REYNOLDS, Ind. - This one-stoplight farming hamlet had big dreams in 2005, when it was christened BioTown USA.

Its goal: to become the first U.S. community to meet all electricity and gas needs through renewable energy by using everything from farm waste to sewage.

Industry and government officials led the early charge. BP P.L.C., the big oil company, installed a gas pump offering an ethanol-fuel blend, and VeraSun Energy Corp., of Brookings, S.D., started building an ethanol-production plant near town. The state wanted Reynolds to be a model.

Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns stopped by in support, as did the band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Visitors included Chilean corn farmers who were touring the Midwest and wanted to learn more about biofuels.

But the visitors are long gone, and many say the excitement is, too. Money problems, leadership changes and other obstacles have sparked skepticism that Reynolds will ever succeed at moving the state, much less the nation, toward homegrown energy and away from foreign oil.

"I'm not happy about the whole situation, and a lot of people in town aren't either," said farmer Tonie Snyder. He helped provide thousands of bales of corn stover - corn leaves and stalks - last fall that were supposed to be burned using technology that now may never be built.

From the outset, the vision for BioTown - population 550 - was ambitious. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and the state Department of Agriculture wanted to create a model for energy self-sufficiency.

The timetable was aggressive. State officials hoped to break ground in November 2006 on a $10 million facility that would house the core equipment needed to turn manure and other biomass material into energy, and to start generating electricity for the town by July 2007.

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