Lower Merion Township officials plan to introduce an ordinance in October that will regulate the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. The agenda from the Sept. 10 sustainability committee meeting states the ordinance would “prohibit the use of gas powered leaf blowers during the period May 1 to Oct. 1 and Jan. 1 to March 1 annually; to prohibit the use of portable generators to directly power electric leaf blowers or to charge the electric batteries thereof; to require that notice of the prohibition of the use of gas powered leaf blowers be posted at establishments in the township that sell them; and to provide violations and penalties for the enforcement hereof.” The proposed ordinance aligns with Lower Merion’s 2023 sustainability plan that recommends the township “design and implement a program to accelerate electrification and transition to clean energy.” The plan notes that township residents “regularly express objections to the noise and environmental pollution caused by gas powered leaf blowers.”
Source: Main Line Media News; 9/22/2025