|
 Kasich immediately shot down as “unacceptable” a
legislative study committee’s Wednesday recommendation the state extend its
current two-year mandate freeze indefinitely.
When Kasich signed Senate Bill 310 last year, he agreed to pause the phase-in of
energy efficiency and alternative electricity generation mandates adopted in
2008 — and to create the Energy Mandates Study Committee, whose guidance he
seems set on ignoring.
The governor’s public opposition to an extended freeze isn’t the only sign he’ll
fight for increased mandates. Kasich reportedly threatened to veto a version of
SB 310 that would have locked the mandates at 2014 levels.
And the same day the Energy Mandates Study Committee published its
recommendations, a new coalition of Kasich backers calling itself Ohio
Conservative Energy Forum popped up to promote steeper mandates.
Mike Hartley, who was named Ohio director of Kasich’s presidential campaign less
than a month before the launch of Ohio CEF, is the group’s executive director.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis — a Kasich appointee to the state
medical board — is a member of Ohio CEF’s leadership council. So is retired Air
Force Col. Tom Moe, formerly Kasich’s appointed director of the Ohio Department
of Veterans Services.
Other leaders of the group demanding tougher mandates as a matter of
“conservative support for a common-sense, all-of-the-above state energy policy”
include Kasich campaign enthusiasts from Ohio Young Republicans and Ohio
Federation of College Republicans.
Kasich and Ohio CEF are supported in their push for increased green energy
mandates by industry lobbying groups like Ohio Advanced Energy Economy, and
Ohio’s major newspapers, too.
News stories from Gannett and The Columbus Dispatch have already quoted Hartley
and Ohio CEF as “conservative” advocates of higher mandates without
acknowledging Hartley’s ties to the governor’s presidential campaign.
Dispatch reporter Dan Gearino described Hartley as “president of a political
consulting firm,” and Gannett reporter Jessie Balmert described Hartley simply
as a “conservative who thinks an indefinite freeze is a bad idea.”
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 Ohio Watchdog contacted Ohio CEF to ask whether
Hartley is still being paid by Kasich’s campaign, but an inquiry sent to the
address listed on Ohio CEF’s website was returned as undeliverable and Ohio CEF
did not respond to questions submitted through a web contact form.
Both of Ohio’s free-market think tanks remain critical of the green energy
mandates Kasich wants to expand. “I’m
bewildered by Gov. John Kasich’s leftish stance on energy issues,”
Opportunity Ohio president Matt Mayer told Ohio Watchdog.
“From his tax hike attack on the oil and gas industry to
pro-renewable mandate support, Kasich frankly isn’t much different
than a Democratic governor would be,” Mayer sad. “Unfortunately, his
anti-free market energy positions will increase costs on businesses
and consumers in Ohio and lead to job losses.”
The mandates Kasich wants to expand were approved in 2008 by a
Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly and signed into law by
former governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat.
“We shouldn’t return to the policy mistakes of the Strickland
administration by embracing another costly government mandate,”
Buckeye Institute president Robert Alt said in a press release.
The Ohio chapter of conservative activist group Americans For
Prosperity praised the Energy Mandates Study Committee for
recommending an indefinite freeze.
“We’re thrilled that Ohio is continuing to lead the way in
rethinking these harmful energy mandates,” AFP-Ohio state director
Baylor Myers said in a statement.
The governor’s office did not respond to questions from Ohio
Watchdog.
Before Kasich signaled he wouldn’t stand for a freeze of Ohio’s
green energy mandates, there were signs of progress in the General
Assembly towards rolling back the energy efficiency and electricity
generation requirements.
In 2013, Republican State Sen. Kris Jordan introduced legislation to
repeal the mandates, but the repeal bill was smothered in an Ohio
Senate committee without ever receiving a vote.
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