I know many people who had reservations on the integrity of JBI due to that decision.
The integrity and credibility is proven by starting in NY. The NYSDEC will not allow anyone to commission a project without significant technical information. If they had started in another state some of the environmental information would be suspect. By starting in NY they are able to go to any other state. It was a good decision to start there based on the location of their team, islechem, and the funds they had to work with. A pilot plant can't be built in one state and reside in another.
Hindsight being 20/20 and if the company had more funds they could have started in NY and then build plants in other states to move fast. That all takes money. I am suprised what they have been able to build with the funds they had.
I am very suprised your reference of integrity in relation to NY.