Here's a quote from the article:

> In 2017, the California Air Resources Board issued a warning that may seem incredible but has not been seriously challenged: By 2020, gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and similar equipment in the state could produce more ozone pollution than all the millions of cars in California combined. Two-stroke engines are that dirty. Cars have become that clean.

No they do not create more pollution, at least on a per-unit basis. As it states in the article 2-stroke motors create a ton of air pollution.

It is also much easier to ban 2-stroke motors, which have cheap electrical alternatives than ICE cars in a car dependent US city.

As I mentioned in another comment in this, 2-strokes don't need to produce horrible amounts of emissions, you just need to mix the proper amount of oil in with the gas for the given engine load. This can be done (and is done!) today with injected 2-stroke motorcycles. The emissions go down dramatically and you can get as much or even more power than a traditional pre-mix 2-stroke.