Should we have coal fuel our cars?

As I was searching around for interesting things to write about, I found one aritcle on whether or not we should start fueling our cars with coal as opposed to gasoline.  Coal companies are really pushing for this (obviously) and this is also I guess getting a lot of support from politicians.  I’m assuming that the reason that all of this is coming about is because of the high prices of gas over the past years, and I’m sure that people are trying to offset the cost.  However, this idea has a huge flaw.  Burning coal and using it to fuel our cars will emit almost double the amount of carbon into our atmosphere that we would if we just stuck with gasoline. (By the way, I forgot to say that this would be liquid coal, sort of gasoline like).  The reason for this is because the way this liquid coal is manufactured.  Apparently though, if we improve our technology that is used to manufacture these coal-to-liquid fuels, these then could be used and they would be less harmful to our atmosphere than they are now.

Image from:

http://auto.sohu.com/piclib/toyota/toyota/corolla/big/Toyota%20Corolla034.jpg

Many say that President Bush is in favor of this idea because in his State of the Union speech he said, “United States needs to produce 35 billion gallons of “alternative fuel” by 2017.”  These coal-to-liquid fuels would fall under this category, especially since we don’t produce enough corn in the U.S. to produce the 35 billion gallons that Bush was demanding.  Also, Senator Barack Obama is a great supporter of these coal-to-liquid fuels as well.  While I can understand how this might be a good idea because it would mean that we would be relying less on foreign oil and then oil prices would drop, I still feel kind of skeptical of this whole idea.  Besides, it doesn’t really sound like the new technology is going to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere so that we can try to reduce the effects of global warming.  It just sounds like it will be an equal fuel source to gasoline we use now.  The only benefit I see in doing this is that gas prices will drop.  Even Elizabeth Martin-Perera, who’s an analyst for the National Resources Defense Council, says that, “We want more energy security, too, but we’re fighting this coal-to-liquids concept because it’s just so bad for global warming.” 

Well, there is definitely an argument for both sides, however, I’m just not convinced that using these coal-to-liquid fuels is going to benefit a huge amount in the long run.  Besides, there aren’t even enough plants producing this fuel in the U.S. to meet President Bush’s goal of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuel.  So, really I see no point, but that’s just me.

Source:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0302/p02s01-ussc.html?page=1