6. PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT

Property and equipment consisted of the following (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2015			2014
Facilities and plant equipment	$	501,800		$	190,714
Land		7,541			2,570
Other equipment, vehicles and furniture		9,084			7,641
Construction in progress		23,579			8,720
		542,004			209,645
Accumulated depreciation		(77,044	)		(54,343	)
	$	464,960		$	155,302

Depreciation expense, including idled facilities, was $23,524,000, $12,712,000 and $11,662,000 for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. One of the Pacific Ethanol West Plants was idled for four months in 2014 and for all of 2013. Depreciation on the Company’s idled assets was an aggregate of $699,000 and $2,108,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Included in plant and equipment is $9,971,000 and $3,467,000 at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively, attributable to capital leases. Depreciation expense related to these capital leases was $340,000, $231,000 and none for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $1,970,000 related to the abandonment of certain accounting and information technology systems following its integration of Aventine.