White House launches $10 billion rural infrastructure fund

The Obama administration has launched a $10 billion loan fund that will be available to rural communities to support the development of water, power, and other infrastructure projects. The new U.S. Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund “means that we can begin to address aggressively the infrastructure deficit that exists in the United States in rural communities today,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in announcing the fund. He pointed to water projects in California as a priority target for investment. CoBank, a cooperative bank in Greenwood Village, Colorado, will serve as the fund’s anchor investor and has committed to provide the first $10 billion to the fund. Capitol Peak Asset Management, an investment firm with offices in Denver and Washington, DC, will manage the fund’s investments, while the Department of Agriculture will evaluate projects for investment.