Response to printed opinion of Myles Duffy

I was intrigued by the logic in the letter by Myles Duffy ("Leaf blowers in Burlingame” published in the Aug. 23 edition of the Daily Journal) arguing that electric leaf blowers are less efficient than gas blowers. Mr. Duffy stated that electric blowers take twice as long as gas blowers to gather leaves. In my experience with both gas and electric blowers, I have found no difference in efficiency. Given the large variety of both gas and electric blowers, this overarching statement leaves me dubious about Duffy’s argument. I can see how running a gas blower half as long as an electric motor might save energy, but that does not mean that the cleanliness of the emissions are equal. Gas motors localize exhaust in my neighborhood while an electric motor can be powered by a variety of energy sources such as solar, wind, coal and oil which exhaust at the power plant. Gas motors only use a diminishing resource, fossil fuel, to power them. And if the doubling of carcinogens is a concern, I suggest an alternative leaf removal method called raking as a solution to the issue.