BURLEY -- A California-based alternative energy company has broken ground on an ethanol plant in southern Idaho.

The Pacific Ethanol plant in Burley is expected to be operating within a year.

The plant will import corn from across the United States to extract starch and ultimately produce as much as 50 million gallons of fuel per year.

Vice President Tom Koehler says the company hopes to sell the high-protein leftover grain to area dairy farmers as feed for their animals.

The plant will be one of the first fuel-grade ethanol facilities in southern Idaho. It is expected to employ about 40 people.