Jason Brodeur preempts cities on gas leaf blowers and wants study done
The state senator acted in the final days of the legislative session after the Winter Park City Commission caved to his request to put its ban on gas-powered blowers up to voters
March 8, 2024
By Beth Kassab
City Commissioners this week will be asked for final approval to place a question on next year’s ballot asking voters if they want to keep a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers — a policy intended to lower harmful emissions and the nearly universally detested noise from the devices.
Since the first of two needed approvals by the board two weeks ago, the political climate surrounding the debate has intensified with one state senator attempting to make the piece of lawn equipment the latest symbol of the anti-woke crowd.
When commissioners first voted 3-2 on Feb. 28 to put the policy on next year’s ballot (Todd Weaver and Marty Sullivan voted against it), they did so after City Manager Randy Knight told them Sen. Jason Brodeur agreed to stop his effort to preempt cities from banning gas blowers if the city put the question to voters.
But Brodeur moved forward anyway the very next morning.
He added language to the state budget to prohibit cities from amending or enacting such bans until July 2025 and added $100,000 to the state budget from the Air Pollution Control Trust Fund for the state Department of Environmental Protection to study the life cycle of gas-powered blowers versus battery-powered blowers.
City officials have said the language doesn’t apply to Winter Park because its ordinance is already in place (it was passed in 2022, though it hasn’t yet been enacted because commissioners agreed to a delay to allow time for residents and landscape companies to transition to new blowers).
But Brodeur told the Voice in an email exchange that he did intend for his preemption to apply to Winter Park.
“Yes it applies,” Brodeur wrote. “Although they had a suspended ordinance it would require another vote to enact a ban, which will be preempted under the new law, should it be signed.”
He didn’t specify exactly what kind of vote he believed was required.
As it stands today, if the voter referendum does not go forward, the city’s ban is set to take effect in July — just five months from now — with fines delayed until January.
Brodeur said he felt forced to act immediately to prevent that from happening.
“I had hours (in the week before their meeting) to decide if I would ensure it would all be delayed. So I did,” he said in an email to the Voice. “I don’t have the luxury of monthly meetings and hours of discussion. If I didn’t act when I did, I wouldn’t have been able to and the net effect after their 42 months (30 prior months and the remaining 12 before the referendum) will be an extra 2-3 months of delay. Small price to pay for protection of consumers and businesses. Belts and suspenders. July 1, 2025 will be the next time they can enact anything if the voters choose to.”
Mayor Phil Anderson, when told of Brodeur’s interpretation of the state budget language, said he did not want to comment until he had the opportunity to more fully understand it.
Commissioner Todd Weaver said he doesn’t think the new state language impacts Winter Park or other Florida cities that have already enacted a ban on gas leaf blowers, but called the move by Brodeur “disingenuous.”
“For me, it’s a battle in a bigger war, and the war is pushing back against the Legislature from taking away our home rule,” he said. “I feel that Sen. Brodeur misled us because — it won’t affect us — but he’s trying to crowd out other cities that want to do it.”
Brodeur also heard some pushback on the Senate floor last week in the final hours of the state budget debate.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from Hollywood, asked if Brodeur wasn’t exploiting the budget process by pushing new policy — without any notice or debate — by tying a costly study to the idea.
“How is that not cheating by just throwing some appropriations on it?” Pizzo asked, later emphasizing, “Why do a preemption, which is policy, on a subject not discussed or passed in committee?”
Brodeur said the study was crucial to understand the environmental hazards of lithium ion batteries — the batteries often used in portable electronic devices — in landfills and specifically mentioned fires at landfills caused by batteries. He also said the “effect of not doing this is a tax increase,” because transitioning to electric leaf blowers will cause consumers and landscape companies to spend money.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published in 2021 an analysis of lithium ion battery fires in waste management and recycling.
The report found 245 fires in 64 waste management facilities likely related to lithium metal or lithium ion batteries.
But that problem is from old batteries discarded from a wide range of products such as phones, laptops, wireless headphones, gaming devices and more. Lawn equipment wasn’t even mentioned in the study.
Questions surrounding the proper regulation of and consumer education about battery disposal from the products many people now find essential to daily life are already being asked and debated.
That problem would exist with or without electric leaf blowers.
And data from the EPA also shows that Florida leads the nation when it comes to pollutants in the form of fine particulates from gas lawn equipment like blowers and mowers. Those microscopic droplets are inhaled and can cause serious health problems, according to the agency.
That’s one of the reasons, in addition to the nuisance caused by the noise from blowers, that Winter Park commissioners said they acted in the first place now more than two years ago.
Brodeur required the state study to be done by January because he wants voters to have the information before the March 2025 referendum, if that goes forward.
“Instead of virtue signaling or political preferences dictating policies that should largely be left to a homeowners’ association, I would like to give consumers and business owners the scientific knowledge to know whether enacting a de facto tax increase on anyone who owns a gas powered leaf blower is worth the cost,” Brodeur said. “Because if we don’t have a safety or environmental reason for these ordinances, all liberty is at risk.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
-
By: Beth Kassab
No biography available at this time
-
Common courtesy would help in this divisive case. People should blow quickly, should not blow during prohibited hours, should try raking or sweeping some of the leaves up and depositing in bags or cans thus using the blowers less, should not blow leaves in the street, should not blow debris into their neighbors yard, and most importantly, should immediately cease blowing when anyone is walking, running, or biking by until they are clear of the debris that is generated.
As a resident of WP I have yard services using blowers all day long six days a week around me. Sometimes several blowers at once. One service uses only a leaf blower and nothing else to move leaves around the lawn instead of at least using a lawn mower to mulch them up. I am tired of the noise and the smell. Have you walked by one of those things when they’re in use?
We visited John’s Island in Vero Beach a few days ago. (Lots start at $3M and 5,000 sf homes sell for $8M) At 6 am we heard mowers, blowers, edgers and trimmers on the golf course adjacent to the home we stayed in. Staring at 8 am the 2 new homes that are being built in the place of original ’70’s ranchers (sound familiar?) 1 across the street and 1 about 75 yards away from back patio, started work. Bobcats beeping, cement trucks, all sorts of construction noise. We left at 10 am and in the street in front of the house 2 landscape companies had their trailers with 8 guys total. 4 had backpack gas blowers. 3 mowers. 1 edger. We had to shout to say “good-bye”.
I asked our host if anyone complains about the noise. He said some do but most people realize that there is no practical alternative. JI is a beautiful, manicured private club. People really want to live there. If they are using logic and common sense, why can’t WP?
What will they ban next?
The Voice?
Had Senator Brodeur taken 10 minutes to search the EPA and OSHA websites before reacting unpreparedly against home rule, he would have found the following articles regarding the real hazards of gas-powered lawn tools.
Instead, he commissioned a $100,000 state-funded study in his budget amendment.
The EPA concluded:
• Medical and scientific organizations should increase public awareness of GLGE (gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment) and GLME (gas-powered landscape maintenance equipment) as local sources of dangerous air pollutants.
• Communities, environmental and public health officials should create policies and programs to protect the public from GLGE air pollutants and promote non-polluting alternatives.
Noise hazards from gas-powered lawn equipment are in this OSHA report:
https://www.osha.gov/otm/section-3-health-hazards/chapter-5
Thank you for your information. As a resident I am tired of multiple leaf blowers around my home all day six days a week. It’s noisy and smelly. Thank you for trying to help WP be a sustainable city. We need to be thinking forward to the future and accepting change.
It would be preferable if the writer of this piece could keep readers from being able to clearly detect her position on the ban and the subsequent action by Brodeur. The use of the word “very” in a couple places where not needed is just one example of clear bias in addition to the overall slant of this piece. To pretend the financial burden is not significant or that these batteries don’t pose fire and environmental risks of their own is nonsense. The market will decide. Until then, I favor putting the question to voters.
Time to move forward with change. It is coming even if you don’t like it. Ask about the rebates the city is offering for new electric leaf blowers if you can’t afford one. They’re smaller and quiet. You can even get one that plugs in if you don’t want a battery operated one. They really aren’t that expensive. And save our planet.
I have owned an electric blower for a few years. My lawn service company uses gas blowers. I favor putting this issue before the voters. Maybe this is an issue which could get the typical non-voter to the polls. People are free, at any time, to buy an electric blower or to hire a company that only uses electric equipment or electric blowers. That choice has been available for many years. As of now, my ears tell me the WP market is supportive of gas powered equipment. How many have instructed your lawn service to quit using gas blowers?
Contrary to the quote from Commissioner Weaver, the ultimate in home rule would be to allow the voters of Winter Park to decide this issue.
The people of Winter Park have a year to research this issue before it should be put on the 2025 ballot. As residence of our beautiful city, let’s all do our homework and vote in 2025.
Again, this is petty politics on both sides. If you don’t want gas blowers and you use a landscape contractor, find one who will agree to use electric leaf blowers and be willing to pay the upcharge.
As always, Todd Weaver is the smartest man in the room! To heck with costs to lawn service companies and homeowners. Taxpayer funds of a lousy $50 towards the purchase of a $2,200 piece of lawn equipment to replace a working gas leaf blower is laughable. Noise? The decibels decrease to virtually the same as battery 10′-15′ from machine. Pollution? Lithium batteries are an attack on the planet’s rare minerals using child labor.
This waste of time and energy could have been avoided with a little compromise. Mother Earth will survive gas leaf blowers in WP.
Sadly, Mr. Weldon and Mr. Warner miss the point. This is one issue that the free market can’t solve.
Gas powered leaf blowers emit a high frequency noise that travels blocks and penetrates windows and doors. Decibels are not the only issue. The pollution emitted from these machines is also not limited to the homeowner’s property.
Sometimes it’s best for government to step up and improve the quality of life for everyone. Two and a half years ago, the WP city commission did just that. Now, a small-minded state senator is attempting to curry favor with his base by interfering with local government.
In the meantime, if Mr. Weldon and Mr. Warner know how to use gas powered leaf blowers AND keep the noise and pollution within the confines of their own property please inform the rest of us.
Anonymous comments are sad.
I close my window to solve my neighbor’s hourlong+ noise fest caused their lawn crew on Friday morning.
Also, using child labor in the production of a lithium battery is despicable. And the amount of fossil fuels to mine, refine, build and deliver a lithium battery is enormous. Any pollution by a gas blower is dwarfed by lithium production.
I am baffled by people that complain about this issue.
Do you use an iPhone? A laptop? Other portable devices? You are relying on lithium ion batteries every single day. I don’t have a dog in the leaf blower hunt. But to discuss the concerns about battery mining, manufacturing and waste only in the context of lawn equipment is intellectually dishonest. I’m just trying to provide some context and bigger picture thinking here.
The conversation needs to take place in the wider context, Beth, but leaf blowers is just the one you chose to write about. There is nothing intellectually dishonest about it. You could acknowledge the reality concerning the batteries, at minimum.
You’re turning into a Scott Maxwell. Temperamental, prickly, arrogant. Who knew there could another Maxwell?
With respect to Broduer, “You don’t know a fool until he opens his mouth”
Messers. Weldon and Warner have made careers out of spreading misinformation on the Voice and elsewhere. On this particular subject, the 2022 ordinance banning gas-powered leaf blowers, does not mandate that any replacement tool (i.e. one with batteries). If one doesn’t want to buy batteries, fine. There are other ways to accomplish yard maintenance without batteries.
A common practice is to use a mower to blow leaves into the unmown lawn (yes, that’s a big fan under the mower guard), and then mow in a clockwise manner, if the exit chute is on the right side, mulching leaves and grass as one goes. When the last strip is encountered, one can continue to mulch, or rake the last bit. Very little, if any, blowing is required at the end. Mulching organic debris and leaving it to decompose in a lawn also reduces the need for polluting fertilizers, which all residents pay for in lake maintenance.
Regarding batteries and child labor: this is an old worn-out myth that US battery companies buy child-mined cobalt from Africa. (Cheap Chinese battery companies may still buy from Africa, but they are also responsible for most of the battery fires as well, due to poor quality control.) US companies do not, because there are cobalt mines in Minnesota and Idaho, with other North American locations coming on line. Lithium mining has NEVER been associated with child labor. The largest and best quality lithium deposit in the world is in Nevada.
Equating battery production pollution with that of fossil fuels is also ridiculous. Remember the Deep Water Horizon “accident”? And that’s just the extraction pollution. $24 billion in clean up so far, with many Gulf fisheries still not viable. Air pollution from lithium, cobalt and nickel mining is close to nil, compared with fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are also responsible for the acidification of the world’s oceans and reef die-offs around the world.
Again, Winter Park did not mandate anything with this ordinance. It simply is a push to change an unnecessary and obnoxious practice.
It is interesting that Beth Kassab called out another post for being intellectually dishonest and yet says nothing of Mr Weavers intellectuall dishonesty.
Mr Weaver said “Winter Park did not mandate anything with this ordinance.” Yes you did Mr Weaver. You mandated that gas powered blowers could not be used in Winter Park. Or perhaps you could explain how an ordinance that mandates that gas powered blowers are not allowed to be used is somehow in fact not a mandate. Are you saying that you did not mandate the elimination of the use of gas powered blowers and that they can continue to be used?
Mr Weaver, while I disagree with you on this issue, I would at least respect intellectual honesty from you. Your vote mandated that gas blowers cannot be used in Winter Park. Own your vote for what it is sir, a mandate.