Financial and Governance Protections for Electric Cooperatives
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the public demand for greater broadband access in rural areas must be heeded. However, the technology mediums by which broad-band has been delivered are changing rapidly. There is a very real possibility that an expensive broadband network deployed today in a rural area will either be too expensive or soon rendered obsolete and thus will not attract the consumer base necessary to repay its deployment costs. In this situation, there are significant risks for electric co-ops and their members to consider before they choose to mortgage their systems or engage in substantial support of such networks.
