The Brief

As the climate crisis escalates, more cities are doubling down on gas leaf blower bans. And the sound of electric leaf blowers — decibels lower — is in the air.

The amount of pollution these small machines create is significant:

• Using a gas leaf blower for just one hour spews the same amount of smog-forming pollution as driving a gas passenger car 1,100 miles, according to state data. 
• Nationwide, a recent study found that lawn equipment alone — such as leaf blowers and lawn mowers — emit more planet-heating carbon dioxide than the entire city of L.A. does in a single year.

For decades, Southland cities have tried to nix gas leaf blowers. Beverly Hills has officially banned them since 1976. West Hollywood since 1986. Santa Monica since 1991. And L.A. since 1998.

Enforcing leaf blower bans

Pasadena’s ban on gas leaf blowers went into effect in April — and it's one of the few cities doubling down on enforcing it. Since the ban went into effect, the city has seen monthly complaints about leaf blowers double. City inspectors have issued citations for as much as $200 to gardeners who haven’t switched to electric.

A sign in Pasadena spreading awareness about the city's leaf blower ban.

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The city first issues a 30-day warning to get into compliance, then there are escalating fines of $100, $200, and $500. The fourth and highest citation is $1000. If gardeners can provide documents that they’ve purchased equipment, but haven’t received it yet, they won’t be fined, according to the city.

“We believe that enforcement of this ban will improve our air quality, public health and also address issues with respect to noise pollution, which is one of the chief complaints we receive with respect to these leaf blowers,” said Israel Del Toro, the deputy director of Pasadena’s Planning and Community Development Department.

The city has conducted several workshops for local landscapers to test out equipment and learn about the law, but for many small business owners, the mandate is hurting their business and pushing others out of the industry altogether.

“We’re trying to survive” 

Florencio Molina has run his gardening business for 30 years. He recently purchased an electric leaf blower because he has a couple of clients in Pasadena. He said the battery technology at this point can’t keep up with the pace and hours of the work.

“It's good for like two hours, so if you don't have a second battery, you're not going to finish your jobs,” Molina said.

Molina was able to purchase an extra battery. But he said another issue is those batteries are really heavy. Just like electric cars, electric leaf blowers can be more than twice as heavy as gas ones — a big lift for someone on their feet all day.

“We get more tired using electric,” Molina said. “It will affect our business.”

Still, Molina added, there’s always a tradeoff.

“It will affect our body,” he said. “For the future, you're protecting your lungs.”

At 63 years old, Molina said he’s close to retiring anyway, so his younger protégé will have to deal with the changes brought by electrification.

Florencio Molina picks up the battery to attach to his electric leaf blower on a recent afternoon. (Molina declined to have his face shown in the photo).

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But landscaper Luis Rodriguez said he’s considering leaving the business altogether. He was recently issued a warning for using a gas leaf blower in Pasadena, which is why he was buying a brand new electric one when I met him.

“We’re not making a lot of money in this business,” Rodriguez said. “We’re trying to survive. And now, they are pushing us to quit this job.”

Electric leaf blowers can cost four times as much as gas ones — upwards of $2,600 for the most powerful commercial models, as opposed to about $600 for gas.

Rodriguez said a few of his clients have helped him purchase electric equipment. But since most of his clients are in the city, and with the technology as it currently stands, he’d need to purchase an extra battery or several, which are the most expensive part of an electric kit.

Those costs are a big part of why, at 55, he’s considering closing his landscaping business and moving into another industry.

“I was thinking just leave Pasadena first, and then find another job, maybe work for a company,” he said. “Why don’t they go with the big business? They go with us first. All the time they go with the poor people first.”

Luis Rodriguez just purchased a new electric leaf blower because he received a warning for using a gas one in Pasadena. (Rodriguez declined to have his photo taken).

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Funding to help small businesses transition

The state launched a program last year offering vouchers of up to $400 to help small businesses purchase electric equipment, but after providing vouchers for more than 62,000 pieces of electric lawn and garden tools, the program — which started with $27 million in the pot — has already run out of funding.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District also has a voucher program, partially funded by the state, that covers up to 85% of the cost of commercial landscape equipment. That program, which is also available to local governments, schools, and nonprofits, requires landscapers to turn in their gas-powered tool. (The agency also has a rebate program for residents to buy electric lawn mowers).

That program’s funding opened in March 2023 with $4.6 million available. Now there’s $3.4 million left, which is meant to last through 2034, though the agency plans to work to find additional funding if the money runs out before then.

“That incentive approach combined with regulation will be necessary for an equitable transition to cleaner technology,” Kim White, a spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement to LAist.

Outsize burden on the “little guy”

Alvaro Huerta, an associate professor at Cal Poly Pomona, helped organize the Association of Latin American Gardeners of Los Angeles in the mid-1990s to fight L.A.’s ban on leaf blowers back then. While that fight was largely about the jail sentence that came with L.A.’s original proposed ban (there’s no jail sentence for noncompliance anymore, thanks to the organization’s efforts), Huerta said the current approach has a disproportionate impact on largely Latino small businesses, workers and immigrants.

Local landscaper Luis Rodriguez holds the battery for his new electric leaf blower (Rodriguez declined to have his photo taken).

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“This is something that we were arguing in 1996, that they should go after the manufacturers,” Huerta said. “Why are you attacking the little guy? I do believe that they need to be phased out because I am an environmentalist. However, they should be phased out just like cars are being phased out, in a more realistic time frame. The way they're doing it is they're banning them now, and they're punishing them now.”

California’s phase out plan for the trucking industry does allow smaller companies to have more time to transition. As for lawn equipment, in 1990 the state became the first in the world to incentivize lawn equipment manufacturers to create cleaner products. That policy was later enforced nationwide and has helped reduce pollution from these machines significantly.

But the technology (and cost) hasn’t improved enough for commercial landscapers to choose electric over gas, and levels of pollution from them still haven’t fallen — pound for pound — as much as pollution from cars and trucks. In fact, as more people switch to electric cars, the state expects pollution from small lawn and garden equipment to be double the pollution from light-duty passenger cars by 2031.

A commercial electric leaf blower.

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That’s why a statewide law banning the sale of new gas-powered lawn and other small outdoor equipment goes into effect in January, a further incentive for manufacturers that will likely impact the entire nation, as California’s clean car rules have in the past.

A changing lawn equipment industry

Commercial electric leaf blowers sold at Lawn Mower Corner in Pasadena.

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Erin Stone

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For the vendors that sell this lawn equipment, the story’s a little different. Charles Kim helps run his family’s long-time business Lawn Mower Corner in Pasadena. He said 2023 has been a great year for sales because of the electric leaf blower mandates.

“But we look at it as a short term gain, with a long term pain,” Kim said.

He noted that about 40% of their business right now is maintaining older gas equipment, such as changing oil and cleaning carburetors. Electric equipment, on the other hand, requires very little, if any, ongoing maintenance.

He said to adapt, the store is diversifying the type of products they sell. For example, they’re expanding from largely commercial equipment to other types of lawn and garden supplies.

“That's what we had to do to not put our eggs in one basket,” Kim said.

And for now, he said they’re stockpiling gas equipment to sell into the new year because the statewide rule banning the sale of all new gas-powered lawn equipment goes into effect in January.

The Trump administration says it’s planning to freeze about $10 billion in federal support for needy families in California and four other Democrat-run states, as the president announced an investigation into unspecified fraud in California.

The plans come on the heels of the Trump administration announcing a freeze on all federal payments for child care in Minnesota, citing fraud allegations against daycare centers in the state.

The state’s Democrat governor, Tim Walz — who ran for vice president against Donald Trump’s ticket in 2024 — announced Monday he was dropping out of running for reelection. He pointed to fraud against the state, saying it’s a real issue while alleging Trump and his allies were “seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”

On Monday, the New York Post reported that the administration was expanding the funding freeze to include California and three other Democrat-led states, in addition to Minnesota. Unnamed federal officials cited “concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens,” The Post reported.

Early Tuesday, President Trump alleged that corruption in California is worse than Minnesota and announced an investigation.

“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

He did not specify what alleged fraud was being examined in the Golden State.

LAist has reached out to the White House to ask what the president’s fraud concerns are in California and to request an interview with the president.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” said an emailed statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the federal childcare funds.

“Under the Trump administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office disputed Trump’s claim on social media, arguing that since taking office, the governor has blocked $125 billion in fraud and arrested “criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers.”

Criminal fraud cases in CA appear to be rare for this program

Defrauding federally funded programs is a crime — and one LAist has investigated, leading to one of the largest such criminal cases in recent years against a California elected official, which surrounded meal funds.

When it comes to the federal childcare funds that are being frozen, the dollar amount of fraud alleged in criminal cases appears to be a tiny fraction of the overall program’s spending in California.

A search of thousands of news releases by all four federal prosecutor offices in California, going back more than a decade, found a total of one criminal case where the press releases referenced childcare benefits.

That case, brought in 2023, alleged four men stole $3.7 million in federal childcare benefits through fraudulent requests to a San Diego organization that distributed the funds. All four pleaded guilty, with one defendant sentenced to 27 months in prison and others sentenced to other terms, according to authorities.

It appears to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of 1% of all the childcare funding California has received over the past decade-plus covered by the prosecution press release search.

Potential impact on California families

The plans call for California, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Colorado to lose about $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children, almost $2.4 billion to care for children of working parents, and about $870 million for social services grants that mostly benefit children at risk, according to unnamed federal officials speaking to the New York Times and New York Post.

In the largest category of funding, California receives $3.7 billion per year. The program is known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

 ”It's very clear that a freeze of those funds would be very damaging to the children, families, and providers of California,” said Stacy Lee, who oversees early childhood initiatives "at Children Now, an advocacy group for children in California.

 ”It is a significant portion of our funds and will impact families and children and providers across the whole state,” she added. “It would be devastating, in no uncertain terms.”

About 270,000 people are served by the TANF program in L.A. County — about 200,000 of whom are children, according to the county Department of Public Social Services.

“Any pause in funding for their cash benefits – which average $1000/month - would be devastating to these families,” said DPSS chief of staff Nick Ippolito.

Ippolito said the department has a robust fraud prevention and 170-person investigations team, and takes allegations “very seriously.”

It remains to be seen whether the funding freeze will end up in court. The state, as well as major cities and counties in California, has sued to ask judges to halt funding freezes or new requirements placed by the Trump administration. L.A. city officials say they’ve had success with that, including shielding more than $600 million in federal grant funding to the city last year.

A union representing California childcare workers said the funding freeze would harm low-income families.

“These threats need to be called out for what they are: direct threats on working families of all backgrounds who rely on access to quality, affordable child care in their communities to go to work every day supporting, and growing our economy,” said Max Arias, chairperson for the Child Care Providers United, which says it represents more than 70,000 child care workers across the state who care for kids in their homes.

“Funding freezes, even when intended to be temporary, will be devastating — resulting in families losing access to care and working parents facing the devastating choice of keeping their children safe or paying their bills.”

Federal officials planned to send letters to the affected states Monday about the planned funding pauses, the New York Post reported. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, state officials said they haven’t gotten any official notification of the funding freeze plans.

“The California Department of Social Services administers child care programs that help working families afford safe, reliable care for their children — so parents can go to work, support their families, and contribute to their communities,” said a statement from California Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel.

“These funds are critical for working families across California. We take fraud seriously, and CDSS has received no information from the federal government indicating any freeze, pause, or suspension of federal child care funding.”

Housing officials in the city of Los Angeles say a pandemic-era voucher program is set to run out of money later this year, putting thousands of renters at risk of homelessness.

The federal Emergency Housing Voucher program was launched in 2021 as a way to get vulnerable people off the streets and into housing during the COVID-19 crisis. The city of L.A. received more than 3,300 of the vouchers.

With federal funding now running out, the city is preparing to wind down the program. On Monday the city’s housing authority said it had told 2,760 tenant households and 1,700 landlords that unless new funding is found, vouchers will expire by November or December of this year.

“We are providing this notice nearly a year in advance because our families deserve the respect of time to prepare, but this is not a notice of resignation,” said L.A. Housing Authority President Lourdes Castro Ramírez said in a news release. “We are exhausting every avenue — at the local, state and federal levels — to bridge this funding gap.”

The Housing Authority said each household using a voucher had an average of 1.58 members. That puts more than 4,000 Angelenos at risk of losing their housing later this year.

Homelessness progress could be reversed

Congress originally intended the program to continue through 2030, but last year, the Trump administration announced funding would end sooner. The program’s demise risks reversing L.A.’s reported progress at stemming the rise of homelessness.

After years of steady increases, the city has registered slight reductions in the number of people experiencing homelessness for the past two years. In 2023, the region’s homeless services authority reported 46,260 people experiencing homelessness in the city of L.A. By 2025, that number had fallen to 43,695.

The accuracy of those official counts has been questioned by local researchers, but elected officials have cheered the numbers as a sign that the tide is turning in addressing one of L.A.’s most vexing problems.

With thousands of renters now at risk of losing a key resource helping them afford the city’s high rents, sharp increases in homelessness could be on the horizon, said Mike Feuer, a senior policy advisor with the Inner City Law Center.

“They're going to fall into homelessness, and they're going to increase L.A.'s homeless population by almost 10%,” Feuer said. “Those are the implications of what the Trump administration is doing.”

Voucher holders have low incomes; many have kids

According to L.A.’s Housing Authority, about 1-in-4 voucher holders has children and 1-in-5 is elderly. And about 40% are disabled. These households have an average income of less than $14,000 per year, and they receive an average of $1,789 per month in rental subsidy while paying about $350 out of their own pockets.

The loss of federal funding for Emergency Housing Vouchers is distinct from the issues facing renters using Housing Choice Vouchers, another federally funded program often referred to as Section 8. Existing vouchers in the Section 8 program have continued to be funded, but federal funding reductions have caused city officials to cut the amount of rent new vouchers in that program can cover by 10%.

L.A. Housing Authority officials said they have dedicated staff reaching out to tenants to explore other housing resources that might keep them housed after the vouchers expire.

Manuel Villagomez, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles specializing in subsidized housing, said with city and state budgets strapped, tenant advocates are not counting on California to find alternative funding sources to continue the program.

“It seems like it's a tragedy in the making,” Villagomez said. “We're preparing for the worst.”