Energy change pushed in D.C.: Arkansans take part in lobbying

A contingent from Arkansas pushed for a national renewable energy standard in Washington, D.C., this week in hopes of spurring related economic development in the state.

The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act up for debate in the U.S. Senate includes the proposal that’s been touted as having potential to create 2,100 renewableenergy jobs in Arkansas.

An estimated 28 states already have adopted standards requiring electrical utilities to obtain power from wind, water, geothermal, solar or biomass sources.

The group organized under Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy was part of a lobbying event organized by the Clean Economy Network Inc. — a national coalition of private investors and businesses in favor of alternative energy production.

Eddy Moore, a Little Rock attorney and the Arkansas coordinator, said job-creation numbers climb to 3,700 positions over a 10-year period and 4,600 positions over 20 years.

Opponents claim the act’s passage, among other concerns, would decrease employment, according to a study released by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Related employment is expected to fall as funding mechanisms phase out, according to the study co-written with the American Council For Capital Formation, which wrote a state-specific study of the economic impact of the House legislation.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has reported former Murphy Oil Chief Executive Officer Claiborne Deming’s opposition to the legislation calling it “draconian” and saying what jobs it would create would be low-paying and less secure than those in the oil and gas industry.

Gary Voigt, president and chief executive officer at the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, said last month that the House version of the bill didn’t give utilities enough time to work out infrastructure needs.

Ready or not, Moore, with the clean energy group, said Wednesday that “momentum is going toward clean energy and climate-change legislation.’’

“And we’re here to be a part of carrying that message,’’ he said from Washington before heading into a meeting with the state’s U.S. senators.

Moore’s group represents seven wind industry businesses with investments in the state, he said.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, the name given to the U.S. House version, passed in that body in June. U.S. Rep Vic Snyder, a Democrat from Little Rock, was the only Arkansas delegation member to endorse the legislation.

The House version also proposed a cap-and-trade emission mechanism to lower carbon-dioxide levels and required renewable sources to comprise 6 percent of its renewable energy by 2012 and 20 percent by 2020, Moore said.

“The bills actually would result in less of a shift towards wind, hydro, biomass and solar than initially appears because energy efficiency savings can be substituted for a part of the renewable energy requirement,’’ wrote Moore in an email response.

Moore singled out the fledgling wind turbine supplier base as a beneficiary of the new standard.

Arkansas is home to several turbine manufacturers including LM Glasfiber North America in Little Rock, which employs about 600 people, and Nordex USA Inc. in Jonesboro, which plans to hire as many as 700 workers by 2014.

Polymarin Composites also plans to expand a Little Rock location.

Energy-efficiency service jobs and biofuel-related positions will likely also see employment gains, he said.

Wind developers and pending projects will also experience a boost from a national standard, said Terry Tremwel, an adjunct professor at the Sam M. Walton College of Business in Fayetteville and the owner of a wind energy business.

A couple of commercialscale wind farms have been proposed in the Northwest part of the state. But renewable energy is not without its barriers, Tremwel said.

Main roadblocks to getting such projects off the ground include connecting sources to utility transmission lines and financing.

“A renewable energy standard is one means of encouraging” a utility company to change its behavior, said Tremwel, adding that it will positively affect development in Arkansas.

In Arkansas, the national standard is likely to accomplish what some state lawmakers attempted earlier this year with the Arkansas Renewable Energy Feed-In Act of 2009 which died in committee in May.

The state legislation sponsored by Rep. Kathy Webb, a Democrat from Little Rock, proposed electric utilities servicing Arkansas include renewable energy sources in their generation portfolio.

Webb, owner of Lilly’s Dim Sum Then Some in Little Rock, was among the group of Arkansans attending the lobbying effort that concluded Wednesday.

Other participants included representatives from INEOS Bio of Fayetteville, Winds of Change of Humphrey and Tree Hugger Consulting of Little Rock.