Rentech’s announcement that it has halted further development of its Natchez site is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.

The company’s coal-to-liquids fuel plant apparently hinged on significant outside investment and likely government funding and support — none of which ever materialized.

The two difficult lessons the county learned in the process of wooing Rentech — lessons that may linger for years and years to come — are even more disappointing.

Adams County, led by the former city-county EDA, helped serve as the middleman for Rentech as the company purchased the former International Paper property. The deal even created the St. Catherine Creek Utility Authority to maintain the restricted areas of the property that Rentech didn’t want.

With little plans for any substantial development, county taxpayers feel a bit duped by Rentech, particularly if they lock up the property and restrict further development on it, all while locals in good faith took on the parts of the property with which Rentech didn’t want to fool.

The second lesson involves the former county leadership’s inability to plan for the future. In the Rentech-IP land deal, the county wound up with approximately $3 million, some of which was restricted for use on improvements if the development proceeded. Despite that, the county had approximately $1.8 million in free and clear cash.

As far as we know, the county essentially just spent the proceeds in the years after the purchase.

So now one of its biggest industrial sites in the county is locked up by a business that has no real plans for it, and we have none of the proceeds.

Tough lessons, but perhaps ones that solidify why it’s important to have a professional, well-led EDA effort like the current Natchez Inc.