A former governor and internet provider have partnered up to try to deliver natural gas and broadband to Spring Creek and Lamoille.

The two formed a co-op that could spark competition to provide services with Southwest Gas.

The Elko Daily Free Press reports former governor Jim Gibbons partnered with Tariq Ahmad of Satview Broadband to create Pacific Rural Gas Cooperative.

They are proposing a cooperative that won't be regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Nevada.

The co-op could construct, own and operate a natural gas distribution and high-speed broadband network to serve Spring Creek and Lamoile, a 57-square-mile-area in northern Nevada.

Those services do not exist in that area currently.

Members of the Elko County Board of Commissioners voted this week to support Pacific Rural Gas Cooperative’s application to receive $125,000 in federal dollars to finance a feasibility study.