By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Supporters hopeful that the 2009 regular session would usher in sweeping changes in Arkansas energy policy were disappointed by session’s end that only a handful of bills recommended by the Arkansas Governor’s Commission on Global Warming passed the Legislature.

The 21-member commission, created in 2007 by an act of the Legislature, produced a report last year containing 54 recommendations for reducing the state’s contribution to climate change. A number of bills filed this session either originated with the commission or happened to coincide with its goals, but few were successful.

“Arkansas hasn’t woken up enough to the global warming issue yet,” said commission member Art Hobson. “So you don’t see much concern about it in the Legislature. But we’re going to wake up to it more and more.”

Hobson, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Arkansas, said the biggest disappointment of the session was the failure of House Bill 1903 by Rep. Joan Cash, D-Jonesboro.

The bill would have established an energy savings goal for utility companies and would have allowed utilities to be reimbursed through the state Public Service Commission for money they spend to reduce the amount of power they need to serve their customers.

“In other words, SWEPCO (Southwestern Electric Power Company) and other utilities should help their customers insulate their homes, put in high-efficiency lighting, high-efficiency windows and things like that. … It would reduce the need for new power plants,” Hobson said.

SWEPCO spokesman Kay Holt said Friday the company opposed the bill.

“It would be virtually impossible for an electric utility to reach the energy-efficiency goals in the legislation,” she said.

Cash referred the bill to interim study after seeing she did not have enough support to get it out of a House committee.

“We were going to … try to decrease our dependence on energy and gas,” Cash said. “We probably didn’t talk about it enough, and people didn’t really understand it totally.”

Another bill that failed was HB 1851 by Rep. Kathy Webb, D-Little Rock, the commission’s co-chairman. The bill, which would have required an electric utility to purchase some of its electricity from a renewable energy producer, died in a House committee.

“I think that the utilities put every single thing they had into fighting those two bills (HB 1903 and HB 1851),” Webb said.

Holt said it would make more sense to achieve the bill’s objective through the Public Service Commission’s procedures than through legislative mandate, especially since Congress may hand down conflicting mandates.

Also unsuccessful during the session were bills to create a revolving loan fund for home weatherization projects; provide an income tax credit to encourage contractors to increase energy efficiency; provide an income tax credit to encourage the use of landfill gas as fuel; and to create an income tax deduction for the purchase and installation of a solar energy system.

Rep. Steve Breedlove, D-Greenwood, who proposed the solar-energy tax deduction, said the timing was bad for the bills.

“I’m very disappointed that those things got shot down, but I understand why they did, and the reason why they did was because of the tight budget this time,” Breedlove said.

One measure recommended by the Global Warming Commission that did pass is HB 1663 by Webb, which calls for a 20 percent reduction in energy use in state buildings by 2014 and a 30 percent reduction by 2017.

Gov. Mike Beebe is expected to sign the bill into law this week.

“I’m really excited about it,” Webb said. “It’s patterned after a bill in North Carolina, and they save millions a year of taxpayers’ dollars.”

Lawmakers also passed bills to extend a legislative task force on sustainable building design and practices; create a design program for sustainable buildings; create an alternative energy commission; and license electric autocycles for street use.

Also, lawmakers referred to the November 2010 ballot a proposal by Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, to amend the state constitution to allow governmental entities to issue bonds for energy-efficiency projects and use savings from the projects to repay the bonds.

During the committee process the proposal was combined with two other proposed amendments concerning interest rate limits.

“We’ve taken some small steps, especially on the state buildings side,” Broadway said.

Webb said despite the disappointments of the session, the state has moved forward on climate change.

“I think we’ve laid a good foundation, and I think coupled with what’s happening at the federal level, we will really be set,” she said. “We’ve got some of these bills in interim study … and I think that we will be ready to hit the ground running two years from now.”