NRECA Annual Meeting
Gary Wood is the CEO of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative. Darren Schauer is the CEO of Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative. Mike Casper is the CEO of Jo-Carroll Energy. Craig Eccher is the CEO of Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative.
Ten CEOs of cooperative utilities sat down with PUF in one of three roundtable discussions at NRECA's Annual Meeting in New Orleans. In this roundtable, the CEOs of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Jo-Carroll Energy, and Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative talked with us about broadband.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Why is this subject of utilities providing broadband service so important?
Darren Schauer: For GVEC and most cooperatives around the country, broadband internet access is a huge topic, and a major concern for our members.
There are densely populated areas, municipalities, and suburban areas that have access to broadband, but most of the rural areas do not. That parallels with our history. If you look to the 1930s, metropolitan and suburban areas had electricity, and the rural areas didn't.