I often disagree with Matt Stoller, but I definitely agree with him on this one:
Coal liquification plants are a horrible idea. They are inefficient, add huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere, and will require massive government subsidies that could go to, oh, wind and/or solar energy.
Matt is referring to an article in today's New York Times about how, "[p]rodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years."
My only difference from Matt on what he's written is that I wouldn't single out one particular Senator, or one particular Democratic presidential candidate, for supporting this terrible idea. What I would say is that ANYONE who supports massive subsidies for coal-to-liquids is blatantly, badly, breathtakingly wrong. If they think this is going to buy the United States "energy independence," they're wrong. And if they think that coal-to-liquids can be environmentally neutral or even helpful in some way, I want whatever it is they're smokin'.
In contrast, spend some of those billions of dollars on improving U.S. energy efficiency and on cranking up renewable energy producation, and we can address both climate change AND our "oil addiction." But no, I guess that would make too much sense. Plus, there's not a big "energy efficiency" industry with political clout in Washington, DC. No wonder why people are cynical about politics...
P.S. For more on why coal-to-liquids is such a bad idea, see here.
Alternative energy use by the average citizen exceeds the skill set of most people. If you couldn't program that old video tape recorder, you won't be able to wire/program a controlled solar/wind generation system let alone do your home energy budget that would size the system and give you trouble-free service.
But that kind of money could fuel a new industry in alternative energy small business that would do it for you. The economic multiplier would be huge in our communities. Government investment could speed the development of alternative energy technology, and lower component costs. And we could sell that technology to other countries who already know the limits of hydrocarbon energy.
Government picks winning and loosing technologies all the time. Picking alternative energy as a part of our effort at energy sanity would be a good bet.
The intermediate step is going to be plug-in hybrids, and here is where the solar could help to play a role...