It seems almost suicidal to short a stock like this from a reward/risk view. If there were no catalyst potential like the permit I could understand, but it seems to much risk of a PM PR vs the stock going to zero, which is the maximum gain a short could achieve. Still, I don't claim to understand shorts.

These to ideas seem to make sense and also make the picture clearer. Myself, I didn't consider shorts as the culprit because of the views I expressed above, but the facts say otherwise it seems.