SACRAMENTO, CA --- Pacific Ethanol Inc., a major marketer and producer of ethanol, announced the start-up of its Stockton, Calif., facility. The company held a grand opening ceremony for its second California ethanol plant on Friday, Oct. 10.

"The start-up of our Stockton plant marks the achievement of our goal of 220 million gallons of annual production capacity and dramatically increases the availability of renewable fuels produced in the state of California," said Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol's president and CEO. "As the largest fuel market in the United States, California will benefit from locally produced ethanol and its feed co-products. We are excited to celebrate this milestone with the community."

The 60-million-gallon-per-year Stockton facility is located at the Port of Stockton, with access to water, rail and road transportation. This San Joaquin Valley destination is home to over 1 million dairy cows, providing a ready local market for wet distiller's grains (WDG) and other ethanol co-products. The facility will process 21 million bushels of corn per year, producing both ethanol and 500,000 tons of WDG annually.

Pacific Ethanol has ethanol plants in Madera and Stockton, Calif.; Boardman, Ore.; and Burley, Idaho.