National Ethanol Pipeline

 Pacific Ethanol hasn't operated for about four months at its Burley plant, and an ethanol plant in Caldwell has also shut down it’s operations. Pacific recently told the Security and Exchange Commission that it may not be able to maintain operations after April 30 and mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy.??It owes $250 million in debts to its banks. ??The Associated Press recently reported that the company had to borrow $2 million from its CEO and chairman.??

 But wait. What if a major ethanol pipeline were constructed that made the ethanol industry more viable? That’s exactly what South Dakota Senator John Thune is proposing. “It’s something that we’ve been working on now for over 8 months. It goes back to late summer, early fall, we were working with the gang of ten the bi-partisan group that was trying to put together a comprehensive energy bill and a dedicated ethanol pipeline was one of the provisions in that bill because it’s makes so much sense if we’re going to support the bio-fuels industry, that we figure out a way to transport it in a way that is convenient and efficient and cost-effective and environmentally friendly and the pipeline is the superior way to do that.”