Pacific Ethanol, Inc. Closes Sale of its Ownership Interest in Pacific Aurora, LLC

Sacramento, CA, April 16, 2020 – Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), a leading producer and
marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States,
announced today it has closed on its agreement to sell its 74% ownership interest in Pacific
Aurora, LLC to Aurora Cooperative Elevator Company (Aurora Cooperative) for a total valuation
of $52.8 million. After working capital adjustments and settlement of certain payables between
the parties, the Company received at closing $20.2 million of cash, before fees and $16.5
million in promissory notes. Approximately $14.5 million of the cash proceeds will be used to
pay principal payments to its lender, CoBank.

Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and CEO, stated, “We are pleased to have completed
our sale to Aurora Cooperative and its farmer owners, which represents a significant step in
achieving our strategic initiatives to reduce debt and continue to focus our resources on
delivering high value alcohol and feed products in the markets we serve.”

Chris Vincent, Aurora Cooperative President and CEO, stated, “Aurora Cooperative is pleased to
protect these local destination and rail markets for our farmer owners by gaining full ownership
of these ethanol plants, elevator, and rail assets. Through this acquisition Aurora Cooperative
will safeguard our markets and be ‘Tougher Together’ for our owners, employees and the
communities we serve.”

About Pacific Ethanol, Inc.
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) is a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and
high-quality alcohol products in the United States. Pacific Ethanol owns and operates
nine production facilities, four in the Western states of California, Oregon and Idaho, and five in
the Midwestern states of Illinois and Nebraska. The plants have a combined production capacity
of 605 million gallons per year, produce over one million tons per year of ethanol co-products –
on a dry matter basis – such as wet and dry distillers grains, wet and dry corn gluten feed,
condensed distillers solubles, corn gluten meal, corn germ, corn oil, distillers yeast and CO2.
Pacific Ethanol markets and distributes fuel-grade ethanol, high-quality alcohol products and coproducts
domestically and internationally. Pacific Ethanol’s subsidiary, Kinergy Marketing LLC,
markets all ethanol and alcohol products for Pacific Ethanol’s plants as well as for third parties,
approaching one billion gallons of ethanol marketed annually based on historical volumes. Pacific
Ethanol’s subsidiary, Pacific Ag. Products LLC, markets wet and dry distillers grains. For more
information please visit www.pacificethanol.com.

About Aurora Cooperative
Aurora Cooperative is one of the largest agricultural retailers in the nation, ranking 28th in the
nation among all agricultural cooperatives. Aurora Cooperative has been a partner in the
success of agriculture for over 112 years, providing high quality, competitive products and
services growers rely on every day. Headquartered in Aurora, Nebraska, Aurora Cooperative
has over 700 employees across 82 locations in seven states where they provide service and
expertise in grain, agronomy, animal nutrition, and energy. In 2019, Aurora Cooperative had
total sales over $1 billion, serviced more than 4 million acres, merchandised over 120 million
bushels of grain, and had over 34,000 equity members. Aurora Cooperative is a wellestablished,
competitive and innovative cooperative that is built upon providing our owners
with profitable solutions that meet their specific needs. We do this by proactively putting our
owners’ equity to work, every day, for their farm, their cooperative and for their future. For
more information on Aurora Cooperative, please visit www.auroracoop.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Statements
and information contained in this communication that refer to or include Pacific Ethanol’s
estimated or anticipated future results or other non-historical expressions of fact are forwardlooking
statements that reflect Pacific Ethanol’s current perspective of existing trends and
information as of the date of the communication. Forward looking statements generally will be
accompanied by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “plan,” “could,” “should,” “estimate,”
“expect,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “guidance,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “possible,”
“potential,” “predict,” “project,” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. Such forwardlooking
statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the benefits of the sale of
Pacific Ethanol’s interest in Pacific Aurora, LLC; ; the anticipated outcome of Pacific Ethanol’s
strategic initiatives; and Pacific Ethanol’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. It is
important to note that Pacific Ethanol’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions are not
predictions of actual performance. Actual results may differ materially from Pacific Ethanol’s
current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Pacific Ethanol’s business.
These factors include, among others, adverse economic and market conditions, including for
ethanol and its co-products and high-quality alcohols; export conditions and international
demand for ethanol and co-products, including the failure of a resolution of United States trade
disputes with China; fluctuations in the price of and demand for oil and gasoline; raw material
costs, including ethanol production input costs, such as corn and natural gas; and the ability of
Pacific Ethanol to timely and successfully execute on its strategic initiatives,. These factors also
include, among others, the inherent uncertainty associated with financial and other projections;
the anticipated size of the markets and continued demand for Pacific Ethanol’s products; the
impact of competitive products and pricing; the risks and uncertainties normally incident to the
ethanol production and marketing industries; changes in generally accepted accounting
principles; successful compliance with governmental regulations applicable to Pacific Ethanol’s
facilities, products and/or businesses; changes in laws, regulations and governmental policies;
the loss of key senior management or staff; and other events, factors and risks previously and
from time to time disclosed in Pacific Ethanol’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission including, specifically, those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section
contained in Pacific Ethanol’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on
March 30, 2020.