Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, presents Senate Bill 307 to the Arkansas Senate on March 5, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
The Arkansas House signed off on legislation Tuesday that supporters said will mitigate expected electricity rate increases by altering the current process for constructing power plants.
Senate Bill 307 will allow utility companies to begin recovering the costs of building a new generating plant during the construction phase instead of having to wait until the end of the project to do so, which will result in lower costs for customers over the long term, bill sponsor and Searcy Republican Rep. Les Eaves said.
With two coal-fired plants set to go offline in the next few years, Eaves said Arkansas will need to generate or purchase energy to keep up with current demand. Ratepayers’ bills will go up regardless, Eaves said, but the process outlined in the bill could ease a sharp spike in prices and will provide the Arkansas Public Service Commission more oversight of the projects.
Additionally, the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act of 2025, could help the state attract economic development projects like data centers, which could lead to more jobs, Eaves said. Failing to approve SB 307 would result in those companies moving on to other states, he said.
“And those other states will benefit from the economic development projects and those jobs that come with it,” Eaves said. “There’s also the very real possibility that one or more of these data centers will invest hundreds of millions of dollars here in new power generation and this will result again in overall lower power costs to our ratepayers.”
In a House committee meeting Monday, Eaves said the bill would attract more than data centers but other big users of electricity, such as aerospace manufacturers and lithium processors.
Allison Thompson, president and CEO of the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, spoke in favor of the bill in Monday’s hearing, saying one of the first questions she’s asked by new project proponents is whether there is reliable and abundant available energy. Jefferson County is home to the White Bluff Power Plant that’s scheduled for closure.
Speaking in favor of the legislation from the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Stephen Meeks, R-Greenbrier, said he really liked the forward-thinking nature of the bill.
“I support the bill, that we’re trying to ramp electric bills and not have those sharp cliffs, that we’re building base generation that we need for a reliable grid here in the state of Arkansas, and this bill is always looking to the future at new technologies and how we can implement them to help make sure we have a reliable grid,” Meeks said.
No one spoke against the bill, which the Arkansas House approved by a vote of 77-13. Nine members voted present. SB 307 passed in the Senate last week by a vote of 23-9. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
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