Agriculture-based renewable energy can take several forms, including biofuels such as corn-based ethanol or soy-based biodiesel, wind-driven turbines located on farmland or in rural areas, anaerobic digesters that convert animal waste into methane and electric power, or biomass harvested for burning as a processing fuel or to generate heat as part of an industrial activity. Since the late 1970s, U.S. policymakers at both the federal and state levels have adopted a variety of incentives, regulations, and programs to encourage the production and use of agriculture-based renewable energy (mostly biofuels). Over the years, the two most widely used biofuels—ethanol produced primarily from corn starch and biodiesel produced primarily from soybean oil—have received significant federal support in the form of tax incentives, loans and grants, and regulatory programs. Many of these support programs originate in legislation outside of the farm bill. For instance, the Energy Tax Act of 1978 ( P.L. 95-618 ) provided an exemption for ethanol from the excise tax on motor fuels. Congress subsequently provided a tax credit for blending ethanol with gasoline, which expired after 2011. By executive order the Bioenergy Program was established in 1999 and in FY2001 began making payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to eligible producers of ethanol and biodiesel based on year-to-year production increases in these fuels. The Biomass Research and Development Act of 2000 ( P.L. 106-224 ) directed USDA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to cooperate and coordinate research and development activities for biobased industrial products, including biofuels. The 2002 farm bill ( P.L. 107-171 ) authorized several new biofuel programs and added an energy title, Title IX. The 2008 farm bill ( P.L. 110-246 ) subsequently extended and expanded the programs promoting biofuels renewable energy, emphasizing particularly those utilizing biomass feedstock. Motivations cited for these legislative initiatives included energy security concerns, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from traditional fossil fuels, and raising domestic demand for U.S.-produced farm products. By FY2011, federal biofuels subsidies peaked at approximately $7.7 billion, of which an estimated $5.7 billion was attributable to the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) of $0.45/gallon. However, the VEETC expired at the end of FY2011, and federal subsidies fell to an estimated $1.3 billion in FY2012—consisting primarily of tax credits of approximately $1 billion for biodiesel producers. The remaining biofuels tax credits—for biodiesel and second generation (formerly cellulosic) biofuel, and including a tax credit for small producers are temporary incentives, currently scheduled to expire at the end of 20178. In recent years, these credits have since been extended several times, most recently in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA; P.L. 115-123 ). In addition to these types of tax incentives and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that mandates a minimum level of renewable fuel usage, the provisions of Title IX of the 2014 farm bill, the Agricultural Act of 2014 ( P.L. 113-79 ), represents a significant source of federal support for biofuels production and use in the United States. Title IX of the 2014 farm bill continued long-standing congressional support for the production of renewable energy from agriculturally sourced materials. This report focuses on those policies contained in the 2014 farm bill that support agriculture-based renewable energy, especially biofuels. The introductory sections of this report briefly describe how USDA bioenergy policies evolved and how they fit into the larger context of U.S. biofuels policy. Then, each of the bioenergy provisions of the 2014 farm bill are defined in terms of their function, goals, administration, funding, and implementation status. In an appendix at the end of this report, Table A-1 presents data on 2014 farm bill budgetary authority for energy provisions, while Table A-2 presents the original budget authority for Title IX programs under the previous 2008 farm bill. A third table ( Table A-3 ) provides a side-by-side comparison of Title IX energy-related provisions for current versus previous law. Renewable energy production plays a key role not just in agricultural policy, but also in energy, tax, and environmental policy. As a result, many of the federal programs that support renewable energy production in general, and agriculture-based energy production in particular, are outside the purview of USDA and have origins outside of omnibus farm bill legislation. For example, the three principal federal biofuels policies of the past decade were all established outside of farm bills The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates an increasing volume of biofuels use and has its origins in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 ( P.L. 109-58 ). The RFS was expanded in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA; P.L. 110-140 ) and divided into four distinct, but nested categories—total, advanced, cellulosic, and biodiesel—each with its own mandated volume. The volumetric ethanol excise tax credit (VEETC), originally established in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 ( P.L. 108-357 ), provided a tax credit that varied in value over the years, which amounted to $0.45 per gallon of pure ethanol blended with gasoline when it expired on December 31, 2011. The ethanol import tariff (a most-favored-nation duty of $0.54 per gallon) was intended to offset the blending tax credit and was originally established by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980 ( P.L. 96-499 ). The ethanol import tariff also expired on December 31, 2011. In addition to the RFS, VEETC, and ethanol import tariff, several other tax credits that originated outside of farm bills were available for biodiesel production as well as for small producers (less than 60 million gallons per year per plant) of ethanol and biodiesel. A substantial number of federal programs also support renewable energy sources other than biofuels. In addition to federal programs, many states offer additional support to biofuels producers, blenders, and consumers. An awareness of the non-USDA federal programs is important for appreciating the role envisioned for the energy title of the 2014 farm bill, which was designed to provide incentives for the research and development of new agriculture-based renewable fuels, especially second-generation biofuels (those based on non-food crop biomass such as cellulose and algae), and to expand their distribution and use. A summary of the evolution of these programs follows. The 2002 farm bill (Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002; P.L. 107-171 ) was the first omnibus farm bill to explicitly include an energy title (Title IX). The energy title authorized grants, loans, and loan guarantees to foster research on agriculture-based renewable energy, to share development risk and to promote the adoption of renewable energy systems. Since enactment of the 2002 farm bill, interest in renewable energy has grown rapidly, due in large part to periods of steep increases in domestic and international petroleum prices and a dramatic acceleration in domestic biofuels production (primarily corn-based ethanol). Annual U.S. ethanol production expanded rapidly between 2002 and 2007, rising from approximately 2 billion gallons to over 6.5 billion gallons during that period. Similarly, corn use for ethanol grew from an 11% share of the U.S. corn crop in 2002 to an estimated 23% share of the 2007 corn crop. During the 2008 farm bill debate, projections had ethanol's corn-use share rising rapidly, sparking concerns about unintended consequences of the policy-driven expansion of U.S. corn ethanol production. Dedicating an increasing share of the U.S. corn harvest to ethanol production evoked fears of higher prices for all grains and oilseeds that compete for the same land, which could lead to higher livestock feed costs, higher food prices, and lower U.S. agricultural exports. In addition, several environmental concerns emerged regarding the expansion of corn production onto nontraditional lands, including native grass and prairie land. In response, policymakers sought to refocus biofuels policy initiatives in the 2008 farm bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; P.L. 110-246 ) in favor of non-corn starch feedstock, especially cellulosic-based feedstock, by introducing a number of programs aimed at facilitating the production and use of bioenergy from nonfood feedstock, mainly biomass. Renewable energy policy in the 2008 farm bill became law six months after the enactment of the EISA. A key component of EISA was a significant expansion of the RFS, which in part mandates the increasing use of "advanced biofuels" (i.e., non-corn starch biofuels), whose minimum use was scheduled to increase from zero gallons in 2008 to 21 billion gallons by 2022. The energy provisions of the 2008 farm– bill were intended to reinforce EISA's program goals via a further refocusing of federal incentives toward non-corn sources of renewable energy. All of the major energy programs from the 2008 farm bill expired at the end of FY2013 and lacked baseline funding going forward. The enacted 2014 farm bill ( P.L. 113-79 ) extended most of the renewable energy provisions of the 2008 farm bill and provided new mandatory funding, with some notable exceptions. Again, most of these 2014 farm bill energy programs lack a mandatory funding baseline going forward beyond FY2018.