Following a week of icy weather, Dallas’ Environment and Sustainability Committee met at City Hall to hear updates on various programs and initiatives.
The committee, chaired by Councilmember Paula Blackmon (District 9), is responsible for workshopping the controversial proposal that would forbid the sale and use of gas-powered landscape equipment by public, commercial, and private entities.
Staff presented on the numerous programs relating to environmental concerns, including the Hensley Field redevelopment, the dredging of White Rock Lake, and the equipment ban.
Currently, the staff is developing a “5-year Landscape Equipment Transition Plan” for a spring 2023 rollout date. To facilitate this, the City has developed a “residential and commercial survey” and is planning an “inventory of City and public equipment to allow estimates of funding required to support this transition.”
The Office of Environmental Quality & Sustainability (OEQS) additionally noted in a memo that it had “contracted with Modern Geosciences for technical support services including but not limited to; assistance in researching other community implementation…; and developing the detailed internal and external transition plan.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, lawn care companies have expressed concern about the proposal’s cost. They have also suggested that the electric equipment is impractical for commercial use.
In order to address pushback from stakeholders within City services and the broader public, the OEQS has worked with electric lawn care vendors to set up demonstration opportunities.
In a separate memo provided to the committee, Director of the Office of Government Affairs Carrie Rogers highlighted several bills submitted in the Texas Legislature that would impact the anti-gas-powered lawn care proposal.
Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Baytown) and Rep. Jay Dean (R-Longview) have submitted identical bills in the House that would prevent cities such as Dallas from instituting a gas-powered lawncare equipment prohibition.
“A political subdivision may not adopt or enforce an ordinance, order, or other measure that prohibits or restricts the use or sale of gasoline-powered landscaping equipment,” the bills read.
Rep. Cain explained to The Dallas Express that the bill, “will ensure that there is consistent framework for both private citizens and businesses to work with. Texans shouldn’t have to sell their equipment and buy new equipment when they move out of a certain town.”
“And businesses shouldn’t have to change out equipment when they’re moving to a different job between cities,” Cain continued. “Additionally, the City of Dallas has said that this will cost millions of dollars to implement for their own departments.”
“At a time when most Texans are having to tighten their own belt and are looking at the Texas Legislature to do something about rising property taxes, now is not the time for cities to spend millions on virtue signaling,” he concluded.
Rep. Dean additionally noted to The Dallas Express, “It’s very simple. Texans don’t want the government telling them what kind of lawn equipment they can or can’t use.”
At the committee meeting, Councilmember Paul Ridley (District 14) asked if staff had considered postponing efforts to develop and implement the gas-powered equipment prohibition since such a plan could become illegal.
Carlos Evans, director of OEQS, explained, “We have not made that evaluation and determination yet.” However, the gas-powered lawn equipment ban would not go back to the full council until after the legislature adjourned, so no delay was considered necessary.
The Dallas anti-gas push follows other bans across the nation. California has passed a ban on all gas-powered lawn equipment that will take effect by 2024, while states such as New York and Illinois have begun debating the issue.
Typical liberal virtue signaling. Millions of dollars for Dallas to switch over but liberals don’t care, it’s not there money And commercial lawn care companies would have to bring gas powered generators to work throughout the day.
You need to talk to Abbott about this. He raised hell about gas stoves, now the Governor is banning outdoor equipment.
It’s not Democrats it’s this Republican run state. They ban everything except money in their political campaigns. Women’s Rights , books, health care, schools voter suppression and the list goes on. This is a Republican run State.
Did you even read the article before your biased tirade against Abbott? He is stopping cities from banning gas powered equipment.
This city has become a huge ghetto and all the Dallas decision makers can do is ban gas-powered lawn equipment? This makes no sense whatsoever. Same as that million Dollars+ bridge to nowhere. Shit City is what we have become, thanks to the Mayor, City Manager, and City Council. Why not clean up your city from all the trash the “homeless” leave behind? Why not spend money to redo the traffic lights throughout the city? Currently these lights make no sense, keeping drivers idling. Why not do something useful? Stop feeding at the public trough, do something for the people who elected you!
Insanity / Nuts
Texas House Reps Rep. Briscoe Cain and Rep. Jay Dean are stopping the Liberal Democrat Environmentalists, who want to impose their bans and policies on everyone. MORE POWER TO THE TEXAS HOUSE REPUBLICANS !!!!!
There are bigger issues at hand. Stop the madness.
Exactly…and STOP voting for these same loons back in. It’s the only way to get rid of them.
Texas House Reps Rep. Briscoe Cain and Rep. Jay Dean are are stopping the Liberal Democrat Environmentalists, who want to impose their bans and policies on everyone. MORE POWER TO THE TEXAS HOUSE REPUBLICANS !!!!!
To those living in District 9, it’s time to oust Councilmember Paula Blackmon. Dallas is such a democrat-communist run by elected officials. Start demanding her resignation. This is how you first start to put these lunatics out of office…next is to NOT vote for them.
This is one of thousands of systemic reforms we’re going to have to find solutions for in coming years. Utah found funding an exchange program through a GM settlement. Read the article here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/environment/gas-powered-lawn-mower-exchange-program-cuts-air-pollution/
It basically boils down to consciousness change, culture change in landscaping, and monetary resources. Change is inevitable if we are to reduce our mindless pollution and addiction to profit over people and planet and fossil fuels. Seems we will kick this can down the road until pro-active solution-oriented individuals and groups focus on it. Free energy sources have been repressed and suppressed for many decades, starting with Nicola Tesla (that I’m aware of).
The justification for this measure is CO2 reduction which is something plants thrive on. At rest Allison you exhale about 2 pounds of this so-called poison every 24 hours – you exhale about as much in 20 days as my lawnmower does in a year. You are allowing yourself to be led by the nose to your enslavement under the guise of environmentalism.
I have a buddy that has a large commercial Landscaping Company and he looked into going all electric for his equipment. He said the only way he would be able to do it is by caring a small generator on their trailer to charge all of the batteries, a generator that runs on gasoline.
How about banning leaf blowers ONLY. That would save tens of thousands of gasoline and end the dust and debris being blown onto other properties and fouling the air.
If they want to use something to pick up leaves then SUCK them up and run the air through filters.
With regard to how to handle this LONG TERM, simply require xeriscape of all properties using indigenous and plants that can survive as if native. Done deal.
This is just nuts. This is Texas, not California. Thankfully there are people in the Legislature who have some sense.
OEQS— just another acronym for how to waste taxpayers money on another useless government office, but I repeat myself.
And for those of us that use a lawn service… the prices will go out the roof!
Crime and homeless issues mean’s they have to work hard. When citizens don’t Vote, we get politicians who lie.
It’s about what they can put in their pockets. State Senator and State Representative do what? They make very little money but they live grand, where does their money come from or who stuff their pockets. Hmmm.
Texas House Reps Rep. Briscoe Cain and Rep. Jay Dean are stopping the Liberal Democrat Environmentalists, who want to impose their bans and policies on everyone. MORE POWER TO THE TEXAS HOUSE REPUBLICANS !!!!!
And who will be hit the hardest in Dallas? The countless Hispanic community members who work a hard living providing landscaping services to thousands of DFW properties. Do the fools masquerading as political “leaders” have ANY idea of the lack of feasibility and staggering costs of their ridiculous legislation? Screw-over those who can least afford it. Disgusting and classist.
They’ve never mowed their own lawns.
This leftist idiocy really needs to stop. One thing I always thought was ignorant, is places putting in year-round grass. Why does grass need to be green in the winter? Just let it hibernate here like it always has. That uses excess water and requires mowing all year. If they want to put a stop to something, put a stop to that. That would not adversely affect anyone except the seed distributors.
The charge for cutting grass will rise because of the increased costs, and yet, the dems say they have nothing to do with inflation. This is a perfect example of how they are affecting the economy with their inane ideas. The self-employed mowers will be hurt, as well as the individual citizens, but the companies selling tons of electric mowers, etc. will make a killing. Making the rich, richer. People will end up needing to disconnect their outside electrical outlets because people will probably try to steal electricity from homes. I thought dems were for the little guy. But, of course, they don’t care. They have plenty of money. Climate change is a scam. They’re using that as an excuse to waste billions of our money. Doctors/scientists will say whatever you want to hear for enough money. They CANNOT control the weather. They probably want to blame the eruption of Mount St. Helens on climate change. So what caused the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.? They’re nuts. People are so easily brainwashed, it’s frightening. The dems are banking on the fact that most people are conformists. All they have to do is put an idea in people’s minds and they fall in line. It’s why advertising works. Cabbage Patch Kids. Perfect example of people going bonkers over one of the ugliest dolls I’ve ever seen. Biden. Perfect example of people being fooled into putting a senile, mindless moron in as President, that can’t even straddle a stationary bicycle without falling.
California does not know they’re ___ from a hole in the ground. The real push is to lower population of all but the wealthy!
“California does not know they’re ___ from a hole in the ground.”
Please add the Dallas City Council to your list.
I could not even read the full article, what a joke. If the city of Dallas wants to change the landscape then go talk to the sanitation department first! Tell them to do their job, stop destroying peoples property and pick up the trash. They drop more trash than a homeless person and if they see trash that is on the ground, well they ignore it. Better yet, fire them and replace them with people who care. This goes from management to the guys on the trucks.
And while we’re having to deal with a 4 hour 20 minute response time to random gunfire the City of Dallas mulls the “danger” of CO2 emissions from my lawn mower.
This gas powered lawn equipment ban was tried in Los Angeles. Gardeners and landscapers showed up in mass at the steps of city hall. After a few days of protests the discussion was dropped but now the state of California will institute a similar policy.
Maybe a protest needs to be organized in Dallas.
Interesting fact about the LA protest was that once the city council saw that 99% of gardeners and the protesters were hispanic they quickly changed their minds. This tactic could easily work in Dallas since democrats love to pander to minorities. Might as well use the ammunition you have to get the results you want.
Just another stupid Democratic writing bills that are going to die a fast death. No Democrat bills are going to pass in Texas, NOR SHOULD THEY!
Leave the small businesses alone.
Let me understand. We allow cars that have no muffler, no license tags, no inspection, no insurance, no driver’s license to continue on the road but we would have to junk all our gas powered lawn machinery and buy electric? All because CA and NY do it? Seriously????? Gee, wonder who is in the pocket
No matter what the situation, if I was walking down a road where it ended and had to go left or right…if CA, NY or IL said left was the way to go, I would turn right.
An Aesop’s fable that is a perfect example of what happens when you listen to strangers instead of using your own judgement:
A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?”
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.
“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:
“Please all, and you will please none.”
Welcome to Texifornia. Whatever San Francisco implements, Dallas immediately follows. The problem starts with the Dallas’ Environment and Sustainability Committee. As a native Dallasite and resident for over 50 years, I saw the writing on the wall four years ago and moved out of Dallas county. The gas ban is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s not a matter of if it will be implemented but when. Trivial compared to what’s coming.
Looking to do the same. Can’t get away fast enough from the destructive Clown Show known as the Dallas City Council.
Texas is turning into what left green new deal agenda socialists want, is everyone happy with this?
Thank you Lord for Fort Worth.
A note to the Dallas City Council and City of Dallas: Get the h*ll out of my life and stay out. There is a reason Dallas saw an exodus of residents and its because of you. People cannot get away from you fast enough.
A ban on gas-powered equipment grants a defacto monopoly to electric providers. The end game is to control you by forcing you to be dependent on Vanguard and Blackrock-owned electric utilities.
Has anyone bothered to tell the Dallas City Council that a gas-powered ban is pro-slavery? Do the clueless Council members know where the Lithium and Cobalt for batteries and magnets come from?
The double negatives in this anti prohibition explanation is why many
citizens choose what they don’t want
or don’t choose what they do want….
We must DEMAND that all legislation
is presented straight forward.
Double negation is used to confuse.
Our city government is a collection of woke idiots. Thankfully the State of TX will stop this stupidity.