by I.C. Murrell | February 28, 2021, Pine Bluff Commercial

For Little Rock construction executive Jill Floyd, learning about the different industry sectors that network in Arkansas is crucial to gaining perspective on how the state operates.

Leadership Arkansas gives the director of community outreach for CDI Contractors the opportunity to glean that knowledge.

Floyd said she was excited “to go out and explore the different areas around the state, understand what their issues are, the challenges are, and what things they’re doing well, quite frankly, and building a network of folks I can lean on and also help as we all progress in our careers in service to the state.”

Floyd is one of 31 members in Leadership Arkansas’ 15th class who toured Pine Bluff from Wednesday through Friday and took a course on highway management in a city that provides a corridor to almost every spot in the state. Ryan Watley, CEO of Go Forward Pine Bluff, who graduated from last year’s class, said this is the first time Leadership Arkansas has come to the city.

“It’s very important to understand the region that Arkansas is, how each corner of the state contributes to the overall economy, and how the issues that are in southeast Arkansas are different from those that may be in northwest Arkansas, and so they begin to develop a sentiment for that,” Watley said. “In their track, whether they’re public leaders or financial leaders or whatever, they understand how the state network is.”

The Arkansas Department of Transportation is a key component of the curriculum. ADOT Deputy Director Randy Ort and state transportation commissioners, including Chairman Robert Moore of Arkansas City, educated the business leaders on their place in government and challenged the class to prioritize needs for the system through a group exercise.

“We have all these needs identified, which is a big number, but have this much available,” Ort said. “That’s the big challenge for the commission: How do you prioritize the projects? You’ve got $1,000 worth of needs but only $500; how are you going to prioritize?

“What we’ve done is give them $10 million worth of projects and given them a $750 million budget to spend, so they’re putting together a plan on how they’re going to spend that money. Are they going to spend it on bridges? Are they going to spend more on high-priority corridors? Are they going to take care of system preservation? It’s a very interesting exercise.”

Leadership Arkansas, founded by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas, takes business leaders from across the state and helps them take a comprehensive view of the economic and political challenges Arkansas faces. Nearly 800 people have graduated from the program.

The 2020-21 group first met in September in Fairfield Bay and has since met in Jonesboro to study agriculture and outdoor life, the Little Rock area in December to learn about government and military life, and El Dorado and southwest Arkansas in January to examine natural resources, defense and industrial development.

They’ll meet again next month in Hot Springs to learn about tourism, history and revitalization and head to Northwest Arkansas in April to examine regional development before graduation May 21 in Little Rock.

Watley said the visit gives Pine Bluff a chance to roll out the red carpet to a diverse group of Arkansas business leaders.

“They can go back and empower them to be able to converse in a positive manner about the things going on in Pine Bluff,” Watley said. “So far they’ve been impressed, by and large, by the way Go Forward Pine Bluff is working in the community, our private-public partnerships and the progress we’ve made in a short amount of time. They also understand our challenges. So we’re talking about, with those leaders, the things we hope to address.”

Floyd said business leaders in Central Arkansas tend to be more “inwardly focused” on their region because it’s the most populated area. She said she hopes to take the information from Leadership Arkansas to help her continue leading in her field.

“As a woman in construction, it’s continuing to provide opportunities for other women and other minorities to come into the space, to make sure the space itself is more diverse and welcoming, and that we’re also, quite frankly, moving into future technologies that will help us move forward,” Floyd said. “Also, introducing the space to people who don’t necessarily see it as a career path.”

 

Little Rock, Ark. (February 22, 2021) — Vaccinate the Natural State, a new initiative led by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Arkansas Minority Health Commission, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Council, UAMS and Walmart, was announced today. The statewide initiative will educate Arkansans about the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage individuals to get the vaccine as soon as possible – by doing so they will be taking a critical step toward helping end the pandemic.

“The health of our communities relies on every eligible Arkansan getting the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available to them,” said Curtis Barnett, president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Blue Cross. “Vaccinations offer our best path for eliminating the virus, ending the suffering, and starting the process of returning our lives back to some sense of normal. The organizations that have come together to fuel this movement represent best-of-class knowledge coupled with connected networks that can ensure the word gets out that Vaccinate the Natural State can be life-changing for all of us.”

“Vaccinate the Natural State will address the misinformation that has left many hesitant, or unsure how or when they can be vaccinated,” said Jennifer Dillaha, M.D., state epidemiologist for Arkansas, Arkansas Department of Health. “We want Arkansans to understand that the vaccine is the safest, most effective way to protect themselves and their communities. We are appreciative that Arkansas Blue Cross stepped forward to help the state during the earliest rounds of the vaccinations and now has convened these organizations to create a movement that will have a lasting effect on our state.”

Vaccinate the Natural State is a combined effort from a diverse set of organizations across every corner of the state – working to encourage all Arkansans to get the COVID-19 vaccine and help end the pandemic.

The campaign, which launches in mid-March, will have two primary focuses: business-to-business engagement and hyper-local community engagement.

“AFMC is proud to once again partner with Arkansas Blue Cross and the Arkansas State Chamber,” added Ray Hanley, president and CEO, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care (AFMC). “AFMC supports the Arkansas Department of Health and their vaccination efforts across the state. AFMC is the state’s designated quality improvement organization and we will work to promote and educate Arkansans on the importance of this vaccine.”

To support Arkansas’ business community, Arkansas Blue Cross is partnering with the Arkansas State Chamber and AFMC to provide objective information and educational resources, video modules, communication toolkits, and outreach to help guide businesses through the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine. Through this effort, business owners and leaders will be equipped to confidently lead their organizations as more COVID-19 vaccines are made available and be armed with the knowledge to guide their employees through the vaccination process and getting employees back to work.

“As we’ve done with many critical issues, our role will be to mobilize and educate local chambers of commerce across the state and help them reach out to the businesses and industries in their hometowns,” said Randy Zook, president and CEO, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce of Commerce. “All of the chambers across Arkansas will be asking businesses to join the movement through the ‘Power Over Pandemic Pledge.’”

Through the Power Over Pandemic Pledge, business leaders commit to their organizations joining the Vaccinate the Natural State movement. The pledge reads:

As an Arkansas employer and business leader, I commit to helping fight COVID-19 and will do my part to end the pandemic. I pledge to:

• Lead by example by receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as I am able,
• Strongly encourage all medically eligible employees and others in my organization to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,
• Provide the resources my associates need to make an informed decision in favor of being vaccinated, and
• Make receiving a vaccine as easy as possible for those in my organization.

We are all in this together and we must all work together to help end the pandemic.

Through Arkansas Blue Cross’ work with the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, the NWA Council, UAMS and Walmart, a public service and grassroots campaign will be launched to educate Arkansans on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage them to receive the vaccine when it is available to them. Within this effort, a particular emphasis will be placed on rural, underserved communities and those with health disparities. In addition to education, this outreach will work toward getting vaccines to all communities.

“Arkansas Blue Cross is especially committed to addressing the health disparities of our state as they relate to the vaccine, at this critical time,” said Creshelle Nash, M.D., M.P.H., Arkansas Blue Cross medical director for Public Programs and Utilization Management. “COVID-19 has uncovered and illuminated deep, long-term health and healthcare disparities, some more obvious than others, in our nation and here at home. We all have a responsibility to bridge the great disparity divides – racial, digital and healthcare access. Working together through Vaccinate the Natural State will take us a long way in that journey to end the COVID pandemic for our underserved communities now and begin to bring health equity to our state long-term.”

The state’s Minority Health Commission will be instrumental in the success of the Vaccinate the Natural State movement. Its role is to assure all minority Arkansans receive equitable access to preventive healthcare, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

“In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, our commission will be focused on educating the minority populations in Arkansas and removing barriers they may have to receive the vaccines,” said ShaRhonda Love, director, Arkansas Minority Health Commission. “We want every Arkansan to have confidence that the vaccine is a personal first step in protecting themselves, their families and friends from this pandemic.”

The Northwest Arkansas Council is committed to preparing organizations to return to work through the vaccination of its workforces and – through the Council’s Healthcare Transformation Division – continue to ensure the Latinx and Pacific Islander communities receive this protective immunization.

“We are excited to have a role in this powerful collaboration of organizations working to better our state,” said Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., vice chancellor, UAMS Northwest Regional Campus and Northwest Arkansas Council representative. “We are prepared to do our part to end the pandemic and that means ensuring Arkansans understand the benefits of vaccination in a language they understand and have access to this preventive measure. Arkansas is a ‘community,’ and it will take everyone working together to be successful.”

Walmart will be supporting both the business and community engagement efforts of Vaccinate the Natural State as well.

“We’re committed to helping eligible Arkansans by administering vaccines in rural and underserved communities where it is most needed,” said Gerard Dehrmann, senior vice president of Public Affairs & State and Local Government Relations, Walmart. “It will take all of us working together to reach our neighbors in the furthermost areas of our state, and we are proud to help make it happen.”

To learn more about the Vaccinate the Natural State movement, visit VaccinateTheNaturalState.com.

To see the press conference announcing the initiative, click https://cwppro.com/live/arbcbs/

Due to COVID-19, the State Chamber/AIA will be holding weekly Business Lobbyists Group Zoom meetings during the 93rd General Assembly instead of weekly luncheons as has been the case in the past.

We would like to thank and recognize the following sponsors for supporting the Business Lobbyists Group Zoom meetings:

Presenting – Walmart, Snyder Environmental, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, Mullenix & Associates LLC, Cox Communications, Black Hills Energy, Stephens Investment Holdings LLC, McDaniel Wolff & Benca, PLLC, Tyson Foods, AT&T Arkansas and Union Pacific Railroad.

Premier – Associated Builders & Contractors of Arkansas, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Entergy Arkansas and UAMS.

Supporting – Arkansas Forestry Association, Arkansas Bankers Association, Arkansas State Dental Association, Community Health Centers of Arkansas, Enable Midstream Partners, Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, Independent Insurance Agents of Arkansas, Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association, Impact Management Group, Wright Lindsey & Jennings LLP, Riceland Foods, Inc., Arkansas Timber Producers Association, inVeritas, Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, DBH Management Consultants, Arkansas Learns, Wholesale Beer Distributors of Arkansas, Arkansas Municipal League, Arkansas Children’s,  Arkansas Asphalt Pavement Association and Hargraves Consulting.

If your company or organization would like to help sponsor these meetings, contact Bill Watson at bwatson@arkansasstatechamber.com or 501-802-1740.

Ready for Life, an initiative for those who want to improve their skills or change careers as well as gather career and employment data from business and industry, will strengthen the state’s workforce and offer business leaders better information about the state’s talent pool, Governor Asa Hutchinson said at a recent press conference.

“This initiative combines a gold mine of information about educational and employment opportunities that will make it easier for Arkansans to enhance their education or to change careers even,” Governor Hutchinson said. “Ready for Life will make it easier for employees and employers to find each other, and it will offer business leaders a quick snapshot of the state of the employee pool in Arkansas as they recruit talent.”

Governor Hutchinson has allocated $14.7 million in federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds in support of Ready for Life, which is a partnership with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Division of Workforce Services, K-12, and Institutions of Higher Education.

The website is www.ReadyForLife.arkansas.gov.

Arkansans could be in for a rude awakening in coming years with planned efforts by the incoming Biden administration to push for “clean energy” and move away from the state’s current, affordable mix of power sources including coal, natural gas, nuclear power and hydroelectric energy, Robert Bryce, a journalist and author of several books on the energy industry, told participants during a recent webinar hosted by the State Chamber/AIA and presented by the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

During the webinar, titled “Power Plays: The Arkansas Electric Grid, Trends, Prices, and Generation Mix,” Bryce said that Arkansas is currently similar to the U.S. as a whole in terms of its power generation mix thanks to how natural gas has been integrated into the U.S. economy.

“The U.S. is by far the biggest gas producer in the world and the biggest gas consumer,” Bryce said. “The fact that gas consumption is down only marginally is reflective of how gas has become such a key fuel in the electric generation sector.”

In just the past 15 years, the U.S. has doubled its gas output and nearly doubled its oil output, Bryce said, the biggest increase in energy production in world history: “The shale revolution has been just that, a revolution in the U.S. in terms of energy availability, energy pricing and energy exports. So, we are really talking about a fundamental shift in geopolitics and energy availability.”

Another advantage of the increased emphasis on natural gas has been the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, Bryce said, largely due to gas supplanting coal in the power supply sector. He hastened to add that is not the only factor – wind and solar energy have had some effect on those emissions, but natural gas is responsible for the vast majority of the reduction in the U.S. And the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. has been greater on an absolute basis that any other country in the world.

“What’s even more interesting is that this has happened regardless of the Paris Climate Agreement,” Bryce said. “That growth in natural gas use has been almost triple that of renewable forms of energy – wind and solar. This is a trend that is going to continue because natural gas is so abundant.”

Electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy, Bryce said. It is also the single biggest source of CO2 emissions: “But what we’re seeing is that electricity consumption all over the world is soaring. It’s up 48 percent since 2005. We’re seeing a doubling of global electric energy consumption every 20-30 years now. Forecasters are expecting this to continue rising because we still have a world that is divided between the electricity haves and the electricity have-nots.”

Many think that increase is solely due to India and China, Bryce said, but it’s not: “China accounts for less than 10 percent of that and India the same.” But other countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sub Saharan Africa are also seeing increases: “These are places where you’re seeing more and more people coming out of poverty and into the modern world. And what do they want? They want what we have. They want air conditioning and refrigeration, and they are getting it.”

Sources of energy in many countries are not all with wind or solar, Bryce added: “A lot of it is with small oil-fired generators and coal-fired generators as well.”

Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has seen no growth in electricity generation and consumption for the last 15 years, Bryce said: “Why does this matter? It matters because you have a lot of players in the electricity market who are competing for market share in a market that isn’t growing. It’s flatter than a tabletop. This is a remarkable statistic that we are not seeing growth in consumption even though the population in the U.S. continues to grow.” That’s due in large part to efficiency in new appliances, he added.

In looking at the current energy mix in the U.S. for electricity versus the energy mix moving forward, Bryce said that coal is declining and that decline will continue: “In many ways that is unfortunate because I worry we are becoming too dependent upon natural gas,” which utilizes just-in-time delivery. Meanwhile, nuclear energy use is flat, a source of energy that Bryce strongly supports: “If you are anti-carbon dioxide and anti-nuclear, then you are pro-blackout. Blackouts are bad. They are disruptive and very costly.

“I’m hopeful for nuclear, but the reality is that it isn’t growing. It’s not growing in the U.S. and unfortunately, it’s not capturing much in terms of primary energy share globally, either. So that leaves us for the next couple of decades at least before we have new nuclear reactors that are licensed today to get them built and into commercial operation. It’s going to be at least a decade and probably more than that before we are going to see anything significant added to the U.S. nuclear fleet at a time when today the U.S. nuclear fleet is shrinking pretty dramatically.”

With a new administration poised to take power Jan. 20, Bryce said there’s a possibility that we’re going to see significant changes in the grid: By 2035, President-elect Biden “wants to completely decarbonize the U.S. electric grid. That’s just 14-15 years from now. We would need to replace the 2,700 terrawatt hours we are getting from coal and gas today with 27 times the U.S. solar output. We would need nine times the existing U.S. wind output. We would need roughly all global nuclear capacity in order to meet that goal.

“Am I skeptical that goal will be achieved? You bet I am because energy transitions happen very slowly, and they are costly. And the idea that we’re simply going to shift gears and install a lot of wind and solar at a time where nuclear isn’t growing, there isn’t a way to decarbonize the grid. We don’t have new nuclear plants going online. We’re shutting them down generally.

“Entergy is a big provider in Arkansas. They are shuttering two of their reactors. They have already shuttered one in New York, Indian Point Unit 2, and they’re going to shut down Unit 3 in April. So, I think that it’s easy for politicians to propose things, but I don’t see it happening. We can see a gradual change, yes. But the idea that we’re simply going to find another 2,700 terrawatt hours of carbon-free electricity I think is easy to say, difficult to do.”

Other factors are also complicating a move from the current mix of energy for electricity and the planned mix, including land-use conflicts over renewable energy like the building of wind farms and transmission lines, i.e., the one that Clean Line Energy proposed to stretch across northern Arkansas that was ultimately rebuffed, Bryce said: “People everywhere care about their neighborhoods. We are seeing growing resistance not just in America but all over the world. We are also seeing increasing friction over solar projects. The idea that there is a lot of land out there in the middle of the country is just not true.”

In Arkansas, energy prices are very favorable currently, Bryce said: “Arkansas ranks 46^th among 50 states in terms of price, which is 22 percent below the national average. Those are pretty remarkable numbers. Be glad you don’t live in California where the average price is close to 20 cents per kilowatt hour, more than double what Arkansans pay.”

In Arkansas like the rest of the country, electricity use is flat in terms of consumption despite about a 7 percent increase in population over the past 15 years, Bryce said. “In 2019, coal provided 45 percent of electricity generation capacity, natural gas provided 27 percent, nuclear provided 25 percent and hydroelectric provided 3 percent. So, when it comes to reliability, Arkansas has a pretty remarkable profile.”

But the picture becomes murkier down the road with coal declining in favor, natural gas becoming questionable in terms of CO2 emissions and nuclear not being able to fully shoulder the load if the former two sources are removed from the mix, Bryce said: “I am worried that we’re losing sight of the reliability issue.”

What would it mean if Arkansas has to comply with the clean energy and efficiency standards that President-elect Biden has proposed? Bryce said that Arkansas’s total generation last year was about 64 terrawatt hours and in-state consumption was about 47-48 terrawatt hours: “If you back out Nuclear One, that’s about 13 terrawatt hours and you have roughly about 35 terrawatt hours of in-state consumption of electricity that is based on coal and natural gas. So, if Arkansas must comply then with this de-carbonization mandate, you would need seven times as much solar as we are getting here in Texas. You would also need almost three times the output of Nuclear One. You would need more than twice as much wind as is being produced in California and about 1.5 times what is being produced in Iowa.”

“These are big numbers and so I think it’s clear just looking at this very simple chart that if Arkansas is forced to decarbonize its grid and do so quickly, it could be extraordinarily costly and I don’t know how the state would do it, give the fact it has relatively poor wind resources. You are building some solar, but how would that be achieved?”

Bryce also said that the states that have had big increments of renewables into their capacity mix have seen some of the biggest increases in prices.

The net metering rule that the Arkansas Public Service Commission imposed this past summer upon utilities regarding solar energy has stirred up opposition, Bryce said, likening it to the issue of social equity and cost shifting, i.e., “Robin Hood in reverse.” By paying less into the system for the watt hours that solar users do, others have to pay more, effectively shifting some of the cost of the grid onto someone else because there are few watt hours where the utility is allowed to spread its cost. This has been a topic for a lot of states, not just Arkansas, including Illinois and California.

“I think this battle is just one of many that is going to happen not just in Arkansas but all across the country,” Bryce said, “and the issue of equity is one that is very difficult and it’s one that deserves more attention. But solar is very politically popular. Winning this kind of battle to have appropriate cost-sharing is going to be difficult because the companies installing it (solar panels) have political clout. People will vote for it without understanding some of the regressive nature of the policy.”

Bryce closed his presentation by focusing on the future of the Arkansas grid: “There are likely policy battles coming in the Biden administration involving carbon taxes, grid decarbonization mandates and subsidies, and electric vehicle charging rules. Coal will remain vulnerable. It’s important to keep Nuclear One operating as reliability and affordability go hand-in-hand. Solar and wind have very powerful lobbies in Washington, and they have been getting very lucrative subsidies that are vastly greater than treatments being given to hydrocarbons. So those are going to be the key battles and could potentially have a very big effect on Arkansas.

“Finally, regarding the Biden administration’s electrical vehicle charging stations, utilities are happy to build as many EVCS as are wanted, just tell them how many. This is an issue of social equity. Tradesmen like plumbers and others are driving pick-ups, not Tesla’s. Yet their electric rates are going to be subsidizing the Tesla drivers. To me, that’s just wrong.”

To see the video of the webinar, click https://vimeo.com/490784288. To see the slide deck, click https://files.constantcontact.com/ac59fcc9001/924596b2-09fb-4451-8285-f23cdc1a0f6e.pdf.