Cellulosic ethanol is on the move. Today, POET, the top U.S. ethanol producer, inaugurated a pilot cellulosic ethanol plant in South Dakota. The plant’s projected to churn out 22,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. POET has an amazing, professionally done documentary that takes you, step-by-step, along the journey cellulosic ethanol has followed. It’s available here.

In the press release it issued today to announce the start of the plant’s operations, POET said in 2011, it will roll out a $200 million commercial-scale cellulosic plant in Iowa.

Today’s announcement, of course, is a major development and a big leap to energy independence. More good news is that cellulosic ethanol utilizes non-food crops; so there’ll not be politicking that food security will be compromised. A lot of politics continues to dog food-crops-based ethanol. There are those who claim that diverting food crops, such as corn, to ethanol production is to blame for the current food shortages. There are others who dismiss such an argument as baseless and not supported by facts. Whatever the merits or demerits of using food-crops to make ethanol, POET is demonstrating that the journey to reliable and clean energy is unstoppable.

There’s every reason to cheer up POET, and of course the Federal government, which provided seed money for research. Renewable sources of energy, such as cellulosic ethanol, hold the key to energy independence. President-Elect Baraka Obama, for instance, has said as much on the issue. He has promised massive investments into the next generation of biofuels. POET and other companies in the biofuels business have no excuse of not doubling efforts to produce biofuels. Political will is already there; it’s up to them to exploit it.