Document And Entity Information (USD $)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2011	Nov. 03, 2011	Jun. 30, 2011
Document and Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	Pacific Ethanol, Inc.
Document Type	10-Q
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		77,100,113
Entity Public Float			$ 18,727,000
Amendment Flag	false
Entity Central Index Key	0000778164
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Voluntary Filers	No
Entity Filer Category	Smaller Reporting Company
Entity Well-known Seasoned Issuer	No
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2011
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2011
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3

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End date of current fiscal year in the format --MM-DD.

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This is focus fiscal year of the document report in CCYY format. For a 2006 annual report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, fiscal 2006 should be given as the fiscal year focus. Example: 2006.

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The end date of the period reflected on the cover page if a periodic report. For all other reports and registration statements containing historical data, it is the date up through which that historical data is presented. If there is no historical data in the report, use the filing date. The format of the date is CCYY-MM-DD.

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The type of document being provided (such as 10-K, 10-Q, N-1A, etc). The document type is limited to the same value as the supporting SEC submission type, minus any "/A" suffix. The acceptable values are as follows: S-1, S-3, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-3, F-4, F-9, F-10, 6-K, 8-K, 10, 10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, 40-F, N-1A, 485BPOS, 497, NCSR, N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-Q, 10-KT, 10-QT, 20-FT, and Other.

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A unique 10-digit SEC-issued value to identify entities that have filed disclosures with the SEC. It is commonly abbreviated as CIK.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

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-Name Regulation 12B

-Number 240

-Section 12b

-Subsection 1

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Indicate "Yes" or "No" whether registrants (1) have filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that registrants were required to file such reports), and (2) have been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. This information should be based on the registrant's current or most recent filing containing the related disclosure.

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Indicate whether the registrant is one of the following: (1) Large Accelerated Filer, (2) Accelerated Filer, (3) Non-accelerated Filer, or (4) Smaller Reporting Company. Definitions of these categories are stated in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. This information should be based on the registrant's current or most recent filing containing the related disclosure.

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State aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to price at which the common equity was last sold, or average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter. The public float should be reported on the cover page of the registrants form 10K.

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

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-Subsection 1

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Indicate "Yes" or "No" if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Is used on Form Type: 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 20-F, 6-K, 10-K/A, 10-Q/A, 20-F/A, 6-K/A, N-CSR, N-Q, N-1A.

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