Top U.S. ethanol producer POET and products pipeline operator Magellan Midstream Partners have announced plans to build a pipeline dedicated to shipping ethanol fuel from the Midwest to the East Coast.

Details are still sketchy, but the two companies said last week that they formed a joint-venture to assess the feasibility of a 1,800-mile ethanol pipeline from ethanol production facilities in the Midwest to distribution outlets in the northeast U.S., ending in Linden, N.J.

“Once the feasibility study is complete, the pipeline would be operational as early as 2014,” they said in a news release.

Preliminary estimates put the cost of the proposed pipeline at $4 billion, to be financed through a Department of Energy loan guarantee. The planners say the project makes sense logistically and has several side economic benefits.

“This project has the clear environmental benefit of dramatically reducing carbon emissions from traditional ethanol transportation, and this latest report shows its important impact on our economy as well,” POET CEO Jeff Broin said. “Ethanol continues to play a large role in the new energy economy taking shape here in the United States.”

The pipeline project would provide approximately 1,100 permanent jobs after construction is complete, but building the pipeline could create as many as 50,000 temporary jobs. All jobs that might result from the project, whether direct or indirect, could be as high as 80,000, they said.