Mike Shuter’s family farm in central Indiana is a long way from the Rose Garden, but on the same day that President Barack Obama signed off on new fuel-emission standards, both men were decrying the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

The president made his comments May 21 in a formal ceremony outside the White House. Shuter made his to a reporter over the sound of tractors near farm fields freshly planted with corn.

But the message was the same: The April 20 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 and unleashed millions of gallons of crude oil, is refueling demand for alternative sources of energy.

Shuter, a fourth-generation farmer and president of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, says he’s convinced that Indiana farmers can help meet the demand with homegrown biofuels, despite some significant challenges that lie ahead.

“The farming community has always been committed to producing food for the world,” Shuter said. “It’s a not a big step to produce fuel for the world and still keep up with our first commitment to feed the world.”

Not far from Shuter’s farm in Madison County is Poet Biorefining, Alexandria, one of 11 ethanol production facilities in Indiana, three of which are owned by Poet, the largest biofuel producer in the world.

Those three Poet plants consume about 65 million bushels of Indiana-grown corn to produce more than 200 million gallons of ethanol annually.

Some of those bushels come from the Shuter farm, which produces more than a quarter-million bushels of corn per year.

It’s grown on land more productive than ever, thanks to advances in agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts domestic corn supplies will reach a record 15.1 billion bushels this year. That’s evidence, corn farmers say, that they can meet the demand for both food and fuel.

But Shutter and farmers like him also know it will take more than a bumper crop of corn for Indiana’s biofuel industry to succeed.

Among the challenges: A new Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, that requires production of “second-generation” biofuels made from nonfood sources, known as cellulose feedstock. That includes such things as corn stalks, wood chips, and a prairie plant called switchgrass.

None of Indiana’s biofuel plants produces ethanol made from cellulosic feedstock yet. But Indiana isn’t alone. According to the Congressional Research Service, there are no commercial-scale, cellulosic biofuel plants currently operating in the U.S.

As a recent Congressional Research Service report notes, the technology needed to convert cellulose feedstock into affordable energy is still in its infancy and in need of major private and public investment.

The report calls into question whether the new standard, set forth under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, can be met: It mandates production of 100 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel by the year’s end, and 16 billion gallons by 2022. In February, the U.S. EPA revised the 2010 mandate down to 6.5 million gallons.

This spring, Poet announced plans to build its first cellulosic ethanol plant in Iowa, dubbed Project Liberty. It will be half the size of the first-generation ethanol plant that already exists on the site.

Cary Aubrey, the program manager for bioenergy development at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, says Indiana is well-positioned for the next stage of biofuels, when it comes. He notes the abundant supply of cellulosic feedstock in the state and a farm community that has more than a decade’s experience in supplying the industry.

“Biofuels are good for our economic development,” Aubrey said. “Beyond the farming community, biofuels have meant jobs for the people who work in the plants and jobs for the people who construct them.”

For now, Indiana corn farmers like Shuter are waiting to see what happens next. They’ll continue to supply Indiana’s existing biofuels plants, which stand to benefit from a plan to increase the national ethanol fuel blend for vehicles from its current 10 percent to 15 percent. The U.S. EPA is expected to rule on it in June.

There’s opposition to changing the current ethanol/gasoline blend, including that from the auto industry. But as Shuter notes, given the daily news coverage of crude oil still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, there may not be a better time for bio-fuel proponents to make their case.

— Maureen Hayden is statehouse bureau chief for CNHI’s Indiana newspapers. She may be reached by e-mailing to maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.

By the numbers

New mandates in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 call for total renewable fuels, including biofuel, to reach 36 billion gallons by 2022.

That’s nearly five times the 7.5-billion-gallon renewable fuels mandate for 2012 established in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Of the 36 billion gallons of mandated renewable fuels, 16 million of it must come from biofuel produced from nonfood sources.

Indianacurrently produces 1.1 billion gallons of biofuel annually, using more than 423 million bushels of corn.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Indiana State Department of