Lawn maintenance tools such as walk-behind lawn mowers, stand-on lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, garden tractors, and the like often use a rotatable blade for cutting grass, and some of these blades also are configured to mulch the cut grass and other lawn refuse. These lawn mowers and lawn maintenance tools that often powered by gasoline- or fuel-powered engines are often very loud when in use by an operator. The noise generated by the engines is typically a result of the power needed to rotate the blade, in combination with the noise of the rotation of the blade within a cutting deck. The power and energy needed to rotate these blades at a sufficient rotational velocity can be substantial, particularly when used to mow wet lawns or when the grass is above a certain height.