Thursday, August 25, 2005

An Amazing Proposition

This is an update to a previous post of mine:

Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Laughing all the way from the pump
Via KOS:
Montana's governor eyes coal to solve U.S. fuel costs
The Fischer-Tropsch technology, discovered by German researchers in 1923 and later used by the Nazis to convert coal into wartime fuels, was not economical as long as oil cost less than $30 a barrel.....Montana is "sitting on more energy than they have in the Middle East," Schweitzer told Reuters in an interview this week. "I am leading this country in this desire and demand to convert coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. We can do it in Montana for $1 per gallon," he said.
Now, in my post referenced above, we figured out that the price of a gallon of gas at the pump was largely a function of crude oil prices. (And that we were having the beJesus gouged out of us.) If you remember, the price of a gallon of gas other than the price of crude oil was about $0.77-$0.82.
The governor estimated the cost of producing a barrel of oil through the Fischer-Tropsch method at $32,
Back when the price of a barrel of crude was $30, we paid $1.37 at the pump. I think we could deal with $1.50 or $1.75 a gallon.

Unfortunately, there are some people that would be displeased, starting at a little house on Pennsylvania Ave.

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