If Obama has any appreciation for history he should focus his economic recovery efforts towards construction of a non-petroleum based economy, e.g. nuclear power and synthetic petroleum based upon coal. For stupid ideological reasons, Obama won’t do this and we’ll be poorly situated when this next world war begins. – eggplant

This is petty so kip as required.

Gov Schweitzer of MT (where coal deposits are low sulfur and close to surface meaning the safety issues of mining do not pertain) says it’s easy to find investors for the second plant but building the first is impossible (in spite of the three functional plants in South Africa and in spite of the plant in progress by the Chinese). Every single time I raise the coal-to-liquid issue I am slapped down by this that and the other. It seems to me that the idea of war is the tipping point in the argument.

One more time for the record: the ability of the US to mobilize and produce war materiel after Pearl Harbor was a direct function of the vast hydropower facilities installed on the western rivers by Corps and Bureau during the first half of the last century. [ref Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner] It’s the energy.