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Yesterday, the Portland City Council voted unanimously to approve the proposed ordinance to restrict use of gas powered blowers. The ordinance will take effect in Portland on Jan. 1, 2026, for Jani 1 – September 30 expand to year-round prohibition in 2028.
Our Doug Crimin, Mauricio Flores and Adam Flint working through the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association worked with the city and were able to get the seasonal exceptions for the first two years for Fall leaf cleaning and were able to work in a clause that if the battery tech is still lacking or proving too challenging to fully adopt, that the 2028 date will be pushed and the seasonal exception would remain.
HISTORY: Effective in 2006, the Portland City Council leaf blower operators were required to switch to equipment that meets a decibel level of 65 dBA. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/civic/article/118533. Following this in 2021, the city council voted to phase out gas blowers in city operations and their contract service providers by
In, 2021 the Multnomah County Board of County Commissioners voted to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers, setting a timeline for the County operations to shift from gas-powered leaf blowers to electric models by 2025. They also developed a work group, in partnership with the City of Portland, exploring an equitable, community-wide transition to sustainable alternatives. Ironically, https://www.multco.us/multnomah-county/news/board-votes-phase-out-gas-powered-leaf-blowers
In November, Commissioner Rubio announced that she would bring forward and outright ban sometime in 2024. Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson has committed to helping enforce the ban. https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2023/11/more-than-100-cities-have-banned-gas-leaf-blowers-will-portland-be-next.html
This only impacts properties in the city limits of Portland but the issue will likely expand. Bills have also been introduced in the Oregon Legislature to restrict gas blower use but those three bills – in 2019, 2021 and 2023 – didn’t make it out of committee.
As this is a growing issue locally and nationally, The National Association of Landscape Professionals in cooperation with the American Green Zone Alliance and the Oregon Association of Landscape Professionals held a Symposium at the Nike Campus on this subject this past November. https://agza.net/agza-nalp-olca-gas-to-electric-workshop/
Our industry associations and most contractors in Portland are committed to the responsible transition from gas to electric but does not support and outright ban. Instead, we promote education and incentives to help this transition to occur naturally and cost effectively for all contractors and consumers.
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