By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansans would save about $340 a year on their utility bills by 2020 and gain about 5,600 new jobs under a clean energy bill before the U.S. Senate, environmentalists said in a report released Wednesday.
The report, released by Washington-based Environment America and the American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy, also said efficiency provisions in the American Clean Energy Security Act would prevent 6 million metric tons of global warming emissions — equivalent to removing 1.21 millions cars from the road for a year — in Arkansas.
“Americans know that energy efficiency is the cleanest, quickest, cheapest way of reducing our energy use and pollution,” Alex Wall, a clean energy associate with Environment America, said at a news conference here Wednesday.
The bill includes a cap-and-trade provision that critics say would drive up energy and food costs in rural states like Arkansas and cost the state vital oil and gas industry jobs.
In recent appearances around the state, former Murphy Oil Corp. CEO Claiborne Deming has dismissed cap-and-trade as nothing more than an energy tax that would harm the state’s economy, cost jobs at southern Arkansas oil refineries and do nothing to curb climate change.
Arkansas’ congressional delegation also has been largely cool to the House bill, which passed by a 219-212 vote. Only Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, among Arkansas’ House delegation voted for the bill.
U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., have said they have concerns about the bill and expect the Senate version to be markedly different from the House bill.
The bill narrowly passed the House in June in a 219-212 vote. Only Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, among Arkansas’ house delegation voted for the bill.
U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., have said they have concerns about the bill and expect the Senate version to be markedly different from the House bill.
Still, Audubon Arkansas Director Ken Smith insisted Wednesday that energy efficiency measures in the bill would more than off set any increased costs associated with cap-and-trade.
Smith agreed the bill would affect the South Arkansas oil industry but suggested producers work to gain an exemption from the cap-and-trade program similar to the exemption the coal industry received.
“That’s something that can be fixed and the conservation community is willing to work with” the oil industry, Smith said.
“But more important is the (bill’s) benefit to the rest of the state,” he said. “Let’s solve that problem but let’s not throw the whole bill out because the rest of the bill is of such value to Arkansas as illustrated in this study,” Smith said, adding the Congressional Budget office also has concluded a savings in utility bills.
“Let’s not throw out the bill,” Smith said, “but let’s address that specific issue that (Deming) is talking about.”
Deming did not immediately return a call to his El Dorado office seeking comment.
