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Monday, Aug. 18, 2025

Are Colorado residents prohibited from using gas-powered lawnmowers?

Tyler Hickman, The Colorado Sun
no

Colorado regulations restricting the use of gas-powered lawn equipment that went into effect June 1 apply only to federal, state and local governments.

In 2024, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission adopted Regulation 29, which bars state agencies from using gas-powered lawn and gardening equipment June 1-Aug. 31 each year. The restriction applies only to tools with engines smaller than 25 horsepower, like push mowers, chainsaws and hedge trimmers.

A special provision governs Colorado’s federal ozone nonattainment area, a nine-county swath of the northern Front Range and Denver metro area that consistently fails federal air quality standards. There, federal and local agencies are barred from running gas-powered tools smaller than 10 horsepower. 

In 2024, the EPA reclassified Colorado’s ozone nonattainment area from moderate to serious, requiring the state to reduce ozone to pollution to 70 parts per billion by Aug. 3, 2027. 

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