# APSC Docket 26-008-TF — GAJA Rider Hearing, Rebuttal & Orders (production overview) The 26-008-TF deep-dive production. Eight filings retrieved on 2026-05-22 from the [[Arkansas Public Service Commission]]'s public e-filing system (apps.apsc.arkansas.gov) — six Commission orders, [[J. David Palmer]]'s rebuttal testimony on Ironwood, and the public notice filed in lieu of the 301-page hearing transcript. These extend the prior [[psc/docket-26-008-tf-hearing-2026-05-22/_overview|Docket 26-008-TF surface production]] from "the filing exists and is contested" to "what the procedural record shows and where the Commission has and has not ruled." ## What's inside - [[Order No. 1 ALJ Designation]] — Doc. 2, 2026-01-28. Designates ALJ [[N. Wesley Hunt]] as Presiding Officer. - [[Order No. 2 Interim Protective Order]] — Doc. 4, 2026-02-11. ALJ Hunt's 14-page interim protective order; **the legal scaffolding for what gets sealed in this docket** — including, in Category I, "Information or documents containing the names of individual customers." - [[Order No. 3 Hearing Set for April 28]] — Doc. 40, 2026-03-16. Sets initial evidentiary hearing; confirms the **$5.77 / 4.17% residential bill impact**. - [[Order No. 4 Hearing Rescheduled to April 29]] — Doc. 54, 2026-04-07. Resolves a procedural-deadline dispute; reschedules to April 29; orders supplemental briefing on what triggers the statutory timeframes. - [[Order No. 5 Pre-Hearing Issues]] — Doc. 69, 2026-04-21. The Commission directs parties to address two issues at the hearing: (1) rate impact comparisons (Jan 2026 vs June 2026); (2) cost-of-debt reconciliation with the [[Entergy Arkansas]] Formula Rate Plan compliance filing in Docket 16-036-FR. - [[Palmer Rebuttal on Ironwood]] — Doc. 68, 2026-04-20. **Entergy's substantive answer to Staff's Ironwood-exclusion challenge.** Argues Act 373 § 23-4-1304(w) makes pre-Act CECPN applications (Ironwood's was filed 2024-11-01) eligible for GAJA Rider recovery without a separate strategic-investment finding. - [[Hearing Transcript Filing Notice]] — Doc. 74, 2026-05-08. A one-page notice from Bushman Court Reporting (a Veritext Company) — **the 301-page transcript itself is not online**; physical inspection at the Commission Secretary's office at 1000 Center Street, Little Rock, or paid copy from Veritext (501-372-5115). - [[Order No. 6 Legislative Council Report]] — Doc. 75, 2026-05-12. The most recent order in the docket; **directs EAL to provide a Legislative Council report by 2026-06-01** with detailed strategic-investment data including installed capacity, in-service date, total cost, customer arrears, disconnections, affordability narrative, and per-class bill impacts. **Procedural, not substantive — it does not rule on the Ironwood dispute.** ## The Ironwood dispute, as it stands The contested testimony from the surface production framed the dispute: Staff witness [[Mark Herring]] argued the Ironwood combustion turbine was never designated a strategic investment by the Commission and is therefore ineligible for GAJA Rider recovery; excluding it cuts the rider by $33.9M. This production captures Entergy's full reply: [[Palmer Rebuttal on Ironwood|J. David Palmer]] argues — citing § 23-4-1303(10)(A), § 23-4-1304(w), and § 23-4-1304(f)(1) — that Ironwood's CECPN application was filed before Act 373 was even introduced (2024-11-01 in [[Ironwood|Docket 24-072-U]]), and pre-Act resources need only a notice of election to be recovered through the rider. The Commission already recognized that designation in Docket 25-049-TF when it directed bill-impact calculations on 2025-09-24, Palmer argues. Staff itself acknowledges Ironwood "meets the definition" — Staff disputes only the procedural form. The evidentiary hearing happened on 2026-04-29. The Commission's substantive ruling on whether Ironwood stays in the rider — the $33.9M question — **has not been issued as of 2026-05-12.** [[Order No. 6 Legislative Council Report]] is the most recent filing and is procedural (a transparency-and-reporting directive). ## What the Commission's orders reveal Reading the six orders in sequence yields a few non-obvious findings: - **The seal architecture.** [[Order No. 2 Interim Protective Order]] catalogs 22 categories (A–V) of information that can be sealed at EAL's request. Category I is "information or documents containing the names of individual customers... the terms of individual contracts, individual usage or individual prices" — the legal scaffolding for the [[GAJA Rider 2026 Annual Update|Filing Requirement 16]] (Non-CIAC Customer Payments) seal. ALJ Hunt also *partially* curbed EAL's request: he denied Paragraph T (allowing any document sealed in *another* docket to be auto-sealed here) and denied the Company's request to make a Confidential Information breach an automatic injunction without bond. - **The transparency caveat.** Hunt explicitly references "Order No. 6 in [[Jefferson Power Station|Docket 25-047-U]]" and orders EAL to make a good-faith effort to minimize unnecessary redactions, cautioning EAL "to avoid designating all Protected Information as HSPI in a manner that renders the Confidential Information category meaningless." A transparency norm exists; how rigorously it is policed is a separate question. - **The Commission's own pre-hearing focus.** [[Order No. 5 Pre-Hearing Issues]] frames the live legal questions at the 4/29 hearing not as "should Ironwood be in the rider" but as (1) the *actual* rate impact (Jan 2026 vs June 2026 comparison) and (2) Entergy's *cost-of-debt* methodology — the Attorney General's challenge, not Staff's Ironwood challenge. - **The transcript is offline.** [[Hearing Transcript Filing Notice|The transcript notice]] is a documentary gap, not a documentary find: a 301-page public record exists, it is housed at 1000 Center Street, and a paid copy is available from Veritext. The web record only captures that the transcript exists. ## People and orgs - [[Entergy Arkansas]] — filing party - [[Arkansas Public Service Commission]] — three commissioners now anchored: [[Doyle Webb]] (Chairman), [[Justin Tate]], [[Katie Anderson]]; [[Karen Shook]] as Secretary of the Commission - [[APSC General Staff]] — represented by [[Mark Herring]] in the surface production - [[Office of the Arkansas Attorney General]] — represented by [[Greg R. Meyer]] in the surface production - [[J. David Palmer]] — Entergy's VP Regulatory Affairs; rebuttal testimony on Ironwood - [[N. Wesley Hunt]] — ALJ presiding officer; issued Orders 2, 3, 4 under delegation - [[Veritext Court Reporting]] — Bushman Court Reporting (Veritext) filed the transcript notice ## Concepts - [[Generating Arkansas Jobs Act (GAJA) rider]] — the rider being updated - [[Strategic Investment]] — the statutory category § 23-4-1303(10)(A) is the heart of the Ironwood dispute - [[Ironwood]] — the disputed combustion turbine - [[Cost-of-service study]] — Klucher's parallel work in 26-001-U ## Events - [[2026-04 APSC Evidentiary Hearing on the GAJA Rider]] — the 2026-04-29 hearing - [[2026-05 APSC Order No. 6 Legislative Council Reporting Directive]] — the most recent order ## Open questions / follow-ups - The substantive final order on Ironwood inclusion in the rider has not been issued as of 2026-05-12; monitor the docket. - The 301-page hearing transcript (Doc. 74) is not online. Retrieval requires in-person inspection at the Commission Secretary's office (1000 Center Street, Little Rock) or a Veritext purchase (501-372-5115). - The CECPN proceedings cited throughout — [[Ironwood|24-072-U]] (Ironwood), [[Jefferson Power Station|25-047-U]] (Jefferson), [[Arkansas Cypress|25-054-U]] (Arkansas Cypress) — were ingested as curated subsets in the 2026-05-22 session; see each docket's production overview. - Docket 25-049-TF (the 2025 GAJA Rider Annual Update; cited by Palmer as where the Commission directed Ironwood bill impacts) has not been ingested. - Filing Requirement 16 (Non-CIAC Customer Payments) remains sealed; the seal is authorized by [[Order No. 2 Interim Protective Order]] Category I.