Energy - Alternative

Biodiesel Fuel Education Program

The Biodiesel Fuel Education Program provides grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education to tout the supposed benefits of biodiesel fuel use. The program is intended to support advances in biodiesel fueling infrastructure, fuel quality, fuel safety and increasing feedstock production.  The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 farm bill) reauthorized the […]

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Expensing of Exploration and Development for Non-fuel Minerals

Expensing of costs associated with exploration and development refers to the ability of some extractive industries to deduct prospecting costs fully from their taxable income immediately or as they are incurred rather than waiting for those activities to generate income. This is an exception to general tax rules, which normally require companies to capitalize these […]

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Biomass Research and Development

The Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) is a joint program between the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture that provides grants to companies, universities and government research centers to research, develop and demonstrate new ways to refine various feedstocks into biofuels or biobased chemicals and products. The program, originally created in the Biomass Research […]

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Biorefinery Assistance Program

This program, formerly the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, provides loan guarantees of up to $250 million for the construction of commercial-scale biorefineries, the retrofitting of existing facilities to produce biofuels, or construction of renewable chemical and biobased manufacturing. To be eligible, fuels or products must be derived from renewable biomass […]

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Production Tax Credit for Open- and Closed-Loop Biomass

Renewable electricity production tax credits (PTC) provide a per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) tax credit for electricity generated from certain renewable sources for the first 10 years of a project under Section 45 of the tax code. Open-loop biomass refers to facilities that produce electricity by burning organic waste that is a byproduct of agriculture, construction or timber-related […]

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Production Tax Credit for Municipal Solid Waste

Renewable electricity production tax credits (PTC) provide a per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) tax credit for electricity generated from certain renewable sources for the first 10 years of a project under Section 45 of the tax code. In the case of facilities that use municipal solid waste as a feedstock to produce electricity, the PTC is 1.3 cents […]

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Biomass Crop Assistance Program

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) was intended to spur development of advanced biofuels derived from non-food and feed crops. The goal was to pay individuals and companies to plant perennial grasses, harvest agricultural residues, collect wood waste, store biomass and transport these materials to bioenergy facilities. Instead of achieving these goals, the program provided […]

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Biological and Environmental Research – Biological Systems Science

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program conducts peer-reviewed scientific research, involving studying health and environmental issues. In 2007, the DOE established three Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs) in order to focus advanced biotechnology-based resources on biofuel production. According to the DOE, the BRCs are presently conducting research on processes needed for […]

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