Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironduke
At some point it becomes economical to covert coal into fuel oil, such as gasoline or diesel, and that point was reached a long time ago, probably at $35/barrel. I'd rather have the coal preserved as a backup in the event our oil supply is disrupted or diminished, and believe it's more important to have the capability to produce oil ourselves than to merely stockpile it in salt caverns on the Gulf Coast.
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Iron Duke, the last I heard, even if we were using coal for 100% of our energy needs including conversion to transportation fuel oils, our coal supply would still last us at least 2000 years. There's just no way we can use it fast enough for it not to be a strategic reserve.
The main thing keeping our energy industry from doing conversion right now is OPECs ability to slash the return on capital investment by lowering prices.