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The retail price of gasoline is a lot less flexible than the spot price of oil and usually does not follow the price of oil closely. I am a bit suspicious of the current drop in gasoline prices in the US. Look for proposals to significantly increase fuel taxes. Once those pass, the price will likely rebound, plus the new taxes.
Coal-to-liquid's break even price was around $40/barrel in 2006, which was the trigger price for subsidies to kick in under legislation proposed by, then, Sen. Obama. He dropped his support to win the green vote. CTL will return, eventually. The coal isn't going anywhere. We can convert algae or any other biomass source to liquid fuel. If that doesn't work out, we can convert limestone and water to liquid fuel -- at considerable expense. We can stretch the current transportation paradigm out for a good long time.
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