A unit of truck stop chain Pilot Co., which is partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is buying an ethanol plant just as the beleaguered industry may be turning around, reports Transport Topics.
Green Plains Inc. said January 27 it plans to sell a 65 million-gallon ethanol plant for $64 million to GreenAmerica Biofuels Ord.
GreenAmerica is a unit of Knoxville, TN-based Pilot Co., which says it is the 10th-largest closely held company in the U.S. and the nation’s largest operator of travel centers and truck stops.
The deal puts Buffett’s Berkshire, which owns 38.6% of Pilot, in a position to benefit if fuel demand picks up as more Americans are vaccinated and as exports to countries such as China increase. Berkshire’s BNSF Railway already transports the biofuel around the country.