For $179, a savings of $200 off retail, Farr bought a new, clean, rechargeable electric lawnmower to replace his old, polluting, gasoline model. Subsidies from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and other state and local agencies made up the difference.

TRADING UP: John Cadrett, left, and Charlie Goldberg load up old gas-powered mowers at the Home Depot in Merced after residents traded gas mowers in for electric mowers to help reduce emissions. (Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee)

"I want to help keep the air clean," explained Farr, who lives in Merced. "And if the state's going to give me back some of the $485 I sent them last week for taxes, well, that's good, too."

Farr wasn't alone.

On three Saturdays in April, at three Valley locations, the district swapped 1,139 gasoline mowers for the bargain-priced 19-inch electric rechargeables, which sold for less than all but the cheapest gas-powered mowers. The old mowers were sent to a recycler, forever eliminating them as a pollution source.

"My old mower was in really good shape," said another customer, Harvey Lowe of Turlock. "But I heard that a mower puts out as much pollution as 12 cars. If that's true, then I want to do something about it."

It turns out that their old gas mowers were even bigger polluters than Lowe had heard. According to the district, a typical gas mower emits as much pollution as 40 late-model cars, not 12. Beyond that, clumsy Americans spill an estimated 17 million gallons of gasoline per year while refueling them.

This year, the district and its co-sponsors spent $225,000 on the lawnmower exchanges, eliminating an estimated 12 tons of emissions during the mowers' lifetimes.

There's just one problem: At a rate of fewer than 1,200 per year -- the program began just last year -- replacing all of the Valley's roughly 250,000 gasoline-powered lawnmowers will take more than two centuries.

And for other types of equipment, incentives like the one that attracted Farr and Lowe remain rare. The same Home Depot where Farr picked up his electric mower also sells electric edgers, electric chain saws and spill-resistant gasoline cans. Neither the district nor the state has an incentive program for any of those.

"I still use a gas-powered edger, but I'd trade it in if they had a program for it," Farr said. "Plus, I have a two-cycle trolling motor for my fishing boat. It leaves a sheen across the water when it runs. I'd trade that in if they had a program."

But now even the lawnmower program is in peril. In September -- with the manufacturer recalling 140,000 rechargeables for repairs and with the mowers' price scheduled to rise -- district officials decided to call it off, although they still hope to revive it someday.

"We wanted to see what the market was, and quite honestly it has been a strong market, especially up north toward Stockton and Modesto," said Charlie Goldberg, a district marketing and education specialist.

Buyers who took part in this year's mower exchange seemed genuinely enthusiastic about switching from gasoline to electric. And what they said suggests that there may be a lot of pent-up demand for such less-polluting alternatives.

"I tried to get in on this last year but I waited too long and missed it," Lowe said. "I believe there should be a lot more incentives like this. I think it's a great deal."