Ready for some good news about Arkansas?
Our small-but-wonderful state is a national leader when it comes to solar energy policies that work. Due to forward-thinking policies passed overwhelmingly by our General Assembly in 2019 (83-5 in the House and 28-2 in the Senate), Arkansas is experiencing a solar energy boom that is creating good-paying jobs while helping thousands of Arkansas families, businesses, local governments, farmers and houses of worship save big on their electric bills. Arkansas solar has been a runaway success story across the state.
The bad news? Our state’s monopoly utilities are dead-set on wrecking this success story.
To be clear, monopoly utilities like Entergy Arkansas and the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives are not against the concept of solar energy. They just want to be the ones to control solar energy and sell power to the rest of us, instead of Arkansans generating their own energy — and they want it bad enough to destroy the free market solar industry that is providing hundreds of jobs in our state.
Some context: The key element of Arkansas’s solar success is our “net metering” policy. Net metering means that solar customers are allowed to send any excess power back to the utility and receive a corresponding 1 for 1 kilowatt-hour credit on their electric bills. In Arkansas, net metering customers receive their credit at the full retail rate — the same rate that utilities charge customers for power. This saves Arkansans money on electric bills and allows them to use those savings to quickly pay off their personal investment in solar. Our state’s net metering system is fair, consumer-friendly and is working exactly as intended.
Via House Bill 1370, the monopoly utilities want to slash the net metering rate to a small fraction of the current retail rate, which will discourage further solar sales and devastate the solar industry. The bill has multiple other changes harmful to solar —reducing the maximum size to 1 megawatt (from 20 MW), enacting changes to financial “riders” that will make them retroactive to solar customers who installed their system under the current policies and even prohibiting “grandfathering” provisions that ensure fairness for solar customers from having their investments endangered by future rule changes.
The utilities will claim — as they have for years — that compensating solar customers at the full retail rate somehow amounts to an unfair “cost-shift” to nonsolar customers because solar customers are allegedly getting a free ride on the utilities power lines and associated infrastructure. The problem with this argument, aside from it being untrue, is that it has been rejected multiple times by the Arkansas Public Service Commission and Arkansas courts. In addition, for the past two years the Public Service Commission has invited the utilities to provide evidence of any cost-shift and the utilities have declined to do so. Under Arkansas law, the utilities can receive payment via a “grid charge” for any proven cost-shifting situation. To date, no utility has taken advantage of this opportunity — leaving us with no alternative than to believe that the utilities are unable to prove cost-shifting.
Who will really be hurt if HB1370 passes? Let’s take a look.
Arkansas families and farmers. Thousands of Arkansas families and farmers have invested in solar energy for their homes under the current regulatory system. HB 1370 would change the rules on them retroactively and would dramatically impact their budgets after the fact. This is patently unfair to hard-working Arkansans who have been playing by the rules.
Cities, counties, water utilities and school districts. A growing number of local governments across Arkansas have invested in solar energy as a way of saving taxpayer money on their municipal electric bills. Cities from Hot Springs, to Stuttgart, to Forrest City, to Rogers, to Fayetteville; counties including Saline, Jefferson and Pulaski; school districts from Batesville, to Greenbrier, to Guy-Perkins, to White County Central; even water utilities like the Camden Water Utility and Central Arkansas Water and Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority are now proudly powered by solar and freeing up taxpayer dollars that would have been spent on high electric bills. We should encourage our local governments to save money — HB 1370 would make solar a much more expensive option and increase local government spending by making harmful changes retroactively.
Arkansas houses of worship and other nonprofits: Current Arkansas solar policies help make it easy for our churches and nonprofits to power themselves with affordable solar energy. These savings amount to dollars that can be spent on community programs and missions. Think about your church’s primary mission — saving money through solar means the freedom to do more of the things your congregation thinks are important. Would you rather spend your church’s money on the electric bill?
Arkansas businesses: HB1370 would greatly harm the hundreds of Arkansans employed as solar installers and technicians throughout the state, but that’s not the only industry affected. Solar is playing a big part in powering other industry and commerce: From the L’Oreal plant in North Little Rock, to Bank OZK, to Lexicon, to small businesses like Community Bakery, to new steel plants in Northeast Arkansas, solar is increasingly becoming a big part of our state’s business fabric. Industry is saving money by adopting solar. HB1370 would put a stop to this excellent Arkansas trend.
The bottom line is this: Arkansas’s solar policies are working exactly as the legislature intended. In 2019, solar advocates promised that Act 464 would create jobs and result in electric bill savings. Both of those things have happened, in a big way, and our future can remain bright if our solar policies are allowed to continue working.
Industry, local governments, nonprofits, farmers, conservation groups and Arkansas families are lined up on the side of solar energy because it’s been good for all of us. Monopoly utilities like Entergy and the electric cooperatives stand alone on the other side because they want complete control and more of your money in their pockets. HB1370 is a losing bet for everyone except the utilities. If you want to continue the Arkansas solar success story, please contact your state legislators and ask them to support current Arkansas solar policy by opposing HB 1370.
Glen Hooks is a lifelong Arkansan and the policy manager for Audubon Delta, a regional arm of the National Audubon Society that includes Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.