One Big Feature of the military buying CTL fuels would be the dramatic reduction in the quantity of fuel they would need to burn up since they would no longer need to defend the entire middle east oil belt…

There is already a military oil reserve. Look at the north shore of Alaska. See the North Slope oil fields? See all the stuff on the “right” (east) that’s ANWAR. Now look to the left (west). Most everything from there to the Pacific is the military oil reserve. Lease sales are planned but tied up in haggling and lawsuits. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ National_Petroleum_Reserve

Greens are trying to get it turned into another wildlife preserve (It’s bigger than ANWAR). I have a paranoid delusion that the Govt. has deliberately held off drilling it in an attempt to get ANWAR opened before folks realized there was all this OTHER oil ready to drill… In my worst moments I fear them declaring ANWAR to be the military oil reserve - left undrilled until time of war - and announcing that the present reserve is open for commercial use…

The Big Problem: As N. Slope oil declines, the pipeline from Alaska flows ever slower. It’s presently at about 1/2 capacity. At some point it takes so much longer for the oil to flow that it can cool down and solidify before reaching the end. At that point the pipeline is out of commission with no clear idea how to restart it. I expect the “military reserve” to be tapped just in time to avoid this Big Freeze of the pipeline…

Frankly, I think it would be a great solution to build the CTL factories and stock about 6 months worth of coal at them, then release an equivalent quantity of the SPR oil and / or drill an equal portion of the military oil reserve. That way we have the emergency “oil” supply via CTL IFF we need it. It avoids the problems of actually using the coal, it keeps the nation supplied with a buffer of emergency fuel capacity, and it keeps the pipeline full and warm.

Problems? Well… there is the small matter of dozens of billions of dollars of capital stock needing maintenance and providing no revenue but hey, the military and government are good at that I know it will never happen, but it’s a nice dream…

Per the inevitability of climate controls: This all hinges on Solar Cycle 24 / 25. They are predicted to cool the planet rather sharply (see last winters storms in China, snow in Israel, etc. and the dramatic return of the Arctic ice pack). We will be well into the middle of these cycles before any carbon system can go anywhere and if it’s snowing in Washington D.C. in June you can bet that the cap and trade will become “stuff it and flush”…