Vivergo, one of the UK’s two bioethanol plants, has halted production and will begin laying off its 160 workers. The government explained that a bailout would not deliver value for taxpayers and would fail to address the sector’s deeper, long-term challenges. Vivergo’s operations director, Alex Snowden, described the decision as “heartbreaking.”“I’m local — I live just 10 minutes from the site,” he said. “It’s been a huge part of my life,” he told the BBC. Mr Snowden noted that the plant has faced many difficulties over the years and required “a lot of hard work,” but is currently operating efficiently—something that, he said, makes the closure even harder to accept.