# Order No. 4 — Hearing Rescheduled to April 29 (GAJA Rider docket) [[N. Wesley Hunt|ALJ Hunt]]'s order resolving a procedural-deadline dispute between [[APSC General Staff|Staff]] and [[Entergy Arkansas]] and rescheduling the evidentiary hearing from April 28 to **April 29, 2026** for counsel availability. Crucially, the order also orders supplemental briefing on what triggers the statutory deadlines in a GAJA Rider proceeding when the filing carries deficiencies. ## What's inside - 26-008-TF_54_1.pdf — 7 pages. ## Key takeaways - **The procedural dispute.** Staff filed a Notice of Deficiencies on 2026-03-16; EAL denied the items were deficiencies but filed a Response on 2026-03-18; Staff filed a Statement of Compliance on 2026-03-25. The disagreement: do the statutory and tariff timeframes restart from the date EAL filed its Response, or from the date of Staff's Statement of Compliance? The GAJA Rider Protocols at (II)(1)(B)(3) state: "To the extent any deficiencies are identified and cured, the responsive pleading dates shall begin from the date that EAL has cured any deficiency" (emphasis original). Hunt resolves the immediate schedule but orders briefing on the underlying question. - **The procedural schedule adopted** (modifying Staff's alternative schedule): - Staff/Intervenor Testimony — April 14, 2026 - EAL Response Testimony — April 20, 2026 - Issues List / Settlement — April 23, 2026 - Opposition to Settlement — April 24, 2026 - Hearing — **April 29, 2026** (rescheduled from April 28 for AG counsel availability) - **The supplemental briefing issues** for which Initial Briefs were due 2026-04-13 and Reply Briefs 2026-04-20: 1. "Should an Annual Update which contains deficiencies, or otherwise does not comply with the underlying tariff or Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure, be considered a completed and statutorily compliant 'annual update filing' for purposes of the order deadline set forth in Ark. Code Ann. § 23-4-1304(e)(2)(E) and the hearing deadline set forth in the Protocols at (II)(1)(B)(5)? If not, what event triggers these deadlines?" 2. "To the extent deficiencies are identified and cured, do the statutory and tariff procedural deadlines begin on the date on which the Company files the information to cure the deficiencies, or the date on which a Party who identified the deficiencies files a letter confirming the deficiencies are cured?" - **The settlement / issues-list procedure** is laid out in detail (pp. 5–6), including the requirement that any settlement-extension request also extend opposition deadlines and include an issues list. - EAL argued the statutory deadline at § 23-4-1304(e)(2)(A) "cannot be waived by the Parties or the Commission" — i.e., the order must issue by 2026-06-23 regardless. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[N. Wesley Hunt]] — Presiding Officer - [[Entergy Arkansas]] — filing party; argues statutory deadline cannot be extended - [[APSC General Staff]] — moved for revised schedule - [[Office of the Arkansas Attorney General]] — concurred with Staff; cited counsel conflict with April 28 ## Cross-references - The briefs filed in response (Docs 58, 59, 60, 61 — Initial Briefs from Staff / AG / Arkansas Advanced Energy Association / EAL; Docs 64, 65, 66 — Reply Briefs) are listed on the [[psc/docket-26-008-tf-hearing-2026-05-22/_overview|production overview]] docket sheet but were not retrieved. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The substantive briefs may be informative about how strictly Arkansas Code Annotated § 23-4-1304 is being read in this docket, but they have not been retrieved.