A company seeking to build ethanol plants in four southeastern states needs to raise over $800 million to get the job done.

East Coast Ethanol already has about $10 million in seed money, but they are looking for at least $254 million from equity investors to complete the four 110 million gallon a year plants in North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

The company was formed in September of last year with the merger of Mid Atlantic Ethanol, Palmetto Agri-Fuels, Atlantic Ethanol and Florida Ethanol – all of which were separately developing ethanol plants in the four states.

According to a July 21 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the “four facilities (if and when they become operational) can supply ethanol to the Southeast United States at a much cheaper rate than imported ethanol because of reduced transportation costs given our geographical location.”

Fagen, Inc. is expected to design and build all four of the planned ethanol production facilities.