Pacific Ethanol To Restart Stockton, CA Ethanol Production Facility

Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEI) announced plans to resume operations at the 60 million gallon per year facility in Stockton, California. PEI expects to be producing ethanol at Stockton in December 2010.

On October 8th, the approval of the California State Budget for 2010 through 2011 provided funding for the California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program, or CEPIP, for which the Stockton and Madera facilities are eligible. CEPIP is designed to provide payments to eligible operating California ethanol producers under specific, unfavorable ethanol corn-crush margin conditions. In addition, on October 13th, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted a waiver for E15 fuel to be used in 2007 and newer light-duty motor vehicles. E15 is a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline. Fuel blends to this point have been limited to 10% ethanol.

“Resuming production at the Stockton facility allows us to help meet the growing demand for high-value California-produced ethanol,” stated Neil Koehler, PEI’s president and CEO. “As market conditions continue to improve, we also aim to resume operations at the 40 million gallon per year facility in Madera, California.”

Source : Press Release