Prohibits municipalities from restricting certain landscaping equipment based on its power source.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would prevent cities and towns in Rhode Island from banning or limiting the use of landscaping equipment — such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, or trimmers — based on what powers them. In other words, a municipality could not pass a local rule that prohibits gas-powered equipment in favor of electric equipment, or vice versa. The decision about what type of power source landscaping tools use would be left to individual property owners and landscaping businesses rather than local governments.

The bill would primarily affect homeowners, landscaping companies, and municipal governments across Rhode Island. Landscapers who rely on gas-powered tools would be protected from local ordinances that might otherwise require them to switch to electric alternatives. At the same time, communities that may want to encourage quieter or lower-emission equipment as part of local environmental or noise reduction efforts would be limited in their ability to do so.

Currently, the bill has been introduced in the Rhode Island Senate and referred to the Senate Housing and Municipal Government Committee, where it is scheduled for a hearing. It has not yet been passed into law. If enacted, it would establish a statewide standard on this issue, overriding any existing or future local rules that try to regulate landscaping equipment based on its power source — whether gas, electric, or battery-powered.