Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
There are methods for making oil from coal. Somewhere I read that the
process has been revived in China. If it's so uneconomical, why are
they doing it?

That's easy:

They are not so studpid as the US as to expect that it will never be
feasible, or that there will not be security challenges involving oil.
They want to have the tecnology and a few plants in their hands "just in
case". Their coal reservce is similar to that of the US; plenty. The
price of coal produced gasoline (also done by Germany in WWII after we
bombed the Ploesti Oil fields and refineries) is in today's economy
about $5/gallon. It rivals pure biodiesel, and probably unsupported (no
guv grants) ethanol as well.

The sheer size of China's population and their acceleration into the
industrial age almost guarantees a serious dependence on hyrdrocabon
fuels, and that will only increase with time. Same goes for India.

Ang. C.