As state lawmakers take a brief recess this week after two months of frantic legislating in Little Rock, the Arkansas Times is taking a look at some of the most important environment and energy bills at play in the 2025 legislative session.
Some, like the controversial bill to allow electric companies to charge more to pay for new power plants, have already passed.
Others are still winding their way through the sticky process by which a bill becomes law. We’ve compiled a round-up of bills to watch as legislators prepare to meet again on Monday and the session nears its end.
Wind energy
Towering wind turbines have become an increasingly important part of the power generation mix in wind-rich states such as Oklahoma and Texas, but the industry is only just beginning to get a foothold in Arkansas. As national companies begin developing commercial projects across the state, though, Republican leaders are proposing major regulatory changes.
Influential Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe) tried to pass a bill earlier this session to limit the height of future turbines near places with large waterfowl populations out of concern for duck hunting in the Arkansas Delta. At a February committee meeting, opponents derided the proposal as encroaching on private property rights and said it would effectively kill the growing wind industry in parts of the state. Dismang and his co-sponsor, Rep. Jeremiah Moore (R-Clarendon), didn’t produce convincing evidence that the turbines would disrupt bird populations, and Glen Hooks of the Delta Audubon Society assured the committee that conservationists like him didn’t have problems with properly sited wind projects.
That bill died in committee, but Dismang is back with a new version that would go even further. Senate Bill 466 would limit future wind turbines to 150 feet while the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission studies their impact on migratory waterfowl and raptors. Unlike the first bill, the height restriction would apply to the whole state. At the February hearing, wind industry leaders and advocates warned that the 150-foot cap would basically halt future wind projects in the state. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Economic Development Committee.
Two other bills could have major impacts on Arkansas’s nascent wind industry. Senate President Pro Tem Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) has proposed a bill to establish a statewide regulatory framework for future wind turbines, including a permitting process and environmental impact statements. Senate Bill 437 will be heard in the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee.
The big utility bill that’s already passed this session, Senate Bill 307, also has implications for future wind development. It’s also sponsored by Dismang. The new law will potentially increase charges on consumers upfront to finance new power projects and other infrastructure — but future wind developments in Arkansas are excluded from being able to take advantage of the new funding mechanism. Renewable energy advocates told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that they fear the policy will disadvantage wind and solar energy.
Finally, the libertarian-leaning Sen. Bryan King (R-Green Forest) proposed a bill to require wind companies’ contracts with landowners to include information on future maintenance and recycling of wind turbine projects. Many wind companies lease the land on which they want to build projects and offer landowners a certain amount of revenue generated in return for use of their land. King’s district covers a large swath of rural north Arkansas that includes Carroll County and Madison County, both of which have placed temporary bans on the development of new commercial wind projects. King’s bill will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Data centers
The supercomputers that power America’s ever-growing appetite for Google searches, ChatGPT and other digital services continue to be a hot topic. Demand for data centers has exploded with the growth of artificial intelligence and “mining” for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
In 2023, lawmakers made it harder for local governments to block new data centers in some communities. In 2024, after public outcry over noisy crypto mining operations in some communities, they changed the law again to allow for more state regulation.
Data centers are a concern for environmentalists because they use lots of energy and water, sometimes straining local electric grids and water resources where they set up shop. The United Nations estimates that the global Bitcoin mining industry used more electricity in 2020 than the entire country of Pakistan, which has 230 million people. Several states are grappling with the environmental footprints of data centers, with high-profile legislative fights in Virginia, Oregon, Texas, New York and others, according to Tech Policy Press.
Under the 2024 Arkansas law, data centers used for crypto mining had 90 days from Feb. 26 of this year to receive a permit from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. No permit applications have been filed so far, according to the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment.
There are two bills to watch on data centers this session. House Bill 1444 by Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville) and Dismang would expand tax exemptions for large data centers that create a $2 billion or larger investment in the state. Crypto mining operations wouldn’t qualify for the exemptions.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said the fiscal impact of the bill would be “revenue neutral,” though the report didn’t elaborate on that finding. That bill passed the House of Representatives on March 10 and will next be considered by the Senate.
Sen. King has a bill to regulate the water and energy usage of data centers for crypto mining that has stalled for months in the Senate City, County, and Local Affairs Committee. King told the Arkansas Times that he has been busy with fighting the Franklin County prison project and hasn’t gotten around to pushing the bill forward. He also said that he wasn’t sure his bill could get through the committee, as Republican leadership may oppose it.
The Buffalo River
In a win for state environmentalist groups, Sen. Blake Johnson (R-Corning) appears to have given up on his quest to strip the Buffalo National River of the industrial farming protections in the river’s watershed.
His legislation, Senate Bill 290, would strip the Buffalo River and Lake Maumelle of their farming permit moratoriums to protect both bodies of water from pollution from industrial agriculture operations. It would have given the Legislature the power to review and approve future requests by state environmental regulators for farming permit moratoriums in watersheds. The Arkansas Farm Bureau supported Johnson’s bill.
The bill sits on the “deferred list” in the Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Economic Development Committee, meaning it won’t be up for consideration unless the members of the committee vote to place it back on the regular agenda.
Johnson presented the bill on March 11, but it failed to gain support and he voluntarily pulled it down before it was voted on. Johnson indicated that he might amend the bill, but so far no amendment has been filed. Groups like the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Ozark Society and the Sierra Club have rushed to the state Capitol in previous weeks to testify against Johnson’s bill. Republican legislators have said Sanders opposes the legislation, though her office did not respond to a request for comment on the bill.
Honorable mentions
The Legislature is seeking to promote outdoor recreation and tourism as the Sanders administration pursues the ambitious goal of doubling the outdoor economy in the next 10 years. It’s a family affair for the Sanderses, with first gentleman Bryan Sanders appointed by his wife in 2023 to chair an advisory council on how to promote outdoor recreation in Arkansas.
Legislators passed Act 155 to pave the way for future mountain biking parks using a variation of a ski lift for mountain bikes in the state. The OZ Trails mountain bike park will open in Bella Vista with funding from the Runway Group owned by the Walton family and intends to use the bike lift system. And the state of Arkansas is developing the “Trails at Mena” mountain bike park project in southwest Arkansas, which will also use the bike lift system.
And Act 318, which was signed by Sanders on March 18, made the Office of Outdoor Recreation within the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism a permanent fixture in the state government.
Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View) is pushing Senate Bill 416, which would allow the state Department of Energy and Environment to repeal the “Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Grant Program” and an accompanying fund to build electric vehicle charging stations around the state. Irvin explained that the expected federal funding was never allocated to the Department of Energy and Environment.
The federal funds for that program were instead given to the Arkansas Department of Transportation. That program has been frozen by the Trump administration, according to reporting from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Finally, legislators are taking another swing at fixing the state’s long beleaguered used tire recycling program run by the Department of Energy and Environment. Sen. John Payton (R-Wilburn) wants to pass Senate Bill 238 to ensure fees are collected at the point of sale for new tires to generate more revenue for tire recycling. That bill will head to the Senate when the session resumes next week.
