Coal to Liquid: China Using It; US Not -- Recipe for Disaster

It looks like I need to bookmark Institute for Energy Research.

Today alone there have been two great articles from that site.

This is the second one: China using coal to liquids technology, a technology that is not allowed in the US.

China is on a fast track to meet its electricity demand, but not through hydroelectric power or wind power, where it leads the world in capacity, but through coal-fired generation. China is now the home of the world’s largest coal to liquids plant that is reaping in the profits. Yet, the United States fails to learn from China’s lead. The United States has banned the use of coal-to-liquids technology because the greenhouse gas emissions over its life cycle will exceed those of conventional oil. This is despite coal to liquids costs estimated at $45 to $65 per barrel.Thus, U.S. military establishments will either continue to pay for imported crude oil or invest in biofuel technologies that have a long way to go before they will ever become competitive with conventional sources.

Whether one buys into the "greenhouse gas emissions" and "global warming," one has to admit that the playing field is not level. China has the advantage. The climate will do what it is going to do, and China will have the resources to react. The US will be playing catch up.