BY PATRICK GUINANE, Times of Northwest Indiana
pguinane@nwitimes.com
INDIANAPOLIS | It will take more than corn to meet the country's growing thirst for renewable fuels, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Thursday.
Cellulosic ethanol, an emerging technology to tap the energy found in switch grass, wood chips and plant waste, will be needed to meet future biofuel needs, Johanns told an audience at the National Future Farmers of America conference in Indianapolis.
"We can't rely solely on corn to produce ethanol," he said. "The Department of Energy predicts that total U.S. energy use will increase by more than 30 percent by 2030, so our renewable fuel production will have to increase by the same percentage just to hold its own. That's where cellulosic ethanol comes in.
"Biomass has the potential to create a great deal more energy than corn. With each passing day, we're coming closer to a cost-effective technique to releasing that energy on a broader scale."
Indiana plans to shift focus to cellulosic ethanol production after allocating $50 million the past two years to attract a dozen new corn ethanol plants and three production facilities for soybean-based biodiesel.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said the state was "playing catch-up" on the first generation of biofuels, but "we'd like to lead round two."
Purdue University researchers are among those working to perfect the enzymes needed to unlock the energy contained in the cell walls of corn stalks and other low-cost cellulosic inputs. The current federal energy bill requires that the nation's oil refiners use 4 billion gallons of renewable fuels this year and 7.5 billion gallons annually by 2012.
Daniels joined Johanns and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson on Thursday for the launch of Smartway Grow & Go, a voluntary federal program aimed at encouraging biofuel use by the U.S freight industry.
A pair of Chevrolet SUVs emblazoned with custom green-and-gold corn-cob paint effects provided bookends for the press conference stage.
"I'm very pleased to announce that GM joined the Smartway initiative just this last week," said company executive Alan Weverstad. General Motors, he said, has committed to doubling its production of flex-fuel vehicles by 2010.
South Shore Clean Cities, a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting alternative fuels, plans to promote the Smartway Grow & Go program, said Reggie Korthals, director of environmental planning for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.
"We're really trying to expand the public-private partnerships up here so that we can do more E85 stations, we can have more flex-fuel vehicles and just expand the partnerships," Korthals said.
The group plans to seek federal funding next year to help cities add flex-fuel vehicles to their fleets, she said.