Regs to Force Cleaner Lawn Mower Engines

A leading maker of small engines says it can adjust to a clean-air decision regarding sales in California. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

A leading maker of small engines says it can adjust to a clean-air decision regarding sales in California. Chuck Quirmbach reports:


The US EPA is letting California require highly polluting small engines to be sold with catalytic converters that cut smog emissions by roughly 40%.


Wisconsin-based engine maker Briggs and Stratton, and politicians who represent some communities with Briggs factories, had fought California’s regulation. They contended it would be hard to make one set of engines for California and another for the rest of the country.


But company vice-president Tom Savage says Briggs has been anticipating the regulation and can handle it through segregating the firm’s inventory.


“Most of our products are sold through the big boxes. There are systems set up so that we can get inventory to the right spot.”


Savage says they’d already been expecting the EPA to require tougher pollution controls on small engines nationwide over the next one to five years.


For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Senator Stalls Emission Controls for Small Engines

  • A catalytic converter may be on its way to a lawn mower near you. (Photo by Karen Trilford)

Small gasoline engines—including those on lawnmowers and weed trimmers— are a major source of air pollution. But one Republican lawmaker says more testing is needed to ensure that proposed emission controls for the engines are safe. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Sepic reports:

Transcript

Small gasoline engines, including those on lawnmowers and weed trimmers, are a
major source of air pollution. But one Republican lawmaker says more testing
is needed to ensure that proposed emission controls for the engines are
safe. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Sepic reports:


Air quality advocates want the federal government to require catalytic
converters be put on all new small engines.


However, Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond wants a safety study first. He
says extra heat from the devices could be a fire hazard. But William Becker, who heads a group of local and regional air quality officials, says that’s just a stalling tactic.


“Both California and the Environmental Protection Agency have done a lot of testing. And they show that engines with catalysts are no hotter than engines without catalysts. The issue of safety is really bogus.”


Becker says Senator Bond is just trying to protect Briggs & Stratton. The
engine maker has two plants in Missouri.


In 2003, Bond also pushed for a measure that blocks all states but
California from imposing small engine pollution regulations that are
stronger than federal rules.


For the GLRC, I’m Matt Sepic in St. Louis.

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