Picture Energy
Steve Mitnick is the Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly and the president of Lines Up, Inc.
Not just because there were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes offered, the PUF team attended the congressional staff briefing, "The Economic Impact of America's Electric Cooperatives," in an ornate conference room of the U.S. Senate's Russell Office Building, on March 6. We walked by the offices of several U.S. Senators on the way to the briefing, and settled into good seats, in time for the presentations. America's electric cooperatives have 67,800 employees and an additional 100,600 individuals as direct contractors. Wow, that's 168,400 direct jobs, plus there's another 443,400 indirect and induced jobs.
Of particular interest were the remarks of the cooperative leaders from rural Indiana and Virginia. For instance, the leader from the cooperative for the farm country of Bath County, Virginia, talked about cooperatives' central role in enriching the commerce and culture of their communities - with broadband and solar power deployment - to retain young people in those communities especially.
