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Jerrold Oppenheim
Theo MacGregor

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Gloucester, Mass.
01930 USA
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Other Works
By Greg Palast


ARKANSAS ENERGY EFFICIENCY: A CASE STUDY
World Resources Institute et al.: Forum on Good Governance, Clean Energy and Regulation (Singapore)
March 17, 2008
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This study shows how both environmental and social welfare principles were advanced in the context of an energy regulatory process in a poor US southern state. Electric power in the southern US has been relatively inexpensive for about 70 years, so policymakers have had very little motivation to develop cheaper alternatives such as energy efficiency. With the possible exception of biomass, there is very little native renewable energy in the South that is economic. Further, clean energy and low-income supports have been relatively low political priorities over the years. However, over the past decade, with marketization of the natural gas and electricity industries throughout much of the nation, power costs even in the South have risen and become less affordable for low-income and other customers. At the same time, environmental concerns have led utilities and policy-makers to look for more sustainable resources than the dirty coal and expensive gas typically used to generate much of the electricity in the South. Thus, the stage was set for a significant policy shift in Arkansas in 2006 and 2007. . . .