Trump's USDA Secretary pick led group against ethanol and farm subsidies
According to an analysis of the group's policies, President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Agriculture Department is Brooke Rollins. She led an organization opposed to ethanol mandates as well as farm subsidies. These are major programs that she could influence, if confirmed.
Rollins' background could put her at odds with lawmakers from farm states at her nomination hearing this Thursday, and raise concerns among the corn and biofuel lobby about Trump’s mixed record in his first term of office on ethanol.
Geoff Cooper said, "The hearing provides a great opportunity to denounce the misleading and demonstrably incorrect statements about ethanol made by some of her co-workers more than a ten years ago." Cooper is the president and CEO at the Renewable Fuels Association (an ethanol trade association). Rollins served as president and CEO of Texas Public Policy Foundation between 2003 and 2018, when the oil industry-backed non-profit argued that the government's support for ethanol was a factor in higher emissions and rising fuel and food prices. Oil industry sees ethanol as a potential threat to their share of the gasoline market and claims that a federal mandate mandating the blend in biofuels to the nation's supply costs them a fortune.
As a means to save the world, there are few policies worse than government-backed Ethanol. The Texas group published an article in 2012 that said, "It's bad for economy, bad environment, it doesn't reduce carbon dioxide, and it has led to rapidly increasing food prices."
Rollins nominated Kathleen Hartnett White in 2017 to be Trump's Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. After a heated hearing, which included criticism from senators of farm states about her ethanol positions, the White House subsequently retracted her nomination.
White supported an effort in 2008 by the then-Texas Governor Rick Perry to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard program (also known as the Ethanol Blending Program) for the state. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which administers this program, refused Perry's request.
During Rollins’ tenure, the group called for the removal of farm subsidies in a report titled “The Policymaker's Guide To Corporate Welfare” published in 2016.
According to the report, offering farmers loan guarantees for them to expand or start their operation "introduces market distortions."
Each year, the USDA provides direct and guaranteed loans worth billions of dollars to help support the U.S. farm economy.
Rollins will appear Thursday before the Senate Agriculture Committee to hear her nomination. She served as the acting director of White House Domestic Policy Council in Trump's first tenure.
Anna Kelly, spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said that Brooke Rollins would work to implement the President's Agenda. You can also look at President Trump's previous statements on biofuels in order to better understand the Administration's stance on this issue. Trump's 2017-21 term saw him boost corn-based biofuels by allowing year-round sales for higher ethanol blends in gasoline. He also angered ethanol producers by increasing the use of waivers that exempt small refiners the federal blending requirements.
Growth Energy, a trade group for the ethanol industry, said that it supports Rollins nomination and believes Trump's administration will support its priorities.
Rollins was the director of the America First Policy Institute during the Biden administration. This policy group is closely linked to Trump and has expressed doubts about climate change.
On Jan. 15, more than 400 state and federal agriculture groups wrote to the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman, and Amy Klobuchar to support Rollins.
The letter stated that "her close working relationship will ensure that rural America and agriculture have a prominent voice and influence at the table when important decisions are being made in the White House." (Reporting and editing by Matthew Lewis, Deepa Babington, and Leah Douglas from Washington)
(source: Reuters)
