Environment

California bans gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf blowers, opting to be zero emission by 2024

Published

2 years ago

October 11, 2021

By 2024, California plans to effectively ban the sale of gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Saturday. Portable gas-powered generators must also be zero emission by 2028 according to the new law.

California moves toward ban on gas lawnmowers and leaf blowers https://t.co/FIw46PcIR5
— Phil Willon (@philwillon) October 10, 2021

The Los Angeles Times spoke to the law’s author, assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park). “It’s amazing how people react when they learn how much this equipment pollutes, and how much smog-forming and climate-changing emissions that small off-road engine equipment creates,” Berman told the Times. “This is a pretty modest approach to trying to limit the massive amounts of pollution that this equipment emits, not to mention the health impact on the workers who are using it constantly.”

MAGA Twitter is losing their ever-loving minds over this. I thought they’d all moved over to Parler? https://t.co/nvHR1Hm2tU
— Marc Berman (@AsmMarcBerman) October 10, 2021

Then, Berman logged onto Twitter to troll opponents to the law. “This equipment is dangerous to the workers who use it, disruptive to communities, and terribly damaging to our climate,” he tweeted. “MAGA Twitter is losing their ever-loving minds over this. I thought they’d all moved over to Parler?”

Now the state set aside $30 million to towards the transition from gas-powered equipment to zero-emission equipment. However, reporter Phil Wonton points out that it will require 30-40 batteries to get a day’s work done.

Read the full article here.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.

China

Electric Vehicle company with Chinese ties awarded $500 million of taxpayer money for 2nd U.S. plant

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

With a little help from their Democrat friends, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party just announced the opening of its second plant in the United States.

Fox News reports Gotion Inc., whose parent company Gotion High-Tech is based in Hefei, China, unveiled plans to build a $2 billion lithium battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, alongside Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who cheered the project.

The announcement comes amid growing opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar factory in Mecosta County, Michigan.

In order to make the expansion happen, lobbyists for the Chinese Communist Party-tied electric vehicle company funneled cash to Democrats. “Individuals at a law firm registered as foreign agents to lobby on behalf of Gotion, a Chinese electric vehicle battery company developing a controversial project in Michigan, and wired campaign contributions to several top Democrats” reports Fox News.

“According to state and federal filings, Monique Field-Foster, an attorney at the Lansing office of the Warner Norcross + Judd law firm who is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Gotion, donated to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s sister Liz Gereghty and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Elissa Slotkin” the Fox News report continued.

“With the right incentives, nation-leading infrastructure, world-class workforce and booming clean energy production, we have transformed ourselves into an attractive location for global manufacturers. Today, we take another leap forward. It’s my pleasure to welcome Gotion to Illinois and to show the world yet again that Illinois is ready to be a player on the world stage.”

Pritzker delivered remarks late last week thanking Gotion for choosing Illinois to call “home” in a ceremony with leaders from Gotion High-Tech, including Li Zhen, the company’s chairman and president, who said he expected the factory to open in less than 12 months.

“All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years,” the Gotion president added. “We believe that Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the U.S.”