RealClearPennsylvania Articles
The Smartest Energy Policy Is Already in Bucks County
One of the largest natural gas power plants in America is in Bucks County.
Tucked away in Falls Township, the Fairless Energy Center is the third-largest natural gas-fired generating station in Pennsylvania and one of the twenty largest in the United States. Each year, it produces approximately 8.7 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to make Bucks County the seventh-largest electricity-producing county in the Commonwealth.
In fact, Bucks County is among the top 130 energy-producing counties nationwide which places it in the top 6% in the country.
Yet when people think of Bucks County, they...
Prior Authorization Should Never Stand Between Seniors and Care
For many Americans across the nation, navigating approvals for necessary health care can feel as challenging as the illness or condition they are treating.
Together, we — a U.S. Representative representing Western Pennsylvania and the president and CEO of The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, which represents more than 235 hospitals and health systems across the commonwealth — regularly hear from families and providers about barriers to timely care for patients who are seeking high-priority treatments. For the 35 million American seniors enrolled in...
America at 250: The War to End All Wars
“Over there, over there,Send the word, send the word over there…That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming… we’re coming over… and it won’t be over ‘til it’s over over there.” -George M. Cohan, “Over There,” 1917
On June 28, 1914, an event occurred that eventually would spur involvement of nations from North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Sparked by ethnic hatred of a European monarch, long standing rivalries led to the outbreak of a conflict the scope of which had never been seen before. A shot fired from...
PA's Energy Advantage Should Lower Bills, Not Get Trapped by Poor Decisions
Energy affordability is top of mind across America, but in Northeast Pennsylvania it is especially personal. After living in the region for close to 20 years, I know that when energy costs rise, families feel it in heating bills, electric bills, groceries, travel, and nearly everything else.
Pennsylvania has an advantage most states envy: abundant natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. Life would be more expensive today without it. But that advantage only matters if policy allows energy to be produced, moved, and used.
In a recent letter to the Pennsylvania Senate Consumer Protection and...
Pennsylvania Avoided Tax Hikes—But Only for Now
Twelve days behind schedule — but still 110 days earlier than last year — Pennsylvania lawmakers finally passed a $52.2 billion state budget. The deal, rushed through during a rare Sunday session, avoided tax hikes and protected the state's Rainy Day Fund.
But taxpayers shouldn't celebrate just yet.
While lawmakers rejected some of Gov. Josh Shapiro's most irresponsible spending proposals, they failed to solve Pennsylvania's underlying problem: government spending continues to grow faster than taxpayers can afford.
This year's budget battle began with the governor's...
Shapiro: A Man Without a Constituency, Brand, or Record
Gov. Josh Shapiro was for school choice until he was against it. He vetoed the legislation when it arrived on his desk.
Meanwhile, Shapiro’s children attended Jewish Day School because he could afford it. Trust him: he wants to support school choice, but as his “penance” for saying out loud that he supports the policy, he had to cut funding dramatically for cyber charter students and now pledges to cut tuition-assistance scholarships from Pennsylvania’s 25-year-old program. He wants to support the federal “Education Freedom Tax Credit” – requiring...
The Cost of Politics Is Showing Up on Your Electric Bill
When families in Central Pennsylvania open their electric bills, they need an explanation for why electricity keeps getting more expensive. Come November, voters will surely have this issue top of mind.
A quick look on the Pennsylvania 10th Congressional candidate’s websites shows stark contrast. U.S. Rep. Scott Perry addresses this concern and acknowledges, “The Biden-Harris anti-American energy policies threaten our national security and have ruined our economy. America must be energy independent to grow our economy and maintain our security.” He correctly states he,...
How to Accelerate the Military Supply Chain in PA
Today, at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, U.S. Sen. David McCormick is convening some of America’s top leaders, including President Trump, and executives of Boeing, SpaceX, Palantir, JP Morgan and Exiger, for a two-day event focused on America’s military supply chains and the defense industrial base that underpins it.
It’s fitting that this convening is taking place a few miles from the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. Some 163 years ago, the county seat became the site for this landmark battle precisely because of its proximity to critical supply chains and raw...
Why Are Kids Falling Behind in PA?
By most measures, Pennsylvania has invested more in public education than ever. However, despite increased spending, academic achievement has flattened, leaving many in the education policy world scratching their heads as the state budget deadline looms.
Here is a number every Pennsylvania taxpayer should know: $23,807. That is what Pennsylvania now spends, on average, to educate a single public school student for one year. The commonwealth now ranks tenth in the nation and spends about $4,000 above the national average.
This is part of a longer trend in Pennsylvania education spending. Over...
With Data Centers, PA Can Reinvent Itself Again
No state built America more than Pennsylvania.
On the heels of our 250th year of independence, most think of how Pennsylvanians built the nation ideologically. From the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address, Pennsylvania has been a central place for articulating the idea of America. But let’s not forget how the Commonwealth has built and continues to build the nation’s industry and infrastructure.
Coal from the Appalachians powered the country through the Industrial Revolution, and Pittsburgh's steel framed the skylines of every major city across the country. While...
Affordable Electricity Requires Smart Investment
Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro declared that the Commonwealth’s regulated utility system was "broken." In doing so, he gave voice to a frustration shared by millions of Americans confronting higher electric bills. Rising electricity costs deserve serious scrutiny, and elected officials are right to ask difficult questions about whether utility regulation is serving consumers.
The U.S. is in the midst of the largest expansion of electricity demand in a generation. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, domestic semiconductor production, and the continued...
The Jewish Legacy in Northeastern Pennsylvania
The Jewish communities of Northeastern Pennsylvania had come, like so many others to the Coal Region, in waves. They arrived from the German states in the middle of the 19th century, from Poland in its closing decades, and from Russia and Ukraine in the early years of the 20th.
They came for economic opportunity, certainly – the anthracite coal fields were hungry for labor, and the towns rising around the collieries needed merchants, businessmen, and tradespeople. But most often, they were also fleeing something: discrimination, threats, and pogroms carried out by their neighbors and...
In the Lehigh Valley, the Power Bill Is on the Ballot
The largest structure proposed in Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district is a building that will, once completed, contain almost no workers. Across the road from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township, a developer has drawn up plans for the Atlas data center campus, roughly 5.1 million square feet spanning six buildings, to be supported by its own electric substation. PPL Electric, the utility that serves the Lehigh Valley, says its load could triple over the next 5 to 7 years, and that without new generation the region could see brownouts. The students looking out at that...
What Will PA Do With Skill Game Machines?
At an auto garage in Washington County, one elderly regular walks over from the public housing project where he lives and feeds the single Pace-O-Matic machine for hours. He is no trouble, the owner – a former partner-in-crime of my father’s during their shady used-car peddling days in the 1970s – told me. After all, customers wait in the small, dingy waiting room anyway, and the box covers about one bill a month, something like the internet. What the regular doesn’t do, in all those hours, is trouble himself with the part of the game that until two weeks ago made it...
A Pennsylvanian’s Reflection on America’s 250th
America turns 250 this year. Like most milestone anniversaries, it arrives wrapped in debate. We reflect on what we have become, what we have failed to become, and whether the gap between can be closed. These are fair and important debates. But anniversaries also invite a quieter but just as important exercise: reflection. Reflection on what endures beneath the noise. For me, that reflection is genealogically rooted. My family has not watched our history from the outside. They were present for most of it.
Faith Over Fear
In September 1742, Christian Yoder stepped off the St. Francis &...
Is Local News the Next Spirit Airlines?
On May 2, Spirit Airlines shut down without warning and 17,000 workers lost their jobs overnight. The airline had filed for bankruptcy twice before, but the proximate cause of its collapse traces back further to 2023, when the Biden administration blocked JetBlue's acquisition of Spirit to protect competition. Spirit got neither the merger nor a future.
Local broadcast news is now at risk of making the same mistake. The current broadcast model is not sustainable, and a federal court just made it harder to fix.
Nexstar, one of the largest local broadcast companies in the country,...
Dem Lawmakers On the Wrong Side of Ed Choice
Democratic lawmakers — specifically, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania House Democrats — are feeling the heat after waging a losing battle on an issue that is near and dear to so many Pennsylvanians: educational choice. Their recent legislative attack, which would have taken away thousands of scholarships from Pennsylvania students, reveals how out of touch these lawmakers are on the issue.
The numbers alone speak for themselves: Pennsylvanians want more educational options. New polling by the Commonwealth Foundation shows that a supermajority of Pennsylvanians oppose cuts to the...
In the Cradle of Liberty, Ed Freedom Should Be the Default
This summer, Philadelphia is celebrating its role as the birthplace of America. Tourists from around the world are descending on Independence Hall, where 250 years ago a group of colonists declared that governments exist to secure the rights of the people, not the other way around. It’s a fitting moment to ask whether Pennsylvania is living up to that promise.
For too many families, the answer seems to be “no.”
Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship (OSTC) tax credit programs allow businesses and individuals to receive credits against...
Covering GLP-1’s; Its Good Business
As a business leader, I know each move my company makes must be done with the future in mind. Over the years, I’ve learned a lesson that many ignore: making decisions with an eye on tomorrow can set the stage for long-term success.
Our policymakers should approach legislation the same way – investing in a healthier, more prosperous tomorrow rather than taking shortcuts today.
Right now, legislators in Harrisburg are considering whether Medicaid should cover FDA-approved obesity medicines. As they weigh this decision, they should consider the long-range financial implications....
The Commonwealth's Continued Importance
On July 4, 1776, a conglomerate of brilliant philosophers, lawyers, and landowners united to forge perhaps the most important secular document in world history. Fifty-six men etched their names into the precipices of history when they signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. This document established the United States of America at the Second Continental Congress, where the thirteen colonies rejected British rule in the pursuit of self-governance. At Valley Forge, west of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Pennsylvania played yet another key role in the Revolutionary War....
