Legislature Considering Two Energy-related Bills

State lawmakers are looking at recently introduced bills aimed at promoting renewable energy sources and energy-saving improvements to buildings.

House Bill 1390, called the Arkansas Distributed Generation Act, was filed Feb. 18 by state Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock. The text of the bill states its purpose is to ensure electric utilities include renewable energy resources “as an integral part of their energy portfolios; provide for increased consumer choice in obtaining electrical energy; and encourage additional competition within the energy sector.”

Mikel Lolley, founder of the nonprofit Treadwell Institute in Fayetteville, said the bill asks the Public Service Commission to begin studying how the utilities could buy power from small producers like homeowners who have solar panels on their rooftops or rice farmers who pump water for their operations.

Lolley said distributed generation “would help small businesses, family farmers, people in the suburbs — all these groups would have the opportunity to sell their electrons to the grid at a fair market price.”

It would also help the utility companies, Lolley said, even though change is hard for large, entrenched institutions.

The bill has been routed to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Energy.

On Feb. 14, state Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, filed Senate Bill 340, known as the Guaranteed Energy Cost Savings Act. SB 340 will provide a means to pay for energy-saving improvements for state-owned buildings.

Proponents of the bill, which state Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, is sponsoring in the House, say improving energy efficiency in the more than 2,500 buildings owned by the state will save taxpayer money and create jobs. That bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.