By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Renewable Environmental Solutions, which has struggled with accusations of odor emissions since its Carthage plant went online, faces yet another challenge.

And that hurdle is that its parent company, Changing World Technologies, launched a bid to go public at a time when investment has dried up and public offerings have ground to a standstill.

The company announced in August that it wants to raise $100 million and is considering building additional plants similar to the one in Carthage, which is the only one of its kind in the country.

Citing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules for a “quiet period” when going public, company spokeswoman Julie Gross Gelfand said neither she nor Brian Appel, chairman and chief executive officer, could comment on their plans or what market activity means for those plans.

Carthage Mayor Jim Woestman is doubtful.

“There is no way anybody in this city is going to recommend them to another community,” he said this week. “I don’t think anybody would be investing in that business. I’m an investor and I would not consider investing in a business where the local people are not happy with it.”

SEC picture

While company officials say they cannot talk, documents filed last month and earlier with the SEC outline the business side of Changing World Technologies, which has been praised for its technology in everything from “Discover” magazine to “The History Channel.”

But while its technology has been heralded, RES also has been simultaneously vilified for an odor that settles over Carthage and has provoked lawsuits and Missouri regulatory violations.

Woestman said the odor is hurting business in the community, and noted that he recently spoke with people at a restaurant in Joplin who told him that the odor was the reason they wouldn’t move to Carthage.

“It has to affect us. Would you move here?” he asked.

For its part, in its filings, Changing World Technologies, said it believes the lawsuits will be “settled favorably.”

But odors have been just part of the problem.