Look out: USA Today is coming for your ‘pollution’-spewing lawn mower

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USA Today is raising the eco-warrior cry over the new “battleground” in the fight against the climate bogeyman: Americans’ lawns.

(Article by Joseph Vazquez republished from NewsBusters.org)

No, we’re not kidding.

The liberal newspaper doom mongered how “[g]as leaf blowers and lawn mowers are shockingly bad for the planet” and praised how “[b]ans are beginning to spread.” USA Today immediately kicked off its nutty April 30 climate agitprop by making it seem like the fight against lawnmowers was a noble crusade against Thanos’ minions in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame (2019): “Your lawn may be the next climate change battleground. And parks. And playgrounds.”

The newspaper ludicrously propagandized that “[r]egulators and clean-air advocates are increasingly eyeing the pollution emitted by small gasoline engines used to power lawn mowers and leaf blowers as they seek to blunt climate change.” The newspaper apparently found this nonstory so important that it plastered the item on the front page of its May 1 print edition. Climate avengers, assemble!

“Environmentalists say using a commercial gas leaf blower for an hour produces emissions equal to driving from Denver to Los Angeles,” the newspaper bleated. But is the alternative cheaper and more feasible? Well, uh, not exactly, the newspaper admitted in a buried subsection about 15 paragraphs down. “Critics say battery-powered machines aren't as strong as gas-powered ones, and some people also worry about having to buy new equipment, which is generally more expensive.” But it gets worse: “[American Green Zone Alliance Daniel] Mabe says someone starting a small landscaping business could buy the necessary gas-powered equipment for about $6,000, but the electric equivalents could cost three times that.”

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In other words: sure, small business owners may have their profit margins sliced significantly, but at least it’s in the name of fighting ManBearPig. The newspaper praised California, Denver, Colorado and Washington, D.C. as crusaders leading the regulatory fight against the supposed lawn mower threat. “Here we go again,” Climate Depot Founder Marc Morano said in comments to MRC Business. “Every day Americans wake up to find that some new unelected bureaucracy or bureaucrat has determined that in order to save the planet, a major modern tool or convenience is going to be banned.” Morano blasted USA Today for pushing woke, eco agitprop:

Forcing Americans to pay three times higher for electric equipment in order to save the planet and meet climate goals -- is unacceptable.

All Americans need to know about these restrictions, said JunkScience.com founder Steve Milloy, is that “the government can still use gas-powered blowers but residents and their lawn care companies can't. It's obviously not about air quality.” Rather, Milloy stated, “it's about left-wing government asserting more and more mindless control over our lives. Even if it was true that gas-powered lawn equipment somehow affected air quality or were too noisy, I'd rather suffer that than rogue government.”

Of course, USA Today never mentioned anything about the existence of homeowner association [HOA(s)] regulations that commonly regulate household landscaping across many communities in the U.S. HOA-USA.com estimated that there are currently 370,000 HOAs in the U.S. representing over 40 million households.

One of the common HOA violations that should be avoided, said BankRate.com, involved landscaping. “HOAs are responsible for the community’s curb appeal, so expect yours to have rules about overgrown lawns, weeds and unkempt exteriors.” So by USA Today’s logic, it’s either Americans living or operating in HOA communities pay a small fortune to upgrade their landscaping equipment or risk a possible HOA fine.

"Will Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Gore, John Kerry, and UN officials give up private jet flying," Morano questioned. "Or is it just ordinary Americans who have to give up gas leaf blowers, gas stoves, and gas lawn mowers?"