Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) is surging about 20% today with heavy volume after the company announced this morning that it resumed ethanol production at its facility in Stockton, CA on Dec 9 and is running at about full capacity.

It should be noted that this isn’t new news.  The company first reported back in October it would resume operations due to governmental support for ethanol at the local and Federal (EPA) level. 

===> Click Here For Your FREE Daily Pacific Ethanol Analysis

Neil Koehler, PEI’s president and CEO, stated, “We achieved our goal of successfully restarting the Stockton ethanol facility in December 2010, which we believe increases our opportunity to benefit from the commencement of the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard this month. The Stockton facility produces low carbon renewable fuel and high value feed to local California markets. With the recent signing of the participation agreement with the California Energy Commission, the facility is eligible for payments under the California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program.”

Shares of PEIX are breaking out above resistance of hte 50 and 200 day moving averages today and I believe offering a nice long entry opportunity on any pull backs.