Okay, here's what I know. The biodiesel guy went radio silent for about a month and a half, and nobody could reach him. Phone calls, email, he wasn't responding to anything. The city couldn't reach him, Hansen Engineering (the ones who are doing his building) couldn't reach him . . . nothing. This made me very hopeful, and I thought if we just sat back and kept quiet about it maybe the city would decide on its own that the guy is a flake, and that his refusal to respond to them is a clear indicator of future problems. But I talked to the mayor on Sunday, and he says he got an email from the guy last week, and the guy told him that the financing and the building and everything are moving forward.

I don't know about that. I wonder if maybe his investors have looked at his plan, the plan to bring grease here from China, burning fossil fuels all the way--so much for his claim that he's helping the environment--and have realized that it can't be profitable. Gas is not going to get cheaper, people. How can he afford to do this? Long-term, I don't see a way it can work. So IF his investors haven't already bailed on him, and IF they give him enough money to build his plant, he's still going to go out of business at some point, leaving us with an eyesore in the center of town.

Even if things go the way the city council thinks they will, our town will see so little actual money from this that it will make no difference.

I wonder if what's going on is the biodiesel guy is scrambling to keep his investors from bailing, and he's telling the mayor that everything is just hunky-dory, and the mayor in turn is telling me that everything's fine, but what's really happening is it's all about to fall to pieces.

Whatever. I'm going to the city council meeting tomorrow night, and maybe they'll address some of my concerns, like: What are we going to do when the plant smells bad and we can't get that guy to answer his phone? What are we going to do when he runs out of money and skips town?