Following up on a story I told you about yesterday, the Chesapeake, Virginia Planning Commission has voted 7-0 to in support of building a 320-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant.

This story in the Virginian-Pilot says the advisory vote will be taken into consideration by the Chesapeake City Council next month when a final decision is made on the half-billion-dollar project.

The commissioners told a handful of neighbors that fought the project that an environmentally friendly biodiesel plant was a good use for 44 acres that could otherwise house something worse.

“It is going to be used for industry,” Planning Commissioner Betty P. Weaver said. “This sounds like one of the best things we can do there.”

Some people at City Hall on Wednesday were excited about the plant, which could produce 320 million gallons per year of biodiesel fuel.

“This is a chance for Chesapeake to be a leader in offering a site for new alternative fuels that our country desperately needs for the future,” said Burnie Mansfield, a longtime South Norfolk resident who lives less than a mile from the site.

Smiling Earth Energy is one of the proposed refiners for the project.