# 2026-03 AVAIO Seeks a Tier 4 Equivalent Ruling via the Commerce Secretary On 2026-03-03, AVAIO Public Affairs Lead [[Melody Neil]] sent "[[Hugh McDonald|Secretary McDonald]]" a "Private and Confidential" request that Arkansas allow "Tier IV Equivalent" generators (Tier 2-certified engines with SCR/DPF) to be permitted as emergency units for Project Leo — and that ESA-mandated curtailment events count as "emergencies." McDonald forwarded it to E&E Secretary [[Shane Khoury]] on 03-04 ("happy to connect you or your designee"); Khoury sent it to [[Demetria Kimbrough]] ("Thoughts?"); by 03-05 Kimbrough's staff were circulating the Virginia DEQ guidance "Mississippi pointed to for their decision." ## Sources - ([[AVAIO Tier 4 Equivalent Email to the Commerce Secretary]], `260305-email.pdf`, pp. 1–5) ## What happened The email disclosed, in AVAIO's own words: the executed Entergy ESA with "a mandatory curtailment provision on a temporary basis for up to 150h per year"; "Without this provision, Entergy would not have supplied any power"; LMR Type 1 curtailment to 0 MW until [[Ironwood]] CT (November 2028), then EEA-2 curtailment until [[Jefferson Power Station]] (December 2029) with ~1 hour notice; 62 × 3 MW generators against a 150 MW grid connection; and the request for written confirmation that curtailment events are Subpart IIII "emergencies." ## Significance The first Tier-1 documentation of the AVAIO–Entergy ESA's existence and terms — an agreement in no public docket — and a documented instance of a developer routing a permitting-interpretation question through the state's economic-development leadership rather than the permitting agency. It also shows the "emergency generator" classification being repurposed to backstop Entergy's interim capacity gap until its new units come online.