Natchez is a world apart from the Los Angeles International Airport.

Aside from the nearly 2,000 miles that separate the two places, Natchez is relatively lightly populated and things are slow to change; LAX is packed with people and moves at a blistering pace.

With approximately 60 million passengers coming and going into LAX each year, the volume of people dwarfs Natchez’s population by a few thousand times over.

But the world is getting smaller and smaller these days, and things that affect one side of the country can have a vast impact on things clear across the world.

A case in point was Tuesday’s announcement that technology company Rentech Inc., had penned a deal to supply fuel for ground service equipment at the airport in 2012.

The announcement is the first of its kind and, the Rentech folks hope, is a sign of big things to come for the technology company with grand plans of becoming an alternative fuel giant.

Tuesday’s news renewed local interest in Rentech’s plans to build a huge alternative fuel plant in Adams County, at the former International Paper mill site.

Rentech apparently still needs investors and a long-term buyer to help it get off the ground on the Natchez project, but the plans continue to be moving along.

We’ve long held that the Rentech plant’s success in Adams County could not only be a win-win for our community’s economy, but a massive help strategically to our national defense.

If the federal government embraced Rentech’s fuel for use by our armed forces, it would free up some of our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

If that comes to fruition, it would be good for Rentech and good for each and every American from Natchez to Los Angeles — and all points in between.