FOR IMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2015
Contacts: Shelly Baron, 501-537-0190 or shelly@arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
Steve Patterson, 501-537-0190 or steve@arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
Award recognizes significant contributions to a more livable Little Rock
Little Rock, AR – The Arkansas Advanced Energy Association (AAEA) is honored to be one of four “Sustain the Rock” recipients recognized by the City of Little Rock at the annual Little Rock Sustainability Summit held at the Clinton Presidential Center today.
The “Sustain the Rock” Awards recognize businesses, non-profits, and individuals who, by embracing and promoting an approach to business and daily living that balances environmental responsibility, economic prosperity, and community equity, have made significant contributions to a more livable Little Rock.
While presenting the award, Ben Brenner, Chairman of the City of Little Rock Sustainability Commission, noted “AAEA is receiving this award because they are a champion of public policy. The Association is intentional and thoughtful in the policies they embrace, and have achieved significant legislative successes.”
AAEA Executive Director, Steve Patterson, was on hand to receive the award during the Summit’s luncheon. “On behalf of our Board of Directors and our members statewide, we are proud to be recognized by the City of Little Rock’s Sustainability Commission,” said Patterson. “As the business voice for advanced energy in Arkansas, AAEA works to grow Arkansas’s economy through expanded utilization of advanced energy technologies that make our energy supply more secure, clean and affordable.”
Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business, infrastructure is showing its age, and customers are demanding new forms of service. Now in its fourth year, AAEA has emerged as an influential force for energy policies that take advantage of a wide range of technologies and services that can help meet all of these challenges.
To accomplish its mission, AAEA engages in advocacy at the federal, state and regulatory levels to encourage public policies that enable rapid growth of Arkansas advanced energy companies. Most of these policies have a disproportionate positive economic impact on the City of Little Rock as the states largest and its capitol city.
These impacts include:
- PACE – AAEA is the chief business advocate for implementation of the state’s new local option Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) law. In January of this year, the City of Little Rock became the state’s third community to establish an Energy Improvement District. Little Rock commercial property owners will soon have access to the unique, low-cost financing opportunities that a PACE program brings for energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation projects.
- Utility Energy Efficiency (EE) Programs – As an intervener in the docket to continue and enhance public utility energy efficiency programs at the Arkansas Public Service Commission, AAEA is influencing and working closely with other stakeholders to ensure that the second, three-year phase of these highly successful programs is even more accessible to Arkansas utility customers. Both Entergy Arkansas and Centerpoint Energy are two of the top performers in the program making Little Rock home to the largest concentration of customer beneficiaries in the state. A study by the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation found that the utility EE programs have created more than 2,000 jobs since 2010 and are delivered by about 600 companies across the state.
- Guaranteed Energy Cost Savings – Another AAEA initiative that is producing significant reductions in energy consumption along with jobs and economic growth is the State Energy performance Contracting Program. It enables state agencies and universities to access financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements. As the home to most state government buildings and some of the state’s largest public universities, Little Rock stands to derive a significant amount of energy savings and economic benefit from the new program, which was formally launched with an AAEA-hosted summit in November 2014 and is being administered by the Arkansas Energy Office.
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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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