Actual Costs of Oil

ICTA - 

 
The link will take you to a report detailing the actual "price" we - US citizens - pay for a gallon of gasoline - gasoline derived from petroleum, so much of which we import from overseas.
 
Some excerpts:
 
"Washington D.C. -- A report released today by the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) calculates that the actual cost of a gallon of gas to the American consumer could be as high as $15.14. (Whoooeee - ouch!!! - JtM) The report "The Real Price of Gas" identifies and quantifies the many external costs of using gas that consumers pay indirectly by way of taxes, insurance costs and retail prices in other sectors. Established in 1994, the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA), is a Washington-based research organization that analyzes how technology affects society."

"The CTA study examines more than 40 separate cost factors associated with gasoline production and consumption. These include subsidies for the petroleum industry such as the percentage depletion allowance; tax-funded programs that directly subsidize oil production and consumption, like government-sponsored R&D for the oil industry; the costs of protecting oil supplies, shipments and motor vehicle usage, including military expenditures for protecting the Middle East and other oil rich regions; and environmental, health and social costs including those for global warming. Together these subsidies for gas paid by consumers total up to $1.68 trillion per year."
 
According to CTA Director Andrew Kimbrell, "The real price of gas has been hidden from the consumer for far too long. Some of these costs including those associated with military actions in the Middle East and global warming could skyrocket in the coming years. Once the public understands how much they are really paying for gas we should see a tremendous increase in political pressure for alternatives."
 
Now, we are most interested in the concluding sentence in the excerpt, which bears repeating:
 
"Once the public understands how much they are really paying for gas we should see a tremendous increase in political pressure for alternatives."

China Coal to Methanol

China Coal Group, Partners Plan $5.6 Billion Chemical Project-China Mining
 
Updated: 2009-05-14
 
As noted above, this is a recent news release. The Chinese are proceeding, progressing, in their coal conversion industrialization.
 
Some excerpts:
 
"The parent company of Hong Kong-listed China Coal Energy Co., Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Co. and Thailand New Energy Chemical Investment Group signed an agreement on May 8 to build the coal-to-chemical plant in Jingbian of Shaanxi province, China National Coal said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday...  ."
 
"The project will initially have the capacity to turn coal into 1.8 million metric tons of methanol a year, which will then be processed into 600,000 tons of olefins, the South China Morning Post reported today, citing the Chinese coal company."
 
Methanol, Mike, is a pretty good liquid fuel in it's own right. Moreover, it's a versatile chemical processing raw material, and can even, such as via the Exxon-Mobil MTG process we've earlier documented, be converted on a commercial basis into gasoline.

Peabody Energy in China

Peabody eyes mining opportunity in northwest China - STLtoday.com


 
Herein more documentation of US coal mining giant Peabody Energy's involvement in China's ambitious coal-to-liquid fuel and chemicals industrialization plans.
 
Some excerpts:

"Peabody Energy Corp. said it is considering an investment in a large new surface mine in the coal-rich Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of northwestern China."
 
"Last year, the company announced a $2.5 billion project to develop a mine in coal-rich Inner Mongolia and a plant to convert coal into methanol and chemicals. It also took a 50-percent stake in a venture that owns coal reserves in the South Gobi region."
 
We submit this because herein we have a St. Louis, MO-based, United States coal mining corporation putting at least 16 tons worth of money, and effort, into a project undertaken by our old adversaries to make themselves independent of foreign oil; and doing so through the use of a resource - coal - which is, or is on the way to being, named the "Official State Rock of West Virginia" (seriously - it is).
 
Note that, in our dispatches, we have detailed the participation of other, major US companies in the Coal-to-Liquid effort, "Over There".
 
Objections have been made in the US regarding the costs of coal conversion. The Chinese, apparently, don't see it that way, and, even though they are not nearly as affluent as we are, they can justify the expense of hiring our own mining and coal technology experts to "relocate" major operations to China, and to there lay the foundations for a fundamentally transformational coal-based energy revolution.

Sasol's Synthetic Jet Fuel to Gain Worldwide Approval by August

 
Some interesting excerpts:
 
"The world will soon be flying on coal."
 
"This is because groundbreaking work done by petrochemical giant Sasol on the production of synthetic jet fuel from coal, is expected to gain worldwide approval from aviation authorities for the fuel by August, Engineering News can today exclusively report."

"This paves the way for Sasol to supply aviation fuel produced fully from coal."
 
Unfortunately, this report meant August of 2003.
 
What has happened in the interim?
 
We know that our own US Air Force has tested, with implied success, jet fuel made from coal. So enthusiastic about it were they that a Defense Department official, a few years ago, publicly declared West Virginia to be, as we documented in our reports, the "New Kuwait".
 
And, though it wasn't jet fuel, please remember that WV's own then-Congressman Randolph graced the skies in a coal-powered airplane in 1943.
 
Again: What has happened in the interim?
 
Finally, you'll remember your own article about the 1970's synfuel plant south of Wheeling.
 
What has happened since then?
 
Coal-to-Liquid fuel is proven, established, and even commercial, technology.

Inferred Costs: ASTM International - Standards Worldwide



 
This from the authoritative, prestigious American Society for Testing and Materials.
 
Some excerpts:
 
"Jet fuel made from coal by the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is currently being supplied by Sasol, its producer, to the Johannesburg, South Africa, airport and is being used by every commercial airplane that passes through that airport."

"Commercial Aviation Is Working Closely with the U.S. Military on FT Fuels..."

"The U.S. Department of Defense is in the forefront of activities on FT synthetic fuels, driven mainly by concerns for energy security. In 2006, the Air Force conducted a test flight of a B-52 using a 50 percent blend of FT synthetic fuel with conventional jet fuel. The DoD is planning to purchase 200 million gallons of synthetic fuel for additional field testing. Their goal is to establish the requirements for operational use of FT fuels. The DoD has set an ambitious goal of using 50 percent synthetic fuel by 2016."

The interesting fact of this particular reference is that liquid fuels made from coal are being put into passenger jets from all over the world at Johannesburg. That would presumably include some from US carriers.

The main point, though, isn't that air carriers from other countries are using coal liquids in their planes - they know and we now know that jet fuel made from coal is technically just fine.

The main point is that they are willing and able to pay for that jet fuel made from coal. It must not be much, if any, more expensive than jet fuel made from petroleum; else, with South Africa now free of trade sanctions and embargoes, the international carriers could insist that petroleum-based fuel be imported for their use so that they could save money.