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Panda Ethanol to Build 100 Million Gallon Ethanol Plant in Lincoln County, Nebraska

Posted on: Thursday, 26 October 2006, 12:00 CDT

DALLAS, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Panda Ethanol Inc. today announced that it intends to build a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Lincoln County, Nebraska. When finished, the facility will annually refine approximately 38 million bushels of corn into a clean-burning, renewable fuel for the nation's transportation needs. The ethanol produced by the Lincoln plant could displace approximately 2.6 million barrels of imported oil a year.

The Lincoln facility is the fifth 100 million gallon ethanol project announced by Panda, and the company's first to be located in the state of Nebraska. The plant will be built on a 400-acre site three miles east of the village of Wallace and will be fueled by natural gas.

"Panda continues to execute its plan to significantly expand the company's ethanol production portfolio," said Todd Carter, chief executive officer of Panda Ethanol. "We are proud to have an opportunity to both strengthen the economy of the state of Nebraska and to enhance our nation's energy independence. We are encouraged by the strong support we have received for this project and look forward to working with state and local officials in seeing it through to completion."

Jim Hawks, city administrator for the City of North Platte, Nebraska, said Panda officials have been very cooperative since the beginning of the company's site selection process. "They've answered a long list of questions and done a good job building support for this project."

"They've been a pleasure to work with," added Joe Hewgley, chairman of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners. "They have shown us that they will be good corporate citizens of the community and that this facility is good for Lincoln County."

Lisa Dominisse, executive director of the Development Corporation of North Platte concurred. "This plant will definitely enhance the region's economy. It will create an estimated 48 skilled jobs and 133 support jobs. It will also inject more than $200 million of additional goods and services into the area's economy over the next 10 years. This includes $92 million of value added to area agricultural commodities and other materials that will be purchased for Panda's ethanol facility."

Construction of the Lincoln County ethanol plant will take approximately 18 months. The completion date is dependent upon financing, regulatory approvals and other conditions. Panda has submitted its request for an air permit with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

Panda Ethanol previously announced that it successfully completed the debt and equity financing on its 100 million gallon ethanol plant in Hereford, Texas. The company has begun facility construction on the 380-acre site and anticipates ethanol production to commence in the second half of 2007. The company also announced that it has entered into a merger agreement with Cirracor, a publicly-held corporation which trades over the counter. The merger is currently expected to become effective in the fourth quarter of 2006, subject to the satisfaction of certain requirements, and the combined entity will operate under the name of Panda Ethanol Inc.

About Panda Ethanol

Panda Ethanol is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company is currently developing fuel ethanol refineries and biomass facilities in the United States. Panda Ethanol's largest single shareholder is Panda Energy International Inc., a privately-held company which has built over 9,000 MW of electric generation capacity at a cost of $5 billion. In 2005, Newsweek magazine named Panda one of the most eco-friendly companies in America. Additional information on Panda Energy and Panda Ethanol can be found at http://www.pandaenergy.com/ .

This notice shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state.

Safe-Harbor Statement -- Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Panda Ethanol intends that all such statements be subject to the "safe-harbor" provisions of those Acts. Many important risks, factors and conditions may cause Panda Ethanol's actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any such forward-looking statement. These risks include, but are not limited to, the ability to complete construction of its ethanol plants, future prices for ethanol relative to the prices of gasoline, interest rates, product demand, transportation requirements and costs and the ability of Panda Ethanol to obtain additional capital to finance its initiatives. The historical results achieved by Panda Ethanol are not necessarily indicative of its future prospects. In addition, new factors, risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time. Panda Ethanol undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Panda Ethanol Inc.

CONTACT: Media or Investors, Bill Pentak of Panda Ethanol Inc.,+1-972-361-1200, or breakingnews@pandaethanol.com

Web site: http://www.pandaenergy.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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