"The best way to make methanol is by steam reforming methane, produced when syngas - a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - is turned into liquid hydrocarbons via reactions such as the Fischer-Tropsch process."
(We must assume by this, with our limited capacity and understanding, that methane is produced as a by-product of converting coal to liquid fuel via Fischer-Tropsch processing. Another bonus of the process, perhaps.)
"The process is used today to make diesel and other liquid fuels from coal, and kept South African cars going during the country's international isolation in the 1980s and 90s."
We send this only to reinforce the fact that the technology for making liquid fuels, and chemical manufacturing raw materials, from coal, is established and understood. Why it has not yet been reduced to broad commercial practice in the United States, with all the domestic economic benefits such an industry would create, is a question that must be answered. And, the answer, since we don't have such an industry, with all it's benefits, has to be wrong. It should be corrected.