(Posted by John.)
A while back, Kevin Drum wrote about the growing effort in Congress to fund coal-to-liquid fuel plants, which would (as the name implies) make gasoline (but more likely diesel) out of coal feedstock. Problem is, it's expensive, inefficient, and not even the coal industry thinks it's a very good idea: simply burning the stuff in existing coal plants and powering cars electrically would be vastly cheaper and less polluting.
The only way this kind of thinking makes sense is if you refuse to look outside the box of: [America needs gasoline] + [America has coal] = [Make gasoline from coal!] Alternately, it makes sense if you think America's priorities should be, before all, to burn more coal. Is suspect both are at work in the current Congress. There's a tyranny of the familiar at work here, and it's ignoring what we've known for a while: electrifying Americans' car trips will make the biggest difference in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.
More than that, we're missing a good opportunity to start thinking about our energy system differently. At my third home, Gristmill, Patrick Mazza has a good idea of what the next-generation electrical grid should be able to do. A smarter grid is a must for the future, and unlike coal-to-liquids we need to spend this money anyway: our grid desperately needs investment, so we might as well spend it wisely.
