Just like Ohio’s state renewable energy mandate, federal power plant emission regulations drive up electricity costs and risk reliability by directly interfering with the state energy market. The coal plants that are being closed generally cost somewhat more to operate than newer, more efficient plants.
Government overregulation recently caused American Electric Power (AEP) to shut down several coal plants—including one of Ohio’s largest generators—in May.
With the Senate budget looming on the horizon, it is time to consider how to make Ohio fiscally responsible. In that spirit, The Buckeye Institute released its 2015 Ohio Piglet Book, detailing close to $2.6 billion in wasteful and excessive state spending.
In an opinion piece in The Cincinnati Enquirer, U.S. Senator Rob Portman highlighted a report by Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D., a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Research Institute and released by The Buckeye Institute. The report, The Regressive Impact on Ohio’s Lower-Income and African-American Families from EPA’s Proposed Regulations on Carbon Dioxide Emissions, revealed that the EPA's proposed new rules on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for existing power plants will significantly increase electricity prices, especially in states such as Ohio.
On April 30th, former Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday and former Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer likely did end zone dances that would make Chad Ochocinco blush. Their cause for celebration was the Supreme Court of Ohio’s ruling that the city of Cleveland must return a few thousand dollars of income tax to each of their bank accounts.
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research underscores the economic benefits of shale drilling and strengthens the case against Governor Kasich’s proposed severance tax increase. Imposing such a high severance tax on shale gas drilling would curtail production in Ohio and reduce or eliminate the benefits for Ohio natural gas consumers.
According to the Tax Foundation, Ohioans pay approximately $4,217 per person in state and local taxes each year. In total, the State of Ohio will collect just under $22 billion in revenue from in-state sources in 2015, and billions more will be collected by various local governments. These same officials also have great power to make policies—from local zoning decisions to statewide occupational licensing rules—that affect a taxpayer’s ability to make a living and stay out of prison.
Ohio, like many other states, has had its welfare rolls expand while its labor force has declined. A new report from The Buckeye Institute highlights several welfare program reforms championed by Maine Governor Paul LePage that could serve Ohio and other states well.
In his 2015 State of the State Address, Governor Kasich argued that Ohio needed to increase the tax on oil and gas extraction—the severance tax—because removing oil and gas from the ground makes Ohio poorer. Is this true? Is Ohio poorer because of oil and gas extraction? This debate isn’t new. In fact, there was once a school of thought, the mercantilists, who made similar arguments in the 16th and 17th centuries.
When DHL Express pulled out of Wilmington during the throes of the Great Recession in 2008, the Mayor said the city took a “gut punch.” That story is one of the big reasons Governor Kasich decided to take his annual State of the State speech to Wilmington.
