Larry Dighera wrote:

Electrically powered vehicles are the only hope to reduce the transfer
of wealth from the western world to the middle east, and reduce global
warming. If the US doesn't find some breakthrough technology soon,
we'll all be speaking Farsi before long. :-(

There are alternatives that are perfectly practical, and technically
feasible. They just aren't economic, or any better environmentally.

One of the closest is the liquafaction of coal. We have vast supplies in
North America, and it is a relatively straight-forward process to convert
it to liquid fuel. (see the Fischer-Tropsch process) The Germans and South
Africans used synfuels made from coal when they couldn't get cheaper
petroleum products. They worked well.

There are a number of environmental issues, but the biggest problem is that
fuel produced from coal is somewhat more expensive than petroleum based
fuels, and few will pay extra for them. OPEC knows how much synfuels are
to make, and they carefully keep the price of crude below those costs, so
there is little risk of a competitive supply.