Excitement Peak, Disappointment Valley, Enlightenment Ridge: US Northwest experiences the biofuels boom, bust cycle

In Oregon, EnergyCurrent offered a good recap of the boom-and-bust cycle in Northwest biofuels. The article traces the cycle back to the April 2007 launch of the 100 Mgy Imperium Renewables biodiesel plant in Grays Harbor, Washington, and the May 2007 launch of the 40 Mgy Pacific Ethanol corn ethanol plant in Boardman, Oregon.

The peak of the boom cycle was the opening of the Cascade Grain 113 Mgy corn ethanol plant in June of last year in Clatskanie. The bust commenced with the collapse in oil prices, which led to a bankruptcy filing by Cascade Grain at the beginning of 2009, while Imperium idled its plant in March.

Pacific Ethanol is in bankruptcy and said that it only has cash to fund operations in Boardman through this month. EnergyCurrent reports that biofuels industry execs say that the industry will rebound when the economy improves.

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