Advocacy

Audubon Arkansas Granted Intervenor Status in Key Solar Policy Dockets

Ruling allows Audubon a voice in Arkansas's renewable energy future

In May, the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC) opened two new solar policy dockets. Dockets 16-027R and 16-028U will create and modify regulations governing net-metering and distributed renewable generation. This rule-making will have a tremendous impact on the future deployment of solar resources in Arkansas. 

Having long worked with the APSC to successfully advocate for energy efficiency policy, Audubon Arkansas petitioned  for the right to intervene in both of the new solar dockets as a voice for people and birds.  Audubon indicated a "focus on ensuring that Commission rules promote distributed generation to the maximum practicable extent and create no artificial economc or regulatory barrieres that negatively impact distributed gneration in Arkansas."

"When the Commission approached us about the upcoming solar dockets, we knew we had to find a way to get a seat at the table," said Brett Kincaid, Executive Director of Audubon Arkansas. "Preventing additional artificial barriers to renewable energy growth is too important of an issue for us to not engage."

On July 1st, the Commission granted Audubon Arkansas's Petitions to Intervene in both dockets, noting Audubon's expertise as a "national environmental group with Arkansas members and a conservation presence in Arkansas that focuses particularly on avian impacts and on distributed generation."

Audubon will file official comments and testimony with the Arkansas Public Service Commission to inform their regulatory hearings scheduled for October.

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