Nicknamed the ‘The Natural State,’ Arkansas boasts a variety of environmental attractions, from the Ozark Mountains to the Arkansas River Valley and the Delta along the Mississippi. Home to just over 3 million people and spanning about 52 thousand square miles. Arkansas will become warmer in the coming decades, experiencing more severe floods and drought. Like other states in the Southeast, Arkansas is particularly vulnerable to extreme heat and ensuing extreme weather events, both of which threaten water availability. Annual rainfall is expected to increase, but average rainfall is expected to decrease. This is a dangerous combination. Rainstorms will be more severe, causing damaging floods, but they are also fewer and farther between, with stretches of drought lengthening and intensifying. As a result, the total amount of water running into rivers or recharging groundwater is expected to decline by 5% or more each year. The Arkansas River is the channel of transportation for more than $4 billion worth of freight in a typical year. A shrinking river poses a direct threat to the economy, as barges will not be able to carry as many goods as river levels are reduced.
Arkansas has another interesting connection to climate change: the state is home to the biggest population of Marshall Islands citizens in the US, most of whom left their home to flee climate change as a result of rising sea levels. Of 50,000 Marshall Island citizens, between 12,000 and 15,000 now live in northwest Arkansas (5).
Arkansas continues to rely heavily on coal and natural gas. In 2020, natural gas exceeded coal for the first time as the state’s primary source for electricity generation. In 2023, natural gas accounted for 39% of electricity generated, while coal accounted for 27%. 24% of the state’s energy comes from nuclear power - all from one nuclear power plant. Renewables provided 9% of electricity, mostly hydroelectric power: hydroelectric accounted for about 67% of generation from renewables, while solar was 20%, and biomass was 14%. While the state does not have a renewable energy standard, net metering systems exist that significantly increase energy efficiency.
There has been significant solar development in Arkansas, with Searcy Solar Farm coming online in January 2022 and Big Cypress Solar Farm in January 2024. The USDA granted over $2.5 million in funding for solar projects in Arkansas, as part of a program focusing on renewable energy in rural areas. Over 1,000 megawatts of solar energy should come online in 2024, and 400 more by 2025.
New research has shown that millions of tons of lithium might lie beneath southwest Arkansas. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders predicts Arkansas could become the nation’s largest lithium producer.
In 2008, Governor Mike Beebe established the Governor’s Commission on Global Warming. Modified in October 2010, the GCGW went on to recommend 54 policies, 31 of which were quantified to determine their potential emissions reductions. They were predicted to reduce approximately 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2025. Momentum seems to have been halted in subsequent years. In 2014, the Governor Asa Hutchinson pushed back on former President Obama’s plan to scale back carbon pollution from existing power plants, asserting that governments should not intervene to reduce the climate impacts from fossil fuel production. In 2023, current governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced her intention to sue the EPA over ozone regulations.
In 2018, the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas developed an Energy Action Plan, and in 2024 adopted a new Climate Action Plan. The Climate Action Plan includes goals in energy, transportation, waste, water, ecosystem services, ecosystem resilience, carbon sequestration and climate equity, and is based on a dual approach of emission reductions strategies and nature-based solutions, or mitigation and adaptation.
CREDIT: Citizens' Climate Lobby
