WASHINGTON - Gov. Mitch Daniels came to Washington to talk about how much progress Indiana's made in processing bio-based fuels. But Southwest Indiana is unlikely to benefit from the boom, he said.
There are corn-based ethanol or soybean-based biodiesel plants on the drawing board or under construction in 15 Indiana counties, including the largest biodiesel plant in the world, slated for Kosciusko County between Fort Wayne and South Bend.
That plant, which will be built by Louis Dreyfus - a multinational firm whose CEO is based in Argentina - will double the United States' bio-diesel production.
Daniels linked the investments with the need for transportation investments in the state. "In each of the 15 new plants, transportation infrastructure has been a critical component and problem to address," he said. The Louis Dreyfus plant is "a crystal clear example of why we are looking to solve our transportation deficit in Indiana," he said.
The fact that no plants are planned for Southwest Indiana "is not at all unrelated" to its lagging transportation assets, Daniels said.
Though Daniels added that, in fairness, he had to point out that the best soybean fields are in the northern two thirds of the state.
In fact, the new plant is farther from an interstate than much of Southwest Indiana, which has access to Interstate 64. Claypool is 10 miles from U.S. 30, and another 40 miles from Interstate 69 outside Fort Wayne.
Soybean-based biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine. Ethanol-rich blends, called E-85, can be used in about 25 makes of cars, trucks and minivans, but there are no E-85 pumps south of Terre Haute in Southwestern Indiana.
Bio-diesel costs the same as regular diesel fuel, and E-85 is about 20 cents cheaper than gas, but both are heavily subsidized by tax credits to producers.