Ohio House vote to kill renewable-energy standards reveals lawmakers looking backwards to the horse-and-buggy era instead of positioning Ohio for the future, Thomas Suddes writes. (Credit: Plain Dealer historical photograph collection/Cleveland Press photo 1986)
CLEVELAND — “If Henry Ford had started tinkering with cars in, say, a backyard shed in Ohio rather than one in Detroit, Ohio’s House of Representatives probably would have passed a bill loudly proclaiming that Ohio was and always would be a pro-horse state.
That’s how it seems, given Thursday’s decision by Ohio House Republicans (and a few Democrats) to junk Ohio’s renewable-energy standards.
That 65-31 vote, to pass House Bill 114, sets up a collision with Republican Gov. John Kasich. And it also stalls Ohio’s moves into the future.
Kasich vetoed a similar maneuver last year, and rightly so. True, House Republicans might have the votes to override a Kasich veto this year (there are 66 House Republicans; it takes 60 votes to override a veto). But it’s not at all clear that the Senate, also GOP-run, would also override.”
— Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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