[76834]

And the thing most often missed: We aren't 1940 era Germans. Who knows if the wheels of capitalism were to roll with this concept how much cheaper and economical the method for conversion can be made.

Point taken and understood.
With fuel prices like they are now we are fast beginning to resemble the fuel starved Germans of 1940.
Main difference here is we are sitting on top of 10 mountains of coal and are freezing to death.
All we really need to do is to stop complaining, get off our asses and dig.

[dr huer]

Lots of coal is a mile deep and hard to mine. Drill down to the formation, introduce hot hydrogen and the right catalyst, and get oil and hydrocarbon gases up. Fischer-Tropsch in situ.