As the head of the America First Policy Institute, Brooke Rollins helped push a policy portfolio that blamed renewable energy policies for raising electricity prices and said fossil fuels were the solution to keep the lights on.
Now as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Agriculture, Rollins is in a position to oversee an underappreciated — but influential — part of the country’s energy transition: rural America.
USDA has oversight over electric cooperatives that serve about 1 in 8 Americans, most of them in rural areas. Those nonprofit entities have historically been more reliant on coal and gas than the rest of the country, with financial and reliability constraints that have made the energy transition more challenging.
That has started to change under President Joe Biden. The Inflation Reduction Act pumped billions to co-ops to fund greenhouse gas emission reductions. Changes to tax law also allowed co-ops to take advantage of credits for clean energy projects as an upfront discount, a key incentive that had previously been unavailable to the nonprofit entities.
The question, however, is whether Rollins — and the Trump administration — will continue the policies that have helped co-ops shift to cleaner sources of power.
“If you look at the rural folks who largely voted for Trump, these are the people who need support keeping energy prices low,” said Josh Ewing, director of the Rural Climate Partnership, an organization promoting clean energy in agricultural communities. “One of the fastest ways to do that is clean energy. That’s the cheapest energy available right now.”
Co-ops have urged the incoming administration to maintain aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act, even as Trump and some Republicans have promised to take an ax to the climate law and roll back climate regulations.
That push is, in part, led by Rollins’ AFPI, which was founded in 2021 by Rollins and former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow to promote the former president’s economic agenda. The group has been critical of the Inflation Reduction Act, calling it a “tax and spend scam that makes it harder to produce reliable energy while propping up so-called renewable companies.”
The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment on how it would handle the rural electricity programs.
From Texas to the national stage
Rollins started her career in Texas, first as an aide to then-Gov. Rick Perry (R) and then as the leader of the Texas Public Policy Foundation for 15 years. The influential state policy organization, which is backed by oil and gas companies, has advocated for restrictions on wind and solar power in Texas.
In the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri in 2021, TPPF pinned catastrophic power loses on renewable energy sources. In fact, the freezing up of natural gas production caused severe disruptions to power generation, and all sources of energy saw impacts from winter weather.
TPPF also expanded beyond state borders, bankrolling a lawsuit against the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts and using its Life:Powered initiative to advocate nationally for fossil fuels as a solution to poverty.
In a 2014 video produced by TPPF, Rollins spoke about how “devastating” policies to reduce carbon emissions could be.
“Policies of trying to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels affects those that are the lowest on the economic ladder and affects them to the point where they’ll never, never be able to climb out of that and off that rung of the ladder,” she said.
In 2018, Rollins joined the Trump administration’s Office of American Innovation and in 2020 was named acting director of the U.S. Domestic Policy Council. Through the AFPI, she helped organize Republican opposition to Biden’s agenda and promote an agenda for Trump’s second term.
Rollins does not have much of a track record on agriculture policy, although it is believed she would cut back on the USDA’s work to promote agricultural practices that fight climate change.
It also remains to be seen how she’ll treat the rural electric policy that falls under the USDA umbrella.
‘Pro-energy policy agenda’
In a letter to Trump last week, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association — the industry’s influential trade group that has fought climate regulations — asked the administration to implement a “pro-energy policy agenda” that includes maintaining the direct-pay tax credits. The group also asked the administration to make “effective and efficient use of the remaining infrastructure dollars” from the bipartisan infrastructure law to “invest in our electric infrastructure, enhancing grid reliability and resiliency.”
A spokesperson from NRECA did not respond to a request for comment about any additional talks with the administration or Rollins.
A key funding source for co-ops is the Inflation Reduction Act’s Empowering Rural America program, a $9.7 billion fund that could help electric cooperatives purchase clean energy, shut down plants and switch to zero-emission energy. So far, that program has announced $8.3 billion in financing, although not all of the money has been sent to recipients.
A USDA spokesperson told POLITICO’s E&E News that an update on the program is expected in the coming weeks and that the program, “if fully implemented, will benefit more than one in every five rural Americans.”
The Trump administration has not indicated how it will treat that program, although Trump has said he would claw back any unspent money from the Inflation Reduction Act. The administration has also not detailed whether it will maintain the direct-pay tax provision or other clean energy tax incentives.
“Brooke Rollins has not taken a stance on any policies that would get ahead of the nomination process,” said Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team. “Her focus will be on advancing the President’s agenda of feeding America and the world, strengthening domestic food supply chains, increasing rural prosperity and eliminating unnecessary regulations that hamper innovation and prosperity for American farmers.”
AFPI declined to comment on any policy issues.
But cooperatives say that now is the time to keep momentum up. Basin Electric Power Cooperative, the North Dakota-based generation and transmission cooperative, was announced as a finalist for the program and will receive funding to procure and enhance more than 1,400 megawatts of renewable energy assets.
“We remain ready to support the efforts of the administration to enhance affordability and reliability for our members,” BEPC said in an email. ”We also urge policies that prioritize investment in American energy production, manufacturing, and infrastructure which are crucial for the wellbeing of rural communities.”
