Multnomah County commissioners voted Thursday to talk with the City of Portland about banning gas-powered leaf blowers, citing the devices’ emissions and noise as reason to eventually take them off the streets.

The leaf blower measure county commissioners approved has no immediate impact on Oregonians who regularly use the devices. The work group will convene in 2022, the office of the commissioner spearheading the proposal said, with a proposal potentially ready by the middle of the year.

In addition to voting to partner with the city on a work group next year to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers, commissioners approved measures to phase out the county’s own use of the devices by 2024, install charging stations and educate the public about the devices’ hazards.

Gas-powered leaf blowers have been on the political docket in Oregon for several years, with bills filed in 2019 and this year in the Legislature seeking their prohibition, one statewide and the other in counties with 400,000 or more residents. Neither made it to a vote.

When testifying against the older bill, a representative of the landscaping industry said a ban could do real harm to smaller landscapers who can’t afford to transition to all electric equipment.

The county’s vote came one week after California regulators voted to ban the sale of new gas leaf blowers by 2024.

The most notable progress toward a ban has been in Portland. Just months before the pandemic hit Oregon, city commissioners voted to phase out 300 city-owned gas-powered leaf blowers used by employees and replace them by 2021 with electric and battery-powered leaf blowers.

Since then, the Portland Parks & Recreation department’s electric leaf blower inventory has grown from eight to 24, City Commissioner Carmen Rubio told county commissioners Thursday. But the original goals have not been met.

“The transition to electric is still in progress,” Rubio said, with efforts slower than desired at least in part because battery-powered leaf blowers aren’t sufficiently powerful, long-lasting or safe for the city’s needs.

Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson, who holds the anti-gas leaf blower mantle on the Multnomah County side, as well as several members of the public, lent impassioned support for the resolution and a potential ban.

“Banning these devices would lower our carbon emissions, reduce air pollution and improve our environment,” Vega Pederson said in a statement. “It’s a win-win-win.”

Top among the commissioner’s and advocates’ concerns are the devices’ potential contribution to the climate crisis, dangerous noise levels and concern about worker safety due to their volume and the toxins they release.

One member of the public who spoke Thursday, Albert Kaufman, urged even swifter action.

“We don’t need a work group on this,” the man said. “We just need to ban these things and move on.”

— Fedor Zarkhin

503-294-7674; fzarkhin@oregonian.com