SAN JOSE RESIDENTS have been clamoring for a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers for years, complaining about their noise and pollution. In response, the City Council began reviewing a proposal to encourage the use of electric leaf blowers through a subsidy program.
The city is moving forward with a green subsidy more than a year and a half later — but it won’t be for electric leaf blowers.
Instead, councilmembers unanimously approved a $100,000 program Tuesday to incentivize local contractors to carry out home heat pump installations. The decision came after staff ran a side-by-side comparison of various low-emission technologies.
“We found the contractor incentive will have 10 times more greenhouse gas reductions than the leaf blower pilot for less staff time and funding,” Kate Ziemba, program manager with San Jose Clean Energy, said at the meeting.
The pilot program will provide enough funding for 15 contractors to install six heat pumps each. The goal is to help local contractors gain experience installing electric appliances before regulators begin phasing out gas heaters in the coming years.
Balking at a total ban
While councilmembers and some residents cheered the heat pump subsidy as a climate win, the decision represents yet another setback for others.
“I’m disappointed and have been disappointed for a long time,” neighborhood advocate Marty Stuczynski told San José Spotlight.
Stuczynski has been campaigning for years to get the city to enact a ban on gas leaf blowers. He said residents’ concerns go well beyond climate emissions.
“They’re highly air polluting, highly noise polluting — I think they significantly degrade our quality of life,” he said.
Over the years, San Jose leaders have expressed reluctance to support an outright ban, warning that doing so could harm local landscaping businesses. They have held up an incentive program for electric leaf blowers as a less disruptive alternative.
A statewide ban on the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers went into effect last year, though existing gas devices are still widely used. A number of Bay Area cities — including Palo Alto, Los Altos and Los Gatos — have already outlawed the use of leaf blowers. In May, Santa Clara County dropped a proposal to ban their use in unincorporated areas amid fears related to immigration enforcement.
“They’re highly air polluting, highly noise polluting — I think they significantly degrade our quality of life.”
Marty Stuczynski, San Jose resident on leaf blowers
In April 2024, councilmembers advanced plans for a local electric leaf blower incentive program by ordering staff to review a proposal targeted toward small landscaping businesses. But the review found such a subsidy would likely deliver lackluster results.
While leaf blowers are a major source of air pollution, their contribution to the city’s carbon footprint is minimal, amounting to less than 0.1% of total emissions, according to a staff memo.
In addition, to overcome industry misgivings about the burgeoning technology, staff determined the subsidy program would need an extensive — and expensive — outreach campaign to inform contractors of the various benefits of electric leaf blowers.
In the final tally, the city estimates a leaf blower incentive pilot would cost $142,500 to carry out and would eliminate 174 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In contrast, the new $100,000 heat pump incentive is expected to eliminate 1,466 metric tons.
Deadline approaching
San Jose is scrambling to get ahead of new state and local regulations restricting gas appliances. Beginning in 2027, the Bay Area Air District will begin phasing in rules effectively banning the sale of new gas-powered heaters throughout the region.
City officials argue that by encouraging more contractors to offer electric heat pump installations, the subsidy will make the market more competitive, driving down costs for homeowners.
“I think it’s great that we’re targeting one of the big gaps in the market by creating an incentive for contractors to see this as a viable option,” Mayor Matt Mahan said last week.
His connection to the electric leaf blower issue goes back to his time as a freshman councilmember when he encouraged Stuczynski and other residents to form a working group examining possible responses to the complaints around gas blowers.
Mahan’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
While a local incentive program for electric leaf blowers is off the table for now, city leaders said they would seek funding from other sources. The Bay Area Air District and California Air Resources Board offer voucher programs for zero-emission landscaping equipment, though they do not yet include San Jose.
As for Stuczynski, he argues residents have already waited too long for relief from leaf blowers.
“These things are like jackhammers in terms of the noise. … Why do we tolerate this noise?” he said. “Until the city of San Jose decides to ban them … this is going to be an ongoing issue.”
Contact Keith Menconi at keith@sanjosespotlight.com or @KeithMenconi on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.