By now, I’m sure you’ve noticed how intent the political left is on controlling just about everything you do, say, or even think. Case and point comes to us from Minnesota, where lawmakers are trying to push through a couple of bills that would dictate how you care for your lawn, including banning most of the currently used landscaping equipment on the market.
Now, I’m sure you aren’t exactly surprised to hear such a thing coming from Minnesota. I mean, this I where the extreme and none-too-practical idea of defunding the police began. And we see how that’s worked out.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the Democrats of the state are any less gung-ho about making this plan an actual law.
So what is it exactly?
Well, it actually comes in the form of two separate but connected bills, HF 1715 and HS 15716. Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party members and state Representatives Heather Edelson and Jerry Newton introduced the measures.
Together, the bills would effectively ban the sale of all “spark ignition engines” in the state. If you aren’t all that familiar with this engine form, suffice it to say that it’s any fossil fuel-powered “engine rated at or below 19 kilowatts or 25 gross horsepower,” according to the bill.
This means machines like your lawn mower, leaf blower, brush cutters, lawn edger, hedge clippers, and chainsaw would all be labeled illegal, at least to sell.
The legislations, if passed, would go into effect January 1, 2025, ensuring that all lawn equipment or any other machines of this nature are electric battery-powered versions only.
Now, I don’t know about you, but as someone who has used both versions, I can tell you that the two different power sources are not all that comparable.
Take a chainsaw, for instance. I have a number of them, most of them powered by the spark ignition engine these Democrats find so offensive.
However, I also own a couple battery operated ones. And these work great, for the most part. But only for smaller jobs like trimming brush and low-hanging smaller limbs.
It just doesn’t cut it when it comes to actual woodworking, like taking down a full-grown tree. Just like with my sister’s hybrid car that can’t climb up a hill in the snow, the engine just doesn’t have the juice to do some things.
I have to stop and charge it more times than I care to admit, and as anyone who has cut down large trees before knows, you can’t just stop cutting mid-tree or whenever the saw dies. For starters, it can be extremely dangerous, leaving hundreds of pounds of heavy wood just waiting to come toppling down on you.
But I doubt the practical use of these machines was considered much when these bills were concocted. Instead, it was all about the big picture of saving the planet.
And yes, I mean the all-important climate change movement, of course.
Naturally, the bills would play into Governor Tim Walz’s newly signed and Democrat-backed clean energy measure. If you haven’t heard about it, the plan is to basically require that all electricity production in the state be at least 80 percent carbon-free by 2030 – just seven years away now. Naturally, by 2040 the hope is that the state be 100 percent carbon-free.
As Minnesota’s House Speaker Melissa Hortman told Fox News, “DFLers are committed to taking action on climate – unchecked climate pollution threatens Minnesota’s future. Now is the time to take bold action and ensure Minnesotans have the healthy climate and clean energy future they deserve.”
But what they aren’t talking about is the cost of such a move.
Much like the push for all-electric cars, this one will be extremely expensive. I mean, have you seen the price tags on even low-end EVs? And that doesn’t even begin to account for the costly charges on the road, what it costs to get an at-home charger installed, or what maintenance costs.
Similarly, all-electric lawn tools and machines will be expensive, especially if you completely eliminate any other types. It’s just simple economics: when supply decreases, the price increases.
But again, I don’t think these lawmakers thought about that, either.
