Local Organizing Efforts Are Reframing the Digital Divide — Episode 144 of Building Local Power

Date: 10 Feb 2022 | posted in: Building Local Power | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

On this episode of the Building Local Power Podcast, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by her colleagues on the broadband team, DeAnne Cuellar and Sean Gonsalves. They discuss where the bulk of the broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is geared towards and how to engage local champions to create community broadband strategies. … Read More

Connecting Rural America: Internet Access for All (Episode 26)

Date: 10 Aug 2017 | posted in: Building Local Power, MuniNetworks, Podcast | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This week, our Building Local Power podcast contains a conversation between guest host Nick Stumo-Langer and ILSR researchers Hannah Trostle and Christopher Mitchell to discuss the importance of connectivity in rural America and the barriers high quality local investment. The group discusses a number of topics, including how electric cooperatives are changing the dynamic on who … Read More

Indiana Eases Easements For Electric Cooperatives, Allows Fiber Infrastructure Investments

Date: 14 Jun 2017 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The State Legislature in Indiana sent SB 478 to Governor Eric Holcomb earlier this session; he recently signed the bill into law. Also known as the Facilitating Internet Broadband Rural Expansion (FIBRE) Act, the new law allows electric cooperatives with easements for electric lines to use those same easement for fiber infrastructure. The change in existing … Read More

Rural Broadband Funding Webinar

Date: 27 Aug 2014 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The FCC has made a $100 million fund available to organizations seeking to bring advanced telecommunications to rural America. The National Rural Assembly is hosting a national webinar to explain the criteria and application process. If you or your organization have a stake in expanding broadband in rural areas, you may want to consider this resource. … Read More

A $6 Billion Opportunity for the Rural Energy Economy

Date: 25 Jul 2014 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

One of the biggest barriers to making investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy is the upfront cost. So what if members of rural electric cooperative and rural municipal electric utilities could borrow money for small-scale improvements on the same terms as the utilities for their large-scale power plants? Starting in 2014, they can. The USDA’s … Read More

New Report Argues For A Renewable Energy Policy That Puts Rural Communities First

Date: 16 Mar 2008 | posted in: agriculture, Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

For Immediate Release PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: 612-276-3456 NEW REPORT ARGUES FOR A RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY THAT PUTS RURAL COMMUNITIES FIRST   Minneapolis, MN—(September 8, 2008).  The next 20 years could generate as much as $1 trillion in new renewable energy investment in rural America. But as a new Ford Foundation-sponsored study by the Institute for Local … Read More

The Once and Future Carbohydrate Economy

Date: 28 Mar 2006 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The carbohydrate economy could transform agriculture as well as energy, reviving producer co-ops, and giving farmers a hedge against voilatile commodity prices. For the first time in 60 years, the carbohydrate economy is back on the public-policy agenda. It is an exciting historical opportunity, but one we should approach with deliberation and foresight.

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