FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 11, 2015
Contacts: Shelly Baron, 501-537-0190 or shelly@arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
Steve Patterson, 501-537-0190 or steve@arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
More than 100 AAEA Members Converge at State Capitol
Little Rock, AR – More than 100 advanced energy leaders converged on the Arkansas State Capitol Tuesday meeting with 52 members of the 90thGeneral Assembly as the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association (AAEA) staged its second “Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature to highlight advanced energy’s tremendous impact on the Arkansas economy.
The day’s activities included Capitol Rotunda technology exhibits by 15 AAEA member companies and a policy luncheon attended by more than 160 people. The day showcased the strength of the state’s advanced energy economy and its ability to provide Arkansans with more energy choices. The Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation (AAEF) recently released an economic impact study that found over 770 advanced energy companies in Arkansas and counted more than 25,000 Arkansas workers in the advanced energy economy.
AAEA members met with their legislators throughout the day to assure their political leaders that public policy makes a difference for advanced energy job growth in Arkansas. These employers continued to stress that the economic impact of advanced energy technologies in Arkansas has risen dramatically in the last four years due to key public policies like the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) and other recently-enacted policies that promise even more dramatic growth in the years ahead.
“Our members came from all across the state on Tuesday to let their Senators and Representatives know how critical the advance energy sector is to the Arkansas Economy,” said Steve Patterson, AAEA Executive Director. “We are extremely pleased with the number of people we had participating throughout the day and appreciate that we were able to speak directly to nearly half of the Arkansas Legislature about policies important to our sector.”
Legislation enacted during the 2013 legislative session has already proved to have a large impact on the state’s job growth according to the report released earlier in the year by AAEF. Legislation that included the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS), the Arkansas Energy Performance Contracting Program (AEPC), the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing, and the Clean Burning Motor Fuel Development Act.
The 2015 Advanced Energy Day at the Legislature was presented by Siemens Industry, Inc. in partnership with Advanced Energy Economy. Exhibitors included Centerpoint Energy, Clean Line Energy Partners, FutureFuel Chemical Company, Harrison Energy Partners, Hydro-Temp, McKinstry, MISO, Nat-G: CNG Solutions, NextGen Illumination, Performance Services, PicaSolar, Powers of Arkansas, Seal Energy Solutions, and the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. These exhibitors demonstrated the diversity within advanced energy, including energy service companies, a solar cell technology company, a company specializing in geothermal heat pumps, a regional electricity transmission organization, a sustainable housing technologies expert, an energy efficient controls company, a producer of alternative fuels, a compressed natural gas utility and a vehicle conversion company, a wind transmission company, a commercial HVAC company, and companies delivering energy retrofits.
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Arkansas Advanced Energy Association is a business group dedicated to growing Arkansas’s economy by expanding our energy workforce and manufacturing base through the increased development, manufacture, and utilization of advanced energy technologies. www.arkansasadvancedenergy.com
The Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation is the educational affiliate of the AAEA. The Foundation promotes greater public understanding of advanced energy in Arkansas through research, public education programs and economic and workforce development. The Foundation is dedicated to informing the energy policy debate with well-researched, fact-based data on the advanced energy economy in Arkansas and by providing a public forum where state leaders can address Arkansas’s energy challenges for the future. www.arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
Report Shows Economic Impacts of Advanced Energy in Arkansas
A report released in January 2015 by the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation (AAEF) shows that 25,000 Arkansans are working in the state’s advanced energy sector, with a total impact on the Arkansas economy of $2.8 billion in output. “The Economic Impact of Advanced Energy in Arkansas: A Survey of Business Activity in 2014” can be viewed or downloaded at www.arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
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