The Tireless Advocate

Mikel Lolley’s passions are many. They’re also unmistakable, worn proudly on his sleeves.

These days, the passion Lolley pursues most fervently is sustainability. His dedication to it isn’t just as a matter of making sure we protect our planet and its resources, but as a means of making thousands of Arkansans a better living.

“The new green economy is not fiction or theory or a hypothetical anymore,” Lolley said. “It’s real.

“In any investment opportunity, the early adopters reap the rewards and the dividends. If we continue to snooze at the wheel, a lot of people are going to beat us in this race.”

Lolley has taken his case to Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, recruiting former Colorado governor Bill Ritter to meet with him and other state officials. Lolley’s goal is to spur legislation in Arkansas that will foster green energy and green tech job growth.

Lolley said Ritter pushed those types of measures through in Colorado and the result was the addition of hundreds of companies that gave birth to thousands of jobs.

“Enabling legislation cultivates market certainty,” Lolley said. “Private investment goes where there’s market certainty.”

Lolley also acts on behalf of PACE, a bipartisan initiative that allows property owners to finance energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects for their homes and commercial buildings without government subsidies.

Then there’s his belief in REFIT, which relates to solar energy.

“What [REFIT] really is, is legislation … that guarantees that utilities will offer a homeowner a fair price for the renewable energy that I generate on my own rooftop.

“Right now, the utilities can take my energy for free, and they can sell it to my neighbor at 8.5 cents a kilowatt hour, and that’s just wrong.”

All of this is in addition to Lolley’s day job as executive director of Treadwell Institute, a nonprofit organization he founded. As such, Lolley currently is facilitating energy-efficiency and renewable-energy retrofits on existing buildings, made possible by federal grant money won by the city of Fayetteville.

All of this led one nominator to deem Lolley a “tireless advocate” for the new green economy. His passions do, indeed, seem sustainable.