What they are referring to when they compare a blower with a car is the hydrocarbon emissions. Production cars since forever have had catalytic converters to clean up the emissions by burning off what is not burnt by combustion. Even the cleanest running Honda 4 stroke will still have worse emissions than a car. Same goes for motorcycles, which are only in the last few years getting converters put in them.
I am a very big skeptic of the whole global warming thing and I won't go any further into it, I am simply explaining the Californian point of view.
Regulation on the power equipment industry has always been a farce. I remember years ago they were on Stihl for emissions so their solution was go to Honda, re brand a bunch of 4 stroke trimmers and that brought their emissions overall down so far it bought them years to clean up their range. to this day they still refuse to make a 4 stroke.
I don't doubt the small equipment (blowers, trimmers etc.) will get phased into battery, its already happening. I have never tried them but I've heard good things about the Milwaukee/ Makita gear. And with where the battery stuff is now I would say another 5 years, probably less, bigger equipment will get the same treatment.
Batteries are the biggest holdup. There have been battery Ride ons since nearly the 70's, always let down by batteries that don't last and cost more than the machine is worth
