Coal-to-liquids plant coming soon to Montana

The concept of making liquid fuel out of coal is not new–visionaries such as Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa pioneered the technology, necessity being the mother of invention–and it looks as if the United States may be getting its first commercial synfuel plant. A deal was just struck between an Australian company and a Native American tribe that sits on 9 billion tons of coal under unspoiled Montana lands. Coal gets mined, carbon is sequestered, jobs jobs jobs, everybody gets paid, whatever.