Soldiers use a gas–powered leaf blower to clear an intersection at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, in this photo from 2022. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Lauralle Walker/U.S. Marine Corps)
Four members of the Montgomery County Council, led by Councilmember Gabe Albornoz, want to gut the ban on the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers that took effect on 1 July. The councilors’ 11th-hour proposal would let landscaping companies use gasoline-powered leaf blowers between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, for three years.
Councilmembers supporting this proposed exemption are consigning the health and welfare of landscape workers and county residents to the back seat while favoring firms that have failed to prepare for the ban. As writer James Fallows put it, this amounts to a cruel bargain for workers: People without power jeopardizing their health because those with power aren’t willing to shield them from avoidable risks…