ATDDTA (6) 177(railroads)

[Monte Davis]

>
>
>Some serious thinkers, men not apparently on anyone's payroll, maintain that oil technology had to supersede
>coal technology much as the Iron Age superseded the
>Bronze Age superseded the Stone Age. Other equally
>reasonable men say no; coal technology was impeded by
>lack of government subsidy at critical points in its
>development.
>
Ummm.. with all respect to Hollander, petroleum

(1) can be extracted via wells rather than tunnels or strip mining
(2) [related] is a liquid and thus can do a lot more of the work of 
moving itself around than coal can
(3) yields more energy per pound combusted
(4) leaves almost no solid residue

Those add up to a pretty compelling techno/economic edge. The whole 
point of coal liquefaction is to bring to coal advantages that oil 
already has by its nature, so to point to it and say "see, oil dosn't 
really have an edge" is a bit perverse.