As state leaders grind away at the sausage at the state Legislature in Little Rock, some stuff gets left out while other stuff gets pushed in. My column three weeks ago was about Senate Bill 145, which would allow people and companies to lease solar electric systems instead of forking over the hefty up-front costs of buying and installing the equipment. Since Arkansas policy does not currently allow for leasing, the initial costs mean most people and companies cannot use solar energy even if they want to.
The bill's other major impact on solar use is that it would allow for an increase in the size the systems used by commercial and industrial entities by increasing the kilowatts they can produce from 300kw to 1,000kw. The generation of electricity on site, whether from the sun or wind or geothermal methods, is far more efficient and environmentally sensible than extracting and burning fossil fuels. Some states place no limits on how much electricity someone can produce, which makes them more competitive economically. As overhead costs go down for utilities, individuals and industries save money that can be spent elsewhere. Efficiency makes energy cost key to attracting investment to a state and cleans the air in the process.
Although SB145 went from a readable two pages when introduced to 10 pages of almost incomprehensible legalese, the folks keeping a close eye on its meaning seem fairly satisfied with it. It passed out of a Senate committee with a unanimous vote, passed in the Senate, and was passed out to the Joint Energy Committee Monday. If and when it leaves that body, it will go to the House, maybe today, so if you want to comment on it, do so immediately to your representative. If you do not know your district or representative, go to https://www.arkansashouse.org and put in your address. And, you can track bills by searching "Arkansas Legislature Bills" in a search engine like Yahoo or Google. Put in the bill number and click "search." The bill title will appear and when you click on it, the bill's status will be shown.
Keep in mind there are at least a couple of thousand bills being hashed over in this session, so it is very important to communicate with legislators, even those outside your district, if you want them to pay attention to your interests.
The bill-making process got super heated last week when state Sen. Stephanie Flowers took the Judiciary Committee to the mat for trying to limit discussion on Sen. Bob Ballinger's SB484, "An Act Concerning the Use of Physical Force in Self-Defense or in the Defense of Others." That act title sounds innocent enough, but the bill's purpose, as well as that of HB1059 in the House, is to change an existing self-defense code that law enforcement says is working fine into one with clauses allowing a "stand-your-ground" provision. In some states a kind of "get-out-of-jail-free" result occurs when people who could have retreated safely instead chose to harm or kill. Such bills often encourage rather than discourage confrontations.
Maybe the gun-toting committee members had heard enough, but neither Sen. Flowers nor all the people who had traveled for hours and waited for hours had said what they came to say. The air turned a purple shade of fume when she lit into the committee members, so much so that her retort has been viewed on YouTube by the tens of thousands.
Even as children we're taught to not corner a wounded creature, something a few on that committee obviously forgot. Certainly the wounds of the centuries since the first ship of slaves arrived on our shores on through the Civil War and Reconstruction, lynchings, beatings, rapes, the KKK, segregation, Jim Crow laws, civil rights struggles, white supremacy, etc., had laid a historical foundation for Flowers. Still she had to explain how this bill would threaten more people of both races, but especially the black race, than it would secure, and she did so with all the pent up frustration and anger she righteously possesses.
She stood her ground with her words, decorum be damned.
I imagine those folks from law enforcement and Moms Demand Action, who were there to try and bring some gun sanity to our state, felt like whooping out a massive cheer. Clearly Flowers hit a nerve in the country in denouncing the dismissiveness by the bill's sponsors in their life-and-death law-making and their lack of respect for those who feel threatened and bullied by guns constantly on parade.
Commentary on 03/12/2019