Darn. And I thought we were saved. Thermodynamics will probably get in the way again.

Even if this is on a small scale, it shows that there is an available means for getting the fuel we will need on some level. I do not think this is scalable in enough time to keep the wolf from our door in the form of import shortages, so aptly expressed in your writings, WT. Another thing which they leave out is the transportation costs - conventional oil resources have pipelines, and coal is not so easily transportable. Thus, the little plants UTA envisions will have to rapidly populate the locales where coal is presently mined and then we can develop that conventional transportation infrastructure. I doubt that the large scale development of this technology will make a difference in my lifetime, but maybe for my two kids and three grandkids.