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By Leah Douglas
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump's pick to run the Agriculture Department, Brooke Rollins, led an organization that opposed ethanol mandates and farm subsidies, major programs she could influence if confirmed, according to a Reuters review of the group's policy statements.
That background may put Rollins at odds with farm state lawmakers at her nomination hearing on Thursday and revive concerns in the powerful corn and biofuel lobbies about Trump's mixed record on ethanol during his first term in office.
"The hearing is a perfect occasion to renounce the misleading and demonstrably false statements made about ethanol by some of her colleagues more than a decade ago," said Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group.
Rollins was president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation from 2003 to 2018, during which time the oil industry-backed nonprofit argued that government support for ethanol contributed to higher emissions and rising food and fuel prices.
The oil industry has seen ethanol as a threat to its share in the gasoline market, and says a federal mandate requiring the biofuel to be blended in to the nation's fuel supply costs it a fortune in compliance costs.
"As a way to save the planet, not many policies are worse than government-backed ethanol. It’s bad for the economy, bad for the environment, doesn’t reduce greenhouse gases, and has led to rapidly rising food prices," said one article published by the Texas group in 2012.
In 2017, Rollins endorsed Kathleen Hartnett White, the longtime director of the group's energy program, to serve as Trump's chair of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality. The White House later withdrew her nomination after a contentious hearing that included criticism of her ethanol positions from farm state senators.
White had supported a 2008 effort by then-Texas governor Rick Perry to partially waive the ethanol blending program, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard, in the state. The Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the program, denied Perry's request.
During Rollins' tenure, the group also called for the elimination of farm subsidies in a 2016 report titled "The Policymaker's Guide to Corporate Welfare."
The report said offering loan guarantees to farmers to start or expand their operations "introduces distortions into the marketplace."
The USDA issues billions of dollars in direct and guaranteed loans each year to support the domestic farm economy.
Rollins, who served as acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during Trump's first term, is set to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee for her nomination hearing on Thursday.
"Brooke Rollins will work to enact the President’s agenda, and you can look to President Trump’s past statements of support for biofuels to understand the Administration’s position on this issue," said Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Trump administration transition team.
During his 2017-21 term, Trump boosted corn-based ethanol by enabling year-round sales of higher ethanol blends of gasoline, but also angered the ethanol industry by expanding the use of waivers exempting small refiners from the federal blending requirement.
Ethanol trade group Growth Energy said it supports Rollins' nomination and believes the Trump administration will support the ethanol industry's priorities.
During the Biden administration, Rollins led the America First Policy Institute, a policy organization closely tied to Trump which has expressed skepticism about climate change.
More than 400 state and national agriculture groups wrote to Senate agriculture committee leaders John Boozman and Amy Klobuchar on Jan. 15 to endorse Rollins.
"Her close working relationship with incoming President Trump will ensure that agriculture and rural America have a prominent and influential voice at the table when critical decisions are made in the White House," the letter said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Deepa Babington)
