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Agriculture-Based Biofuels: Overview and Emerging Issues [May 1, 2013]
"Increasing dependence on foreign sources of crude oil, concerns over global climate change, and the desire to promote domestic rural economies have raised interest in renewable biofuels as an alternative to petroleum in the U.S. transportation sector. However, energy from renewable sources has historically been more expensive to produce and use than fossil-fuel-based energy. U.S. policymakers have attempted to overcome this economic impediment by enacting an increasing number of policies since the late 1970s, at both the state and federal levels, to directly support U.S. biofuels production and use. Policy measures have included blending and production tax credits to lower the cost of biofuels to end users, an import tariff to protect domestic ethanol from cheaper foreign-produced ethanol, research grants to stimulate the development of new technologies, loans and loan guarantees to facilitate the development of biofuels production and distribution infrastructure, and, perhaps most importantly, minimum usage requirements to guarantee a market for biofuels irrespective of their cost. This report describes agriculture-based biofuels and the evolution of the U.S. biofuels sector with a focus on the role that federal policy has played in shaping its development. In addition, it highlights emerging issues that are critical to the biofuels sector and of relevance to Congress."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Schnepf, Randall Dean, 1954-
2013-05-01
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Agriculture-Based Biofuels: Overview and Emerging Issues [October 14, 2010]
"Since the late 1970s, U.S. policymakers at both the federal and state levels have enacted a variety of incentives, regulations, and programs to encourage the production and use of agriculture-based biofuels. Initially, federal biofuels policies were developed to help kick-start the biofuels industry during its early development, when neither production capacity nor a market for the finished product was widely available. Federal policy has played a key role in helping to close the price gap between biofuels and cheaper petroleum fuels. Now, as the industry has evolved, other policy goals (e.g., national energy security, climate change concerns, support for rural economies) are cited by proponents as justification for continuing policy support. The U.S. biofuels sector has responded to these government incentives by expanding output every year since 1996, with important implications for the domestic and international food and fuel sectors. The production of ethanol (the primary biofuel produced in the United States) has risen from about 175 million gallons in 1980 to 10.7 billion gallons per year in 2009. U.S. biodiesel production is much smaller than its ethanol counterpart, but has also shown strong growth, rising from 0.5 million gallons in 1999 to an estimated 776 million gallons in 2008 before being impeded by the nationwide financial crisis."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Schnepf, Randall Dean, 1954-
2010-10-14
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