This is finally ready to change. I just this summer got an Ego backpack electric blower after having very good experiences with their chainsaws. Having actually now used it for a season of cleanup and far more importantly the first winter snows done I'm delighted to say that at long last battery tech seems to be right on the edge of being a total replacement for filthy two stroke engines in all the typical applications. It's not quite powerful enough to handle all the same jobs, but it can do 95% of them and it's completely met my hopes in terms of being quiet, clean, reliable, and just better in all the ways I hated about two stroke (goodbye fuel mixing and spill issues and priming and...).

But given the comments I see so far I also want to add that those two stroke power tools have stuck around because they are insanely useful in a lot of contexts, particularly rural ones. I was highly skeptical of blowers in particular until I got one on sale a few years ago, and I hated how noisy it was and the fumes and all that right off. Yet here up north I was sold on it after the first season, with leaves actually being the least important by far aspect. The real value has been snow, a lot of people around here have decks, semi-covered porches, long walkways, and most do not have garages either. A powerful blower clears snow, even somewhat dense snow, not just fast but better, it gets into spaces between rough stone that are impossible to do with a shovel and that inevitably melt/compact and freeze indefinitely (direct sun doesn't do anything really when it's -10 to -20°F or lower) in slick ice. Walk behind snowblowers have a place as well, but can either fail to deal with a rough surface or can't get onto places like decks/porches (or you wouldn't want to anyway) at all. And they're big themselves. Couple of feet of snow on cars and other areas to clear before work is a lot quicker. As far as chainsaws, trees come down and need to be dealt with anyway, and are needed directly for firewood. But of course it's nice to be able to deal with this sort of thing whenever there is snow, and I would never run the blower late a night even with the nearest neighbor 600 feet away, it'd be rude.

I find certain kinds of external noise to drive me nuts, so I completely understand why a lot of people would question the entire use of power tools period. But when you're dealing with acres of field and forest, miles of dirt driveways and roads, are (along with your neighbors) mostly responsible for yourselves, and have parents and friends who are growing older and you need to make time to go help along with your own family, well power tools really make a tremendous quality of life difference. It just has really stunk (metaphorically and literally) that their power sources have been about the absolute worst and most archaic thing. However I think at this point electric is about there, and I think cities and even suburbs really could get away with demanding a shift to them and an end to two stroke use entirely. That was a lot harder without a drop in replacement, but the market foundation is ready and now could just use an extra kick. I'd definitely suggest people consider try to push ordinances there, it might be a lot more successful then in the past. If you have two stroke tools yourself consider looking at modern 40/56V+ battery replacements, and then demonstrating them personally to people. Seeing and hearing and smelling the difference has been very motivating for those I've showed so far. We had all been resigned to how things were, it's a big deal when people realize no, you don't have to deal with that anymore and you don't have to sacrifice the tool either. I can't wait for mowers and tractors to get electric next!