Latest news with #SB227
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SESSION SNAPSHOT: Arkansas legislators seek to clarify FOIA, overhaul state employee pay plan
Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, speaks against HB 1669, on the floor of the Arkansas House on March 13, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Arkansas lawmakers during the ninth week of the 95th General Assembly advanced legislation backed by the governor that would overhaul the state's higher education system and the state employee pay plan. Arkansas ACCESS, the higher education bill, debuted Monday in the Joint Education Committee where critics focused on a provision to prohibit excused absences for students who participate in protests or attempts to influence legislation. After opponents kept raising concerns about infringing on free speech, the committee approved an amendment that would allow excused absences for attempts to influence legislation if students obtain parental consent. Opponents noted that the amendment only applied to students in high school, not college. Arkansas ACCESS, which was filed as two identical bills in the House and Senate, will likely clear final legislative hurdles next week and be sent to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' desk. On Tuesday, lawmakers turned their attention to a proposed overhaul of the state employee pay plan, which is expected to cost $139 million. Sanders has previously said the goal of the plan is to recruit and retain employees in hard-to-fill positions, and to clarify the promotion ladders in each state agency. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the bill next Tuesday. An Arkansas House committee on Wednesday also approved two bills that mirror stalled legislation aimed at regulating companies' online interactions with children. Protecting children's online activity is another stated goal of Sanders' administration. House Speaker Brian Evans, R-Cabot, told reporters Thursday that lawmakers 'made really good strides this week' as they pushed to stay on track to wrap up their business by April 16. 'We've seen really good movement, committees have worked long,' Evans said. 'We've had committees that's been meeting up into the night, and the purpose of that is just to make sure that the public is being heard, staying however long it takes.' Longer days are likely to continue next week, he said, as lawmakers continue considering a variety of bills, including a $750 million appropriations bill for a Franklin County prison project that's expected to generate discussion. A Senate committee approved two bills this week that would define a public meeting, an effort to bring clarity to the state's government transparency law. Senate Bill 376 defines a public meeting as any gathering of more than two members of a public body. Senate Bill 227 would set parameters for what members of city councils, quorum courts or school boards can discuss outside of a public meeting. SB 227 also would amend the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to add a cybersecurity breach as a reason to meet in executive session, introduce and regulate remote meeting attendance, and allow a court to nullify official actions taken as a result of violations of open meetings law. SB 227 passed out of the Senate Thursday. SB 376 is on the upper chamber's agenda on Monday. Arkansas lawmakers on Wednesday approved an amended bill to streamline the process for building electricity-generating plants in the state, one week after rejecting the original proposal. Senate Bill 307 sponsor Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said the bill aims to mitigate the sharp increase in rates that's expected when the state purchases or generates new energy to meet anticipated demand in the coming years. While Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock, said he appreciated Dismang's work on the amendments, but he still didn't believe the bill did enough to protect ratepayers. Meanwhile, legislation that would make it harder to protect Arkansas watersheds from possible pollution from large animals farms finally got a hearing Tuesday after weeks of deferrals. The proposal by Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, received support from agricultural interests and opposition from environmental advocates. Johnson ultimately pulled Senate Bill 290 for revisions. Arkansas could become the fifth state to allow executions by nitrogen gas after lawmakers approved House Bill 1489 and sent it to the governor's desk this week. Supporters of the bill say the state has a responsibility to carry out capital punishment and must find new ways to do as securing the necessary drugs for lethal injection has become increasingly difficult. Alabama is the only state to have carried out nitrogen gas executions, and HB 1489 opponents have criticized the method as experimental and inhumane. Arkansas lawmakers filed about 140 bills by Thursday evening, including: Senate Bill 426 by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, establishes 'enhanced penalties' for immigrants lacking legal status who commit a 'serious felony involving violence,' ensures that sheriff's offices and the Arkansas Department of Correction's Division of Correction can participate in the Warrant Service Officer program, and expands the state's ban on sanctuary cities to include counties and unincorporated areas. Senate Bill 433, by Sen. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, would require the 10 Commandments to be displayed in public schools and taxpayer-funded buildings. Senate Bill 434, also by Dotson, would require that a majority of all registered voters eligible to vote approve a constitutional amendment in order for it to become law. Senate Bill 450 by Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, would require the Arkansas Department of Education to include a human fetal growth and development discussion 'in the relevant standards' during the state's academic standards revision cycle. Davis opposed a similar bill that stalled in committee after critics questioned its age appropriateness, medical accuracy and inclusion of a video developed by an anti-abortion group. Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday for one more week of meetings before taking the following week off for Spring Break. Meeting schedules, agendas and livestream videos are available on the Arkansas Legislature's website. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Competing Senate bills try to answer the question, how should Utah power new data centers?
Transmission lines lead away from the coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) After a couple of years focusing on keeping coal burning to power the state, Republican lawmakers are expanding their focus to cover hyperscale demands, potentially from data and artificial intelligence centers. Two bills establishing requirements to process large-scale electricity service requests are currently being considered in the Senate. One, by Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, hasn't left the rules committee, and the other by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, who has successfully sponsored substantial energy legislation, has already advanced to the Senate floor. Because there's currently not a specific process to single out large energy users, to serve potential large customers in data centers or other manufacturers, Rocky Mountain Power, the largest electricity provider in the state, must include those loads in its general rate calculations filed to the Utah Public Service Commission. That's what both of those bills are trying to change. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'What my bill file does is allow Rocky Mountain Power to step out of that regulated monopoly space and into the competitive space and contract directly with these large loads,' Sandall told reporters on Wednesday. Under SB132, sponsored by Sandall, Rocky Mountain Power may individually contract with new customers requiring over 50 megawatts of power without affecting demands and rates for existing customers. The utility would have six months to review those novel contracts. 'If at that point in time no deal can be made, or it looks like they are struggling to make a deal, a third-party producer could come in then with the large load under a separate contract,' Sandall said in his presentation to the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee last week. One aspect of Sandall's bill has raised concerns for those who would like to see more renewable energy sources in the state's portfolio — the fact that intermittent energy sources, such as solar and wind, need to be 100% backed up with energy storage to serve large-load contracts. Energy demand from data centers growing faster than West can supply, experts say 'What we don't want to have is billions of dollars of investment under these contracts and an energy source that's not being able to supply the whole base load, then coming to the legislature and saying, 'excuse us now, we've got to have more power,'' Sandall said. 'And where do we leverage that?' SB227, Cullimore's bill, is similar to Sandall's. But, the biggest difference is that Cullimore's proposal doesn't dictate which resources should be included in the contracts with data centers. It's an approach that advocates for renewables prefer, Josh Craft, director of government relations and public affairs for the nonprofit group Utah Clean Energy, said in a statement. 'It is resource neutral and provides a pathway to utilize Utah's incredible clean energy potential,' Craft wrote. 'Utah should be expanding access to affordable, clean energy, not creating barriers that limit options for businesses and communities.' Sandall called that resource neutrality the 'movement of unrestricted energy through the meter,' which is what gives Rocky Mountain Power — and him — some pause. But, while both senators have different approaches, there's a lot that Sandall said he and Cullimore are trying to work out together. After working on his bill for six months, Sandall said he thinks he's getting close to creating a firewall between current customers' rate structure and data centers. Rocky Mountain Power representatives have told him that his bill would allow them to find the power to serve those new, large loads, he told Utah News Dispatch. 'Rocky Mountain Power, quite honestly, has some apprehension around this bill, because they're not used to stepping in a competitive space,' Sandall said. 'And so I've had to bring them along, and they've finally gotten here.' Because data and AI centers are still speculative customers, Michele Beck, director of the Utah Office of Consumer Services, believes it is reasonable to expand views on what models could work for Utah. 'Under the utility model, it's impossible to understand how we can build enough resources fast enough to serve what might be out there, what people are saying is out there,' Beck said about the potential for new data centers in the state. 'So I think it's good to evaluate alternatives, but on the other hand, it needs to be done in a way that protects existing customers.' Sandall's bill does a reasonable job of protecting other customers, she said. His intent, Sandall said, is to be cautious since these contracts are a new space for the state. 'We're having a really hard time making sure that we don't go to deregulation, but we still allow this faster build-out of the energy that we're going to need,' he said. Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, supported the idea of making plans to 'keep a firewall between them and our public utility' since, he said, data centers are willing to pay more for energy, potentially affecting rates for other Utahns. As for which of the bills Senate leadership will end up supporting for final approval? Adams said he expects the process to dictate the answer. 'There's two bills, and they'll work together, and it'll be interesting how they come out.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
