The Biden Administration has revived the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, another costly green mandate on electricity production in the U.S. The Buckeye Institute’s Rea S. Hederman Jr. joined the PRI Next Round podcast to discuss Buckeye’s report showing how much more Californians and Ohioans could pay for electricity if the plan takes effect and how it would subject the rest of the country to the type of green energy mandates that Californians have been struggling to afford for years.
 

In The Orange County Register, The Buckeye Institute and Pacific Research Institute expose the harm that the Biden Administration’s new Clean Power Plan would have on California, Ohio, and the rest of the country. “Whether federal- or state-imposed, misguided efforts to push President Biden’s new emissions standards and California’s green energy mandates across Ohio and other cloudy industrial states will shrink their economies, reduce their wages, squeeze their profit-margins, and raise their prices.”

In Crain’s Cleveland Business, The Buckeye Institute calls for Ohio to join the “flat-tax revolution,” writing, “States around the country have started a flat-tax revolution. Nine states have abandoned progressive, graduated income taxes that punish wage earners for being successful. Five more states are currently poised to join the revolution. Ohio should, too. And with a $6 billion surplus sitting in state coffers at the end of the last fiscal year, now is the time.”

“We’re saving America one tax model at a time.” The success of The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center is the feature of a National Review piece that highlights the ERC’s work in states across the country. Since 2016, Buckeye’s ERC has worked in 12 states saving taxpayers nearly $6 billion. 

In The Columbus Dispatch, The Buckeye Institute and Americans for Prosperity-Ohio outline the benefits and effectiveness of a flat tax, urging the Ohio General Assembly to “dramatically improve Ohio’s income tax policy by creating a single flat tax rate of 2.75 percent on taxable income over $26,050.” “[I]f Ohio lawmakers will boldly reform an outmoded tax code that discourages hard work and punishes investment, economic growth and prosperity for Ohio will follow.”

In The Lima News, The Buckeye Institute urges the Ohio Senate to make vouchers available to “every child and every family in every community,” writing, “The state has a $6 billion surplus of taxpayer money sitting in its coffers. As the Ohio Senate finalizes the state’s biennial budget, it should direct some of that excess to pay for putting K-12 students and their academic success first.”

An analysis by The Buckeye Institute found that even after the increases in the House budget, many working-class families would still be unable to take advantage of an EdChoice voucher. For example, a postal worker and nurse living in Lima with one child earn too much to qualify for EdChoice under the governor and House plans. So would a power-line installer and plumber with two children in Cleveland and a police officer and teacher in the Dayton area.

On RealClearPolicy, The Buckeye Institute’s Rea S. Hederman Jr. and California Policy Center’s Will Swaim look at the impact that a new Clean Power Plan—which the Biden Administration is attempting to revive through the regulatory process—would have on jobs, the economy, and customers. “California’s headlong rush to replace its electricity grid with renewable energy has given the rest of the country a preview of the decarbonized future that President Biden and his revived Clean Power Plan envision for America. It isn’t pretty.”
 

“In advancing regulatory reform, Iowa policymakers should consider Ohio’s successful efforts to eliminate burdensome regulations. Ohio serves as the gold standard for state regulatory reform.” In an op-ed published by RealClearPolicy, The Buckeye Institute and the Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation outline how Ohio became a national leader in regulatory reform and how the Buckeye State can serve as an example to Iowa and the country’s other 48 states.

Robert Alt, constitutional scholar and president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, explains why California’s position in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross is unconstitutional and contradicts America’s founding principles of balance among states. “As a constitutional matter, California has gone hog wild. A proper respect for both the authority of the other 49 states to manage their own business and the role of the federal government in regulating commerce between the states would require the Supreme Court to rule against California’s audacious extraterritorial overreach.”