I respect your first hand knowledge of the current operations "on the ground" at Ft. Union, but I think you're missing the big picture. (I also agree with you that staffing for normal plant operations isn't especially exciting.) Investors need to keep focused on the "big picture." The primary motivation for buying this stock is a belief that Evergreen is going to sell that new Bechtel plant design, and that it will be successful. To that end, it is nice to see Evergreen hiring more engineering-type sales support people in their Denver office:
Never before in history has this company been THIS CLOSE to a big deal. You could rightly argue that many small deals have slipped by in the past, but none of those deals were backed by Bechtel, a comprehensive support organization of more than 200+ employees, and actual operating experience with Lurgi pressure vessels.
At this point we still haven't seen any major issues that will prevent these deals from going forward. It's true that Evergreen is very far behind schedule, but that doesn't mean their plans have been derailed, or that K-fuel is any less marketable. On the contrary, with environmental regulations tightening worldwide, the window of opportunity for K=fuel is greatly expanding.
Finally, here are some quotes from Peter Lynch to ponder:
"The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them."
"I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock, and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies."
"When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I've bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don't know when you can find the bottom."