What is Apex Clean Energy planning in Grant County?
That was the question the Reckoning asked when Jackson Schiesl, a representative with Apex Clean Energy – Solar appeared on the Grant County Quorum Court's Monday, March 16th agenda.
Solar projects are a controversial topic in Grant County where many citizens are fighting against a proposed data center and solar farm. Other solar projects are also in the works, according to documents filed at the Grant County courthouse.
The Reckoning requested documents and emails concerning Apex from County Judge Randy Pruitt under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Pruitt sent three PDFs including a 12-page document about the company, which is based in Charlottesville, Va. Here's one page from it.
Apex was established in 2009 specializing in developing wind, solar and energy storage projects throughout the United States.
A map of the Piney Hills Energy Project was also included in the FOIA documents. (The PDF was sent verticle like this.)
The red lines, according to the map's key, are the solar project's boundary lines that are on the Grant and Jefferson County lines.
I-530 lies on the eastern boundary while the western red line zig zags around Grant 75. The southern line is Junet Road; the northern boundary leads to White Bluff where Entergy has a power plant.
Last August, Entergy in a news release announced it had filed an application with the Arkansas Public Service Commission for approval to build a 754-megawatt natural gas power plant near Redfield, which sits in both Grant and Jefferson Counties.
In late January, the Commission, whose chairman is Doyle Webb, approved the natural gas power plant. However, the matter is still going through the PSC process. Read all the PSC's actions concerning White Bluff here.
It is unclear if the APEX project is directly connected to White Bluff. However, in a document obtained in the FOIA request, the Piney Hills Project lists community benefits.
Those community benefits are:
- "Approximately $700 million in capital investment, creating hundreds of jobs and significanr local spending during constuction"
- "Long term tax revenue for county governments and local schools totalling over $60 million in taxes (conservative estimate)"
- "Solar is one of the most cost effective sources of electricity available today and its ability to generate power at peak
times helps protect ratepayers." - "Access to existing transmission line eliminating the need for new infrastructure"
In the response to the Reckoning FOIA, Pruitt wrote: "I have no emails, memoranda, or other documented correspondence with their company."
That made me question how APEX got on the agenda in the first place. So I asked.
GCIDC is the Grant County Industrial Corporation that was created in 1955 by Act 404 of the Arkansas General Assembly. That act's mission was to "initiate an intensive industry recruitment program" in a post War War II era to lure businesses to Arkansas.
The corporation has been under scrutiny by many Grant County residents because its board automatically places elected officials on it. Current GCIDC board members, according to its latest 2024 tax record, are: Ken Bragg, former Mayor Joe Wise, Craig Manatt, James D. Easley, Grant County Judge Randy Pruitt, Jim Lancaster, Bryce Lunday, Stephen Shirron, Bobby Taylor. Wise has replaced with current Mayor Cain Nattin.
GCIDC was pivotal in talks with Clean Cloud Energy last summer. Clean Cloud is based in Austin, Texas, and New York. The company "works closely with end users of data centers, utilities and regulators to co-locate utility scale energy projects with data centers," according to its website.
Pruitt did not answer whether GCDIC is involved with Apex. However, he did reply about how Apex landed on his radar.
He sent a screenshot that showed a phone calendar from Aug. 20, 2025, at 11 a.m. with "Apex Clean Energy" listed as an appointment. Another date showed a Sept. 25 appointment at 2 p.m. with Jack Schiesl who is listed on the agenda for Monday night's meeting.
Pruitt sent the following text message to me on March 12: "Couldn't seem to get this from my phone to computer to email. Calendar entry's for scheduled meetings with Apex. I was invited by the Chamber of Commerce to attend the August meeting and I didn't attend due to having COVID. The September meeting is where I received the documents and maps that I provided to you by email. Again I have no emails with Apex-only in person conversations and phone calls."
Apex in Arkansas and beyond
According to the company's website, Apex currently is developing the Winterbury Solar project in White County that will power 23,600 homes at 100 MW.
Apex has approxinately six projects – mostly wind turbines – in Oklahoma, according to OK Energy Today that also reports APEX has faced resistance from communities in that state, Mississippi, Ohio and more recently in Michigan.
In January, Energy Storage News reported that Apex was creating "Ohio Raven Storage, a 100MW battery energy storage system (BESS), is part of SA Grid Solutions, a joint venture (JV) between Apex Clean Energy and two companies in the South Korean SK Group conglomerate, SK Gas and SK Eternix. It also represents Apex’s first financing with the US-based Korean-American-focused Bank of Hope."
Digging deeper into Apex, the company utilizes area Chambers of Commerce to enter a community.
The Jackson, Miss., Chamber of Commerce posted about Apex on its Instagram account. The Searcy Chamber of Commerce features Apex on its website as does the chamber in Shiner, Texas.
New agenda
Late Friday afternoon, a revised Quorum Court agenda appeared with a notation: "Apex Clean Energy called 3/12/2026 to be removed from the agenda."
Monday night
The Grant County Quorum Court meets Monday night at 6 p.m. at the courthouse.
Here is the latest agenda from the Quorum Court's website.
The Reckoning noticed Misty Smith, a citizen who wanted to speak, was on the original agenda but not on the revised one. However, Judge Pruitt confirmed to the Reckoning Saturday afternoon Smith remains on the agenda to speak.
