This Arkansas Business article discusses the recent vote by the Arkansas Public Service Commission to implement new energy efficiency goals for the state's electric utilities. Katie Laning Niebaum, executive director of AEE state partner Arkansas Advanced Energy Association is quoted. Link to the full article here. Excerpts below:

The Arkansas Public Service Commission has set new energy efficiency goals for the state's electric utilities, ordering a savings target of 1.2 percent of baseline energy sales from 2020 through 2022.

The targets, approved Friday by the three-member commission of utility regulators, mark a significant increase from previous efficiency targets, which were set at a maximum of 1 percent. The new goals should "establish Arkansas as a leader in energy efficiency savings in the South," according to a news release for the Sierra Club, which recommended the new targets along with the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association. The two groups projected that the new goals will save some 445 million kilowatt hours of power per year in Arkansas.

Katie Laning Niebaum, executive director of the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association, a trade group, praised the decision. "Arkansas is recognized as a leader in the energy efficiency sector, not just in the Southeast but at a national level, due to the strong policies we have established," Niebaum told Arkansas Business. "These energy efficiency programs have proven to be an important economic driver for Arkansas and advanced energy technologies. The Commission’s ruling will help ensure we continue along an upward path to maximize economic benefits." 

Link to the full AB article here.