I'd like to know how clean it is to produce and whether Montana would turn into a giant hole in order to get the coal. If it can be produced as cleanly (or cleaner than) oil-based gas and it doesn't require a large footprint of land to extract the coal (and that you don't have to go into a federally-protected wilderness to get it), then I think it would be a viable interim solution between oil and clean fuels.
Rojo, I agree wholeheartedly about the "man in the moon" energy policy. IMO that should have been the main focus of our 9/11 reaction.