the switch. Lemens Hardware owner Jim Lemens does not see that happening in Wisconsin anytime soon, especially for rural landowners and landscapers who rely on larger mowers and other pieces of lawn equipment to maintain bigger parcels of land. Battery technology has improved in recent years for residential models of lawnmowers as well as trimmers and leaf blowers. Lemens suggests it may make more sense to go electric than people think.

The shift from gas to electric is already happening in some parts of the country. The Freedonia Group estimates that the electric landscaping sector is growing three times faster than gas and Stanley Black and Decker told the Associated Press earlier this year that they shipped out more than 16 million electric units in 2020, which is 75 percent more than they did in 2015.