Two state lawmakers speaking at an energy conference on Tuesday had nothing good to say about GAJA -- the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act -- calling it the "gotcha" law that needs to be changed.
GAJA was in the spotlight recently as Entergy was caught red-handed charging customers in full and upfront for a new solar facility to power a Google data center; the utility has pointed out it has the right to do so under the 2025 law, which attracted little attention until customer bills started climbing this summer.
State Sen. Clint Penzo (R-Springdale), state Sen. Mark Johnson (R-Little Rock) and state Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville) were the keynote speakers during a luncheon session at the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association's Empower Arkansas Conference and Expo.
The three quickly agreed that the state was not creating enough electricity, a hindrance set to hurt economic development.
"Energy equals jobs," said Pilkington, answering a question from moderator Roby Brock, who owns the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal and several weekly newspapers. "Having more energy would attract economic development to the state. The only way to do that is to increase the power we produce,...
Source: Arkansas Times