I confident the $1.00 per gallon estimate for producing Gasoline from Coal does not include the cost of the Coal, and is probably too low just for the conversion cost.
Refining oil into gasoline now costs something like $0.75 per gallon.
We can assume it costs something like an extra $0.43 to refine Sour crude (the $18 per barrel differential between Sweet and Sour crude / 42 gallons per barrel).
So refining Sour crude into gasoline costs $1.18 per gallon, which is similar to the problems refining Coal.
As a consequence, I think the $1.00 cost for refining Coal into gasoline is probably a little low.
More importantly, it obviously doesn't include the cost of the Coal.
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