“The idea of turning coal into liquid fuels for our cars it's, it's insane. And here is why: it is true that if you looked only at the dependence of the United States on foreign oil and if you didn't care about anything else in the world, it would be theoretically possible, at huge expense, to squeeze liquid out of coal and put it into gas tanks. It would be enormously expensive. But the other problem is it would vastly increase the amount of CO2 from each gallon of fuel that is burned. We've got to walk and chew gum at the same time. We've got to end our dependence on foreign oil and save the habitability of the planet by switching not just from oil to coal-to-liquid, but from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”

~ Al Gore, July 19, 2008