[Hoot Gibson]

If you will notice, at Catlettsburg, KY., heading east toward WV on I-64 at the Marathon plant, everything to your left while traveling between the plant is one of those coal to gas plants. It was finished in the early 80's. It was a government funded project, and after they fired it up and knew that it worked, the government shut it down. I don't know if it was a Reagan shut down or not, but it was during his Presidency, and has never ran after the initial fire up.

Gas prices plummeted and it was not economical to operate such plants between the Carter and Bush II eras. That is the risk of investing in alternative energy too soon. A relatively small shift in the price of gasoline can make the difference between making a comfortable profit and bankruptcy.

I think that the only synfuel plants built back in the 70s and early 80s were small pilot projects. It was a waste of money because, as you said, the South Africans and the German Nazis had already proven the feasibility of such plants.