solid to liquid

Dig it. The Air Force is gonna be testing a synthetic jet fuel derived from natural gas. If it pans out for them, they're considering jet fuel derived from coal. Purty coal. As the article indicates "The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal." We've got a bunch of it. Hell, only 3% of our electricity is generated from oil. I think right now we use 93% of our coal production for electricity. Unfortunately, unless we drastically increase coal output, that means if the military switches over to coal derived synthetic fuels, we're gonna see a spike in the cost of electricity. For us poor folk, that aint so good. For the environment, though....... It actually isn't too cost inhibitive to have better insulation installed, open windows when it's cool at night, etc. But I digress.

Considering that the military (maybe the whole fed governement) uses about 1.7% of fuel consumption in the U.S., weaning them off of imported oil won't make a HUGE impact in cost savings for everyone else. However, a military whose transportation is safe from foreign influences in energy is a HUGE security improvement. Then, consider all of the technological wonders we have that were orginally developed for military use. That's some research improvement that really does trickle down. Unlike some economic policies we're seeing. ;) Need an example? Teflon. Your non-stick pans were originally created to line the water pipes in nuclear reactors.

Regardless, huge impact or not, it's good to see the gov trying new things again.