The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program was first established in the Agriculture Risk Protection Act of 2000 and was later amended in the 2002 Farm Bill. Grant funds are available for planning activities and working capital for marketing value-added agricultural products and for farm-based energy.

Double-declining balance, five-year depreciation schedule (I.R.C.
Subtitle A, Ch. 1, Subch. B, Part VI, Sec. 168 (1994) (accelerated cost
recovery system)) is another federal policy that encourages wind
development by allowing the cost of wind equipment to be depreciated faster.

This report was written by Mark Bolinger of the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory and published in March 2004. Find it online on the Laboratory website.

Winners of the USDA Farm Bill for uses with wind power, 2004-2006

A federal production payment of 1.5¢ per kWh that is made available to new qualifying renewable energy generation facilities. However, since the REPI involves spending of federal funds, money must be appropriated annually by Congress.

A federal law passed in 1978 that requires electric utilities to purchase electricity produced from certain efficient power producers (frequently using renewable or natural gas resources). Utilities purchase power at a rate equal to the costs they avoid by not needing to generate the power themselves.

For the first time in U.S agriculture policy, the 2002 Farm Bill included an energy title that established a variety of programs to support farm-based renewable energy grant and loan guarantee program administered through the U.S Department of Agriculture - Rural Development.