Ernst hears of rural access through MVEC

Sen. Joni Ernst spent time visiting with folks at Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) on April 25 as part of her 99 county tour. 

The purpose of her visit was to hear from MVEC about their smart grid efforts, specifically how those efforts evolved to offer fiber to rural homes. 

In 2016, MVEC launched MVlink, which provides up to 1 gigabyte of Internet speed. MVEC is two and a half years into a four-year projected build-out of their service territory in Eastern Iowa. 

“Our members tell us electric service reliability is important to them, and they have asked for our help in providing them with a reliable, consistent, and affordable Internet service,” said MVEC CEO Jeremy Richert. “MVlink helps us meet both of those requests. Our members are enjoying Internet service that is more robust than some urban areas, and the Cooperative can better manage our electric system with the high-speed fiber communications network.” 

Ernst was impressed with the work that MVEC has done. 

“Maquoketa Valley has done a really great job,” she praised. “Looking how MVEC has been able to structure their services and provide high-tech broadband and fiber services to the rural consumer is really important. And how they use the federal programs to make that happen.” 

Ernst said it’s important to provide access to federal programs and low-interest loans to entities like MVEC to help develop the rural areas of Iowa. One of those programs is through the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS). 

“It’s a good program, but they’re hampered a bit on how they can apply for it,” explained Ernst. “There’s other federal dollars as well that have been very helpful.” 

The Senator said when Congress discusses improving infrastructure throughout the country, that doesn’t just include roads, bridges, and buildings. She said that also includes fiber and rural broadband. 

“If there is an additional infrastructure package that can be worked on to provide additional funds to develop out some of those rural areas and how we apply those dollars is really important,” she said. “Perhaps looking at an infrastructure package, as the President has proposed. There could be some new avenues that we approach, but just knowing what exists, how it’s been applied, some of the areas that are very effective, and some of the areas where maybe they can’t utilize some of those federal programs.” 

“MVEC recognizes Sen. Ernst’s commitment to rural Iowa and appreciates her visiting the Cooperative to learn how our smart grid project evolved to offer fiber to the home services. The launch of MVlink is allowing the Cooperative to collect data from multiple substations and line devices that aid in system operations, and simultaneously offers Cooperative members a long-awaited high-speed Internet connection. Construction of the fiber network continues with new Internet connections and electric equipment connections occurring each week. MVEC anticipates mainline construction to be complete by year-end,” said Richert. 

Ernst also addressed the tariff war and its impact on Iowa’s farmers and agriculture industry. 

“We continually encourage the President to remove the tariffs,” she said. “I think we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the USMCA (United St a te s-Mex i co-Canada Agreement).” 

While the administration irons out its trade deals with other nations, including China, Ernst said in the meantime, farmers want to see some relief. And that comes from removing the tariffs. 

“Sen. Grassley and I have been very active about reaching out to the President and making sure he understands how detrimental the tariffs have been, not just on Iowa farming and ranching, but also with our equipment manufacturers.” 

She also spoke of the bi-partisan efforts going on in Congress, despite the national media’s reporting. 

“It’s really important that we do stress that even though there is sense of hyper-partisanship at the federal level, I would reassure people that when it comes down to business, there are so many issues that we work on in a bi-partisan manner. Republican or Democrat, a lot of us share interests,” said Ernst. 

One of those interests is providing high-speed Internet to rural America. 

“I am co-sponsoring a bill with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat in Wisconsin,” shared Ernst. “It would address some of the access issues and encouraging build-up in rural areas. There are a lot of things that we do work on together.”